2 Samuel 23:1-7

4. David's Last Words and His Mighty Men, 2 Samuel 23:1-39.

David's Last Song. 2 Samuel 23:1-7

Now these be the last words of David. David the son of Jesse said, and the man who was raised up on high, the anointed of the God of Jacob, and the sweet psalmist of Israel, said,

2

The Spirit of the Lord spake by me,

and his word was in my tongue.

3

The God of Israel said,

the Rock of Israel spake to me,
He that ruleth over men must be just,

ruling in the fear of God.

4

And he shall be as the light of the morning, when the sun riseth,

even a morning without clouds;

as the tender grass springing out of the earth

by clear shining after rain.

5

Although my house be not so with God;

yet he hath made with me an everlasting covenant,
ordered in all things, and sure:

for this is all my salvation, and all my desire,

although he make it not to grow.

6

But the sons of Belial shall be all of them as thorns thrust away,

because they cannot be taken with hands:

7

but the man that shall touch them

must be fenced with iron and the staff of a spear;
and they shall be utterly burned with fire in the same place.

1.

What titles did David ascribe to himself? 2 Samuel 23:1

David stood in a long line of great men such as Jacob, Moses, Joshua, and Samuel. When Jacob came to the end of his life, he called his sons before him and blessed each of them. This was his last testament (Genesis 49:1-33). As Moses laid down the reins of leadership of Israel, he gave a blessing to each of the tribes (Deuteronomy 33:1-29). He had already composed a song (Deuteronomy 32:1-52). Joshua called the tribes of Israel to him as he was nearing his death and made a covenant with them (Joshua 24:1-28). Samuel had also uttered a valedictory when he was about to die (1 Samuel 12:1-15). David not only composed a song, but he uttered a few last words in summary of his career. He called himself by titles which must have meant the most to himthe man who was raised up on high, the anointed of the God of Jacob, and the sweet psalmist of Israel.

2.

Was David inspired of God? 2 Samuel 23:2

The great hymn of triumph in chapter twenty-two composed when David was at the zenith of his prosperity was followed by his last words. They were delivered as a parting testimony to the world of his confidence in the fulfillment of the promise concerning the everlasting dominion of his posterity, and it was all given as an oracle of God. He claims for his words the special divine inspiration which was granted to the spokesmen of God. Christ, Himself bore witness of the fact that David was inspired (Matthew 22:43).

3.

What was David's view of a ruler? 2 Samuel 23:3

David knew that a king should be just. He had learned this through his experiences, but most of all through the revelation God had given him. A ruler was one who should lead his people in the fear of God. He was to be as the light of the morning when the sun riseth; even a morning without clouds (2 Samuel 23:4 a). God's people depended on the king for life-giving provisions as the earth depends upon the life-giving sunshine of a cloudless morning. David went on to say that the king was to be like the tender grass, springing out of the earth after a rain shower (2 Samuel 23:4 b). To appreciate this latter figure, the reader must remember that Palestine is not perpetually clothed in verdure. At times, the land was only a brown, hard-baked, gaping plain. At intervals there would be only withered stems of thistles and other hardy plants to tell that life had ever existed there. When the rains came, there was the deep, solid growth of clover, and grasses. David had been familiar with such yearly transformations of the dry and dusty landscape around Bethlehem into a lovely garden of brilliant flowers. These annual transformations were an emblem of the gracious influences of the righteous government guided by the ideal king. David here arose to a height of inspired utterance which should be compared with the lofty utterances of Isaiah, who spoke of the wilderness and the desert rejoicing and blossoming as the rose (Isaiah 35:1). David's utterance finds its fullest fruition in the Lord Jesus Christ and His righteous rule over all nations. The prophecy in David's last words is the companion and the complement of the prophecy in 2 Samuel 7. There the promise of an eternal dominion was given to the house of David and found a partial fulfillment in his immediate descendants, but the complete fulfillment could only be in Christ. In David's last words he drew by inspiration a portrait of an ideal ruler, some features of which were realized partially in Solomon and the better kings of Judah, but the complete picture finds its perfect realization only in Jesus Christ. David could hope for little more; and he closed his oracle concerning the king with a statement that this was all his salvation and his desire, even though he had not seen the full enlargement of the picture (2 Samuel 23:5).

4.

With what psalm may this oracle be compared? 2 Samuel 23:6-7

David shifts his attention from the righteous ruler to the base and shameless sons of Satan, who are described throughout the books of Samuel as the sons of Belial. He makes this same kind of a shift in Psalms 1 where he began by describing the man who did not stand in the council of the ungodly, or walk in the way of the sinner, or sit in the seat of the scoffer. After David described the righteous man who meditated day and night in the Law of the Lord and predicted he would bring forth his fruit in his season, he turned his attention to the unrighteous. They were not so, but were like chaff which the wind drove away (Psalms 1:4). Although the wording is not the same, the spirit of this last oracle is much like the thrust of the first Psalm.