Day 44: 2 Samuel 5:1–5

“Even while Saul was king over us, you were the one who led us out to battle and brought us back. The Lord also said to you, ‘You will shepherd My people Israel and be ruler over Israel’ ” (v. 2).

What an exciting day! We are about to see David experience the fulfillment of God’s promise! As we witness a tremendous pivot in his life, we can assume his introspective mind was swirling with many things, filling him with all sorts of emotions.

In 2 Samuel 5, all the tribes of Israel came to David and acclaimed him as king. The chapter gives some key numbers for the life of David: He was thirty years old when he became king. He ruled for forty years. He reigned seven and one-half years over Judah from Hebron. He ruled all Israel from Jerusalem for thirty-three years. He waited a long time for the fulfillment of 1 Samuel 16.

God didn’t choose the person Samuel expected. He chose a shepherd boy. God called David not in spite of the fact that he was a common shepherd but because he was a shepherd!

Strangely, David had come so far, yet he was back where he started. The hand that wrapped around his weapon now as he waited for God’s signal to overcome the Philistines looked far different from the hand that had searched for a smooth stone many years before. The first time he ever used his hands in battle was against the Philistines. Now he stood against them once more as king of Israel. Perhaps God inspired David to write the words of Psalm 144:1–2 on this very day:

Praise be to the Lord my Rock who trains my hands for war, my fingers for battle. He is my loving God and my fortress, my stronghold and my deliverer, my shield, in whom I take refuge, who subdues peoples under me.

We began our study with a shepherd boy. Now we see a shepherd king. He was still guarding the sheep with “integrity of heart” and “skillful hands” (Ps. 78:72)—hands prepared for war yet still for the same purpose: the protection of sheep. Same shepherd, different sheep. God’s sheep.