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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadGreater Men and Women of the Bible by James Hastings: 283. The Sources
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The Sources
2. Much of the story is undoubtedly historical. It is plain that David was what we should call an honest burgher's son, and that he kept the flocks of his father on the hills about his native place. He rose to his kingship out of the level of the people, having no advantage of birth more than another. It is plain that he was of great physical beauty, strength, and courage, with an eagerness in him for fighting. It is plain that he was a born leader of men; he shows this not only as the young hero of the army, but also as the outlaw, the free-companion, the king, and the lawgiver. It is plain that he was early mixed up with the court of Saul, and that the eyes of the people were more and more fastened upon him. It is plain that he was driven from the tents of Saul, and that he lived an outlaw's life, and collected round him a band of daring companions who lived by plunder of their foes, and by blackmail levied on their countrymen. It is plain that when he was made king he united under him the contending political parties in Israel. It is plain that he was the first who welded into one nation the different tribes and made them feel themselves a homogeneous people. It is plain that he took Jerusalem, and made it-to promote further this unity-the capital, the centre of the kingdom. It is plain that his first years as king were stormy, and that he had to fight his way against many parties to confessed overlordship. It is plain that he had to face a great rebellion arising within his own home. It is plain that he created a kind of standing army, an ordered government, an established religion, and that these important things made steadfast the national unity of Israel. It is plain that, having done these things, he not only weakened the frontier foes of Israel, but made many of them tributary. At his death Israel had taken her place. She was lifted from a mere congeries of tribes into a recognized kingdom. These matters are all historical. But we must also remember that there was certain to gather round his name and life a succession of legends. The account we have of him gives us the conception which later writers, and the people of Israel in general, had of a great king and hero. It was a national conception. It reveals to us the character the Hebrews loved and honoured. It was a religious conception. It reveals to us the sort of man they conceived to be after God's own heart; and how they thought that God dealt with him; and what they believed to be the right and the wrong ways in which a great leader should meet and master a number of various events and trials. This in itself-this conception of the Hebrews of a national and religious king of men-is an historical element and one of the greatest interest.
Round the name of David have gathered the national ideals of heroism and sainthood so often found in combination in early story. They had a true origin in David, if we judge from the standards of piety and rulership that were natural to his age. Outlaw, hero, poet, saint-David is the darling of Israel's history. It would be unfair to David to picture him as the saintly author of some of the tender Psalms that bear his name, although others of a more robust character might well be from his hand. That David was a poet seems to be certain, and the songs of lament over Saul and Abner, which have strong claims to be genuine, bear witness to his true poetic gift; but they are deficient in any display of deep religious feeling. We may have also to reduce somewhat the conception of the extent or the absoluteness of his kingly rule. He was rather one of those freebooters who, by their heroism and rough manly courage, are able to gather round them men of their own nature and to inspire in their followers a loyal devotion. To this pleasant adventurer the early kingdom fell, but for long it was only a kingdom of personal followers; nor does he ever seem to have been enthusiastically acknowledged by the whole nation, or to have established his claims absolutely beyond dispute. His heroic defence against the Philistine invasion was sufficient to give him a great place in the affection of the people, yet he never assumed the imperial rule in the manner of his successor Solomon. With all this necessary allowance for the idealizing process of a later age, David was the indispensable centre round which the early ideals and legends of the Monarchy could collect.1 [Note: W. E. Orchard, The Evolution of the Old Testament, 119.]