Tag Archives: David

King David the Writer

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I once heard someone say that David was a yo-yo when he wrote Psalms because one psalm he was up and one psalm he was down.  I was just starting to write and I recognized how silly that statement was because David did not write them all at one time and that he was writing these as a response to the times he was living in and what he was experiencing. To read David’s psalms are to read his struggles and victories of his life, his cries for help and his shouts of praise. Songwriters don’t always write just happy songs or just sad ones. And if you study psalms many of them may have been written for specific reasons (scholars have classified them as to content).

A study of psalms would be incomplete without a reading of Samuel, Kings and Chronicles. So I started to place the Psalms in 1 & 2 Samuel and 1 Chronicles (see Joined) where I thought they might have been written.  Some of the psalms give you clues in the titles; some translations and Bibles don’t always include those.  For the other ones I tried to place myself in the moment or look for other clues.  I know the Chronological Bible does something similar but I have never really looked at their placement because I wanted this to be from a writer’s point of view not a timeline one.

I am sure that if you look at the list you may put some in a different location.  That is fine as these are just my guesses as to where I would have written them.  But I would challenge you to check mine out and then do your own list; the only rule to guide this would be that you must have a reason for its placement.

I am not finished with this yet because some are hard to place but by the end of the year I may have another list to post.  You will need to click on the link that is part of WordPress.com as it is saved in there as a media file.  My original copy is a word document and should be put into a table or in EXCEL but that will be a while in coming.

Have fun and I want to hear your feedback as you place the Psalms where you think they should go!

Click here to see my list.   psalm position

2 Samuel and 1 Chronicles Joined

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In my Bible study for 2012 (see Bible Study) I said I was going to join 2 Samuel and 1 Chronicles.  Well here is part of that work.  The letters and numbers in italics are from Chronicles. In my document they are in blue and italics. I am not really finished, as I want to place the psalms that David wrote in this document (well where I think they go).  I used the New International Version, the reference is at the end of the page.  This entire document is about 70 pages long, I have also done Kings and Chronicles but in another translation.  In that one I included some work from the prophets.

The best explanation I have for the books being so similar is that they were both taken from another document, like the book of Jasher.  Some scholars credit these books as having been written by Ezra and Baruch, Jeremiah’s scribe.

 2 Samuel 24 1 Chronicles 21

David Enrolls the Fighting Men David Counts the Fighting Men

1 Again the anger of the LORD burned against Israel, 1 Satan rose up and he incited David against them, saying, “Go and take a census of Israel and Judah.”

2 2 So David the king said to Joab and the army commanders of the troops with him, “Go throughout the tribes of Israel from Dan to Beersheba and enroll the fighting men, Then report back to me so that I may know how many there are.”

3  3 But Joab replied to the king, “May the LORD your God multiply the troops a hundred times over are they not all my lord’s subjects, and may the eyes of my lord the king see it. But why does my lord the king want to do such a thing?” Why should he bring guilt on Israel?”

4 The king’s word, however, overruled Joab and the army commanders; so they (Joab) left  the presence of the king and went throughout Israel to enroll the fighting men of Israel and then came back to Jerusalem.

5 4After crossing the Jordan, they camped near Aroer, south of the town in the gorge, and then went through Gad and on to Jazer. 6 They went to Gilead and the region of Tahtim Hodshi, and on to Dan Jaan and around toward Sidon. 7 Then they went toward the fortress of Tyre and all the towns of the Hivites and Canaanites. Finally, they went on to Beersheba in the Negev of Judah.

8 After they had gone through the entire land, they came back to Jerusalem at the end of nine months and twenty days.

9 5Joab reported the number of the fighting men to David the king: In all Israel there were eight hundred thousand(one million one hundred thousand) able-bodied men who could handle a sword, and in Judah five hundred thousand(including four hundred and seventy thousand).

 6 But Joab did not include Levi and Benjamin in the numbering, because the king’s command was repulsive to him. 7 This command was also evil in the sight of God; so he punished Israel.

10 8David was conscience-stricken after he had counted the fighting men, and he said to the LORD, “I have sinned greatly in what I have done. Now, LORD, I beg you, take away the guilt of your servant. I have done a very foolish thing.”

11 9Before David got up the next morning, the word of the LORD had come to Gad the prophet, David’s seer:12 10 “Go and tell David, ‘This is what the LORD says: I am giving you three options. Choose one of them for me to carry out against you.’

13 11 So Gad went to David and said to him, “This is what the LORD says: ‘Take your choice: 12Shall there come on you three years of famine in your land? Or three months of fleeing from (being swept away) before your enemies while they pursue you with their swords overtaking you? Or three days of plague (the sword of the LORD) in your land with the angel of the LORD ravaging every part of Israel? Now then, think it over and decide how I should answer the one who sent me.”

14 13David said to Gad, “I am in deep distress. Let us(me) fall into the hands of the LORD, for his mercy is very great; but do not let me fall into human hands.”

15 14So the LORD sent a plague on Israel from that morning until the end of the time designated, and seventy thousand men of the people of Israel fell dead from Dan to Beersheba died.

16 15 And When the angel God sent stretched out his hand to destroy Jerusalem, but as the angel was doing so, the LORD saw it and relented concerning the disaster and said to the angel who was afflicting (destroying) the people, “Enough! Withdraw your hand.” The angel of the LORD was then standing at the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.

17 16When David looked up and saw the angel of the LORD who was standing between heaven and earth, striking down the people with a drawn sword in his hand extended over Jerusalem. Then David and the elders, clothed in sackcloth, fell facedown, 17said to the LORD God, “Was it not I who ordered the fighting men to be counted? I have sinned; I, the shepherd, have done wrong. These are but sheep. What have they done? LORD my God, let your hand fall on me and my family, but do not let this plague remain on your people.”

If you would like a copy you will have to ask because it is about a 70 pages word document, it will have to be emailed.

New International Version (NIV)  Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica

Test, Attacks and Storms – O My! Part 1

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Test, attacks, and storms have you ever heard a sermon on any of these things?  Well, I have found myself going through them in the last couple of weeks so I thought it would be a good time to look at them.   I seldom do this but for this study, I am not looking in the Old Testament for word meanings.  And for the number of sermons that are generated on these topics you would think that there must be a lot of references in Scriptures on them, no, well not in the New Testament.  Now I will use Old Testament examples to some of these but not necessarily the “words.”  In looking up the New Testament words none of them had any real difference than what we think of them today except one word for a storm that also referred to earthquakes.  Then there was a comment in the Zondervan NIV Exhaustive Concordance about test and trials.

Test, as a teacher I give these all the time and whether I like it or not I am always preparing my students for a standardized test and right now I am studying about research and part of that is “test.”  Tests are things that are planned; they cover something that we have learned and they are to show what you know or how far we have come in that subject.  The Concordance added this comment about test and trails that I thought was excellent.  The difference between the two is the intent of the tester’s motives.  God tests us to determine our character and not to make us fail whereas the devil’s intent is to make us fail in that area.

Spiritual tests are not something we should fear because we have the knowledge or ability to pass them; since we know that God as the Master Teacher is trying to promote us to a higher level.  Trials I will put under attacks and cover them later.

The one test that I want to highlight was for the Prophet Samuel when he went to anoint David as king.  Everyone always focuses on David in this story.  Samuel, the Man of God, for that moment is sent on a mission by God.  Now he is told where to go and what to do why not just tell him the name “David” and be done with it.  Samuel had to go through the test of looking at the other sons and to know that they were not the “one.”

Amalekites: An enemy from Moses to Mordecai to_______! Part 2

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Balaam mentions the Amalekites when he was supposed to be cursing the Israelites and says that they were “first among the nations.” (See Numbers 24:7,20)  See Lord my/your Lord. 

They are mentioned several times in the Book of Judges but the next big dealing is when King Saul is trying to wipe them out in order to fulfill the command of God against them. See Amalekites: Part 1   This really is the start of his downfall when he was caught up in the greed of the Amalek animals, we can only speculate why he kept Agag the king alive; possibly to ransom him for more money.  So it is fitting that after the Philistines wounded him that an Amalekite is the one to kill him (2 Samuel 1:1 – 16).

David did better when it came to the Amalekites, he killed the young Amalekite who killed Saul and also wiped out the raiding party that burned his town of Ziglag. He had other battles with them and caused a great deal of destruction on them and the Edomites in general.  All of this may have caused them to flee the area and find a home in Persia and Babylon. Which is where Esther and Mordecai find a man with a hatred of the Jews named Agag (See Numbers 24:7).

Moabites and Ammonites: Family and Foe – Part 3

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https://ificouldteachthebible.wordpress.com/2011/11/06/ishmael-and-es…and-foe-part-1

https://ificouldteachthebible.wordpress.com/2011/11/13/ishmael-and-es…and-foe-part-2/

I find it unsettling that four of Israel’s major enemies are “family.”  Now at times, they were civil towards one another and we have to remember that Ruth, David’s and Jesus’ grandmother, was a Moabitess.  But Edom, Moab, and Ammon are frequently mentioned together as joining forces to fight Israel and in many of the Prophetic Books, they are together when the Lord is handing out judgment.

It should also be noted that God warns Moses and the Israelites about fighting with them on the way back to the Promised Land. In Deuteronomy 2:5,9,19 it is stated that each of them had been given that land by the Lord and Israel was not to start trouble.

Lot is the father of Moab and Ammon (see Timeline) by his daughters after the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 19:30 – 38). Now a question that has been asked is whether they should have ever been there, to begin with!  Abraham was to leave his country and family and go to the Promised Land but there is Lot with his uncle as he leaves the rest of the family.