Monday - II Samuel 23 - He Who Rules

II Samuel 23:3 records for us a heavenly injunction: "He that rules over men must be just." That's the difficulty... being just, fair moral, reasonable. Self-service can appear so very attractive; so much more appealing than self-discipline, service and sacrifice. But, as David was the man in charge, it was imperative that he reign justly. And, he could have never accomplished that alone. He had help from above... from God, and help from beside him: from his mightiest and closest military subordinates. This chapter describes those blessed bookends of support that David the monarch enjoyed.

Verses 1-7 are reminiscent of the poem in the previous chapter. He recognized that he had not pulled himself up by his own bootstraps. He knew that God had lifted him up and blessed his life. True, David was called the sweet psalmist of Israel, but who really deserved the recognition for his wonderful poetic contributions to the Hebrew hymnbook? To quote David himself, he said, "The Spirit of the LORD spoke by me, and His word was in my tongue." David understood well enough that God was responsible for his success.

Now, God doesn't do everything by overt spiritual means nor by mysterious supernatural intervention.  Often, He works through simple physical means. (Maybe "simple" isn't a proper description of David's 37 mighty men). With men like those doing the kinds of things that they did for David… no wonder he was such a success.