when the Philistines had sent it home (1 Samuel 6; 7). In consequence of
the death of Uzzah (for it was a divine ordinance that only the Levites
should handle the ark, Numbers 4), who had put forth his hand to steady
the ark when the cart in which it was being conveyed shook by reason of
the roughness of the road, David stayed the procession, and conveyed the
ark into the house of Obed-edom, a Philistine from Gath. After three
months David brought the ark from the house of Obed-edom up to
Jerusalem. Comp. Psalm 24. Here it was placed in a new tent or tabernacle
which David erected for the purpose. About seventy years had passed
since it had stood in the tabernacle at Shiloh. The old tabernacle was now
at Gibeah, at which Zadok ministered. David now (1 Chronicles 16)
carefully set in order all the ritual of divine worship at Jerusalem, along
with Abiathar the high priest. A new religious era began. The service of
praise was for the first time introduced into public worship. Zion became
henceforth “God’s holy hill.”
David’s wars. David now entered on a series of conquests which greatly
extended and strengthened his kingdom (2 Samuel 8). In a few years the
whole territory from the Euphrates to the river of Egypt, and from Gaza
on the west to Thapsacus on the east, was under his sway (2 Samuel
8:3-13; 10).
David’s fall. He had now reached the height of his glory. He ruled over a
vast empire, and his capital was enriched with the spoils of many lands.
But in the midst of all this success he fell, and his character became stained
with the sin of adultery (2 Samuel 11:2-27). It has been noted as
characteristic of the Bible that while his military triumphs are recorded in a
few verses, the sad story of his fall is given in detail, a story full of
warning, and therefore recorded. This crime, in the attempt to conceal it,
led to anoter. He was guilty of murder. Uriah, whom he had foully
wronged, an officer of the Gibborim, the corps of heros (23:39), was, by
his order, “set in the front of the hottest battle” at the siege of Rabbah, in
order that he might be put to death. Nathan the prophet (2 Samuel 7:1-17;
12:1-23) was sent by God to bring home his crimes to the conscience of
the guilty monarch. He became a true penitent. He bitterly bewailed his
sins before God. The thirty-second and fifty-first Psalms reveal the deep
struggles of his soul, and his spiritual recovery.
Bathsheba became his wife after Uriah’s death. Her first-born son died,
according to the word of the prophet. She gave birth to a second son,