DAVID SHEPHERD, PSALMIST, KING

[nChrist]

DAVID SHEPHERD, PSALMIST, KING
III.  SUMMONED TO THE PALACE
F. B. MEYER

"O my Strength, I will wait upon Thee ....
Unto Thee, O my Strength, will I sing praises."

When men live like that, they cannot fail to be prudent in speech, sagacious in counsel.


4. THE CHARM OF HIS PRESENCE.

He was David the beloved. Wherever he moved, he cast the spell of his personal magnetism. Saul yielded to it, and thawed; the servants of the royal household loved him; Michal, Saul's daughter, loved him; the soul of Jonathan was knit with his soul; the women of Israel forgot their loyalty to Saul, as they sounded the praises of the young hero who was so goodly to look upon; the wild, rough soldiers were willing to risk their lives, in order to gratify his wish for a draught from Bethlehem's well. So he passed through life, swaying the sceptre of irresistible potency over men and women. The beautiful Abigail is glad to wash the feet of his servants; Achish says that he is an angel of the Lord; Ittai the Gittite clings to him in his exile; the people slink into the city because he is weeping over Absalom; when he speaks, the hearts of the men of Judah, conscious of treachery, and backward to welcome him, are moved even as the heart of one man. Beloved of God and man, with a heart tremulous to the touch of love, the soil of his soul was capable of bearing crops to enrich the world; but it was also capable of the keenest suffering possible to man.


5. GOD WAS WITH HIM.

He had no hesitation in describing himself as "thy servant," liable to hidden and presumptuous faults, from which he desired above all things to be delivered. He thought of God as his Rock, Redeemer, Shepherd, and Host in the house of life, his Comforter in every darksome glen. In weariness he found green pastures; in thirst, still waters; in perplexity, righteous guidance; in danger, sure defence -- in what the Lord was to his soul. God's Word, though he knew but a part of it, was perfect, right, and pure; and as he recited it to himself, under great Nature's tent, it restored his soul, rejoiced his heart, enlightened his eyes, and seemed better than the honey that dripped from the rock. He set the Lord always before him; because He was at his right hand, he could not be moved; and therefore his heart was glad.
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[nChrist]

DAVID SHEPHERD, PSALMIST, KING
IV.  A DARK BACKGROUND
F. B. MEYER

(1 Samuel 17:11)

"I flung away
Those keys that might have open set
The golden sluices of the day;
But clutch the keys of darkness yet.
I hear the reapers singing go
Into God's harvest; I that might
With them have chosen, here below
Grope shuddering at the gates of night."
J. R. LOWELL.

A great contrast, as we have said, is evidently intended by the historian between Saul and David. The portrait of Saul is drawn in Rembrandt colours, to set forth the excelling beauty of God's designated king.

The king of Israel took his first step away from God when he permitted himself to be betrayed into undue haste and precipitation, and offered the burnt-offering at Michmash before Samuel came. He took further steps in the same direction in the outburst of indignation against Jonathan for violating his regulation about abstinence from food. But the final break took place when he disobeyed the distinct command of Jehovah through his prophet, and spared Agag and the choice of the spoil. Then he rejected the word of the Lord, and God gave him up to his own evil heart. From that moment his course was always downward toward the gathering gloom of Gilboa. From the disobedient heart God withdraws his keeping power; and as it is no longer tenanted by the Spirit of the Most High, it becomes at once the prey and habitation of unclean spirits, reminding us of the awful words with which Isaiah describes the desolation of Edom (Isaiah 34:14-15, R.V.).

Such was the state of Saul's heart. Since he was not willing to retain God in his knowledge, God gave him up to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not fitting.

We will notice some points in Saul's dark eclipse which will serve to illustrate salient features in the young shepherd's character.
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[nChrist]

DAVID SHEPHERD, PSALMIST, KING
IV.  A DARK BACKGROUND
F. B. MEYER

1. FORSAKEN BY THE SPIRIT OF GOD.

Browning conceives of him amid the black mid-tent's silence, from which for days together not a sound came to the anxious watchers; the blackness of darkness reigning; within, the figure of Saul resting against the tent-prop without movement, speech, or appetite for food; shuddering for a moment under the first spell of music, and then resuming his insensibility to all.

The departure of the Spirit of the Lord probably refers to that special equipment for the regal office which had once come mightily upon him. In his case, it had rather to do with office than with any change of disposition and heart (1 Samuel 10:10; 1 Samuel 11:6). By his wilfulness and disobedience, Saul forfeited this royal prerogative. The light faded off his soul, and he became as other men.

Nothing in this world, or the next, can be compared for horror to the withdrawal of God from us. It involves the perdition of body and soul; because it is the one force by which evil is restrained, and good fostered. Take the sun from the centre of the solar system, and each planet, breaking from its leash, would pursue a headlong course, colliding with the rest, and dashing into the abyss. So when God's presence is lost, every power in the soul rises in revolt. Ah! bitter wail, when a man realizes the true measure of the calamity which has befallen him, and cries with Saul, "I am sore distrest; for God is departed from me, and answereth me no more!"

It is a very serious thing to ask if we are not tampering with the Spirit of the Lord. To do so will turn the most radiant dawn into the chill twilight of a wintry day when the blizzard fills the air with snow and ice. Beware lest you fret against the Divine delays, or disobey the Divine command. Know in this thy day the things that belong to thy peace, lest they be for ever hid from thy view; and, as the sun's last rim sinks beneath the waves, the storm-clouds of jealousy, superstition, frenzy, bear down in thick battalions.

How different with David! The Lord was with him. To the clear, bright eye of his faith the living God was more real than the giant that stalked each morning before the hosts of Israel. Had He not delivered him from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear? And was He not as real amid the dignity of the Court or the clash of the battle-field? The dew of the Divine blessing rested upon that fair young head, and the light of the Shekinah shone from the inner shrine through those clear blue eyes. With him the Spirit of God was not simply an equipment of gift for service, but the resident presence of the Divine in soul and heart.
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[nChrist]

DAVID SHEPHERD, PSALMIST, KING
IV.  A DARK BACKGROUND
F. B. MEYER

2. TROUBLED BY AN EVIL SPIRIT FROM THE LORD.

Evidently the conception is of Jehovah surrounded by spirits, some good, and some evil. He has only to speak, and one powerful to exercise a malign and deadly influence hastens to do his bidding. Micaiah spoke after the same manner in the dark hour of Ahab's infatuation (1 Kings 22:19-23). This method of speech is unfamiliar. We prefer to say that God permits evil spirits to fasten on souls which have refused Him, as vultures on the carcase from which life has fled. We go farther, and say that God always means to do the best by every creature that He has made: but that we have the power of extracting evil from his good; of transforming his sunshine and rain into hemlock and deadly nightshade and rank poison; of transmuting the roses which fall from his hand into the red-hot cinders that scorch and burn into the flesh.

Never doubt that God is good; that He sends good and gentle spirits to stay man from his purpose, and conduct him into the light of life: but when we turn against God, it seems as though He has commenced to be our enemy, and to fight against us; the reality being that, whereas we once went with the stream of the Divine blessing, we are now wading against it with difficulty and peril. With the froward God shows Himself froward; and with the perverse, his angels, conscience, gratitude, the memory of the past, convictions of duty, intended to elevate and save, oppose their progress as mortal foes. They wrestle with us -- -or rather, we wrestle with them -- in the dark night, in which we cannot distinguish friend from foe. So when Judas had finally chosen to betray our Lord, the very pleadings of Jesus hardened his heart, and sealed his doom.

With David, on the other hand, the Spirit of God was constantly co-operating. He lived and walked in fellowship with the unseen. All the genial influences of heaven, as they fell upon his young spirit, elicited responses of love and faith; like the strains of music which each passing breeze summons from the Eolian lyre.
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[nChrist]

DAVID SHEPHERD, PSALMIST, KING
IV.  A DARK BACKGROUND
F. B. MEYER

3. SAUL'S DISCORD.

The fact that music was the corrective of the king's malady seems to indicate that, being wrong with God, he was out of harmony with the universe, which is the circumference of which God is centre. It is impossible to define music. In its grander and more lovely strains it has escaped the defiling touch of sin, and is, so to speak, the echo of eternity; spray from the waves of light and glory that break upon our shores; the expression of the infinite order and rhythm of the spheres. Music, therefore, is the natural expression of the perfect life and peace of heaven. There the harpers harp upon their harps; there redeemed and glorified spirits raise new songs; there holy beings express their perfect accord with the nature of God and the order of the universe in outbursts of harmonious sound. Perfected sense, which can only be had on the condition of unbroken union with God's will, purpose, and life, would detect all things uttering, "Hallelujah!" and be compelled by the contagiousness of a holy sympathy to swell the anthem.

To all this Saul was a stranger. He was out with God, and there was consequently discord in his heart and life. Music falling on his ear recalled memories of his former better self, and laid a brief spell upon the discordant elements of his soul; reducing them to a momentary order, destined, however, to be marred and spoilt so soon as the sweet sounds were withdrawn. Yes, it is ever thus. If you have not received the At-one-ment, if you are not at peace with God through Jesus Christ, you are at enmity, by wicked works and inward temper; and there can be, therefore, no sympathy between you and the universe around. Art, music, the engagements of daily business, the whirl of society, the exercises of religion may do what David's harp did for Saul, in producing a momentary stillness and sense of harmony with your environment; but it is only for a moment: when the spell is withdrawn, the olden spirit of disorder asserts itself.
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[nChrist]

DAVID SHEPHERD, PSALMIST, KING
IV.  A DARK BACKGROUND
F. B. MEYER

With David, on the other hand, the harp was the symbol of a soul at rest in God. All things were, therefore, his; all spoke to his soul of the harmonies subsisting in the unseen and eternal world. And it was because his own spirit was so perfectly harmonious with the nature of God and with the universe, that he could cast the spell of calming and quieting influence over another. This may explain the influence of music in all ages of the world over the maladies of the soul. Elisha called for a minstrel to calm his disquieted spirit. Pythagoras, as Seneca tells us, was in the habit of quieting the troubles of his mind with a harp. Philip V. of Spain was recalled from the profoundest melancholy by the famous singer Farinelli. The servants of Saul were therefore justified in urging him, in one of his lucid moments, to permit them to seek out a man who was a cunning player on the harp. And the power that David exercised over him is an illustration of a similar charm which we may individually exert upon the restless, storm-tossed spirits around us. Let us accept God's basis of the reconciliation. Let us stand beneath the Cross, which is the centre of reconciliation from the discords of sin, till we are in perfect accord with it; and let us go forth to induce men to come to that centre also, to be reconciled to God, and to learn the mystery of that peace of which Jesus spoke on the eve of His death and the day of His resurrection.


4. SAUL'S UNBELIEF.

If a man is wrong with God, faith is impossible; for it is the health-bloom of the soul. When, therefore, Goliath stalked through the valley of Elah, and defied the armies of Israel, Saul was greatly afraid. Where was now the prowess that engaged the early love and admiration of the people, that delivered Jabesh-gilead, and that vexed the foes of Israel whithersoever he turned himself? It had vanished; as the beauty passes from the surface of the fruit which is rotten at the core, and as the forms of the hills disappear from ruffled water. Under happier conditions he would have become the champion of his people; now he cowered in his tent.

To David, on the other hand, there was no such fear. His soul was full of God. He was his light and salvation, whom should he fear? the strength of his life, of whom should he be afraid? He was hidden in the secret of God's pavilion, and abode under the shadow of the Almighty. There was no unsteadiness in the hand that slung the stone, no tremor in the heart. He was strong in faith; because his young heart was pure, and good, and right, and in living fellowship with Jehovah.
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[nChrist]

DAVID SHEPHERD, PSALMIST, KING
V.  THE FAITH OF GOD'S ELECT
F. B. MEYER

(1 Samuel 17)

"Who the line
Shall draw, the limits of the power define
That even imperfect faith to man affords?"
WORDSWORTH.

IN the valley of Elah to-day the traveller finds the remains of an immense terebinth. Perhaps this gave it its name, "the valley of the terebinth." Starting from the neighbourhood of the ancient city of Hebron, the valley runs in a north-westerly direction towards the sea; it is about a mile across, and in the middle there is a deep ravine, some twenty feet across, with a depth of ten or twelve feet. Winter torrents have made this their track.

Having recovered from the chastisement inflicted on them by Saul and Jonathan at Michmash, the Philistines had marched up the valley of Elah, encamping on its western slope between Shochoh and Ephes-dammim; a name with an ominous meaning -- "the boundary of blood" -- probably because on more than one occasion it had been the scene of border forays. Saul pitched his camp on the other side of the valley; behind them the Judean hills, ridge on ridge, to the blue distance, where Jerusalem lay, as yet in the lands of the Jebusite. That valley was to witness an encounter which brought into fullest contrast the principles on which God's warriors are to contend -- not only with flesh and blood, but against the principalities and powers of darkness. Three figures stand out sharply defined on that memorable day.

First, the Philistine Champion. He was tall -- nine feet six inches in height; he was heavily armed, for his armour fell a spoil to Israel, was eagerly examined, and minutely described; they even weighed it, and found it five thousand shekels of brass, equivalent to two hundredweight; he was protected by an immense shield, borne by another in front of him, so as to leave his arms and hands free; he wielded a ponderous spear, whilst sword and javelin were girt to his side; he was apt at braggadocio, talked of the banquet he proposed to give to the fowls and beasts, and defied the armies of the living God.
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[nChrist]

DAVID SHEPHERD, PSALMIST, KING
V.  THE FAITH OF GOD'S ELECT
F. B. MEYER

Second, Saul. A choice young man and a goodly. There was not among the children of Israel a goodlier person than he; from his shoulders and upward he was higher than any of the people. He had also a good suit of armour, a helmet of brass, and a coat of mail. In earlier days, when he had blown the trumpet, its notes had rung throughout the land, stirring all hearts with anticipations of certain victory. Even now the formula of his former faith and fervour came easily to his lips, as he assured the young shepherd that the Lord would certainly be with him; but he dared not adventure himself in conflict with what he reckoned were utterly overwhelming odds. He was near daunting David with his materialism and unbelief: "Thou art not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him; for thou art but a youth, and he a man of war from his youth."

Third, David. He was but a youth, and ruddy, and withal of a fair countenance. No sword was in his hand; he carried a staff, probably his shepherd's crook; no armour had he on, save the breastplate of righteousness and the helmet of salvation; no weapon, but a sling in his hand and five smooth stones which he had chosen out of the torrent bed, and put in the shepherd's bag which he had, even in his scrip. But he was in possession of a mystic spiritual power, which the mere spectator might have guessed, but which he might have found it difficult to define. The living God was a reality to him. His countrymen were not simply, as Goliath insinuated, servants to Saul; they were the army of the living God. When he spake of armies, using the plural as of more than one, he may have been thinking of Jacob's vision of the host of angels at Mahanaim; or of Joshua's, when the Angel of the Covenant revealed himself as Captain of the Lord's host that waited unseen under arms, prepared to co-operate with that which Israel's chieftain was about to lead across the Jordan. As likely as not, to the lad's imagination the air was full of horses and chariots of fire; of those angel hosts, which in after days he addressed as strong in might, hearkening unto the voice of God, and hastening to do his pleasure in all places of his dominion. At least, he had no doubt that the Lord would vindicate his glorious name, and deliver into his hands this uncircumcised Philistine.

Let us study the origin and temper of this heroic faith.
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[nChrist]

DAVID SHEPHERD, PSALMIST, KING
V.  THE FAITH OF GOD'S ELECT
F. B. MEYER

IT HAD BEEN BORN IN SECRET, AND NURSED IN SOLITUDE.

As day after day he considered the heavens and earth, they appeared as one vast tent, in which God dwelt. Nature was the material dwelling-place of the eternal Spirit, who was as real to his young heart as the works of His hands to His poet's eyes. God was as real to him as Jesse, or his brothers, or Saul, or Goliath. His soul had so rooted itself in this conception of God's presence, that he bore it with him, undisturbed by the shout of the soldiers as they went forth to the battle, and the searching questions addressed to him by Saul.

This is the unfailing secret. There is no short cut to the life of faith, which is the all-vital condition of a holy and victorious life. We must have periods of lonely meditation and fellowship with God. That our souls should have their mountains of fellowship, their valleys of quiet rest beneath the shadow of a great rock, their nights beneath the stars, when darkness has veiled the material and silenced the stir of human life, and has opened the view of the infinite and eternal, is as indispensable as that our bodies should have food. Thus alone can the sense of God's presence become the fixed possession of the soul, enabling it to say repeatedly with the psalmist, "Thou art near, O God."


IT HAD BEEN EXERCISED IN LONELY CONFLICT.

With a beautiful modesty David would probably have kept to himself the story of the lion and the bear, unless it had been extracted from him by a desire to magnify Jehovah. Possibly there had been many conflicts of a similar kind; so that his faith had become strengthened by use, as the sinews of his wiry young body by exertion. In these ways he was being prepared for this supreme conflict.

What we are in solitude, we shall be in public. Do not for a moment suppose, O self-indulgent disciple, that the stimulus of a great occasion will dower thee with a heroism of which thou betrayest no trace in secret hours. The crisis will only reveal the true quality and temper of the soul. The flight at the Master's arrest will make it almost needless for the historian to explain that the hour which should have been spent in watching was squandered in sleep. It is the universal testimony of holy men that lonely hours are fullest of temptation. It is in these we must conquer if we would be victorious when the eyes of some great assembly are fastened upon us.
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[nChrist]

DAVID SHEPHERD, PSALMIST, KING
V.  THE FAITH OF GOD'S ELECT
F. B. MEYER

IT STOOD THE TEST OF DAILY LIFE.

There are some who appear to think that the loftiest attainments of the spiritual life are incompatible with the grind of daily toil and the friction of the home. "Emancipate us from these," they cry, "give us nothing to do, except to nurse our souls to noble deeds; deliver us from the obligations of family ties, and we will fight for those poor souls who are engrossed with the cares and ties of the ordinary and commonplace."

It was not thus with David. When Jesse, eager to know how it fared with his three elder sons, who had followed Saul to the battle, bade David take them rations, and a present to the captain of their division, there was an immediate and ready acquiescence in his father's proposal; "he rose up early in the morning, and took, and went, as Jesse had commanded him." And before he left his flock he was careful to entrust it with a keeper. We must always watch not to neglect one duty for another; if we are summoned to the camp, we must first see to the tendance of the flock. He that is faithful in the greater must first have been faithful in the least. It is in the home, at the desk, and in the Sunday-school, that we are being trained for service at home and abroad. We must not forsake the training-ground till we have learnt all the lessons God has designed it to teach, and have heard his summons.


IT BORE MEEKLY MISCONSTRUCTION AND REBUKE.

Reaching the camp, he found the troops forming in battle array, and ran to the front. He had already discovered his brothers, and saluted them, when he was arrested by the braggart voice of Goliath from across the valley, and saw, to his chagrin, the men of Israel turn to flee, stricken with sore affright. When he expressed surprise, he learnt from bystanders that even Saul shared the general panic, and had issued rewards for a champion. So he passed from one group to another of the soldiery, questioning, gathering further confirmation of his first impressions, and evincing everywhere the open-eyed wonder of his soul that "any man's heart should fail because of him."
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[nChrist]

DAVID SHEPHERD, PSALMIST, KING
V.  THE FAITH OF GOD'S ELECT
F. B. MEYER

Eliab had no patience with the words and bearing of his young brother. How dare he suggest that the behaviour of the men of Israel was unworthy of themselves and their religion! What did he mean by inquiring so minutely after the particulars of the royal reward? Was he thinking of winning it? It was absurd to talk like that! Of course it could only be talk; but it was amazing to hear it suggested that he, too, was a soldier and qualified to fight. Evidently something should be said to thrust him back into his right place, and minimize the effect of his words, and let the bystanders know who and what he was. "Why art thou come down? With whom," he said, with a sneer, "hast thou left those few sheep in the wilderness?" Ah, what venom, as of an asp, lay in those few words! David, however, ruled his spirit, and answered softly "Surely," said he, "my father's wish to learn of your welfare was cause enough to bring me here." It was there that the victory over Goliath was really won. To have lost his temper in this unprovoked assault would have broken the alliance of his soul with God, and drawn a vail over his sense of His presence. But to meet evil with good, and maintain an unbroken composure, not only showed the burnished beauty of his spirit's armour, but cemented his alliance with the Lamb of God.

To bear with unfailing meekness the spiteful attacks of malice and envy; not to be overcome by evil, but to overcome evil with good; to suffer wrong; to possess one's soul in patience; to keep the mouth with a bridle when the wicked is before us; to pass unruffled and composed through a very cyclone of unkindliness and misrepresentation -- this is only possible to those in whose breasts the dove-like Spirit has found an abiding place, and whose hearts are sentinelled by the peace of God; and these are they who bear themselves as heroes in the fight. A marvellous exhibition was given that day in the valley of Elah that those who are gentlest under provocation are strongest in the fight, and that meekness is really an attribute of might.


IT WITHSTOOD THE REASONINGS OF THE FLESH.

Saul was very eager for David to adopt his armour, though he dared not don it himself. He was taken with the boy's ingenuous earnestness, but advised him to adopt the means. "Don't be rash; don't expect a miracle to be wrought. By all means trust God, and go; but be wise. We ought to adopt ordinary precautions."
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[nChrist]

DAVID SHEPHERD, PSALMIST, KING
V.  THE FAITH OF GOD'S ELECT
F. B. MEYER

It was a critical hour. Had David turned aside to act on these suggestions, he would certainly have forfeited the Divine alliance, which was conditioned by his guileless faith. There is no sin in using means: but they must come second, not first; they must be such as God suggests. It is a sore temptation to adopt them as indicated by the flesh, and hope that God will bless them, instead of waiting before Him, to know what He could have done, and how. Many a time has the advice of worldly prudence damped the eager aspiration of the spirit, and hindered the doing of a great deed.

But an unseen hand withdrew David from the meshes of temptation. He had already yielded so far to Saul's advice as to have donned his armour and girded on the sword. Then he turned to Saul and said, "I cannot go with these"; and he put them off him. It was not now Saul's armour and the Lord, but the Lord alone; and he was able, without hesitation, to accost the giant with the words, "The Lord saveth not with sword and spear."

His faith had been put to the severest tests and was approved. Being more precious than silver or gold, it had been exposed to the most searching ordeal; but the furnace of trial had shown it to be of heavenly temper. Now let Goliath do his worst; he shall know that there is a God in Israel.
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[nChrist]

DAVID SHEPHERD, PSALMIST, KING
VI.  "IN THE NAME OF THE LORD OF HOSTS"
F. B. MEYER

(1 Samuel 17:45)

"Oh, I have seen the day,
When with a single word,
God helping me to say,
'My trust is in the Lord'!
My soul hath quenched a thousand foes,
Fearless of all that could oppose."
COWPER.

WHILST the two armies, on either side of the ravine, waited expectant, every eye was suddenly attracted by the slight young figure, which, staff in hand, emerged from the ranks of Israel, and descended the slope. For a little while David was hid from view, as he bent intent on the pebbles that lined the bottom, of which five smooth stones were presently selected and placed in his shepherd's bag. Then, to the amazement of the Philistines, and especially of their huge champion, he sprang up on the further bank, and rapidly moved towards him.

Goliath had apparently been sitting; and when he realised that the youth was daring to accept his challenge, he arose, and came, and drew near to meet David, cursing him as he did so, and threatening him that his blood should encrimson the mountain sward, whilst his unburied body feasted the wild things of earth and air. "Then said David to the Philistine, Thou comest to me with a sword, and with a spear, and with a javelin; but I come to thee in the name of the Lord of Hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom thou hast defied."
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[nChrist]

DAVID SHEPHERD, PSALMIST, KING
VI.  "IN THE NAME OF THE LORD OF HOSTS"
F. B. MEYER

I. THE TALISMAN OF VICTORY.

"The name of the Lord of Hosts." Throughout the Scriptures, a name is not simply, as with us, a label; it is a revelation of character. It catches up and enshrines some moral or physical peculiarity in which its owner differs from other men, or which constitutes his special gift and force. The names which Adam gave the animals that were brought to him were founded on characteristics which struck his notice. And the names which the Second Adam gave to the apostles either expressed qualities which lay deep within them, and which He intended to evolve, or unfolded some great purpose for which they were being fitted.

Thus the Name of God, as used so frequently by the heroes and saints of sacred history, stands for those Divine attributes and qualities which combine to make Him what He is. In the history of the early Church the Name was a kind of summary of all that Jesus had revealed of the nature and the heart of God. "For the sake of the Name they went forth, taking nothing of the Gentiles." There was no need to specify whose Name it was -- there was none other Name by which men could be saved, none other Name that could be compared with that, or mentioned on the same page. Stars die out and become invisible when the sun appears. That Name is above every name, and in it every knee shall bow, and every tongue confess; because it embodies under one all-sufficient designation everything that any single soul, or the whole race, can require, or imagine, or attain in the conceiving of God.

The special quality that David extracted from the bundle of qualities represented by the Divine Name of God is indicated in the words, the Lord of Hosts. That does not mean only that God was Captain of the embattled hosts of Israel; that idea was expressed in the words that followed, "The God of the armies of Israel." But there was probably something of this sort in David's thought. He conceived of angels and worlds, of the armies of heaven and the elements of matter, of winds and waves, of life and death, as a vast ordered army, obedient to the commands of their Captain, Jehovah of Hosts. In fact, his idea was identical with that of the heathen centurion of the Gospels, who said he was a man under authority, having servants to whom he said, Come, or Go, or Do this or that.
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[nChrist]

DAVID SHEPHERD, PSALMIST, KING
VI.  "IN THE NAME OF THE LORD OF HOSTS"
F. B. MEYER

To come in the Name of the Lord of Hosts did not simply mean that David understood Jehovah to be all this; but implied his own identification by faith with all that was comprehended in this sacred Name. An Englishman in a foreign land occupies a very different position, and speaks in a very different tone, according to whether he assumes a private capacity as an ordinary traveller, or acts as representative and ambassador of his country. In the former case he speaks in his own name, and receives what respect and obedience it can obtain; in the latter he is conscious of being identified with all that is associated with the term Great Britain. For a man to speak in the name of England means that England speaks through his lips; that the might of England is ready to enforce his demands; and that every sort of power which England wields is pledged to avenge any affront or indignity to which he may be exposed.

Thus, when Jesus bids us ask what we will in his Name, He means not that we should simply, use that name as an incantation or formula, but that we should be so one with Him in his interests, purposes, and aims, that it should be as though He were Himself approaching the Father with the petitions we bear.

There is much for us to learn concerning this close identification with God before we shall be able to say with David, "I come to thee in the name of the Lord of Hosts." It is only possible to those who carefully fulfil certain conditions which were familiar enough to this God-taught youth. But it were well worth our while to withdraw ourselves from the activities of our life, to lay aside everything that might hinder the closeness of our union with the Divine nature and interests, and to become so absolutely identified with God, that his Name might be our strong tower, our refuge, our battle-cry, our secret of victory. Oh to be able to approach each high-handed wrong-doer, each confederacy of evil, each assault of the powers of darkness, each tribe of savages, each drink-sodden district, each congregation of the unsaved and impenitent, with the words, "I come in the name of the Lord of Hosts!"


2. THE CONDITIONS ON WHICH WE ARE WARRANTED IN USING THE NAME

(1) When we are pure in our motives. There was no doubt as to the motive which prompted David to this conflict. It is true that he had spoken to the men of Israel, saying, "What shall be done to the man that killeth the Philistine?" but no one supposed that he acted as he did because of the royal reward. His one ambition was to take away the reproach from Israel, and to let all the earth know that there was a God in Israel.
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