City of David

“ Being of the "seed of David according to the flesh" (Rom 1: 3) , the royal son of David, he has a right by inheritance to the same throne, and therefore no one can show the rightful claim to the throne of the Lord over Israel, the throne of David, except Christ. He is the one "whose right it is" and when Jerusalem shall become "the city of the great king" and fulfill what its name signifies, the city of peace, made so by the Prince of Peace, there shall issue from that city laws that shall bring "Peace on earth, good-will among men and glory to God in the Highest" ”

“ David therefore had his son Solomon crowned king, and then he went forth out of Jerusalem, and he was in pilgrim's garb, with a staff in his hand; and he went from city to city, and from village to village, but he found not the man whom he sought. One day, after the lapse of many weeks, he drew near to a village upon the borders of the Mediterranean Sea, and alongside of him walked a poorly dressed man laden with a heavy bundle of faggots. This man was very old and reverend of aspect, and David watched him. ”

“ So, walking the wild City, it was to David.
He stood in a great Square and heard New York. Low, brittleness of wagons, liquid hoof-blow of horses sweet against the opaque call of drivers, beat of the herds of men driven by iron streets. High, murmur of lamps wreathing with air that dropped like weight of sadness from the sky: weary air, sinking to the City streets of its own helplessness, in love with the warm lamps that turned away from such anguish. The{172} buildings hummed their tune of mastership. ”

“ All—all about the glories and successes of David. David paces idly through the halls, he sees the tapestries and paintings, but he regards them not, "My sin is ever before me." He sees only one picture, which is not upon the wall, which the flattering painter has omitted, his guilt with Bathsheba.
He goes to war in his armour, and takes the city of Rabbah. He carries off the crown of the king and puts it on his own head. The spoil of the city is great. In the turmoil of battle, in the flush of victory, "My sin is ever before me." ”

“ But, alas; we have to trace far more of nature in David during the period of his elevation than during the period of His rejection. A time of peace and prosperity tends to develop and bring to maturity many seeds of evil which might be nipped and blighted by the keen blast of adversity. David found the kingdom more thorny and dangerous than the wilderness.
After his accession to the throne over all Israel, David's lovely desire, to have the ark of the Lord near himself in the city of Jerusalem, is followed by a great error. ”

“ I will give to thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven." That is, "The root and the offspring of David," "the holy one and the true one, He that hath the key of David; He that openeth and no man shutteth; shutteth and no man openeth;" as He gave to thee to share His name of the Rock, so He shall give to thee to bear in His name His own symbol of supreme dominion, the key which opens or shuts the true city of David; all ages shall own thee, all nations acknowledge thee, as The Bearer of the Keys ”

“ When he came down to meet me at the Jordan, I swore to him by Yahweh, ‘I will not put you to death.’ [8] 9 So do not let him go unpunished, because you are wise, and you know what you should do with him. Kill the old man violently. [9] 10 Then David passed away to be with his ancestors, [10] and he was buried in the city of David.
11 David’s time as king [11] over Israel was forty years: he reigned seven years in Hebron, and in Jerusalem he reigned thirty-three years. 12 Then Solomon sat on the throne of David his father, and his kingdom was securely established. ”

“ By delivering Keilah, David was able to proclaim in clearest terms his loyalty to his kinsmen and to win the devotion of the southern clans.
[150] Scenes of David's Outlaw Life in Southeastern Judah. In a walled city David was in great danger of being captured by Saul. He therefore fled to the borders of southern Judah. Here pursuit was more difficult and escape into the rocky wilderness, which extended eastward to the Dead Sea, was easy. David kept close, however, to the settled territory. To the south of Hebron lay the second most fertile spot in all Judah. ”

“ All the crowding, sweating humanity of his stunted boyhood had flowed through his youth like an ugly drain laid through a fresh mountain stream. He seemed to have lived all his years with young [83] David on the hillside, and wealth and poverty, crowds and loneliness, love and death were as far from his life as if the vast procession of them all that swept by him daily through the great city had never been. ”

“ David would be well pleased to hear that his son, in his exile, was so desirous to return to Jerusalem, not only his father's city, but the city of the living God,—that he looked up to God, to bring him back,—that he had vowed, if he were brought back, to serve the Lord, whose service he had hitherto neglected,—and that now, being brought back, he remembered his vow, and resolved to perform it. If he think fit to do it in Hebron, rather than in Sion or Gibeon, the good king is so well pleased with the thing itself that he will not object against his choice of the place. ”

“ The brother and sister left Manchester about midday, and spent the night in London at a little City hotel much frequented by Nonconformist ministers, which Ancrum had recommended.
Then next day! How little those to whom all the widest opportunities of life come for the asking, can imagine such a zest, such a freshness of pleasure! David had hesitated long before the expense of the day service via Calais; they could have gone by night third class for half the money; or they could have taken returns by one of the cheaper and longer routes. ”

“ Some time later, Saul died in battle, and David became king of Israel. He was a good king, and the people loved him. God blessed David and made him successful. David fought many battles, and God helped him defeat Israel’s enemies. David conquered the city of Jerusalem and made it his capital city, where he lived and ruled. David was king for 40 years. During this time, Israel became powerful and wealthy. ”

“ Every gaze is fixed upon that small yellow house upon the top of the opposite hill; for has not Ali told us that from that point we shall see the Eternal City? Riding rapidly down the mountain-side, we do not even stop as we cross the brook—where David gathered the pebbles with which he slew his gigantic adversary—and push rapidly up the opposite mountain. Father H—— and I are in advance, while madame rides behind with the Irish priest. The shades of evening are now falling, and I fear lest night may come on before we reach the city. Scarce a word is spoken ”

“ In public, at any rate, nobody would venture to speak of Sir David as an unscrupulous and cold-blooded scoundrel, but there are a good many hard business men in the City of London who would not have the slightest hesitation in applying that epithet to him. ”

“ We may suppose, however, that while David lay in concealment, and his enemies, the Philistines, held possession of Bethlehem and its approaches, the newly anointed king cast longing eyes towards the city of his birth, and the well of whose cool waters he had doubtless drunk when a boy. ”

“ Had Saul been more implicit, he might have enjoyed the name of king, have continued the dupe of the priests, have died in peace, and his children have succeeded quietly to the inheritance. But,
"Ye gods! what havoc does ambition make Among your works!"
During this time, David rescued the city of Keilah from the Philistines, (5) who were besieging it, hoping to make it a garrison for himself. ”

“ Jusque datum sceleri—Wickedness was legalized. Deceit and guile, and all manner of treacherous dealing, departed not from her streets, v. 11. It may be meant of their base and barbarous usage of David's friends and such as they knew were firm and faithful to him; they did them all the mischief they could, by fraud or force. Is this the character of Jerusalem, the royal city, and, which is more, the holy city, and in David's time too, so soon after the thrones of judgment and the testimony of Israel were both placed there? Is this the city that men call the perfection of beauty? Lam. ”

“ Don't forgive all the workers of illdeed, Selah.
6 They return the evening, like curs, yelping, and turn about a city.
7 Lo, they doth bring in their mouths, swords, in their lipps,, because who will hear?
8 And you, Yahweh, doth jest at them, you will mock at all the nations.
9 His might towards you I will keep, because God is my backrest.
10 God, his mercy will advance me. God, make me feared by my foes.
11 Do not kill them, lest my nation will forget. Moveth them with your army, and cutteth them down, our sheild, my Lord. ”

“ He knows the sough of the fir-trees, the crooning of the burns, the solitary bleating of the moorland sheep, the quiet of a place where the casual curlew is his only companion, and a startled grouse-cock the only creature that can regard him with enmity or suspicion. The silence of moorland nature has worked into his soul, and his verse helps a reader pent within a city to realize the breezy heights, the sunny knolls, the deepening glens, or the slopes aglow with those crackling flames with which the shepherds fire the heather. ”

“ It should dwell as villages, peacefully and gently expanding itself to the right and to the left, through its own inherent power of multiplying itself, as a city to which no bounds were assigned, but which was to fill the earth. ”

“ Shalt thou build me a house? No, thou shalt not (as it is explained in the parallel place, 1 Chron. xvii. 4) ; there is other work appointed for thee to do, which must be done first." David is a man of war, and he must enlarge the borders of Israel, by carrying on their conquests. David is a sweet psalmist, and he must prepare psalms for the use of the temple when it is built, and settle the courses of the Levites; but his son's genius will better suit for building the house, and he will have a better treasure to bear the charge of it, and therefore let it be reserved for him to do. ”

“ Such, indeed, is the state and situation of St. Davids; and, the environs having no hedges to divide the property of the farmers, the sheep, and even the geese, are all tethered together.
The walk to St. David’s Head, though barren, represents a view striking and awful: sublimity gives place to elegance: yet what is it to view?—a boundless waste of ocean;—not a glimpse of smiling nature,—not a patch of vegetation, to relieve the aching sight, or vary the objects of admiration. The rocks on this shore, are shook into every possible shape of horror ”

“ The only Israelites over whom the House of David continued to rule were those who, like the scattered remnant of Simeon, dwelt in the cities of Judah. [455]
Thus David's grandson found that his kingdom over a people had shrunk to the headship of a tribe, with a sort of nominal suzerainty over Edom and part of Philistia. He was reduced to the comparative insignificance of David's own position during his first seven years, when he was only king in Hebron. This disruption was the beginning of endless material disasters to both kingdoms ”

“ He sent him Tyrian artisans, who adorned David's palace on Zion. The Israelites were not skilled in fine building. After this palace was completed we must look on David's house and court as splendid and numerous. There was the chancellor, the keeper of the treasury, the chief tax-gatherer, the scribe with his subordinates; there were singers, male and female, the body-guard, and the servants. [310] David had brought seven wives from Hebron to his new metropolis. Michal, the daughter of Saul, had borne no children to David; his eldest son, Amnon, was by Ahinoam of Jezreel ”

“ Could David succeed in rescuing her? Could he, in so short a time, devise any method of saving her from the terrible life that seemed so surely about to become hers? What if anything happened to David? What if he met any of the King’s men in or about the woods that adjoined the Palace? She recalled what the King had said to her on that first day, the day when she was captured; and she shuddered as she repeated the words to herself—“As for that young David of whom you speak, he had best keep off my land! All who are found trespassing upon my kingdom are put to death at once.” “David, oh, David! ”

“ You will in a hut watch over them, away from arguments.
21 Blessed is Yahweh: because he has made wonder in his kindness to me, in the city besieged.
22 And I have said in my haste--- I have been torn off from your presence. But still you heard the voice of my pleading, in my vows to you.
23 Love Yahweh, all his pious, Yahweh treasures the believers, and overpays the prideful actor.
24 Strengthen, and your hearts will fortify, all that attend to Yahweh.
Psalm 32 1 For David, Maskil:
Fortunate whose crime is cleared, his sin covered over. ”

“ Then David and the elders of Israel, who were clothed in sackcloth, fell upon their faces. 17 And David said to God, Is it not I that commanded the people to be numbered? even I it is that have sinned and done evil indeed; but as for these sheep, what have they done? let thy hand, I pray thee, O LORD my God, be on me, and on my father’s house; but not on thy people, that they should be afflicted.
18 Then the angel of the LORD commanded Gad to say to David, that David should go up, and build an altar to the LORD in the threshingfloor of Ornan the Jebusite. ”

“ David’s Reign.—As David’s reign advanced and his success in war compelled neighboring nations to pay tribute, probably the population of Jerusalem increased. Such an increase would naturally lead to the erection of houses outside the walls, as it has in recent times. It is altogether probable that a settlement on the western hill was thus begun in the reign of David. There is no hint, however, that he took any steps to enclose such a settlement within a wall. ”