How did King David die?

The charge of David to Solomon recorded in the opening verses of this chapter was given privately. Its main purpose was to exhort his son to punish Joab and Shimei and to show kindness unto the sons of Barzillai. Critics have attacked David's character on account of this charge. Renan in his history of the people Israel goes so far as to say that the incident is "a revelation of the black perfidy of his hypocritical soul." However, the charge to Solomon to execute vengeance upon these two men is not a stain upon King David. The punishment was well deserved. Joab had killed Abner and Amasa. Shimei had in great vileness cursed God's King. Both were wicked men. David's own guilt had no doubt compelled him to neglect the solemn duty demanded by justice. He therefore asked Solomon to vindicate divine justice and raise it up from the defeat it had sustained by punishing Joab and Shimei with death, while kindness is to be bestowed upon the righteous. From the prophetic viewpoint we get a glimpse of the coming righteous judgment of the King, our Lord Jesus Christ, who will execute the vengeance of God and punish the evil doers, and reward the righteous in His kingdom. Then David passed away and was buried after his forty-year reign in the city of David. He died in good old age, full of days, riches and honour (1 Chron. 29:28). His memory was always cherished by the nation. Peter on the day of Pentecost spoke of his burial place: "His sepulchre is with us unto this day" (Acts 2:29). In the coming day of the glorious manifestation of the Son of Man, who also bears the title Son of David, when He shall receive the throne of His father David, King David in resurrection glory will have a great share in that Kingdom.

THE DEATH OF DAVID (vs.10-12)

2 Samuel 5:4 tells us that David was 30 year old when he began to reign, and reigned 40 years over Israel. Thus he died at 70 years of age and was buried in Jerusalem. For seven years he reigned in Hebron and for 33 years in Jerusalem (v.11). By the time David died, Solomon was already reigning and his kingdom was firmly established. Solomon also reigned for forty years (1 Ki.11:42). How short indeed is the span of earthly glory! The last days of Paul in prison were much more bright with rejoicing than were the last days of either David or Solomon! (2 Tim.4:6-8).

But it is made evident that the ideal King has not yet come, for even in the man after God's own heart is found failure ere he resigns his crown to his son. His personal sin, that left so dreadful a blot upon his character, is here omitted, as befits the character of the book. But his official failure in numbering the people is told in all faithfulness, as also, the fact that it was Satan who provoked him to act as he did. But in amazing grace God overrules all to make David's very sin the means of manifesting the site for the future temple of the Lord. Finally, having set all in order, and arranged even the courses of the priests and Levites who are to officiate in the glorious house of Jehovah, the aged monarch appoints Solomon his son and the son of Bathsheba to be king in his stead; and after solemnly charging him both as to the kingdom and the house that is to be built, "he died in a good old age, full of days, riches, and honor: and Solomon his son reigned in his stead."

In the opening chapters of 1 Kings we see that his last days were not all bright. His failure to properly control his household brought him much sorrow, and embittered his cup when he was too feeble to exert himself as he would have desired. Adonijah's effort, however, to secure the crown for himself results in disaster, and eventually in his own death, and Solomon's, title is indisputably established.

David was about 70 years old and extremely feeble. The strenuous life he had led, the exposures and hardships of his youth, the cares and anxieties of his reign, and the chastenings through which he passed on account of his great sin, and much else were responsible for this enfeebled condition. It is but another illustration of that rigid law, What a man soweth that shall he reap. It was a premature decay with the complete loss of natural heat. While the king was in this helpless condition Adonijah (My Lord is Jehovah) exalted himself to be king and like his unhappy brother Absalom he prepared chariots and horsemen and fifty men to run before him. Like Absalom he also was of great physical beauty. There is a significant sentence which reveals the weakness of David towards his favorite children, a weakness which has borne its sad fruits in many families. "And his father had not displeased him at any time in saying, Why hast thou done so?" There had been no discipline in David's family; he had spared the rod. By right of primogeniture he thought of claiming the throne. However, he must have known that his younger brother Solomon had been selected by David to fill the throne after him. But Adonijah knew not the Lord nor was he subject to His will. In his selfish ambition he was upheld by Joab and Abiathar, the priest. No doubt but both of these men sought their own interests; Joab to continue in his position he held with David; Abiathar to get supremacy over Zadok his rival in the priesthood. But Zadok the priest, who ministered at Gibeon (1 Chron. 16:39), Benaiah, who had charge of the Cherethites and Pelethites (2 Sam. 8:18), Nathan, the faithful prophet, Shimei (not the one who cursed David), Rei and David's mighty men kept aloof from the revolt. They remained true to Jehovah and to His anointed. Then Adonijah made a sacrificial feast to give his self-exaltation a religious air. He invited all the king's sons, his brethren, and the men of Judah; but Nathan, Benaiah, David's mighty men and his brother Solomon were not called. It was meant to be his coronation. In this revolt, preceding the enthronement of God's king, Solomon, the king of peace, we have another foreshadowing of what will precede the reign of the Prince of Peace, our Lord. It seemed as if Adonijah might succeed. But Nathan, the prophet, begins to act. In agreement with the mother of Solomon the plan is made to discover what Adonijah had done to the aged King. Bath-sheba goes in first and after a while Nathan appeared to tell the King the same story he had heard from the lips of his wife. She reminded David of his oath, that Solomon her son was to be the successor to the throne, and after telling him of Adonijah's act, she appealed to him to proclaim now who was to sit upon the throne. She speaks to him repeatedly as "My lord the King." And when Nathan appeared before David he also said, "My lord O King." Some have gathered from this that aged David had become filled with the pride of life. However, the honour done to him may have been true reverence for the Lord's anointed King.

At the time our account begins, King David was about seventy years old. He was far from having reached extreme old age, but a life of sufferings, conflict, and grief wears at the strength of even the most robust of men, so that the king "was old and advanced in age." At thirty-three years of age, the Lord Himself appeared to be fifty years old (John 8:57), but His strength was unbroken. He was not, like David, worn by grief, but, Man of Sorrows, His face was marred more than any man. Love impressed this character upon His features, for He in sympathy carried all the sorrows that sin had brought upon our miserable race.

The king's servants devise a means of recalling him to life (vv. 24), imitating in this the sovereigns of the surrounding nations. It seems that David lacked the will-power to oppose the plan of those around him. A Shunammite is brought to him. She cares for him and serves him. This "very fair" virgin of Israel will later be considered by Solomon as one of the most precious jewels in his crown. She is to belong to him, and whoever may dare to look on her to covet her shall bear his judgment. But let us not anticipate. That which the Word teaches us is that she did not become the wife of David, the king of grace. It is thus at present with Christ. Though having His eyes upon Israel, all the while there is another bride at the present moment taken from among the Gentiles. He shall keep her as King of Glory, but as such He will also renew His relations with the remnant of Israel, the excellent of His people.

Being 70 years old, David was near to death. He complained of the cold, though well covered with blankets. His servants thought that a young girl, a virgin, would help to warm him. Why could not one of his wives do this? But they found a beautiful young woman, Abishag, and brought her to the king (v.2). She ministered to the king's needs, but he did not cohabit with her (v.4). Men will employ any available means of dealing with problems instead of committing the problem to the Lord.

David's son by Haggith, Adonijah, realizing his father's death was imminent, took advantage of the situation, deciding he was going to be king. He prepared chariots and horsemen and 50 men to run before him (v.5). He was imitating the pride of his brother Absalom, who had tried to dethrone his father David and came to an end in shame and disgrace (2 Sam.18). This ought to have been sufficient warning to Adonijah, but caution was overshadowed by his pride.

The person who was to build the house, the spot on which the Altar connected with it was to be erected, and the pattern of the structure, having all been revealed, and much wealth collected for its adornment, the aged monarch charged his son Solomon to attend to it, and charged all the princes to help him in it, saying, "Now set your heart and your soul to seek the Lord your God; arise therefore, and build ye the Sanctuary of the Lord God, to bring the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord and the holy vessels of God, into the house that is to be built to the name of the Lord" (1 Chron. 22:19). Shortly after that he died, and "Solomon sat upon the throne of the Lord as King, instead of David his father " (1 Chron. 29:23).

David dies (vv. 10-12), and the Word notes here not the opening of Solomon's reign, but that which characterizes it both generally and in its entirety: "His kingdom was established greatly." This is the character of the kingdom of righteousness in contrast with that of the kingdom of grace, full of trouble and sedition.

"Thus David the son of Jesse reigned over all Israel. And the time that he reigned over Israel was forty years; seven years reigned he in Hebron, and thirty and three years reigned he in Jerusalem. And he died in a good old age, full of days, riches, and honour: and Solomon his son reigned in his stead."

To Psalm 16:8-11 the Apostle referred, and quoted the passage at length. To whom did it refer? The Psalmist speaks throughout in the first person. I, me, my, are, one or other, introduced in every verse. Was David writing of himself? Impossible. He had died and was buried, and his sepulchre was with them, still tenanted by his dust. Evidently his tomb was then well known. And all were perfectly agreed that he, the first of his dynasty, had not risen from the dead. Yet he wrote of One who would die, and would shortly afterwards be raised; for God would not leave that One's soul in Hades (the place of the unclothed spirits), nor would He suffer His body to see corruption. For centuries that Psalm had been read. Probably every one of the audience was acquainted with it. But to that day none of them could point to any one who had died and say, "Behold the man."