The Expositor's Bible: The Second Book of SamuelBlaikie, William Garden
Religion
The Expositor's Bible: The Second Book of Samuel
Blaikie, William Garden
Bible. Samuel, 2nd -- Commentaries
This was a most memorable event in David's history. It was the
fulfilment of one great instalment of God's promises to him. It was
fitted very greatly to deepen his trust in God, as his Protector and
his Friend. To be able to look back on even one case of a Divine
promise distinctly fulfilled to us is a great help to faith in all
future time. For David to be able to look back on that early period
of his life, so crowded with trials and sufferings, perplexities and
dangers, and to mark how God had delivered him from every one of
them, and, in spite of the fearful opposition that had been raised
against him, had at last seated him firmly on the throne, was well
fitted to advance the spirit of trust to that place of supremacy
which it gained in him. After such an overwhelming experience, it was
little wonder that his trust in God became so strong, and his purpose
to serve God so intense. The sorrows of death had compassed him, and
the pains of Hades had taken hold on him, yet the Lord had been with
him, and had most wonderfully delivered him. And in token of his
deliverance he makes his vow of continual service, "O Lord, truly I
am Thy servant; I am Thy servant and the son of Thine handmaid; Thou
hast loosed my bonds. I will offer to Thee the sacrifices of praise,
and will call upon the name of the Lord."
We can hardly pass from this event in David's history without
recalling his typical relation to Him who in after-years was to
be known as the "Son of David." The resemblance between the early
history of David and that of our blessed Lord in some of its features
is too obvious to need to be pointed out. Like David, Jesus spends
His early years in the obscurity of a country village. Like him, He
enters on His public life under a striking and convincing evidence
of the Divine favour--David by conquering Goliath, Jesus by the
descent of the Spirit at His baptism, and the voice from heaven which
proclaimed, "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased."
Like David, soon after His Divine call Jesus is led out to the
wilderness, to undergo hardship and temptation; but, unlike David,
He conquers the enemy at every onset. Like David, Jesus attaches to
Himself a small but valiant band of followers, whose achievements
in the spiritual warfare rival the deeds of David's "worthies" in
the natural. Like David, Jesus is concerned for His relatives;
David, in his extremity, commits his father and mother to the king
of Moab: Jesus, on the cross, commits His mother to the beloved
disciple. In the higher exercises of David's spirit, too, there is
much that resembles the experiences of Christ. The convincing proof
of this is, that most of the Psalms which the Christian Church has
ever held to be Messianic have their foundation in the experiences
of David. It is impossible not to see that in one sense there must
have been a measureless distance between the experience of a sinful
man like David and that of the Lord Jesus Christ. In the Divinity of
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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