Description
King David Healing Oil (Patron for Musicians)
King David Healing Oil lived around the year 1000 BC (see timeline). He was born in Bethlehem, a small city in the country of Israel (about 10 km from Jerusalem). David was an Israelite from the tribe of Judah. He grew up under the reign of Israel’s first king, Saul. When he was 30 years old, he himself became Israel’s second king. He reigned 7.5 years over part of the country, and then another 33 years over all of the Israelites.
David has become the archetypal king of Israel, and a picture of the ultimate King, Jesus Christ. As has already been mentioned, he wrote a lot of Psalms. These are very personal songs about his spiritual life, or songs directly addressed at God. Reading them, we get to know David as a person who longed to serve, praise and trust God.
David’s life
The first time we read about David in the Bible, he doesn’t seem to be an impressive person at all: he is the youngest son of Jesse the Bethlehemite and is keeping the sheep. When the prophet Samuel comes to Jesse’s family to sacrifice to the Lord (and secretly anoint a new king), David is not even called to join! Apparently, he doesn’t really count.
But this ordinary shepherd boy elected by God to become the new king of Israel. That’s not an easy task, and it takes years before David will really be crowned as king. His predecessor Saul does whatever is in his might to prevent his ‘rival’ from taking over the throne. But despite all the difficulties he meets, David keeps trusting the Lord and experiences that God is with him. Amidst many trials, he turns out to be a wise and brave king.
During his reign, David is often in war with surrounding countries, and he enlarges his territory. As God comments later on: “I have been with you wherever you went and have cut off all your enemies from before you” (2 Samuel 7:9).
David was a man after God’s heart
God describes David as “a man after My own heart” (1 Samuel 13:14, Acts 13:22). That does not mean that he was blameless. We only need to read 2 Samuel 11 to see that David has fallen very low: he took the wife of one of his generals, Bathsheba, because she was very beautiful.
When Bathsheba turned out to be pregnant, David called her husband Uriah home from the battle field hoping he would sleep with her. That would “solve” the problem of Bathsheba’s pregnancy.
But Uriah didn’t go home, not even when made drunk, so David sent him back to the battle field with a letter ordering his death. After Uriah’s death, David married Bathsheba. The description of this whole story ends with a clear comment: “the thing that David had done displeased the Lord” (2 Samuel 11:27).
Reviews
There are no reviews yet.