161 Then they took in the ark of God and put it inside the tent which David had put up for it; and they made offerings, burned offerings and peace-offerings before God. 2 And when David had come to an end of making the burned offerings and peace-offerings, he gave the people a blessing in the name of the Lord. 3 And he gave to everyone, every man and woman of Israel, a cake of bread, some meat, and a cake of dry grapes. 4 And he put some of the Levites before the ark of the Lord as servants, to keep the acts of the Lord in memory, and to give worship and praise to the Lord, the God of Israel: 5 Asaph the chief, and second to him Zechariah, Uzziel and Shemiramoth and Jehiel and Mattithiah and Eliab and Benaiah and Obed-edom and Jeiel, with corded instruments of music; and Asaph, with brass instruments sounding loudly; 6 And Benaiah and Jahaziel the priests, blowing horns all the time before the ark of the agreement of God.
7 Then on that day David first made the giving of praise to the Lord the work of Asaph and his brothers. 8 O give praise to the Lord; give honour to his name, talking of his doings among the peoples. 9 Let your voice be sounded in songs and melody; let all your thoughts be of the wonder of his works. 10 Have glory in his holy name; let the hearts of those who are searching after the Lord be glad. 11 Let your search be for the Lord and for his strength; let your hearts ever be turned to him. 12 Keep in mind the great works which he has done; his wonders, and the decisions of his mouth; 13 O you seed of Israel his servant, you children of Jacob, his loved ones. 14 He is the Lord our God: he is judge of all the earth. 15 He has kept his agreement in mind for ever, the word which he gave for a thousand generations; 16 The agreement which he made with Abraham, and his oath to Isaac; 17 And he gave it to Jacob for a law, and to Israel for an eternal agreement; 18 Saying, To you will I give the land of Canaan, the measured line of your heritage: 19 When you were still small in number, and strange in the land; 20 When they went about from one nation to another, and from one kingdom to another people; 21 He would not let anyone do them wrong; he even kept back kings because of them, 22 Saying, Put not your hand on those who have been marked with my holy oil, and do my prophets no wrong. 23 Make songs to the Lord, all the earth; give the good news of his salvation day by day. 24 Make clear his glory to the nations, and his wonders to all the peoples. 25 For the Lord is great, and greatly to be praised; and he is more to be feared than all other gods. 26 For all the gods of the nations are false gods; but the Lord made the heavens. 27 Honour and glory are before him: strength and joy are in his holy place. 28 Give to the Lord, O you families of the peoples, give to the Lord glory and strength. 29 Give to the Lord the glory of his name; take with you an offering and come before him; give worship to the Lord in holy robes. 30 Be in fear before him, all the earth: the world is ordered so that it may not be moved. 31 Let the heavens have joy and let the earth be glad; let them say among the nations, The Lord is King. 32 Let the sea be thundering with all its waters; let the field be glad, and everything which is in it; 33 Then let all the trees of the wood be sounding with joy before the Lord, for he is come to be the judge of the earth. 34 O give praise to the Lord, for he is good: for his mercy is unchanging for ever. 35 And say, Be our saviour, O God of our salvation, and let us come back, and give us salvation from the nations, so that we may give honour to your holy name and have glory in your praise. 36 Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel, for ever and for ever. And all the people said, So be it; and gave praise to the Lord.
37 So he made Asaph and his brothers keep their places there before the ark of the agreement of the Lord, to do whatever had to be done before the ark at all times day by day: 38 And Obed-edom, the son of Jeduthun, and Hosah, with their brothers, sixty-eight of them, to be door-keepers: 39 And Zadok the priest, with his brothers the priests, before the House of the Lord in the high place at Gibeon; 40 To give burned offerings to the Lord on the altar of burned offerings morning and evening, every day, as it is ordered in the law of the Lord which he gave to Israel; 41 And with them Heman and Jeduthun, and the rest who were marked out by name to give praise to the Lord, for his mercy is unchanging for ever; 42 And Heman and Jeduthun had horns and brass instruments sounding loudly, and instruments of music for the songs of God; and the sons of Jeduthun were to be at the door. 43 And all the people went away, every man to his house; and David went back to give a blessing to his family.
171 Now when David was living in his house, he said to Nathan the prophet, See, I am living in a house of cedar-wood, but the ark of the Lord's agreement is under the curtains of a tent. 2 And Nathan said to David, Do whatever is in your heart, for God is with you. 3 But that same night, the word of God came to Nathan, saying, 4 Go and say to David my servant, The Lord says, You are not to make me a house for my living-place: 5 For from the day when I took Israel up, till this day, I have had no house, but have gone from tent to tent, and from living-place to living-place. 6 In all the places where I have gone with all Israel, did I ever say to any of the judges of Israel, whom I made the keepers of my people, Why have you not made for me a house of cedar? 7 So now, say to my servant David, The Lord of armies says, I took you from the fields, from keeping sheep, so that you might be a ruler over my people Israel; 8 And I have been with you wherever you went, cutting off before you all those who were against you; and I will make your name like the name of the greatest ones of the earth. 9 And I will make a resting-place for my people Israel, planting them there, so that they may be in the place which is theirs and never again be moved; and never again will they be made waste by evil men, as they were at first, 10 From the time when I put judges over my people Israel; and I will overcome all those who are against you; and I will make you great and the head of a line of kings. 11 And when the time comes for you to go to your fathers, I will put in your place your seed after you, one of your sons, and I will make his kingdom strong. 12 He will be the builder of my house, and I will make the seat of his authority certain for ever. 13 I will be to him a father and he will be to me a son; and I will not take my mercy away from him as I took it from him who was before you; 14 But I will make his place in my house and in my kingdom certain for ever; and the seat of his authority will never be overturned. 15 So Nathan gave David an account of all these words and this vision.
16 Then David the king went in and took his seat before the Lord, and said, Who am I, O Lord God, and what is my family, that you have been my guide till now? 17 And this was only a small thing to you, O God; but your words have even been about the far-off future of your servant's family, looking on me as on one of high position, O Lord God. 18 What more may David say to you? for you have knowledge of your servant. 19 O Lord, because of your servant, and from your heart, you have done all these great things and let them be seen. 20 O Lord, there is no one like you, and no other God but you, as is clear from everything which has come to our ears. 21 And what other nation in the earth, like your people Israel, did a god go out to take for himself, to be his people, making his name great and to be feared, driving out the nations from before your people whom you made free and took out of Egypt? 22 For your people Israel you made yours for ever; and you, Lord, became their God. 23 And now, Lord, let your words about your servant and about his family be made certain for ever, and do as you have said. 24 So let your words be made certain and your name be made great, when men say, The Lord of armies is the God of Israel; and when the family of David your servant is made strong before you. 25 For you, O my God, have let your servant see that you will make him head of a line of kings; and so it has come into your servant's heart to make his prayer to you. 26 And now, O Lord, you are God, and you have said you will give this good thing to your servant: 27 And now you have been pleased to give your blessing to the family of your servant, so that it may go on for ever before you; you, O Lord, have given your blessing, and a blessing will be on it for ever.
181 And it came about after this that David made an attack on the Philistines and overcame them, and took Gath with its daughter-towns out of the hands of the Philistines. 2 And he overcame Moab, and the Moabites became his servants and gave him offerings. 3 Then David overcame Hadadezer, king of Zobah, near Hamath, when he was going to make his power seen by the river Euphrates. 4 And David took from him a thousand war-carriages and seven thousand horsemen and twenty thousand footmen: and he had the leg-muscles of all the horses cut, keeping only enough of them for a hundred war-carriages. 5 And when the Aramaeans of Damascus came to the help of Hadadezer, king of Zobah, David put to the sword twenty-two thousand Aramaeans. 6 Then David put armed forces in Damascus, and the Aramaeans became his servants and gave him offerings. And the Lord made David overcome wherever he went. 7 And the gold body-covers of the servants of Hadadezer, David took to Jerusalem. 8 And from Tibhath and from Cun, towns of Hadadezer, David took a great store of brass, of which Solomon made the great brass water-vessel and the brass pillars and vessels.
9 Now when Tou, king of Hamath, had news that David had overcome all the army of Hadadezer, king of Zobah, 10 He sent his son Hadoram to King David, to give him words of peace and blessing, because he had overcome Hadadezer in the fight, for Hadadezer had been at war with Tou; and he gave him all sorts of vessels of gold and silver and brass. 11 These King David made holy to the Lord, together with the silver and gold he had taken from all nations; from Edom and Moab and from the children of Ammon and from the Philistines and from Amalek. 12 And when he came back from putting to the sword eighteen thousand of the Edomites in the Valley of Salt, 13 David put armed forces in all the towns of Edom; and all the Edomites became servants to David. The Lord made David overcome wherever he went.
14 So David was king over all Israel, judging and giving right decisions for all his people. 15 And Joab, the son of Zeruiah, was chief of the army; and Jehoshaphat, son of Ahilud, was keeper of the records. 16 And Zadok, the son of Ahitub; and Ahimelech, the son of Abiathar, were priests; and Shavsha was the scribe; 17 And Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada, was over the Cherethites and the Pelethites; and the sons of David were chief of those whose places were at the king's side.
28 Then, when he was teaching in the Temple, Jesus said with a loud voice, You have knowledge of me and you have knowledge of where I come from; and I have not come of myself; but there is One who has sent me; he is true, but you have no knowledge of him. 29 I have knowledge of him because I came from him and he sent me. 30 Then they had a desire to take him: but no man put hands on him because his hour was still to come. 31 And numbers of the people had belief in him, and they said, When the Christ comes will he do more signs than this man has done?
32 This discussion of the people came to the ears of the Pharisees; and the chief priests and the Pharisees sent servants to take him. 33 Then Jesus said, I will be with you a little longer and then I go to him who sent me. 34 You will be looking for me, and you will not see me: and where I am you may not come. 35 So the Jews said among themselves, To what place is he going where we will not see him? will he go to the Jews living among the Greeks and become the teacher of the Greeks? 36 What is this saying of his, You will be looking for me and will not see me, and where I am you may not come?
37 On the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus got up and said in a loud voice, If any man is in need of drink let him come to me and I will give it to him. 38 He who has faith in me, out of his body, as the Writings have said, will come rivers of living water. 39 This he said of the Spirit which would be given to those who had faith in him: the Spirit had not been given then, because the glory of Jesus was still to come.
40 When these words came to their ears, some of the people said, This is certainly the prophet. 41 Others said, This is the Christ. But others said, Not so; will the Christ come from Galilee? 42 Do not the Writings say that the Christ comes of the seed of David and from Beth-lehem, the little town where David was? 43 So there was a division among the people because of him. 44 And some of them had a desire to take him; but no man put hands on him.
45 Then the servants went back to the chief priests and Pharisees, who said to them, Why have you not got him with you? 46 The servants made answer, No man ever said things like this man. 47 Then the Pharisees said to them, Have you, like the others, been given false ideas? 48 Have any of the rulers belief in him, or any one of the Pharisees? 49 But these people who have no knowledge of the law are cursed. 50 Nicodemus—he who had come to Jesus before, being himself one of them—said to them, 51 Is a man judged by our law before it has given him a hearing and has knowledge of what he has done? 52 This was their answer: And do you come from Galilee? Make search and you will see that no prophet comes out of Galilee.
53 [And every man went to his house;
(Read John 7:25-30)
Christ proclaimed aloud, that they were in error in their thoughts about his origin. He was sent of God, who showed himself true to his promises. This declaration, that they knew not God, with his claim to peculiar knowledge, provoked the hearers; and they sought to take him, but God can tie men's hands, though he does not turn their hearts.
(Read John 7:31-36)
The discourses of Jesus convinced many that he was the Messiah; but they had not courage to own it. It is comfort to those who are in the world, but not of it, and therefore are hated by it and weary of it, that they shall not be in it always, that they shall not be in it long. Our days being evil, it is well they are few. The days of life and of grace do not last long; and sinners, when in misery, will be glad of the help they now despise. Men dispute about such sayings, but the event will explain them.
(Read John 7:37-39)
On the last day of the feast of tabernacles, the Jews drew water and poured it out before the Lord. It is supposed that Christ alluded to this. If any man desires to be truly and for ever happy, let him apply to Christ, and be ruled by him. This thirst means strong desires after spiritual blessings, which nothing else can satisfy; so the sanctifying and comforting influences of the Holy Spirit, were intended by the waters which Jesus called on them to come to Him and drink. The comfort flows plentifully and constantly as a river; strong as a stream to bear down the opposition of doubts and fears. There is a fulness in Christ, of grace for grace. The Spirit dwelling and working in believers, is as a fountain of living, running water, out of which plentiful streams flow, cooling and cleansing as water. The miraculous gifts of the Holy Spirit we do not expect, but for his more common and more valuable influences we may apply. These streams have flowed from our glorified Redeemer, down to this age, and to the remote corners of the earth. May we be anxious to make them known to others.
(Read John 7:40-53)
The malice of Christ's enemies is always against reason, and sometimes the staying of it cannot be accounted for. Never any man spake with that wisdom, and power, and grace, that convincing clearness, and that sweetness, wherewith Christ spake. Alas, that many, who are for a time restrained, and who speak highly of the word of Jesus, speedily lose their convictions, and go on in their sins! People are foolishly swayed by outward motives in matters of eternal moment, are willing even to be damned for fashion's sake. As the wisdom of God often chooses things which men despise, so the folly of men commonly despises those whom God has chosen. The Lord brings forward his weak and timid disciples, and sometimes uses them to defeat the designs of his enemies.
