And all the people went up after him, playing on pipes, and rejoicing with great joy, so that the earth was split by their noise.
A priest has just anointed Solomon king at the spring of Gihon. The crowd now walks him back up to the city, piping and shouting loud enough to shake the ground — a noise that meant joy to some and dread to others.
The shout that settles a disputed throne
Another son of David, Adonijah, had already thrown himself a coronation feast. The crowd behind Solomon is the answer to that feast. God used the plotting of others to settle His own choice.
William KellyThe devil was quite willing to make use of a son of David against the son of David. This was exactly the question now. And God was pleased to make use of the wickedness of those who insulted the king, treating him in effect as a dead man while he was still alive. The hurry and haste of Adonijah only confirmed Solomon's title all the more. We need never trouble ourselves with our schemes for carrying out God's plans. All man's efforts are in vain. God has His own way, and very often through man's sin.
Anointed at Gihon, cheered by the people
The joy does not start with the crowd. A priest anoints Solomon first. The people's shout follows the anointing; it does not make him king.
Arno Clemens GaebeleinZadok the priest, Nathan the prophet, and Benaiah had Solomon ride on King David's mule and brought him to Gihon. The priest anointed him king and the people rejoiced with great joy. But what joy will come to this earth when He who is greater than Solomon takes His throne and receives His great kingdom! Solomon's glorious reign gives only a faint picture of it.
The same sound, heard two ways
Close enough to hear it, Adonijah's party was still eating. The trumpet told them their feast was over.
H. L. RossierBut what an awakening! What trouble overwhelms those at his feast! Suddenly, in the middle of the feast, the false king, Joab, and all the guests hear the sound of the trumpet. They hear such cries of joy that the very earth is split by the noise of Solomon's procession. "Why," says Joab, "is this noise of the city in an uproar?" So the public setting up of the reign of Christ will surprise the world and deeply trouble it.
Three men led that feast. Between them they held every kind of power the world has.
The Bible TreasuryIn these three men we see three powers combined against Christ: in Adonijah the authority of the world, in Joab the executive power, in Abiathar the religious power. They stand for the three great moral forces of the world. While they are celebrating, they hear the shouting of the people. Sudden fear seizes them, and destruction soon overtakes them. So it will be at the end.
Why singing belongs to this reign
Worship in Israel had always meant sacrifice. Singing arrived with a king who had no war left to fight.
The Bible TreasurySolomon's was the time of rest. No enemy remained for him to conquer. He had no more preparing to do through trouble and toil; he sits down full of honours and peace. And his was the time of joy also. Then, for the first time, songs broke out from the middle of the congregation of Israel. Long before, Moses had appointed sacrifices, but the tabernacle had never heard songs.
The pattern behind the picture
Solomon's reign pictures the peace of Christ's coming rule. But one writer says the picture needs his father's wars too.
W. TrotterIt may not have been so generally seen that it takes both David's reign and Solomon's to give the complete picture of the millennial period. David reigned at Hebron for seven years before he reigned at Jerusalem, and even after all the tribes accepted him as king he fought one long series of wars with Israel's enemies all around. Solomon, as his name shows, was the peaceful prince. David stands as the picture of "the Lion of the tribe of Judah." But it is in Solomon's reign that we see the divine picture of the peaceful glories of Christ's kingdom.
Yet the picture has its limit. Even this prince of peace kept an army.
W. W. FeredaySolomon did not disarm: he gathered 1,400 chariots and 12,000 horsemen. Truly every picture falls short! When He who is "greater than Solomon" reigns in Jerusalem, men "shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks." Then "nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore."
Summary
- Plot. Adonijah's rush to the throne did not stop God's choice. His haste only made Solomon's title surer.
- Oil. The gladness starts with an anointing at Gihon, not with the crowd. The people's shout agrees with God's choice; it does not create it.
- Sound. Rest produces song. With no war left to fight, Solomon's reign was the first time Israel's worship broke into music.
- Dread. The world's authority, its force, and its religion were feasting together when that shout reached them. The noise that gladdened the city terrified the table.
- Shadow. Solomon's day is a faint sketch. The full joy waits for the One greater than Solomon, when swords become farm tools and war is not learned again.