The years thus well begun are, in the historical books, characterized
mainly by three events, namely, the bringing up of the ark to the newly
won city of David, Nathan's prophecy of the perpetual dominion of his
house, and his victories over the surrounding nations. These three
hinges of the narrative are all abundantly illustrated in the psalms.
As to the first, we have relics of the joyful ceremonial connected with
it in two psalms, the fifteenth and twenty-fourth, which are singularly
alike not only in substance but in manner, both being thrown into a
highly dramatic form by question and answer. This peculiarity, as we
shall see, is one of the links of connection which unite them with the
history as given in the Book of Samuel (2 Sam. vi.). From that record we
learn that David's first thought after he was firmly seated as king over
all Israel, was the enthronement in his recently-captured city of the
long-forgotten ark. That venerable symbol of the presence of the true
King had passed through many vicissitudes since the days when it had
been carried round the walls of Jericho. Superstitiously borne into
battle, as if it were a mere magic palladium, by men whose hearts were
not right with God, the presence which they had invoked became their
ruin, and Israel was shattered, and "the ark of God taken," on the fatal
field of Aphek. It had been carried in triumph through Philistine
cities, and sent back in dismay. It had been welcomed with gladness by
the villagers of Bethshemesh, who lifted their eyes from their harvest
work, and saw it borne up the glen from the Philistine plain. Their rude
curiosity was signally punished, "and the men of Bethshemesh said, Who
is able to stand before this holy Lord God, and to whom shall He go up
from us?" It had been removed to the forest seclusion of Kirjath-jearim
(the city of the woods), and there bestowed in the house of Abinadab
"upon the hill," where it lay neglected and forgotten for about seventy
years. During Saul's reign they "inquired not at it," and, indeed, the
whole worship of Jehovah seems to have been decaying. David set himself
to reorganize the public service of God, arranged a staff of priests and
Levites, with disciplined choir and orchestra (1 Chron. xv.), and then
proceeded with representatives of the whole nation to bring up the ark
from its woodland hiding-place. But again death turned gladness into
dread, and Uzzah's fate silenced the joyous songs, "and David was afraid
of the Lord that day, and said, How shall the ark of God come unto me?"
The dangerous honour fell on the house of Obed-edom; and only after the
blessing which followed its three months' stay there, did he venture to
carry out his purpose. The story of the actual removal of the ark to the
city of David with glad ceremonial need not be repeated here; nor the
mocking gibes of Michal who had once loved him so fondly. Probably she
bitterly resented her violent separation from the household joys that
had grown up about her in her second home; probably the woman who had
had teraphim among her furniture cared nothing for the ark of God;
probably, as she grew older, her character had hardened in its lines,
and become like her father's in its measureless pride, and in its
half-dread, half-hatred of David--and all these motives together pour
their venom into her sarcasm. Taunts provoke taunts; the husband feels
that the wife is in heart a partisan of the fallen house of her father,
and a despiser of the Lord and of His worship; her words hiss with
scorn, his flame with anger and rebuke--and so these two that had been
so tender in the old days part for ever. The one doubtful act that
stained his accession was quickly avenged. Better for both that she had
never been rent from that feeble, loving husband that followed her
weeping, and was driven back by a single word, flung at him by Abner as
if he had been a dog at their heels! (2 Sam. iii. 16).
The gladness and triumph, the awe, and the memories of victory which
clustered round the dread symbol of the presence of the Lord of Hosts,
are wonderfully expressed in the choral twenty-fourth psalm. It is
divided into two portions, which Ewald regards as being originally two
independent compositions. They are, however, obviously connected both in
form and substance. In each we have question and answer, as in psalm
xv., which belongs to the same period. The first half replies to the
question, "Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord, and who shall stand
in His holy place?"--an echo of the terror-struck exclamation of the
people of Bethshemesh, already quoted. The answer is a description of
the _men who dwell with God_. The second half deals with the correlative
inquiry, "Who is the King of Glory?" and describes the _God who comes to
dwell with men_. It corresponds in substance, though not in form, with
David's thought when Uzzah died, in so far as it regards God as drawing
near to the worshippers, rather than the worshippers drawing near to
Him. Both portions are united by a real internal connection, in that
they set forth the mutual approach of God and man which leads to
communion, and thus constitute the two halves of an inseparable whole.
Most expositors recognise a choral structure in the psalm, as in several
others of this date, as would be natural at the time of the
reorganization of the public musical service. Probably we may gain the
key to its form by supposing it to be a processional hymn, of which the
first half was to be sung during the ascent to the city of David, and
the second while standing before the gates. We have then to fancy the
long line of worshippers climbing the rocky steep hill-side to the
ancient fortress so recently won, the Levites bearing the ark, and the
glad multitude streaming along behind them.
First there swells forth from all the singers the triumphant
proclamation of God's universal sovereignty, "The earth is the Lord's
and the fulness thereof; the world and they that dwell therein. For He
hath founded it upon the seas and established it upon the floods." It is
very noteworthy that such a thought should precede the declaration of
His special dwelling in Zion. It guards that belief from the abuses to
which it was of course liable--the superstitions, the narrowness, the
contempt of all the rest of the world as God-deserted, which are its
perversion in sensuous natures. If Israel came to fancy that God
belonged to them, and that there was only one sacred place in all the
world, it was not for want of clear utterances to the contrary, which
became more emphatic with each fresh step in the development of the
specializing system under which they lived. The very ground of their
peculiar relation to God had been declared, in the hour of constituting
it to be--"all the earth is Mine" (Exod. xix. 5). So now, when the
symbol of His presence is to have a local habitation in the centre of
the national life, the psalmist lays for the foundation of his song the
great truth, that the Divine presence is concentrated in Israel, but not
confined there, and concentrated in order that it may be diffused. The
glory that lights the bare top of Zion lies on all the hills; and He who
dwells between the cherubim dwells in all the world, which His continual
presence fills with its fulness, and upholds above the floods.
Then, as they climb, a single voice perhaps chants the solemn question,
"Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord, or who shall stand in the place
of His holiness?"
And the full-toned answer portrays the men who shall dwell with God, in
words which begin indeed with stringent demands for absolute purity, but
wonderfully change in tone as they advance, into gracious assurances,
and the clearest vision that the moral nature which fits for God's
presence is God's gift. "The clean-handed, and pure-hearted, who has not
lifted up his soul to vanity, nor sworn deceitfully;" there is the
eternal law which nothing can ever alter, that to abide with God a man
must be like God--the law of the new covenant as of the old, "Blessed
are the pure in heart, for they shall see God." But this requirement,
impossible of fulfilment, is not all. If it were, the climbing
procession might stop. But up and up they rise, and once again the song
bursts forth in deeper and more hopeful words, "He shall _receive_ the
blessing from Jehovah, and righteousness from the God of his salvation."
Then that righteousness, which he who honestly attempts to comply with
such requirements will soon find that he does not possess, is to be
received from above, not elaborated from within; is a gift from God, not
a product of man's toils. God will make us pure, that we may dwell with
Him. Nor is this all. The condition of receiving such a gift has been
already partially set forth in the preceding clause, which seems to
require righteousness to be possessed as the preliminary to receiving
it. The paradox which thus results is inseparable from the stage of
religious knowledge attained under the Mosaic Law. But the last words of
the answer go far beyond it, and proclaim the special truth of the
gospel, that the righteousness which fits for dwelling with God is given
on the simple condition of _seeking_ Him. To this designation of the
true worshippers is appended somewhat abruptly the one word "Jacob,"
which need neither be rendered as in the English version as an
invocation, nor as in the margin, with an unnecessary and improbable
supplement, "O God of Jacob;" but is best regarded as in apposition with
the other descriptive clauses, and declaring, as we have found David
doing already in previous psalms, that the characters portrayed in them,
and these only, constituted the true Israel.
This is the generation of them that seek Him,
That seek Thy face--(this is) Jacob.
And so the first question is answered, "Who are the men who dwell with
God?"--The pure, who receive righteousness, who seek Him, the true
Israel.
And now the procession has reached the front of the ancient city on the
hill, and stands before the very walls and weather-beaten gates which
Melchizedek may have passed through, and which had been barred against
Israel till David's might had burst them. National triumph and glad
worship are wonderfully blended in the summons which rings from the lips
of the Levites without: "Lift up your heads, O ye gates! and be ye lift
up, ye doors (that have been from) of old!" as if even their towering
portals were too low, "and the King of glory shall come in." What force
in that name here, in this early song of the King! How clearly he
recognises his own derived power, and the real Monarch of whom he is but
the shadowy representative! The newly-conquered city is summoned to
admit its true conqueror and sovereign, whose throne is the ark, which
was emphatically named "the glory,"[S] and in whose train the earthly
king follows as a subject and a worshipper. Then, with wonderful
dramatic force, a single voice from within the barred gates asks, like
some suspicious warder, "Who then is the King of glory?" With what a
shout of proud confidence and triumphant memories of a hundred fields
comes, ready and full, the crash of many voices in the answer, "Jehovah
strong and mighty, Jehovah mighty in battle!" How vividly the reluctance
of an antagonistic world to yield to Israel and Israel's King, is
represented in the repetition of the question in a form slightly more
expressive of ignorance and doubt, in answer to the reiterated summons,
"Who is He, then, the King of glory?" With what deepened intensity of
triumph there peals, hoarse and deep, the choral shout, "The Lord of
Hosts, He is the King of glory." That name which sets Him forth as
Sovereign of the personal and impersonal forces of the universe--angels,
and stars, and terrene creatures, all gathered in ordered ranks,
embattled for His service--was a comparatively new name in Israel,[T]
and brought with it thoughts of irresistible might in earth and heaven.
It crashes like a catapult against the ancient gates; and at that
proclamation of the omnipotent name of the God who dwells with men, they
grate back on their brazen hinges, and the ark of the Lord enters into
its rest.
[S] "And she named the child I-chabod (Where is the glory?) saying, The
glory is departed from Israel: because the ark of God was taken."--1
_Sam._ iv. 21.
[T] It has been asserted that this is the first introduction of the
name. ("Psalms Chronologically Arranged by Four Friends," p. 14). But it
occurs in Hannah's vow (1 Sam. i. 11); in Samuel's words to Saul (xv.
2); in David's reply to Goliath (xvii. 45). We have it also in Psalm
lix. 5, which we regard as his earliest during his exile. Do the authors
referred to consider these speeches in 1 Sam. as not authentic?