David: preaching righteousness in the great congregation
David: preaching righteousness in the great congregation
Bernard Burt TheTestimony 2009 p132
David preached to the congregation, typical of the ecclesia today. When speaking to the men and women in Adullam, he drew on his previous experience, a living example of what he preached. When the ark was brought into Zion he preached to the people in a psalm how they should praise God. THE WORD translated “congregation” in Psalms 40:9 is the Hebrew word qahal (Strong’s 6951). It first occurs in Isaac’s blessing of Jacob in Genesis 28:3: “And God Almighty bless thee, and make thee fruitful, and multiply thee, that thou mayest be a multitude ( qahal) of people”. The word occurs in Psalms 22:22: “I will declare Thy name unto my brethren: in the midst of the congregation will I praise thee”. This verse is quoted in Hebrews 2:12, where the Spirit translates qahal by using the word ekkl ēsia. The qahal “congregation” of the Old Testament is therefore equivalent to the ecclesia in the New. This concept is further confirmed by Stephen in Acts 7:38, speaking of “the church [ ecclesia ] in the wilderness”. David was therefore a leader and a preacher in the ecclesia in Israel in his days. How did he fulfil the function of preaching?
Gath and Adullam
1 Samuel 21:10-15 records the terrible experiences of David in the court of Achish king of Gath. Once David had escaped from the Philistines, he went to the cave of Adullam and was joined by “every one that was in distress, and every one that was in debt, and every one that was discontented” (1 Samuel 22:2)—what a basis on which to start an ecclesia! Psalms 34:1-22 is a commentary on these events and tells us how David responded to this situation and what he said to the congregation who had assembled themselves to him. David says to them in Psalms 34:3, “O magnify the LORD with me, and let us exalt His name together”; he is encouraging them to praise God as he did. He explained to them in verse 4 how God had heard him and delivered him, and teaches them in Psalms 34:7 that “The angel of the L ORD encampeth round about them that fear Him, and delivereth them”.
Having shown the congregation these principles, David teaches them: to taste and see that the LORD is good (Psalms 34:8) that God blesses those who trust Him (Psalms 34:8) that those who fear God will not want (Psalms 34:1-22) that those who seek the L ORD will not want any good thing (Psalms 34:10) that they must keep their tongue from evil (Psalms 34:13) that their lips must not speak guile (Psalms 34:13) that they must depart from evil (Psalms 34:14) that they must do good (Psalms 34:14) that they must actively seek peace (Psalms 34:14) that if they do right God’s eyes will be upon them (Psalms 34:15) that God will be against them and cut them off if they do evil (Psalms 34:16) that God will be near to the contrite and brokenhearted (Psalms 34:18) that the L ORD will deliver the righteous out of all afflictions (Psalms 34:19) that God will redeem the soul of His servants (Psalms 34:22) that none who trust in Him will be desolate (Psalms 34:22).
What amazing lessons these are for a group of men and women who were in distress, in debt and discontented! David had learned all of these things, and of the dealings of God with man, through hard and bitter experiences. He was a living example of the principles which he preached. The result of this preaching “in the congregation” was that he welded together a band of men who would follow him implicitly—anywhere that he would lead them. Even the foreigners amongst them manifested this loyalty. Ittai the Gittite would later say, “As the LORD liveth, and as my lord the king liveth, surely in what place my lord the king shall be, whether in death or life, even there also will thy servant be” (2 Samuel 15:21). Those men later formed the backbone of the godly kingdom over which David ruled. The bringing up of the ark When David became king over all Israel, he immediately did three things: he took the city of Jerusalem and made it his capital (2 Samuel 5:6 ff.), he defeated the Philistine threat to his kingdom (2 Samuel 5:17 ff.), and he brought the ark into Je rusalem (2 Samuel 6:1-23).
David then set the family of Asaph to sing before the ark, and delivered to them the Psalm that is recorded for our learning in 1 Chronicles 16:1-43. The purpose of this psalm was to “shew forth” (1 Chronicles 16:23), “preached” in Psalms 40:9, the salvation of God to all nations. So faithful were the men of the house of Asaph that they continued to sing this psalm for over 600 years!
What did the Spirit through David “preach” in this psalm? Notice first the huge emphasis on God and His works and how little space there is for the doings of man. “Yahweh” occurs fifteen times in the twenty-eight verses of the psalm. The emphasis throughout the psalm is on “His name”, “His deeds”, “His wondrous works”, “His strength”, “His judgments”, “His covenant”, etc. David encouraged Israel to seek their God, to sing His praises (Psalms 40:9), to talk about Him amongst themselves (which the Law commanded; Deuteronomy 6:4-9), to speak about Him to the surrounding nations (1 Chronicles 16:8, 1 Chronicles 16:24) and to encourage the people of those nations to glorify Yahweh (1 Chronicles 16:29-30).
What was the result of this “preaching” through the psalm sung before the ark by the family of Asaph? “And all the people said, Amen, and praised the L ORD” (1 Chronicles 16:36). David had set the example by putting the symbol of God’s Word and His presence at the very centre of the nation, and he then caused one of the most faithful families in Israel to sing before it (initially for forty years until the temple was built!) of the glory and might and purpose of their God. Thus, by his personal example and teaching, as their king, he showed them how they ought to think and to walk before their God—just as he had showed his people in the time of his fugitive years in the wilderness. On both occasions the people responded to his preaching and they became more godly as a result. Could we be a similar influence by our example and preaching in the ecclesia?