2 Samuel 20 - 24

Celebration Of David's Reign

In today's reading we find a psalm (also included in Psalms, 18:1-50) in chapter 22. It is interesting how the books of Samuel are bookended, in the literary sense, with songs.  Hannah's song of praise is presented in 1 Samuel 2 to begin these two books and David's song of praise is at the end of the two books.  Both have common themes of deliverance.  Hannah is delivered from barrenness and David is delivered from his enemies. Both make reference to the Lord as a Rock. Both greatly magnify the Lord and discuss how He grinds His enemies to powder.

David song, and its placement at the end of 2 Samuel also parallels the book of Deuteronomy where the great song of Moses is placed at the end of the book.  Moses was the first great leader of Israel delivering them from the Egyptians and taking them to the Promised Land.  David was the next great leader of Israel, establishing all the tribes in the Promised Land and delivering them from their enemies.  Both songs talk of these great deliverances.  Additionally, Moses makes five references to the Lord being a Rock (Deut 32:4, 15, 18, 30, 31) and David makes five references to the Lord being a Rock (2 Samuel 22:2, 3, 32, 47 (a and b)). This, to me, just demonstrates the inspiration and consistency of the Bible!

Several other notable incidents are recorded in today's portion:

• The rebellion of Sheba
• The recounting of the Three and the Thirty - great warriors of David's elite guard
• The battles against the Philistines
• The revenge of the Gibeonites against Saul's family. This is done by David to end a famine.
• The census that David takes that angers the Lord. This ultimately causes the death of 70,000 Israelites. This also causes David to purchase the threshing floor of Araunah in Jerusalem, giving David's lineage and abstract deed to the territory.

May God bless you and bless the reading of His Word.