A King Who Unites
For Meditation
In this chapter, we finally see everything come together. David finally stops running, the tribes finally stop warring, and David manages to unite the collection of tribes into one united Kingdom. This is the true beginning of the Kingdom of Israel.
We can learn a lot here about what David does as a king to bring unity to a divided people, and as Christians we see this a lens to understand the kind of unity that Jesus the King enacts for his church. We’ll see that this is not a typical kind of unity as the world generally understands it. First, David is willing to lament and grieve the places of great pain and sorrow in the community, naming what is wrong before helping create what is right. Second, instead of eradicating his enemies, he does his best to build covenant partnerships with his former enemies, repairing the places that are broken and divided. Finally, he unites the Kingdom around a new king (himself) and new city (Jerusalem), giving the people a new “center” that transcends their tribal loyalties and agendas.
In preparation for worship this Sunday, spend some time grieving the places where you see the most disunity in God’s church, and pray to the King for its healing. If you have time, you might read 2 Samuel 1-4 to get the whole context for our text this week.
2 Samuel 5:1-12
1 All the tribes of Israel came to David at Hebron and said, “We are your own flesh and blood. 2 In the past, while Saul was king over us, you were the one who led Israel on their military campaigns. And the Lord said to you, ‘You will shepherd my people Israel, and you will become their ruler.’”
3 When all the elders of Israel had come to King David at Hebron, the king made a covenant with them at Hebron before the Lord, and they anointed David king over Israel.
4 David was thirty years old when he became king, and he reigned forty years. 5 In Hebron he reigned over Judah seven years and six months, and in Jerusalem he reigned over all Israel and Judah thirty-three years.
6 The king and his men marched to Jerusalem to attack the Jebusites, who lived there. The Jebusites said to David, “You will not get in here; even the blind and the lame can ward you off.” They thought, “David cannot get in here.” 7 Nevertheless, David captured the fortress of Zion—which is the City of David.
8 On that day David had said, “Anyone who conquers the Jebusites will have to use the water shaft to reach those ‘lame and blind’ who are David’s enemies.” That is why they say, “The ‘blind and lame’ will not enter the palace.”
9 David then took up residence in the fortress and called it the City of David. He built up the area around it, from the terraces inward. 10 And he became more and more powerful, because the Lord God Almighty was with him.
11 Now Hiram king of Tyre sent envoys to David, along with cedar logs and carpenters and stonemasons, and they built a palace for David. 12 Then David knew that the Lord had established him as king over Israel and had exalted his kingdom for the sake of his people Israel.