Gilbert House Fellowship

DAVID WAS not perfect, but he recognized his failures. More importantly, he acknowledged that God was the source of his salvation—his yeshua.  This week, we study four psalms dated to the last part of David’s life. This followed the rebellion and death of his son, Absalom, his near-death at the hands of one of the Philistine “sons of the Rapha,” and his decision to eliminate the male heirs of the...

THIS WEEK’S STUDY is a song of deliverance that follows the account of David’s final victory over the Philistine “sons of the Rapha.”  2 Samuel 22 is nearly identical to Psalm 18, which we studied immediately after the account of Saul’s death in battle with the Philistines. In this psalm, David expresses his gratitude to God for His salvation (which in Hebrew is yeshua), deliverance, and faithfuln...

THE BELIEF that the Philistines were giants (or had giants among them) with six fingers and toes on their hands and feet comes from 2 Samuel 21. That’s not necessarily what those verses mean.  As we discussed in our study of 1 Samuel 17, the oldest Hebrew sources, the Dead Sea scrolls and the first-century historian Josephus, record that Goliath of Gath was four cubits (not six) and a span, or abo...

THE POLITICS of David’s day was just brutal and bloody as it is today.  Following the rebellion of Absalom, the people of Israel conclude that their best option is to welcome David home as king. For his part, David tried to win the loyalty of his relatives in the tribe of Judah by replacing one of his nephews, Joab, as commander of the army with another nephew, Amasa—who, we failed to mention, had...

DAVID’S CAPACITY for self-examination is remarkable. Many powerful people throughout history found it difficult, if not impossible, to admit flaws and learn from mistakes.  However, David also understood the influence of spirits in the unseen realm on human activity, condemning the elim (“gods”) who administer affairs on Earth unjustly.   We also discuss “the proud” in Psalm 40:4. The Hebrew word ...

ONE OF THE hardest things you can do is give thanks to God in the middle of trouble.  This week, we read a collection of psalms composed by David while he was running from his son Absalom, who’d raised an army and was marching on Jerusalem. Remarkably, in the midst of David’s heartbreak, realizing that either he or his son would die in the battle to come and reflecting on his failures as a father,...

DAVID WAS NOT a good father. That’s obvious from the way his own children treated each other—and him. Sometimes, kids turn out badly despite their parents’ best efforts. David seems to have been unable to discipline his sons. Amnon, his eldest, raped his half-sister, Tamar, and was murdered by David’s second son, Absalom. After a few years in exile, he returned to Jerusalem and began plotting to o...

TALK ABOUT ingratitude: David’s son Absalom, who’d fled to his grandfather’s kingdom of Geshur, returned to Jerusalem after a two-year exile and apparently began scheming to remove David from the throne as soon as he came home.  We discuss the ploy by Absalom’s cousin, David’s nephew Joab, to return the king’s oldest surviving son to Jerusalem, and how Absalom forced Joab to meet with him and arra...

THE PSALMS this week follow our chronological reading order, meaning they were written by David after he was confronted by the prophet Nathan for conspiring to kill Uriah the Hittite so that David could take his wife, Bathsheba.  We discuss the repentant heart of David that comes through in these psalms—acknowledging his guilt and pleading with God to wipe away his sin, transgression, and iniquity...

DAVID’S PLOY to take the wife of Uriah the Hittite is another story that shows that the Bible has not been cleaned up to make the humans used by God look more, well, saintly.  Bathsheba, whose name probably derives from Hurrian meaning “lady of Hebat,” the chief female deity of the Hurrian pantheon, was impregnated by David while her husband, Uriah the Hittite, fought with the army in Ammon. After...

THE TONE of this week’s psalms seems odd given the military victories of David that we studied last week.  This is why we use a chronological reading order: We see in this week’s readings that David, despite his success on the battlefield, really grappled with the opposition he faced from enemies both from without and within his kingdom. But despite his occasional cries of despair, David always re...

DAVID’S KINGDOM faced a strong test from his neighbors to the east and north as a coalition of Ammonites and Arameans tried to take down the new Israelite kingdom.  We discuss the nearly identical accounts in 2 Samuel and 1 Chronicles and the wonderful attitude of David’s nephew and general Joab: “Be of good courage, and let us be courageous for our people, and for the cities of our God, and may t...

DAVID’S KINGDOM expanded outward in all directions, possibly reaching as far as the Euphrates in northern Syria.  This week, we read the records of David’s wars against the Arameans of Damascus and Zobah to the north, the small kingdoms east of the Jordan (Ammon, Moab, and Edom), and the Amalekites in the south.   We discuss the historical context of David’s reign and the recent discovery of an Ir...

A SUPERNATURAL worldview was perfectly natural to King David. It’s clear from his psalms that he had a better understanding of the unseen realm.  After recapitulating the prayer of David from last week’s reading of 2 Samuel 7, we discuss references in his psalms that point to spiritual beings, such as “heavenly beings,” the bene elim (literally, “sons of God”) of Psalm 29:1. For all of his faults,...

DAVID WAS not a perfect man by any measure, but if we draw anything from this week’s study it should be his example of humility when he realized that he’d become a little too full of himself.  The narrative is another account of bringing the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem, which we previously studied in 1 Chronicles 13–16. Afterward, David proposed building a temple to God, but the Lord appeared...

DAVID KNEW that God had a divine council comprised of supernatural beings. We see more confirmation of that in this week’s study.  Psalm 89 mentions the “holy ones” (Hebrew qedoshim) and “heavenly beings” (bene elim, literally “sons of God”) who are in his assembly. The psalmist goes on to praise God for His power in mastering the sea (Ps. 89:9–10). In Hebrew, that’s yam, the Canaanite name for th...

THERE IS MORE spiritual warfare in the psalms than we realize! This week, we study three of David’s psalms that have more going on under the hood than is obvious at first read. Psalm 24 praises God for founding the earth “upon the seas and… the rivers.” In Canaanite religion, Baal became king of the gods after a battle with Yam (“Sea”), the embodiment of chaos (i.e., Leviathan), who is often calle...

THE PSALMS OF DAVID are often prophetic. We know this. However, we often overlook just how supernatural they are. This week, we focus on two of the most profound and stunning psalms in the Bible. Psalm 22 begins with a line quoted by Jesus on the cross: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” It’s widely acknowledged by Bible scholars that the 22nd Psalm is a prophecy of the Crucifixion writte...

READING THE HEADLINES each day can cause anxiety, depression, and frustration at the plots and schemes of those who apparently feel qualified, if not entitled, to tell the rest of us how we should live. When the news is getting to you, remember these words: He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord holds them in derision. Then He will speak to them in His wrath, and terrify them in His fury, say...

GOD IS enthroned above the cherubim on the Ark of the Covenant. Failure to treat the ark with proper respect, according to the Law, cost a teamster his life. This week, we discuss the move of the ark to Jerusalem and a section of scripture in 1 Chronicles 13 that’s difficult for many to accept. Why was Uzzah killed by God for putting his hand on the ark to steady it? The answer: The ark was suppos...

DAVID ASCENDS to the throne in Jerusalem, and we recount the history of Israel, including some startling examples of warfare in the unseen realm, in the psalms accompanying our study this week. First, we discuss the Jebusites and the city of Jebus, which apparently was the area around the stronghold of Zion, which is the City of David—the area just south of the Temple Mount. “Jebus” means “threshi...

DAVID’S FRAME OF MIND was apparently much better by the time he wrote these psalms, which are dated to about the time he was anointed king over all Israel. That took place at Hebron, but shortly thereafter he marched against the Jebusite city of Jerusalem and made that his capital city. We discuss the Jebusites, why we believe they were Hurrians (Horites), and why that’s relevant to our understand...

Genealogy was important in ancient Israel. It was how the Israelites kept track of the heads of the tribes and who was eligible for service in the Temple. It also debunks the idea that the tribes of the northern kingdom were “lost” after the Assyrian invasion of 722 BC. This week, we study the records of six of the tribes, the family of Saul, and the genealogy of the returned exiles. Then we move...

Our ancestors 3,000 years ago dealt with the same pressures and problems we face today. This week, after reading the Chronicler’s list of the descendants of Levi, we study four psalms that illustrate the frustration of God that His people do not listen; the despair that comes from feeling separated from God like the demonic spirits of the Rephaim (Ps. 88:10: “departed” = rephaim); and the joy that...

Remembering where we came from is the theme of this week’s study, three psalms of Asaph, a contemporary of David, that lament the trials of the faithful in contrast to the apparent success of the wicked. Although the unrighteous appear to prosper, Asaph remembers that envy of the arrogant is a stumbling block, and that we must remember the mighty works of God in saving not just his people, but eac...