CONCLUSION
David's chief place in the history of the Near East is that of liberator of the Promised Land. For a thousand years after his reign, the people of the kingdom he had founded worked out their destiny, until a new 'anointed one' was born in Bethlehem.
To accomplish what he had to do, David had shown enormous political abilities, the insight which can seize the opportunity of the moment and use it for the nation's good. Above all, he had taken advantage of the temporary eclipse of his two mighty neighbors, Egypt to the south and Mesopotamia to the north-east, both of whom were immobilized for the time being by internal troubles. It was a providential respite in the continual power pressures to which Palestine has always been exposed. It enabled David to endow the kingdom of Yisrael-Yahudah with national unity, a capital city, and a king who would leave a stable dynasty when he died.
As a politician of very great shrewdness, a military leader of the first order, a realistic organizer and a subtle diplomat, David was a great man by any standards. He was one of those complete, all-round men of outstanding ability, whose like does not occur very often in history.
David gave Hebrew historians their model for the ideal, sovereign, the king by which they judged all the kings who came after him. Mosheh had revealed the Law of YAHWEH to the tribes of Yisrael. David had created a kingdom where men could live by that law and serve YAHWEH with single-minded devotion. He was unable to build the Tabernacle of Yerusalem himself, but tradition claimed that he was its originator, that he bequeathed the plans for it to his son Solomon, and established the organization of men who served the Tabernacle. These people, the kohens, Levites, singers, and many others, were the living stones of the set apart building which housed the Ark of the Covenant. Later generations of kohens may have attributed more to David himself than was achieved during his actual reign, but there can be no doubt that he laid the foundations of the nation as a kingdom which drew its strength from the worship of YAHWEH, and that he inspired those who followed him to continue what he had begun.
Both Jews and believers of YAHWEH honor David as the principal author of the Tehillims. There is no doubt that his reign stimulated a great period of Hebrew poetry, and that David himself was the leading poet. The tradition which places him at the centre of this great field of ability is very strong indeed, and such examples of his poetry as the lament for Saul and Jonathan, and the lament for Absalom, can still move us deeply. The Tehillims were the nation's hymns and prayers, and they have remained one of the most fruitful sources of man's spiritual life. Many of the Tehillims cannot be given an accurate date, and some show the influence of later events than those of David's reign. But all of them reflect the deep personal religion, and the ideals of YAHWEH, which David clearly inspired.
The nation had far to go in the understanding of YAHWEH the Sovereign Ruler WHO had chosen and protected it, but David created the opportunity which made that understanding possible. The great prophets, who guided later generations towards full and universal monotheism, could look back to David's reign and tell their people that the MessiYah, when he came, would bring to its perfection the work which David had begun.
King David and the Foundation of Yerusalem Index King David Sitemap Scripture History Through the Ages