The Pulpit Commentary — 2 Samuel — Section 181

inoo.mo.tion: for it mennt the dweliing of David'1 ee.rthly lineage, yet only to rise God on enrth. "I ho.ve surely," eaye Solo- e.gain to nobler life and vigour, in the mon, "built thee o. house of habito.tion, e. Branch, or Sucker, that waB to spring from place for thee to dwell in for ever" (1 Kings the fallen trunk. viii. 18), 'fhe se.mo thought we.e in St. Vers. 15, 16.-Before thee. Thie doee not John's mind when he said, "The Word refer to time, but means "in thy presence," been.me flesh, o.nd dwelt ae in e. to.berne.cle or "before thy face," that is, "as thou hast among 118" (John i.14). For the verb need thyself been witneee." There is a strong con- by him, literally "tabeme.cled," is e. com- trast between the fate of Saul's house and parieon between Ohrist'e life on ee.rth, e.nd this eternal endurance promised to that of the dwelling of God in "the tent of meeting." De.vid. The lineage of Saul IWgbt have But there is more tho.n this. Ohriet himself made a new start in Jonathan, and even when ce.lle hie body "the temple" (John ii. 19, he died a.t Gilboa, he left a son behind him. 21). At the Resurrection he ro.ieed up e.go.in Still, no one ever looked upon Mephibosheth the temple of his body which the Jews bad as havingiany title to the throne; and though destroyed, and e.t the Ascension it wae re- Shimei (eh. xvi. 5) may have conceived the moved from the eo.rth, to be reserved in hope that, if David were overthrown, the hee.ven until his second advent. His reign kingdom might return to Saul's family, now ie epiritne.l, e.nd his temple is not e. yet, as a matter of fact, among the many building made with hands, but ie the heart vicissitudes of the ten tribee, the attempt of the renewed believer (1 Cor. vi. 19). And never was made to search for a deecendant this indwelling of Christ in the bee.rt will of Saul to be Israel's king. Saul's was a continue unto the end of the present dis- royalty for one generation: David's throne pensation. For Chriet'e indwelling ie that wae to be established forever. Not because e.leo of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. iii. 16): and David was sinless. His character is sullied the gift of the Spirit continues unto the by crimes of the darkest hue. But he never end of the world. "The Father she.11 give sank into a mere tyrant, such as Saul was you another Comforter, tho.t he me.y abide towards David and towards the priests atN ob. with you for ever" (John xiv. 16). Nor did David ever become an irreligious Ver. 14.-I will be his Father, and he man (l Sam. xxii. 18, 19; xxviiL 15), though shall be my son. Between father and son there is in him a strange and pninful mix- there is not only love, but oneness. What- ture of great good and great evil. The salt soever the father hath, that belongs e.leo to that preserves his character is his genuine the son by no.turn.I right. Bnt this eonship eincerity and earnestnees both towards God is magnified in the Pso.lme beyond the and man : and these qualities make him not measure of Solomon or o.ny no.ture.l limits. unworthy of the high place he holds among The Son there is "the Firetborn," which God's people. Still, the promise was not Solomon wo.s not, " higher tho.n the kings because of David's deserts, but because from of the earth" (Pa. lxxx.ix. 27): and he must him was to come the Christ, who is blessed have " the ne.tione for his inheritance, o.nd for evermore. the uttermost po.rte of the eo.rth for his pos- Ver. 17.-Vision. This word does not session " (Ps. ii. 8). Psalms like the second imply the.t Nathan sa.w anything with the and seventy-second belong, not to Solomon nature.I eye, but signifies the.t sort of pro- persono.lly, but to him as the type of the phecy which was vouchsafed to a "seer." Prince of Peace: and they help to show us Thus the prophecies of Isaiah,of Nahum, and what is the true meaning and fulfilment of of Obadiah are called "visions." Probably the words here. The rod of men; that ie, the word is taken from the fixed gaze, with such punishment as men fitly receive for' which the eeer looked into the far-off world their faults. Do.vid's natural posterity was with unmoved eyes, yet seeing not with them. to be exempt neither from humo.n depravity, but with the spiritual sight within. It wonld nor from punishment, nor from the changes thllB be an intellectual process accompanied and chances of mortal life, With them, o.s by e. rigidity of the nature.I organs, caused with men generally, there would be a partly by intensity of feeling, but chiefly by tangled skein, of virtue and sin, of folly o.nd mental preoccupe.tion, which left no faculty wisdom, of terrible foll and penitent recovery. at liberty to discharge its ordinary function. But there was to be no blotting out of Ver. 18.-David . . . sat before the Lord. David's lineage. Great earthly houses, in The word "so.t" is usually explained by the long course of events, one after another commentators as meaning "tarried." The become extinct, and even the tabernacle of rabbins give the word its ordinary meaning, David was to fall (Amos ix. 11), but not and eay that it was the privilege of kings to for ever. God would "raise up its ruins" pro.y in a sitting posture. But we cannot in Christ, and "build it as in the days of possibly believe that kings at this early old." So in Isu. ix. l there is the same stage had established a special etiquette for thought of the oowplete down-hewing (lf observa.nce in prayer, and the di.lliculty ii 186 THE SECOND BOOK OF SAMUEL. [cu. vu. 1-29.