The Pulpit Commentary — 1 Chronicles — Section 454

It is a. chnra.cteristic of David that ho makes constant a.ppeal to his co11.~cious integrity nud expects to gain Divine accepta.nce for his sincerity a.nd uprightness. But this, conflicts with the Christilm notion that a. ma.n ca.nnot be a.ccepted for anything in him- self, and eo it needs consideration a.nd explanation. We have often to notice how certain words get a. stiff, rigid, and limited mea.ning fixed upon them, through their use in the expression of theologica.l opinions and creeds. Illustration may be taken from the terms grace, law,faith, justify, eternal. Joubert says, "The trick of personifying words is a. fatal source of mischief in theology." The words "integrity," "righteousness," have suffered at the hands of theologians, and their larger and more comprehensive meanings are almost lost sight of. David can stand before God, and appeal to his personal righteous- ness, and ask to be judged by his integrity. Our Lord implies that a man may have a righteousness, when be says, " Except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees," etc. The words will not stiffen into one rigid meaning. Sometimes they mean right-heartedness, sincerity, and show us a man at heart centred on God and virtue. At other times they refer to that renewed state into which we are brought by the regenerations of the Holy Ghost. Illustrate the first of these two mean- ings from David's career. This great impression had been left on him from his own experiences, and to it he gives utterance 1\8 life closes: "I know that thou hast pleasure in uprightness." Throughout hiscareer--save in halting moments-David was right at heart. We have a way of speaking of men as being "good at bottom." If we say that as any excuse for men's ~ins, we a.re miserably and shamefully wrong. If we say it with due recognition of human frailty, with fitting discernment of life as the conflict of the human will over the disabilities that surround the man, then it may be a true and worthy expression. Many men around us-yes, even we ourselves-are, like David, "good at bottom." The "desire of our soul is to the Divine Name." \Ve are pilgrims, indeed, who have come in at the gate, and right by the cross, even if men or angels do fiiid ue wandering out of the way into By-path meadows, and sleeping in arbours, and losing our rolls. David's example permits us to realize and rejoice in our consciou~ integrity; not proudly, in any way of self-confidence or self-conceit, but humhly, in a. thankful recoguition of "grace abounding" to usward. David's sincerity and integrity come out when we compare him with King Saul. Saul failed altogether, awl fell away from God, because his sins were sins of will; neither his heart nor his lij6 were right with God. David stumbled, but he did not utterly fall; because, in his case, the will was only forced to consent to sin, and it sprang back to God o.s soon as the force of bodily passion that helcl it down was removed. David only failed in the body-sphere; 8nul failed in both the body and the soul spheres. It would have been better indeed if, like SRmuel, heart and life had both shown, throughout his career, the harmony of goodness ; hut God and man recognize the accept11bleness of sincerity of heart, even if qualified by some failings of life. But, from the Christian standpoint, it should be earnestly pressed that sincerity, which is acceptable to God, is properly one of the after-signs of Divine re11ewal; nnd that we all need to be made right-converted, regenerated-ere we can bo set right and kept ,·ight, and dare ask God to search and see whether we are sincerely and wholly his.-R. T. Ver. 28.-Honoured in death by God 'and man. This was the case with King David. " He died in a good old age, full of days, riches, and honour." With the reverent love of a whole nation round him, they bore him to his royal tomb. "D:wid died, according to Josephus, at the age of seventy. The general sentiment which forbade interment within the habitations of men, gave way in his case, as in that of Samuel. He was" buried in the city of David," in the city which ho had made his own, and which could only be honoured, not polluted, by containing his gmvo. It was, no doubt, hewn in the rocky side of the bill, and became the centre of the catacomb in which hie descendants, the kings of Judah, were interred after him.'' "The only site which is actually consecrated by traditional sentiment as the tomb of David, is tlie vault underneath the Mussulman Mosque of David, on the southern side of modern Jeru- salem. 'l'he vault professes to be built above the cavern, and contains only the cenotaph u,,ual in the tombs of Mussulman saints, with the inscription in Arabic, '0 Davi,], whom God has made vicar, rule mankind in truth.'" Observing how honoured in dea1h J,i:ing David wus, and how honoured in memory King David is, though his life was so {58 THE FIRST BOOK OF 'l'HE CHRONl(JLES. [en. :u:1x. ~-io.