David Is Made King

Between two days. A lot happened between Saul's death and this day. Saul died on Mount Gilboa, but David was not crowned the next morning. One tribe. Judah, David's own tribe, made him king at a town called Hebron. The other eleven tribes followed a son of Saul instead, and the two sides fought for years. David stayed in Hebron the whole time, king over only part of the country. How long? Verse 5 tells us: seven years and six months. Three reasons. Then every tribe came and stood before him. “Indeed we are your bone and your flesh,” they said (5:1). They remembered that David had led them in battle even when Saul was king. And they remembered God's word: “You shall shepherd My people Israel, and be ruler over Israel” (5:2). Before the Lord. David made a covenant with the elders “before the Lord,” and they anointed him king over Israel (5:3). What we learn. God kept His promise, and He kept it in His own time. David did not have to force it. When God makes a promise, He keeps it, even when it takes years.

2 Samuel 1–4. Four chapters stand between the end of 1 Samuel and this day, and they explain how David got here. Grief, not grabbing. David's first act on hearing of Saul's death is not to claim the throne but to write a song of grief for Saul and Jonathan (2 Samuel 1:17–27). He is then anointed king over Judah alone, at Hebron (2:4), while Abner makes Saul's son Ishbosheth king over the other tribes (2:8–10). A long war. A long war followed between the house of Saul and the house of David (3:1). It ended with the murders of Abner and Ishbosheth, and David punished the men who did them. Three reasons (5:1–2). So the request in 5:1 comes after seven and a half years of a divided kingdom (5:5), from the tribes that had fought him. They give three reasons: family (“your bone and your flesh”), proven leadership under Saul, and the word of the Lord. The last reason matters most. God had chosen David back in 1 Samuel 16, and now the whole nation was finally agreeing with God. Covenant (5:3). The Hebrew word berit (say: beh-REET) means a binding agreement. David bound himself to the people “before the Lord,” so his kingship rested on God's choice and God's word, not on his own force.

Last time, King Saul died in a battle. You might think David became king the very next day. He did not. Only one tribe made him their king. The other tribes chose a son of Saul. The two sides fought each other for years. David stayed in a town called Hebron all that time. He did not try to grab the whole kingdom. Then one day every tribe came to him at once. They said God had chosen David to lead them. So they made him king over all Israel. God's promise came true in God's time.

King Saul died. But David did not become king the next day. He had to wait some more. Then the day finally came.

Thirty years old. Verse 4 says, “David was thirty years old when he began to reign.” Where it started. This all started years before. Samuel came to Bethlehem and anointed a shepherd boy who was so young nobody had called him in from the sheep (1 Samuel 16:11–13). The years between. Between that day and this one, David ran for his life, slept in caves, lost his best friend, and twice had the man hunting him helpless in front of him and walked away. Chances he refused. Every one of those was a chance to make it happen sooner. David would not harm Saul, because Saul was still “the Lord’s anointed” (1 Samuel 24:6). Not one day late. The throne still came, not one day late, and not because David arranged it. What we learn. When God makes a promise, you can trust Him to keep it in His time. Waiting is not wasted time when you are waiting on God. “Wait on the Lord; Be of good courage, And He shall strengthen your heart” (Psalm 27:14).

Close to two decades. Verse 4 tells us David is thirty when he becomes king. In 1 Samuel 16 he was young enough to be left with the flock while his brothers were called in, so the time between his anointing and his throne was close to twenty years. What filled the years. That time fills the whole back half of 1 Samuel: running, hiding, Ziklag, and two chances to end Saul's life that David refused for the same reason. Saul was “the Lord’s anointed” (24:6; 26:9). Waiting is trust. Through all those years David waited for God instead of grabbing the throne. The Hebrew qavah (say: kah-VAH), to wait, is hope stretched out toward God, like a cord pulled tight. “But those who wait on the Lord Shall renew their strength” (Isaiah 40:31). A gift he did not have to defend. Waiting cost David years, but it gave him a throne he did not have to defend against his own conscience. God in His time. Peter writes, “humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time” (1 Peter 5:6). The same God who kept His word to David keeps His word to us, and He is never late.

Think about how long David waited. Samuel poured oil on him when he was a boy. Verse 4 says he was thirty when he became king. That is a lot of years in between. He ran from Saul. He hid in caves. He had two chances to take the throne early. He said no both times. He waited for God instead. Then God brought the day, right on time. Waiting is hard for us too. But God never forgets His promises. We can trust Him while we wait. He is with us the whole time.

David was just a boy when God picked him. He was all grown up when he became king. That was a very long wait!

Hard words. Something ugly happens in verses 6 to 8. The taunt. The Jebusites are safe behind a wall, and they taunt David from the top of it: you will never get in here, even our blind and lame could hold you off. It is trash talk. They are saying his army is so weak that the weakest people in the city could beat it. Nevertheless. “Nevertheless David took the stronghold of Zion” (5:7). On his way in he threw their own words back at them, and a saying came out of that day: “The blind and the lame shall not come into the house” (5:8). Not God's words. That was an insult traded between two armies in a fight. It is not God telling you what He thinks of people who are blind or who cannot walk. The Bible tells us honestly what people said, and that is not the same as agreeing with it. God's own law said, “You shall not curse the deaf, nor put a stumbling block before the blind” (Leviticus 19:14). God's answer. Four chapters later, David finds Jonathan's son Mephibosheth, who was lame in both feet, and seats him at the king's table for life (2 Samuel 9). Many years after that, Jesus walked into the temple in Jerusalem, and the blind and the lame came to Him there, and He healed them (Matthew 21:14). What we learn. The saying said they could not come into the house. Jesus welcomed them inside it.

The boast (5:6). The Jebusite boast is a taunt about the attackers' weakness: this hill is so secure that the least able defenders could hold it against you. Jerusalem had never been taken by Israel, so the men on the wall felt safe. David's reply (5:8). David picks up their own terms and turns them against them, calling the defenders by their own boast, and the verse closes with the saying that came out of that day. The setting is a siege and an exchange of insults inside it. Reported, not approved. The Bible tells us many things people did and said without approving of them: Jacob's lie to his father, Jephthah's vow, David's census. God's own Law speaks plainly on this subject: “You shall not curse the deaf, nor put a stumbling block before the blind, but shall fear your God” (Leviticus 19:14). 2 Samuel 9. David seeks out Mephibosheth, lame in both feet, restores Saul's land to him and seats him at the royal table: “he ate continually at the king’s table. And he was lame in both his feet” (9:13). Nothing about his body changed. Everything about his place did. Matthew 21. Right after Jesus cleansed the temple, the blind and the lame came to Him there, and He healed them (Matthew 21:14). The saying of 5:8 named a house they could not enter. The Son of David healed them inside it.

Something ugly happened at that wall. The Jebusites yelled an insult down at David. They said their blind and crippled people could stop him. They were saying David's army was weak. David threw the same words right back at them. After that it turned into a saying people repeated. But those words were not God's words. It was two armies trading insults in a fight. God loves people who cannot see or walk. Later, King David found a man who could not walk. He gave that man a seat at his own table. God is kind to the people others leave out.

The people in that city said David could not come in. They were wrong. God was helping David the whole time.

Two halves. Verse 10 has two halves, and they belong together. “So David went on and became great,” and then, right away, “and the Lord God of hosts was with him.” David became great because God was with him. At the top. David had been crowned by every tribe, he held the strongest fortress in the country, and a foreign king was sending him cedar and builders for a palace (5:11). If anybody ever had a reason to think he had done it all himself, it was David on this day. David knew. But verse 12 tells you he did not think that. “So David knew that the Lord had established him as king over Israel.” David did not take the credit. He knew who had put him there. For the people. The end of that verse says God lifted up the kingdom “for the sake of His people Israel.” The crown was never a prize for David. It was a gift to the people he was given to lead. What we learn. Every good thing God gives you is meant to bless others too. “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above” (James 1:17). Thank God first, and then use His gifts to serve.

Rise and cause (5:10). Verse 10 pairs David's rise with its cause: “David went on and became great, and the Lord God of hosts was with him.” The title is YHWH Elohe Tseva'ot, the Lord God of armies. Tseva'ot (say: tseh-vah-OHT) means armies, and it is the title David shouted at Goliath: “I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts” (1 Samuel 17:45). The same Lord who stood with the boy in the valley now stood with the king in the fortress. Two truths (5:12). “So David knew that the Lord had established him as king over Israel, and that He had exalted His kingdom for the sake of His people Israel.” David was established by God; he did not establish himself. And the kingdom was lifted up for the people's sake, not the king's. Psalm 127:1. “Unless the Lord builds the house, They labor in vain who build it.” Hiram's workers built David a house of cedar, but God was building David's kingdom. A standard to keep. That second truth is the standard for the rest of David's life, and 2 Samuel 11 is where he forgets it: a king using the kingdom for himself instead of holding it for the people. God gives us His gifts so that we can serve others, not ourselves.

Verse 10 tells us something important. David became stronger and stronger. Then it tells us why. “The Lord of heaven’s armies was with him.” David did not get strong by himself. A king named Hiram sent cedar logs and workers. They built David a palace. David could have bragged about it. But he knew the truth. God had made him king. Verse 12 says one more thing. God did it because He loved His people. David knew his crown was a gift. The good things God gives us are meant to help others too.

David got stronger and stronger. The Bible tells us why. God was with him. God is with us too!