And he left there, before the ark of the covenant of Jehovah, Asaph and his brethren, to do the service before the ark continually, as every day's duty required;
The ark of the covenant has reached Zion at last, and David leaves Asaph and his brothers there for daily service. But what was this ministry "before the ark" — and why was it here, when Israel's altar stood miles away at Gibeon?
Verses 37 to 43 describe an arrangement that was never meant to be final.
After this song, we find in verses 37-43 the provisional order of worship before the final establishment of the ark in Solomon's temple. From now on the ark of the covenant stood in Zion. David placed it "under curtains," in a tent he had spread for it. The tabernacle in the wilderness with the bronze altar and the other vessels of the sanctuary was at Gibeon. There burnt offerings were sacrificed morning and evening. Here David appoints the men for these two tasks: at Gibeon, the sacrifices; at Jerusalem, praise before the ark.
Worship now happened in two places at once. David did not pretend this was ideal, and he added something Israel had never had before.
The king then set up a service of song in connection with the worship of God. Until the throne was set up, nothing of that kind was known. Ever after, this service had its place in the worship of God. We who are in the kingdom can worship God in this way, for there is no altar now at which we are to serve according to the mind of God. In David's day it was different. The ark was in Jerusalem while the tabernacle with the bronze altar stood at Gibeon, and this made it plain that things were not in perfect order. What then was to be done? The king arranged it all.
What Asaph did there matters as much as where he stood. Sacrifices belonged at Gibeon. Before the ark there was praise and nothing else — a lesson, not a detail.
To approach God at all, each and all must come as it were by the altar, that is, by the sacrifice of Christ. But once in God's presence, on that ground, praise and thanksgiving are the suited form of worship. This David understood and carried out. No sacrifices went on before the ark, only the service of song. Should Christians be ignorant of what David understood? ... We can never forget the sacrifice. We can never get beyond the blood sprinkled, as it were, on the throne. But we worship inside the holiest place, and Christian worship has the character of praise and thanksgiving.
Two phrases shape this service: "regularly" and "as each day required." The arrival of the ark was a starting line, not a finish.
That memorable day, when the ark came up to Jerusalem, was only the beginning of David's care for the Lord and His ark. He "left Asaph and his brothers there before the ark of the covenant of the LORD to minister regularly before the ark as each day required." There was to be continual praise to God, with one of the chief musicians leading the praises. It was to be "as each day required," for there would be special reasons for thanksgiving and praise to God as one day followed another.
The next verse names Obed-edom among those left there. Writers tie his appointment to what had already happened in his own house.
The king had not forgotten that the Lord had blessed the house of Obed-edom while the ark remained in his care, for with Asaph and his brothers there were "Obed-edom with their brothers ... to be gatekeepers." The three months the ark spent in his house had shown that here was a man who knew how to care for the ark of God, and who had the Lord's approval in this. So it was fitting that he should have a special place in caring for the ark in the city of David.
One writer carries this picture forward to where Christians gather now.
Before the temple was built, the priests of Aaron's line carried on tabernacle worship at Gibeon, while the ark was at Zion — God's chosen centre, His "rest for ever" — with Asaph and his brothers, the singers, ministering before it. All this has a deep bearing on God's highly favoured people today. Do we know His centre — spiritually, His "rest for ever" — where He dwells? ... It is a place marked by praise that God orders and accepts, where the once-rejected King is present — the One the ark pictured. "Where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them."
- Place. The ark rested in David's tent on Zion; the altar stayed at Gibeon. The king arranged it, and it held until the temple.
- Pattern. Sacrifice belonged at the altar; before the ark there was song only. Approach is by sacrifice, but presence calls for praise.
- Pace. The service was "regularly" and "as each day required" — steady ministry, with fresh reasons for thanks each day.
- People. Asaph led the praise. Obed-edom, already proved in caring for the ark, took his place as a gatekeeper.
- Point. The centre God chose, with the once-rejected King at its heart, is still where ordered praise belongs.
and Obed-Edom, and their brethren, sixty-eight; Obed-Edom also, the son of Jeduthun, and Hosah as doorkeepers.
At the end of 1 Chronicles 16, David posts men to serve before the ark in Jerusalem. This verse names the gatekeepers — and first on the list is Obed-edom, whose house once held the ark; why does his name keep coming back?
The ark was now in Jerusalem, while the tabernacle and its altar stood far off at Gibeon. David kept the two joined.
When David brought the ark to Jerusalem, he took care to link worship before the ark with the sacrifices on the altar at Gibeon (1 Chr. 16:37-43). In this way he kept worship united. Every day there was service before the ark and service before the altar at Gibeon. So at the same moment, and "continually", these two parts of worship went on together, though they were far apart.
Each place taught what the other could not.
The Tabernacle showed how to approach God: it is, and must always be, by sacrifice — then by the daily and yearly sacrifices, and now on the ground of the one perfect sacrifice. Before the Ark, day by day, people saw the service that suits those who are where the presence of God is known. That service was, and must be, a service of song.
This order was temporary, not the goal.
After this song, verses 37-43 give us the temporary order of worship, before the ark found its final place in Solomon's temple… Among those who serve before the ark, Obed-edom has the first place among so many Levites chosen by David. He was both the witness and the object of the blessings the ark brought with it — the special witness of God's purposes of grace.
Obed-edom's post was not random. Years earlier the ark had stayed three months in his house, and God blessed it there.
The king had not forgotten that Jehovah had blessed the house of Obed-edom while the ark was in his care. You can see this, because along with Asaph and his brothers there were "Obed-edom and his sixty-eight brothers … to be gatekeepers" (1 Chr. 16:38). Those three months with the ark in his house had shown that here was a man who knew how to care for the ark of God, and who had the Lord's approval in doing it. So it was fitting that he should have a special place in caring for the ark when David brought it to his city.
His name and his home town both carry a lesson.
Obed-edom was a Levite of the family of Korah, as we see from the mention of the blessing on him elsewhere (1 Chr. 26:4-5). So his house was not an unsuitable place to receive the ark. Yet his name means "servant of Edom" — Edom standing here for the flesh. And the place where he lived before, or more likely was born, is Gath, the "winepress" — a picture, as we know, of divine wrath. It is no strange thing to say of any of God's Levites that we were indeed "by nature children of wrath"; and the apostle adds (Eph. 2:3) that we were "carrying out the desires of the body and the mind" [older translations: "the desires of the flesh"] — we were Obed-edoms.
The other man named here, Hosah, heads a family of the line of Merari. Set beside the other gatekeeper families, Obed-edom's numbers stand out.
Obed-Edom is here, as always, the object of special blessing. Meshelemiah, the son of Korah, counts eighteen sons and brothers set apart for this work in his family. Hosah, of the family of Merari, counts thirteen. Obed-Edom counts sixty-two among his own descendants. He had eight sons, for we are told that God had blessed him… Of his sons it is said that they ruled in their father's house, and were mighty men of valour, strong for the service. It is not enough to say that this unattractive task needs humility, dependence, zeal and self-forgetfulness; strength and valour are needed too.
The work had two edges, and both mattered.
The doorkeepers had charge of all the gates of the temple. They had to be able to drive back any attack on the house of God. They had to watch with constant energy, so that no defiled person entered the courts of the Lord. They also had to keep the doors open, so that no priest with the right to enter the temple was shut out.
- Grace received. Obed-edom was the "witness and object" of blessing — the ark stayed in his house, and God blessed all he had.
- Grace remembered. David had not forgotten those three months, so he gave the man who had cared well for the ark a place caring for it still.
- Grace named. His name means "servant of Edom," and his city means "winepress" — a reminder that God's servants were once children of wrath.
- Grace stationed. Gatekeeping needed more than humility, dependence, zeal and self-forgetfulness. It needed strength and valour too — to shut the door on defilement, and to hold it open for those with a right to enter.
- Grace sustained. Sacrifice at Gibeon and praise before the ark ran side by side, continually. One taught the way in; the other was the song of those already inside.
And Zadok the priest, and his brethren the priests, before the tabernacle of Jehovah in the high place that was at Gibeon,
David has just set the ark in a tent on Zion and appointed people to praise before it. Verse 39 sends a second group the other way. Zadok and the priests go to Gibeon, where the tabernacle Moses made still stood. So why was God's worship running in two places at once?
The phrase "the high place" describes the ground the tent stood on. Gibeon also had an older history.
After Saul destroyed Nob, the tabernacle moved to Gibeon. It stayed there until Solomon built the house of the LORD... The high place at Gibeon means the raised ground on which the tabernacle and the altar stood. Long before, the same spot had been a Canaanite place for the worship of idols. God had chosen one central place for worship. As long as that temple was not standing, worship of the LORD at the Gibeon high place was not sinful. Once the temple stood, the high places became centres of idol worship.
The ark was at Jerusalem, the bronze altar at Gibeon. David did not choose one and drop the other.
From the day he brought it back to Zion, his history never shows him seeking another place of worship for himself. Yet he did not forget Gibeon. While the ark was on its way to Jerusalem, he took care to link worship before the ark with the sacrifices on the altar at Gibeon. In this way he kept worship one. Each day the service went on before the ark and before the altar at Gibeon. So at the same moment, and "continually," these two parts of worship went on together, though they stood in different places.
Each site had its own work and its own staff.
The tabernacle from the wilderness stood at Gibeon, with the bronze altar and the other vessels of the sanctuary. Burnt offerings went up there morning and evening. Here David sets up the people who would carry out these two tasks: sacrifice at Gibeon, and praise before the ark at Jerusalem.
A worshipper could reach the throne of God or reach the altar, but not both in one place. That gap exposed the priesthood.
The priesthood of Aaron's line could not hold the people's relationship with their God together, and so the outward order had completely failed. The altar where the priests were to sacrifice stood elsewhere — at Gibeon — not in front of the tent that held the ark. And the ark was the sign of the covenant and of the throne of the LORD. It stood far from the altar where the priests served.
Each site was missing what the other had.
You could come to the ark at Zion, but without the sacrifice that was the only way into the sanctuary. You could come to the altar at Gibeon, but that only gave access to the holy place, which stood completely empty... The altar — expiation — was the means needed to reach God's throne. Without it the LORD could not dwell in grace among His people. That truth had to be set up completely afresh.
David could have carried the ark to Gibeon and restored the old set-up. He did not.
The ark was not taken to the tabernacle at Gibeon, and that carried deep meaning. It was a complete judgment on the whole system tied to that tabernacle. The tabernacle was still standing, and so was the altar, and the priests offered sacrifices there. But the ark of the covenant of the LORD had been taken away from it. The king used his own authority over it and placed it elsewhere... now God steps in through David and acts in power, and that power puts the visible sign of His covenant with His people elsewhere. The royal power is set up at Jerusalem, and the sign of God's covenant leaves the tent of meeting for Mount Zion, the seat of that royal power.
This arrangement had a shelf life. It ran until Solomon's temple brought altar and ark back under one roof.
The priests have indeed finished with the miserable state of things at Gibeon. All the vessels of the holy place, the altar, and even the tent now come together where the ark is. This is the end of the tabernacle — there is no further mention of it... At last God has found a final resting place in the midst of His people.
- Setting — After Saul destroyed Nob, Moses' tabernacle and the bronze altar stood at Gibeon. The "high place" was just the raised ground under the tent.
- Split — The ark sat on Zion, the altar at Gibeon. So the sacrifice that opens the way to God's throne stood apart from the throne itself.
- Diagnosis — Commentators read that split as the failure of the priesthood to hold Israel's relationship with God together. They also read it as God's judgment on the whole tabernacle system.
- Care — David still staffed Gibeon daily. He kept sacrifice and praise going at the same hours, so worship stayed one though the sites were two.
- Resolution — The two halves came together only in Solomon's temple. After that the tabernacle is never mentioned again, and worship at high places turned into idolatry.
to offer up burnt-offerings to Jehovah on the altar of burnt-offering continually, morning and evening, and according to all that is written in the law of Jehovah, which he commanded Israel;
David has just brought the ark into the tent he pitched for it on Zion, and now he settles who serves where. Zadok and the priests stay at Gibeon with the old tabernacle and its bronze altar — so why did the law's daily routine still matter to a king who had just filled Jerusalem with song?
The split was not tidy planning. It was the visible mark of a broken order.
During this in-between period the bronze altar, the tent, and the vessels of service were at Gibeon, no longer connected with the ark. You could approach the ark at Zion, but without the sacrifice which was the only way into the sanctuary. You could approach the altar at Gibeon, but this would only give you access to a holy place that was completely empty. The link between the altar and the ark seemed lost forever through the unfaithfulness of the priesthood. This truth had to be established all over again: the altar — that is, expiation — was the means needed to reach God's throne, and without it the Lord could not dwell in grace among His people.
David's answer was to keep both services running at once.
From the moment he brought the ark back to Zion we never see him personally looking for another place of worship, though he did not forget Gibeon. While the ark was on its way to Jerusalem, he took care to tie worship before the ark to the sacrifices on the altar at Gibeon. In this way he kept worship united. Each day the service went on before the ark and before the altar at Gibeon. So at the same moment, and "continually" (ESV: "regularly"), these two parts of worship went on together, though the two places were far apart.
The split of ark and altar was not the only change in Israel.
The ark of God was now pitched in a tent, as a temporary measure, in Jerusalem. It was no longer with the tabernacle. This was a striking change, and it belonged to the special character of David's position. The authority of the king was now the centre of Israel — the picture of the Lord Jesus. This is because God has kept the place of highest honour for His Son, and David stands for this. So we see the priests move into second place; the king comes to the front.
Something new had begun on Zion, yet the old commands still stood.
The presence of the ark in Jerusalem, while the tabernacle with the bronze altar was at Gibeon, made it clear that things were not in perfect order. So what could be done? The king arranged it all. At Gibeon the ritual given through Moses was to carry on, now with a service of song added, since the kingdom was in existence. But before the ark, Asaph and his brothers were to minister in their service of song.
The timing carried its own message.
The burnt offering was made up of two lambs of the first year, one offered in the morning and the other in the evening. It was never to stop... Because this offering went on without a break, God laid a foundation by it. On that foundation Israel could stand, accepted in all its fragrance. So it becomes a fitting picture of the believer's position, showing the ground of his acceptance in the Beloved. Just as the sweet aroma of the continual burnt offering always went up to God on Israel's behalf, so Christ in all His acceptability is always before His eyes on behalf of His own.
David's arrangement carries a lesson past its own time.
To approach God at all, each and every one must come by way of the altar, that is, by the sacrifice of Christ. But once in God's presence, on that ground, praise and thanksgiving are the fitting form of worship. David understood this and acted on it. No sacrifices went on before the ark, only the service of song... We can never forget the sacrifice. We can never get beyond the blood, sprinkled as it were on the throne. But the place where we worship is the holiest place, and the character of Christian worship is praise and thanksgiving.
- Broken. The ark stood at Zion and the altar at Gibeon. Each place lacked what the other held, and the old order had plainly failed.
- Bound. David tied the singing before the ark to the sacrifices at Gibeon. Both went on at the same moment, continually.
- By the book. Gibeon's offerings followed the law to the letter. They taught one fixed lesson: the way to God is by sacrifice.
- Unbroken. The lamb offered morning and evening never stopped. It pictures Christ, always before God on behalf of His people.
- Beyond. Sacrifice belonged to Gibeon. Before the ark there was only song, for praise suits those who already stand in God's presence.
and with them Heman and Jeduthun, and the rest that were chosen, who were expressed by name, to give thanks to Jehovah, because his loving-kindness [endureth] for ever;
David had just brought the ark to Zion. But the tabernacle Moses made and the bronze altar still stood miles away at Gibeon, so worship ran in two places at once. Verse 41 names the men David set at Gibeon beside the sacrifices: Heman, Jeduthun and others, whose one task was to give thanks.
Verse 41 sits in a short section that sets up an order of worship for the years before the temple.
After this song, we find in verses 37-43 the temporary order of worship before the ark was finally set up in Solomon's temple. The tabernacle in the wilderness, with the bronze altar and the other vessels of the sanctuary, was at Gibeon. Burnt offerings were sacrificed there morning and evening. Here David sets up the people who would carry out these two functions: at Gibeon, the offering of the sacrifices; at Jerusalem, praise before the ark. This song was to sound out there too, and it will last as long as the Lord Himself: "Give thanks to the LORD, for His steadfast love endures forever" (v. 41).
Two sites did not mean two separate worships.
When the ark was being carried to Jerusalem he took care to link worship before the ark with the sacrifices upon the altar at Gibeon (1 Chr. 16:37-43), maintaining in this way the unity of worship. Each day the service went on before the ark and before the altar at Gibeon. So at the same moment, and "continually", these two parts of worship ran together, even though they were far apart.
Nothing in the law of Moses had asked for singers of thanks at the altar.
These services of praise are a completely new and very interesting part of these arrangements. We read nothing about them in the Books of Moses. They seem to be connected with the setting up of the throne. To come to God at all, every one of us must come by the Altar — that is, by the sacrifice of Christ. But once we are in God's presence on that ground, praise and thanksgiving are the fitting form of worship. Christianity sets this out perfectly. Here in the scene we are looking at, the two were separated. Since the Lord Jesus Christ ascended on high, they are never to be known apart.
David gave the singers one line to repeat. It sets God's mercy against Israel's whole record of failure.
Next we have this form of words: "His mercy endures for ever." It declares that despite all the faults, all the sins, and all the unfaithfulness of Israel, Jehovah's mercy has stood firm. This will be shown in full when the Lamb — the true ark of the covenant and the real David — is on Mount Zion, even before He takes up the character of Solomon.
Heman's family line made him a fitting voice for this song.
Heman is chosen to be in the central place of praise to God. He is spoken of as "Heman a singer," and his genealogy is traced through Korah to Levi. As a descendant of Korah, he had good cause to praise God for His rich mercy. Dathan and Abiram perished with their children, and Korah shared their fate. Yet it is recorded, "But the sons of Korah did not die" (Num. 26:11). They were spared in the sovereign mercy of God, so there were none more suited to sing of the goodness and mercy of God.
Jeduthun's part in the singing was thanksgiving.
Thanksgiving had its own place in the service of song under David, and it mingled with the praises of Jeduthun and his sons; and the giving of thanks should have a very real place in the praises of the saints today.
Singers used these same words centuries later, when everything around them had collapsed.
That chorus was sung in the bright day of David's success, when he brought the Ark of God from the house of Obed-edom to Jerusalem (1 Chron. 16:41). It sounded again in the days of Solomon, when the cloud and glory of His visible presence filled the house of the Lord at Jerusalem (2 Chron. 5:13). Then the glory and brightness and successes of those days passed away, and the failure and ruin of Israel was complete. Even so, the returned remnant could raise the very same old note of praise: "For He is good, for His steadfast love endures forever toward Israel" (Ezra 3:11). They had been faithless, but He was faithful.
- Mercy is the cause. God's mercy held firm through every failure of the people. That is why there was anything to sing.
- Mercy chose the singers. Heman came from the line of Korah, spared when judgment fell. No one was better suited to lead a song about mercy.
- Mercy has an order. Access to God comes through the altar. Once there, thanks and praise are the fitting response. In Christ the two are never pulled apart.
- Mercy reaches both places. Sacrifice at Gibeon and praise before the ark ran at the same moment, day after day. Worship stayed one, though it was spread over two places.
- Mercy outlasts the ruin. The same words sounded in David's best day, in Solomon's glory, and in the rubble of the return — the setting changed, the song did not.
and with them, [with] Heman and Jeduthun, trumpets and cymbals for those that should sound aloud; and the musical instruments of God. And the sons of Jeduthun were at the gate.
Here Israel worships in two places at once: the ark in a tent at Jerusalem, the old tabernacle and altar at Gibeon. This verse names the men who served, and raises two questions: why call the instruments God's, and why put singers at a gate?
David did not merge the two services; he staffed both. One commentator sets out who served where, and what they sang.
After this song, verses 37-43 give the temporary order of worship, before the ark came to rest at last in Solomon's temple… David placed the ark "under curtains," in a tent he had spread for it. The tabernacle from the wilderness stood at Gibeon, with the bronze altar and the other vessels of the sanctuary. Burnt offerings went up there morning and evening. Here David appoints the men who would carry out these two duties: at Gibeon, the offering of the sacrifices; at Jerusalem, praise before the ark. There, too, this song was to sound out, and it will last as long as the Lord Himself: "Give thanks to Jehovah, because His loving-kindness endures for ever."
The trumpets and cymbals came from ordinary materials. One writer traces both where they came from and the name they were given. Older translations read "the musical instruments of God" here, where the ESV has "instruments for sacred song."
So equipped, Israel — God called them "the Lord's people" — found a fitting way to express the praise of their nation on earth to the Lord. But this cannot be said too strongly: the music of praise was TO GOD, and not for the mere entertainment OF MEN!
Should Christians copy this pattern? One writer answers no, and says what marks Christian praise instead.
This is no warrant for Christians using such instruments in the worship of God. The distinctive feature of the Christian is, as the Apostle says, to "sing with the spirit and with the understanding also." But an earthly people would have an earthly form of expressing their praise. So everything fits. "So the Levites appointed Heman the son of Joel." And then we find the singers and others — the doorkeepers, even — everything appointed in the most orderly manner.
The same writer carries the picture forward. Now the material for music is people, not metal and wood.
The instruments of the old order had no life. A new creation in Christ has provided living instruments instead, with the living melodies of redemption rising up in the heart. True, they have been quarried from the hills of a world of sin, taken from the forests of darkness and unbelief, and brought out of death into life. They are born again. They have proved the Lord's goodness and pardoning grace. So they are fitted to offer up spiritual praise acceptable to God by Jesus Christ… They are both the priests of God and the instruments of God, through the redemption work of our Lord Jesus Christ.
The verse ends with Jeduthun's sons at the gate. The job had two sides.
The doorkeepers had charge of all the gates of the temple. They had to be able to drive back any attack on the house of God. They also had to watch with constant energy, so that no defiled person entered the courts of the Lord. And they had to keep the doors open, so that no member of the priesthood who had the right to enter the temple was shut out.
- Place — David staffed two sanctuaries at once — sacrifice morning and evening at Gibeon, praise before the ark at Jerusalem. The plan was temporary, until Solomon's temple.
- Provision — Hills, forests and animals supplied the material for the cymbals and trumpets. David's order for God's service is what made them "instruments of God."
- Purpose — The music went upward, not outward. Praise was to God, never entertainment for men.
- People — The Christian sings with the spirit and with the mind. So lifeless instruments give way to living ones: hearts quarried out of a world of sin, now both priests and instruments of God.
- Protection — Jeduthun's sons at the gate show the double trust of every doorkeeper: shut out what defiles, and never shut out anyone with a right to be in.
And all the people departed every one to his house; and David returned to bless his household.
David's great day of praise ends quietly: the crowd breaks up, everyone walks home, and the king goes home too. The last line turns from a nation singing at the ark to one man and his own front door.
One writer describes the worship David set up just before he went home:
After this song, we find in verses 37-43 the provisional order of worship before the final establishment of the ark in Solomon's temple. From now on the ark of the covenant was placed in Zion... The tabernacle in the wilderness with the bronze altar and the other vessels of the sanctuary was at Gibeon. There burnt offerings were sacrificed morning and evening. Here David sets up the people who would carry out these two functions: at Gibeon, the offering of the sacrifices; at Jerusalem, praise before the ark.
One writer points out which of the Levites chosen for this service comes first, and why:
Among those who serve before the ark, Obed-edom has the first place among so many Levites chosen by David. He was the witness and object of the blessings which the ark brought with it, the special witness of God's purposes of grace.
Gibeon kept the older altar. One writer sees God's mercy stooping to the worshippers there:
But not everyone grasped this intervention and these ways of God, so precious to those who understood them. The kind mercy of God stooped at Gibeon to the low condition of the people whom He loved... there God spoke to them, telling them that His mercy endures for ever. This was in fact a touching proof of it. David returns to bless his house.
David has just blessed a whole nation. Then he turned to a far smaller circle:
He returns to bless his house, for David has his own house to which he returns after having blessed Israel; it is something nearer to him than Israel.
That house was not an easy one. One writer notes what David did there anyway:
David appoints those who are to minister before the ark, but he himself returns to bless his house. A daughter of Saul may be there, having no sympathy with the feelings of David, but that does not hinder his blessing it. His soul was filled with the thought of the ark of God being brought home, and, overflowing with thanksgiving, he would have his house share his joy.
One writer traces the order of David's day, ending at his own door:
Having worshipped God, the giver of all good, his thoughts now turned to His people. He "blessed them in the name of Jehovah of hosts," and generously provided for their material needs too. Then, his public ministry over, he was not forgetful of his domestic relationships. "David went home to bless his household."
One writer links this verse to a psalm David may have spoken then:
It seems likely that it was when David returned to bless his house (1 Chron. 16:43) that he uttered Psalm 30. He could then say, "You have turned for me my mourning into dancing; you have loosed my sackcloth and clothed me with gladness." He had now risen to the height of prosperity and could say, "I shall never be moved."
Blessing the people was rare for a king. One writer reads it as a picture of something still ahead:
Another noteworthy event of this day is that King David blessed the people, something no other king but Solomon ever attempted. In these special acts the two kings may be seen as types of our Lord Jesus. As King and Priest in a future day, He will unite in Himself the characteristic features of both David and Solomon, and bless the people from a throne of righteousness and peace.
- Settled — Before going home, David left worship running: praise before the ark at Zion, sacrifices at the altar at Gibeon. It was a temporary order until the temple was built.
- Stooped — At Gibeon God met a people who understood less, and told them His mercy lasts for ever. One writer calls that a touching proof of the mercy itself.
- Shared — David worshipped God first, then blessed and fed the nation, and only then went home. The public work did not crowd out the private duty.
- Nearer — His own house was a circle closer to him than Israel. Blessing it was a separate act from the national glory of that day.
- Unhindered — A hostile heart inside the house did not stop David from blessing it. A man overflowing with thanksgiving wanted his own family in on the joy.