PONDERING the meaning of words familiar to the ear, thought at times catches the light of understanding and, rising on the wings of inspiration, gains vivid pictures of events long past. Thus we may learn valuable lessons from the Biblical records of early struggles that led to a better knowledge of God.
From among the hills where David kept the flocks of Jesse, his father, where through spiritual thinking and experience he had learned something of the nature of divine power, the shepherd-poet was called to kingship in Israel. To be king of Israel meant to David not so much the wearing of a crown as the reflecting of the mental and spiritual qualities that made him co-heir with those who have learned something about God. That he had spiritual qualities and inspiration in abundant measure is evidenced not only by his historic record, but by his writings in the book of Psalms, conveying, as they do, "precept upon precept" and "line upon line" of spiritual law. Although David's human experience was full of troubles, he knew the glory of heavenly assurance, and his kingship became the symbol of the truth upon which he whom David called "Lord" built his kingdom, which is "not of this world."
At that date in human history the citadel of Jerusalem was as yet in the hands of the Jebusites, an ancient and warlike people who had, according to tradition, first fortified the hill. Mute testimony to their strength and skill, the great blocks of stone they laid stand to-day, easily distinguishable from the later courses of masonry in the wall. Their stronghold resisted many attacks; but to David it came to take it "in the name of the Lord," and later to dedicate it as the site for the temple.
