The Shepherd King
English and literature was not my favorite subject in school. I much preferred the subject of PE, recess, or cafeteria time. But I have come to see the value in it over the years through my studies, of course. I’m telling you this because from the outset, before we ever dig into the text today, we need to see a literary feature that is present within the greater narrative.
There is a chiastic structure to 2 Samuel chapters 5-8.[1] This means that the intention of the writing isn’t solely chronological but thematic. A chiasm is a literary device that works its way from the outward in from both directions, with what’s in the middle being the primary theme. It follows the pattern of something like A B B A (not the 70s band…). So, B in that case, would be the main theme to note.
Here is a chiastic structure to be found in 2 Samuel 5-8:[2]
A Military Victories with Yahweh’s Help, 5:17–25
B Worship of Yahweh: The Bringing of the Ark, 6:1–23
B¹ Worship of Yahweh: Nathan’s Oracle, 7:1–29
A¹ Military Victories with Yahweh’s Help, 8:1–14
Notice what’s at the center. It’s worship of God. Worship of God is central to the whole narrative, as it’s central to our whole lives. That’s what everything is about. That’s what David’s kingship is about. He is anointed king now of a unified Israel. And it is not for the glory of David. It is not for the glory of Israel. David exists and Israel exists and you and I exist for the sole purpose of the glory of God.
But what is surrounding the central purpose is also important, and it’s what we must see today from chapter 5. Everything we do is not just for God, but it is from God. We can do nothing apart from God.
David reigned well because of his dependence and submission to God. (1–5)
“David’s success is based on his acknowledgment of the Lord and the Lord’s empowerment of him.”[3] Notice they call him a shepherd and a prince in verse 2. This is someone who has risen from within the ranks, not someone who is ruling with an iron fist from above. He was to lead them like a shepherd leads sheep, which of course, David knew how to do very well; he grew up as one. This kingship of David is completely different than how Saul reigned. David reigned with humility. He reigned with dependence and submission to God.
In verses 3-5, we see that David was 30 when he was made king of Judah, and he was 37 when he was made king of all of Israel. But then we see the outcome. He reigned over all of Israel for 33 years. When you look at how Saul died compared to how David died, you see the difference in their life of dependence and submission to God. Saul died a horrific death on the battlefield and was torn to pieces and paraded around by his enemies after his death, and all of this was, according to 1 Chronicles 10:13, because of “his breach of faith. He broke faith with the Lord in that he did not keep the command of the Lord, and also consulted a medium, seeking guidance.” On the other hand, David died peacefully, of natural causes at the age of 70.[4] On his deathbed, here is what he said to his son Solomon, who would take over the throne in 1 Kings 2:2-4. This shows you his heart—his dependence and submission to God:
2 “I am about to go the way of all the earth. Be strong, and show yourself a man, 3 and keep the charge of the Lord your God, walking in his ways and keeping his statutes, his commandments, his rules, and his testimonies, as it is written in the Law of Moses, that you may prosper in all that you do and wherever you turn, 4 that the Lord may establish his word that he spoke concerning me, saying, ‘If your sons pay close attention to their way, to walk before me in faithfulness with all their heart and with all their soul, you shall not lack a man on the throne of Israel.’
We see another part of his charge to Solomon in 1 Chronicles 28:9:
“And you, Solomon my son, know the God of your father and serve him with a whole heart and with a willing mind, for the Lord searches all hearts and understands every plan and thought. If you seek him, he will be found by you, but if you forsake him, he will cast you off forever.”
Another way we see David’s dependence and submission to God is in how he approached battle.
David battled well because of his dependence and submission to God. (6–25).
In Chapter 5 we see two different battles. The first one is the taking of Jerusalem from the Jebusites. Now, we can have a little fun with the interpretation of how this happened, because there is no complete consensus on this, especially on what verse 6 means, when it talks about the blind and the lame, but one thing is clear: David did what no one else would do, because he depended on God to do it and submitted to His ways.
David did what they failed to do when conquering the promised land. Joshua 15:63 says, “But the Jebusites, the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the people of Judah could not drive out, so the Jebusites dwell with the people of Judah at Jerusalem to this day.” And in Judges 3:5, we see that, “the people of Israel lived among the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites.”
David did what King Saul failed to do. First, we see King Saul’s own tribe failed to drive them out. Judges 1:21 says, “But the people of Benjamin did not drive out the Jebusites who lived in Jerusalem, so the Jebusites have lived with the people of Benjamin in Jerusalem to this day.” Of all the battles we see Saul fight, we never see one mentioned against the Jebusites.[5]
Jerusalem was known as “The City of Peace,”[6] “Jebus”[7] was what the Jebusites called it, and it became known as “The City of David” from that time forward, and Zion,[8] as it is first called here.
Now, what does verse 6 mean? Verses 6-8 say,
6 And the king and his men went to Jerusalem against the Jebusites, the inhabitants of the land, who said to David, “You will not come in here, but the blind and the lame will ward you off”—thinking, “David cannot come in here.” 7 Nevertheless, David took the stronghold of Zion, that is, the city of David. 8 And David said on that day, “Whoever would strike the Jebusites, let him get up the water shaft to attack ‘the lame and the blind,’ who are hated by David's soul.” Therefore it is said, “The blind and the lame shall not come into the house.”
The first interpretation we see, I would say most often, is that the blind and lame is a taunt. They were mocking David’s troops, saying even the blind and lame could defend against them because they were so fortified and so strong. Nobody could come against them.[9]
The other interpretations are a little more imaginative. First, there’s an interpretation that points to an ancient culture where they put the blind and lame out front, and those who attack become blind and lame themselves. It is a pagan spell-like curse. This of course would strike fear in them and would make sense in light of what 1 Chronicles 11:6 says: “David said, “Whoever strikes the Jebusites first shall be chief and commander.” And Joab the son of Zeruiah went up first, so he became chief.” Because nobody would want to strike first if there was a curse and you would be cursed![10]
The second interpretation we see is this:
“The Jewish exegetes of the Middle Ages came to the conclusion that “the lame and the blind” were two idols, deprecating images of Jacob (cf. Gen 32:31) and Isaac (cf. Gen 27:1) placed on the walls by the Jebusites to remind the Israelites of a covenant they allegedly had broken (cf. Pirke Rabbi Eliezer 36).[11] In Gersonides’ commentary[12] on our passage these idols became fearsome fighting robots that were hydraulically operated and could therefore be rendered useless by an attack on the water supply.”[13]
Whether taunts, curses, or ancient robots, no matter what the interpretation is for the blind and the lame, what matters is that David depended on the Lord, submitted to the Lord, and took the city Jerusalem. And we see this in verse 10: “And David became greater and greater, for the Lord, the God of hosts, was with him.”
The second battle we see is with that continual foe of theirs, the Philistines. In verse 19, we see David’s dependence and submission to God: “And David inquired of the Lord, “Shall I go up against the Philistines? Will you give them into my hand?” And the Lord said to David, “Go up, for I will certainly give the Philistines into your hand.” And verse 20 shows us God gave him the victory. They went up, and God gave them victory.
Then again in verses 23-24 we see David inquire with the Lord again about another battle with the Philistines. But notice what God says:
23 And when David inquired of the Lord, he said, “You shall not go up; go around to their rear, and come against them opposite the balsam trees. 24 And when you hear the sound of marching in the tops of the balsam trees, then rouse yourself, for then the Lord has gone out before you to strike down the army of the Philistines.”
“You shall not go up; go around to their rear.” Go around. God directed David differently in this battle than the other battles we have seen him fight. Even against the same enemy he’s fought over and over. Not every battle is the same. This is why dependence and submission to God is completely crucial for every battle we face. Because if we fight battles in our own strength, we’re doomed to fail. And if we fight battles from past plans, we’re even sometimes doomed to fail.
Here's one thing I mean by that: You can’t win today’s battles based on yesterday’s victories. You must rely on and submit to God afresh and anew every single day. We can never let up and relent in our pursuit of God. In our pursuit of holiness. In our battle against sin.
Look at verse 25 to see the outcome: “And David did as the Lord commanded him, and struck down the Philistines from Geba to Gezer.” David was dependent and submissive to God. And it brought him victory. We’ve seen what that looks like for David, but we don’t fight Philistines. What does dependence and submission look like for us? How do we live it out?
Dependence on God means we rely on God for our every need. (Psalm 23)
I love the first verse, and really the whole song of that old hymn we sung this morning, “Savior, Like a Shepherd Lead Us.”
Savior, like a shepherd lead us; Much we need Thy tender care; In Thy pleasant pastures feed us; For our use Thy folds prepare: Blessèd Jesus, blessèd Jesus; Thou hast bought us, Thine we are; Blessèd Jesus, blessèd Jesus; Thou hast bought us, Thine we are.
We so often forget how much we really need the Lord. We think we can handle everything on our own. But here David is. He’s the shepherd of Israel. Remember, that’s what they call him in verse 2. They don’t call him king. They call him shepherd. Because that’s what he is. He is leading the sheep. But here’s what he understands. He himself is within the same flock being led by the Good Shepherd.
That’s why he starts off his most famous Psalm, Psalm 23, “The Lord is my shepherd.” God is our shepherd. It is Him who leads us. It is Him we are to follow. But what does he follow it up with? “I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters.” He is being guided—shepherded—by God. He is depending and relying completely on God for his every need.
Think about your life. Why, then, do we live so often like everything depends on us? Think about all the angst. All the earning. All the worrying. Think about God now. He is Creator of the cosmos. You understand the power in that, right? You see how hard it is for us to get back to the moon right now. God breathes out stars[14] and knows them all by name.[15] Oh, and there are billions of them in billions of galaxies. And you and I would rather try to hold our own world in our hands. At least that’s how we act, right? Or that’s how we worry. Or that’s why we’re anxious.[16]
Submission to God means we follow every single place God leads. (Psalm 23)
David didn’t do this perfectly. We see him collect concubines and more wives in verse 13. Kings weren’t to collect many wives for themselves.[17] But as one commentator said, “Once again, David is not presented as a perfect king, but he is one who is prepared to submit himself to Yahweh.”[18]
Don’t you love where God leads? He leads to flourishing. Notice the “lead” words in Psalm 23. “He leads me beside still waters…He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.” You love where God leads, right? Right after these “lead” verses we see another lead verse, but without that word. Verse 4 says, “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.” The rod and staff are tools of the shepherd. He is still leading us while we’re in the valley. God doesn’t promise to remove us from difficulties, but He promises to walk with us through them. Even when God leads you to a valley, you must follow Him even there because you can trust Him even there.
The son of King David wrote Proverbs 3. In it, Proverbs 3:5-6 says, “5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. 6 In all your ways acknowledge[19] him, and he will make straight your paths.”
I love how Eugene Peterson speaks on this:
“It's impossible to understand a single thing about David apart from God. Every image in this psalm—which is to say, every aspect of David's life—is God-defined, God-saturated. Everything that David knows about God he experiences—enters into, embraces, takes into himself. God isn't a doctrine he talks about but a person by whom he's led and cared for. God isn't a remote abstraction that distances him from the conditions of his actual life but an intimate presence who confirms his daily life as the very stuff of salvation.”[20]
When we fully depend on and submit to God, we truly have all we need. (Psalm 23)
This isn’t about monetary things, though Jesus tells us to pray for our daily bread. God provides what we truly need. Completely. God provides everything that is necessary for our salvation.
Verses 5 and 6 of Psalm 23 say, “5 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. 6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.”
I can’t help but think of Revelation 21 when I read this alongside 2 Samuel 5. Hear verses 1-6:
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. 2 And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. 4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”
5 And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.” 6 And he said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment.
Notice that: “without payment.” It’s already been paid for by the blood of the Lamb—Jesus. That passage is then followed by a description of the new Jerusalem, ending in verses 22-27:
22 And I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb. 23 And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb. 24 By its light will the nations walk, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it, 25 and its gates will never be shut by day—and there will be no night there. 26 They will bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations. 27 But nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who does what is detestable or false, but only those who are written in the Lamb's book of life.
Because of the Son of David, Jesus Christ, who paid the price for our sins, who prepared a table before us in the presence of our enemies, we, who place our faith in Jesus, receive goodness and mercy all the days of our life, for all eternity—forever and ever dwelling in the house of the Lord, the City of Peace, saved by the blood of the Lamb, the Son of David, our Good Shepherd.
[1] David G. Firth, “Shining the Lamp: The Rhetoric of 2 Samuel 5–24,” Tyndale Bulletin 52, no. 2 (2001): 211.
[2] . Firth, “Shining the Lamp: The Rhetoric of 2 Samuel 5–24,” 212.
[3] John L. Mackay, “1–2 Samuel,” in ESV Expository Commentary: 1 Samuel–2 Chronicles, vol. 3, ed. Iain M. Duguid, James M. Hamilton Jr., and Jay Sklar (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2019), 316.
[4] 1 Chronicles 1:1; 29:26-28
[6] https://biblehub.com/topical/j/jerusalem.htm; https://zondervanacademic.com/blog/the-history-of-jerusalem-in-the-bible
[7] https://biblehub.com/topical/j/jebus.htm
[8] https://www.gotquestions.org/Zion.html; https://biblehub.com/topical/z/zion.htm; https://biblehub.com/hebrew/6726.htm
[9] https://enduringword.com/bible-commentary/2-samuel-5; https://www.gotquestions.org/blind-and-lame-not-in-the-temple.html
[10] https://armstronginstitute.org/943-who-were-the-blind-and-lame-defenders-of-jebusite-jerusalem-its-not-whom-you-might-think
[11] “What did the men of Jebus do? They made images of copper, and set them up in the street of the city, and wrote upon them the covenant of the oath of Abraham. When the Israelites came to the land (of Canaan), they wished to enter the city of the Jebusites, but they were not able (to enter), because of the sign of the covenant of Abraham’s oath, as it is said, "And the children of Benjamin did not drive out the Jebusites that inhabited Jerusalem" (Judg. 1:21). || When David reigned he desired to enter the city of the Jebusites, (but) they did not allow him, as it is said, "And the king and his men went to Jerusalem against the Jebusites, the inhabitants of the land; which spake unto David, saying, Thou shalt not come in hither" (2 Sam. 5:6).
(Although) the Israelites were like the sand of the sea, yet it was owing to the force of the sign of the covenant of Abraham’s oath. David saw (this) and turned backwards, as it is said, "And David dwelt in the stronghold" (2 Sam. 5:9). They said to him: Thou wilt not be able to enter the city of the Jebusites until thou hast removed all those images upon which the sign of the covenant of Abraham’s oath is written, as it is said, "Except thou take away the blind and the lame" (2 Sam. 5:6). "The lame" refers to the images, as it is said, "Wherefore they say, The blind and the lame shall not come into the house" (2 Sam. 5:8). Lest thou shouldst say, The blind and the lame did not enter the Sanctuary, Heaven forbid (that we should say this), but these "blind and lame" refer to the images which have eyes and see not, feet and they walk not, (as it is said), "That are hated of David’s soul" (ibid.). Because David hated to hear of and to see idolatry, as it is said, "Wherefore they say, The blind and the lame shall not come into the house" (ibid.).
David said to his men: Whoever will go up first, and remove those images upon which the sign of the covenant of Abraham’s oath is written, he shall be the chief. And Joab, the son of Zeruiah, went up, and he became the chief, as it is said, "And Joab the son of Zeruiah went up first, || and was made chief" (1 Chron. 11:6). Afterwards he bought the city of the Jebusites for Israel by a purchase with gold and with a perpetual deed for a perpetual possession. What did David do? He took from each tribe fifty shekels; verily all of them amounted to six hundred shekels, as it is said, "So David gave to Ornan for the place six hundred shekels of gold by weight" (1 Chron. 21:25). (https://www.sefaria.org/Pirkei_DeRabbi_Eliezer.36.18)
[12] “And David conquered the stronghold of Zion which is the city of David. And David said on that day; "Whoever smites the Jebusites and reaches the tzinor…” (Shmuel II 5:7-8) The tzinor is the drainage channel out which the water flows. With the elimination of the tzinor one would also destroy the blind and lame whom David hated because they prevented him from coming into the house. The one who does this will receive some reward which was not made explicit, therefore they said that there were ‘blind and lame’ there while in reality it was this (the tzinor) which prevented David from coming into the house. Perhaps its destruction, aside from removing the covenant which the forefathers made with the Yevusi, is the destruction of the building where these images were. With the destruction of this tzinor these idols would be destroyed. It is possible that one can say in explanation that there was possibly a place that one could not enter without passing before these idols. And these idols were made in such a way that they caused extremely heavy iron rods to swing powerfully across the entrance, therefore no one could pass lest they be struck by the rods. We have heard that such statues have been made in a few places, and such an idea is not so difficult to conceive for one who understands the motions of weights, winds, water and mercury – but this is not the place to explain how such things are possible. They made these idols in the form of the blind and lame because blind and lame people have sticks on which they lean. It appears to me that these idols were next to the drainage channel and they discharged the water out of their mouths. Some of the water would actually enter into them in order to move these sticks. This is why everyone had to beware not to enter there, and that when someone struck the drainage channel in order that water no longer flowed into these idols it would be far easier to destroy them. (https://www.sefaria.org/Ralbag_on_II_Samuel.5.7)
[13] P. Kyle McCarter Jr., II Samuel, vol. 9 of Anchor Bible (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1984), 138.
[14] Psalm 33:6 – By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and by the breath of his mouth all their host.
[15] Psalm 147:4 – He determines the number of the stars; he gives to all of them their names.
[17] Deuteronomy 17:17 – “And he shall not acquire many wives for himself, lest his heart turn away, nor shall he acquire for himself excessive silver and gold.”
[18] David G. Firth, “Shining the Lamp: The Rhetoric of 2 Samuel 5–24,” Tyndale Bulletin 52, no. 2 (2001): 213.
[19] The NIV says, “submit to”
[20] Eugene H. Peterson, Leap Over a Wall: Earthy Spirituality for Everyday Christians (San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1997), 141.
