I’m not sure what it was about David but it seems like he often had people around him all fired up to kill someone for him.
Maybe it was his legendary “giant-killer” reputation that made guys want to impress him by taking out an enemy for him. It kinda reminds me of boys in the 1950s and 60’s watching westerns on tv 📺 then wanting to dress and act like their tv heroes. They’d buckle on their 6-shooter cap guns and act out the good guys vs the outlaws. 🤠
This Hollywood Star status is something we need to remember about David. He’s Roy Rogers and The Lone Ranger and Zorro and Flash Gordon and Tom Mix. Or, for Gen X’ers and younger, he is Chuck Norris, Hulk Hogan, and Dwayne “the Rock” Johnson. David is a larger-than-life LEGEND. If he were alive today he’d be followed by paparazzi and have people stopping him constantly for autographs. But because he was chased by a mad king and yet always kept his honor, he was also everyone’s favorite underdog. David is also Rocky Balboa and Daniel Larusso (the Karate Kid). AND he is destined to be King of Israel.
Whether it was a fan-boy phenomenon or an attempt to curry favor with political maneuvering, (or both?) this theme of overzealous supporter killing a perceived enemy of David happens again in this chapter.
Interesting that we have 2 sets of 2 brothers.
- Joab and Abishai
- Baanah and Recab
Both sets think they are helping David by killing members of Saul’s family.
- Joab & Abishai killed Abner, Saul’s cousin and General
- Baanah & Recab kill Ishbosheth, Saul’s son and king of all Israel except Judah
You’d think that David’s response to the death of Abner – mourning, fasting, and cursing Joab & Abishai – would have given Baanah & Recab a hint that killing Ishbosheth would be a bad idea. They didn’t get the hint and they murder him in his own bed in cold blood.
We get 2 versions of the detail of how these 2 got inside the palace:
“The doorkeeper, who had been sifting wheat, became drowsy and fell asleep. So Recab and Baanah slipped past her.”
2 Samuel 4:6 NLT
This one follows the Greek text from the Septuagint. Then there’s this one:
“And they came into the midst of the house as if to get wheat, and they stabbed him in the stomach. Then Rechab and Baanah his brother escaped.”
2 Samuel 4:6 ESV
The 2 clues: it was hot and there is wheat involved suggest the time of wheat harvest which is the hottest part of summer. If I had to guess, I might go with the version of the story where they enter under the pretense of getting wheat because it would be a very tight echo to the prior narrative of Joab luring Abner aside under a pretext of needing to talk to him. Both stories would involve a deception.
I wonder if Baanah and Recab thought that they were being like David. Picture David holding up the decapitated head of Goliath before Saul and the armies. Now the brothers are holding the decapitated head of Ishbosheth – quite proud of themselves.
🧔🏽👳🏾♂️ “Look! We’re just like you, David!”
If they thought that, then they were only looking at the surface of things. For one, David killed Goliath on a field of battle in response to a challenge. Goliath was a Philistine warrior and a giant. Baanah and Recab murdered Ishbosheth in his sleep. Ishbosheth was an Israelite and a normal man. And unarmed. Hardly comparable.
There are and will be plenty of times in David’s life where he does NOT do the right thing, but the harsh penalty dealt swiftly to these murderous brothers was the right thing to do. For one, he can’t be soft on murder. And for another, he cannot be seen politically to be taking over the remaining tribes of Israel by force. How would they follow him if he let the killers of their king get off with a slap on the wrist?
The way is now completely clear for David to be king of all Israel, but it’s a path he must walk very carefully.
PSALM 6
The heading says, “To the Chief Musician on Neginoth Sheminith, a psalm of David.”
From what I can find, Neginoth refers to a stringed instrument and Sheminith has to do with the number 8. So, it could be an 8-stringed instrument. There are 8 scale degrees in both major and minor scales. We don’t know if the major or minor scales (as we know them) even existed at this point in history. There are an infinite number of ways one could tune 8 strings but still it’s an intriguing clue.
We don’t know when this psalm was written, but with David complaining about the “vexation” (KJV) of his bones, his pondering of death, and his heavy grief, it sounds to me like this one may have come much later in his life.
The opening pleas for mercy and to be spared rebuke may point to a time of moral failure in David’s life.
Verse 8 jumps out as a quotation on the lips of Christ in Matthew 7:23.
There is a prayer for the wicked to leave and the presence of the Lord to return. And the psalm ends with confidence that Yahweh has heard his prayer and that the woes and vexation he is currently experiencing will be passed from him and onto his enemies.
PSALM 8
This is one of the psalms that I memorized as a kid. And there was even a song by Michael W. Smith based on it that we used to sing. (The link will take you to a rendition by the one-and-only Sandi Patti; soaring to a high Bb at the end 🤩)
Jesus quotes verse 2 of this psalm to the Pharisees on the Triumphal Entry in Matthew 21:16.
Verses 4-8 deal with the question of the place and purpose of humans in God’s creation. But we must bear in mind that Jesus is THE model human. He is the Divine Human. Verses 5-8 are best understood to refer to Him. They also apply to other humans but only insomuch as those humans are IN Christ.
While humans have value as being made in the image of God, that image is only fully realized and humans are ultimately only crowned with glory and honor if they are in Christ. Jesus is the One Who restores the full and proper image of God.
He is also the One Who truly has dominion over all creation. Humanity’s purpose was and still is to exercise God’s delegated dominion over creation. God’s dominion is wise and benevolent, not domineering or selfish. And I think that the only humans truly capable of exercising this dominion are the redeemed saints of God.
A person who manages a woodlot or works a farm or harvests the bounty of the sea to the glory of God and with His wisdom and benevolence will naturally care for creation rather than exploit it. They would think of the impact of their choices on the lives of others both present and future. It has long bothered me deeply that the most outspoken voices for the care of creation are not from the church but those who “worship the creature rather than the Creator Who is blessed forever.” We could bring so much balance to this space. Perhaps it’s an area where, like Paul, we could teach people to limit their freedom out of love so that we’re not destroying habitats with suburban sprawl but also not making humans feel like parasites on an otherwise good earth. We’re not parasites. We’re meant to be the shepherds.
“You have given him dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under his feet…”
Psalm 8:6 ESV
Hebrews chapter 2 is the inspired commentary on Psalm 8 and I highly recommend reading the whole thing but here’s the key bit (after quoting Psalm 8:5-6):
“Now in putting everything in subjection to him, he left nothing outside his control. At present, we do not yet see everything in subjection to him. But we see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.”
Hebrews 2:8-9 ESV
Jesus said that “all authority” in heaven and earth had been given to Him, Matt. 28:18.
“…that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.”
Ephesians 1:20-23 ESV
If ALL things are under the feet of Christ, and the Church is His Body – seated with Him in heaven – then by extension, all things are also under the feet of the Church.
This connects allllllllll the way back to Genesis 3 when God says to the Nachash:
“And I will put hostility between you and between the woman, and between your offspring and between her offspring; he will strike you on the head, and you will strike him on the heel.”
Genesis 3:15 LEB
The only way that a serpent can strike the heel of One Who is striking its head is if the serpent is under the foot. Christ is the Serpent-crusher and His redeemed ones are IN Him. We are one with Him. His victory is our victory just as a husband’s triumph is his wife’s triumph. As He puts the serpent and its works under His feet the serpent and his works are simultaneously put under the saints’ feet.
In the OT we have sometimes seen a man putting his foot on the neck of his enemy. It’s an enactment of utter victory. The foe is subjugated.
And you may say, “I have to fight the works of the serpent every day. And I see the serpent’s works in the world around me. It doesn’t look like he’s crushed and subjugated.”
This is what Dr. Michael Heiser aptly called “the already-but-not-yet” aspect of the fulfillment of prophecy. Christ already has all things under His feet, but not yet. Here’s how the Apostle Paul explained it:
“Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death. For “God has put all things in subjection under his feet.” But when it says, “all things are put in subjection,” it is plain that he is excepted who put all things in subjection under him. When all things are subjected to him, then the Son himself will also be subjected to him who put all things in subjection under him, that God may be all in all.”
1 Corinthians 15:24-28 ESV
The only exception to the ALL things being placed under the feet of Christ is the One Who is placing them there – God the Father.
We get a little peek at what it will look like when all the sheep and oxen and the beasts of the field are released from the curse of sin and brought into complete subjection again.
“And a wolf shall stay with a lamb, and a leopard shall lie down with a kid, and a calf and a lion and a fatling together as a small boy leads them. And a cow and a bear shall graze; their young shall lie down together. And a lion shall eat straw like the cattle. And an infant shall play over a serpent’s hole, and a toddler shall put his hand on a viper’s hole. They will not injure and they will not destroy on all of my holy mountain, for the earth will be full of the knowledge of Yahweh, as the waters cover the sea.”
Isaiah 11:6-9 LEB
PSALMS 9 & 10
We’re going to do these together because they used to be one psalm.
These psalms together make an acrostic of the Hebrew alphabet (except that dalet – the door- is missing). Psalm 9 contains letters Aleph through Kaf and Psalm 10 has Lamed through Tav. That cannot be a coincidence or an accident. That’s intentional.
Also, Psalm 9 ends with a “Selah” which is typically a musical interlude for meditation and reflection.
In the Septuagint these are one psalm; which throws off the numbering of the rest of the book compared to translations based on the Masoretic Text. It was not the Masoretes, however, that separated them. In the Dead Sea Scrolls the copy of this psalm is broken into 2. The Qumran community in the first century was splitting them up long before the Masoretes in the 800-900s AD.
I could not find a solid reason for the split from scholars. The best guess is the strong distinction between the two. Psalm 9 is a song of praise where Psalm 10 is a lament and prayer for deliverance. Usually in lament psalms, the cries for help come first, then there would be a “but God” praise. Taken together, these psalms reverse that order.
There is a repeated phrase of “times of trouble” in 9:9 and echoed in 10:1, further showing connection.
Much has been conjectured over the Hebrew word muthlabben in the heading. Muth (mooth) is Hebrew for “to die.” Ben means “son.” Hence the heading in many Bibles will say something like, “To the tune of ‘Death of a Son’.” Some have suggested this might refer to the death of David’s son Absolom.
Whatever muthlabben means, and whatever the event that prompted the writing of the psalm, we can still find great encouragement in both of them.
Much of Psalm 9 is in praise of Yahweh’s judgments against the wicked. That’s not something we sing a lot about these days. And we certainly could since we’re closer to that final judgment than any previous generation has been. We can learn a lot about the coming judgement from Psalm 9:
- The wicked will be destroyed and forgot but the LORD will endure forever. v.5-7
- God’s judgments are righteous and His justice is good and upright. v.8
- The tables will be turned and those who oppress the vulnerable will have their strength and advantages taken away while their victims will be protected. v.9-12
- Part of the judgment of the unbeliever is of their own making. v.15-16
- Evidence of a nation that has forgotten God and is destined for destruction is the neglect of the poor and vulnerable. v.17-18
This theme of judgement carries on into the next section or Psalm 10. Indeed, the bulk of the psalm, verses 3-11 is a laundry list of all the things that the wicked do. This is followed by a plea that, if I were to modernize and paraphrase it would be something like…
“God… Look at all the horrible things evil people are doing!! I know You see it. Don’t just stand there, DO SOMETHING!”
So we have two sections.
- Section the First: “Yay God! You’re so awesome because You are a righteous Judge and You’re going to punish the wicked! Woo!”
- Section the Second: “God, how come you aren’t punishing the wicked?! Look how bad they are! Do something!”
And in between them we get an interesting interjection in 9:16 that is generally left in Hebrew: Higgaion Selah. We all kinda know that Selah means to pause and meditate or reflect. Higgaion means “a murmuring sound.” It could be a musical cue. The NLT has it as “Quiet Interlude.” I like that. But it may also point to the way in which the Selah is to be done. Perhaps this is saying we are to meditate aloud to ourselves. Sotto Voce. Why would we do this? Because sometimes your ears need to hear your mouth telling your heart how big your God is.
😃🤚🏼Ooo ooo ooo! I have an idea!
About what?
😃 About how to explain how to do this quiet meditation thing.
Ok… Go for it.
😃 K. Here goes…
You can do it on a walk.
You can do it in a talk.
You can do it on a bike while you’re riding on a dike.
You can say the words out loud even standing in a crowd.
It’s a whisper, not a bellow.
You won’t disturb the other fellow.
Think about things one and two.
An out-loud think’s the thing to do.
😄
😌
Well… that… was… umm… colorful.
😁 Thanks.
Can’t hurt to try it some time. Saying things to ourselves is powerful – for good or bad. Quiet, verbal mediation might just be a game-changer because…
Confession deepens impression.
I’m going to leave you with that for a little Higgaion Selah.
To The Reader 