THE ARK BROUGHT UP TO JERUSALEM.
2 Samuel 6:1-5, 2 Samuel 6:12-19.
No sooner had David been anointed king over all Israel, than the Philistines came up against him. David’s instinct back then was to ‘enquire of the LORD’ as to what he should do (cf. 2 Samuel 5:17-19). And David ‘did as the LORD had commanded him: and smote the Philistines’ (cf. 2 Samuel 5:25).
As we enter into the next chapter, we find David mobilising his troops once more: but not this time for war, but to escort the ark of the covenant to his new capital in Jerusalem (2 SAMUEL 6:1-2). David was in no doubt as to the significance of the ark: it represented the presence of “the LORD of hosts who dwells between the cherubim” (2 SAMUEL 6:2b) in the midst of His people. The problem this time is that David does not appear to have consulted the LORD, but simply took it for granted that it was the right thing to do.
Neither did he consult the LORD, nor even the priests, to ask HOW the ark should be transported. The ark was supposed to be borne upon the shoulders of certain of the Levitical priests, the Kohathites (cf. Numbers 4:15); but at the first attempt David copied the method that the Philistines had used when they returned the ark, using a cart and oxen (2 SAMUEL 6:3-4; cf. 1 Samuel 6:10-11). This turned out to be a fatal mistake, costing a man his life (cf. 2 Samuel 6:6-7).
We are left in no doubt as to the enthusiasm that attended the beginning of this procession (2 SAMUEL 6:5). So the death of Uzzah must have come as a bit of a shock (cf. 2 Samuel 6:8-9)! Almost petulantly, ‘David would not remove the ark of the LORD unto him into the city of David: but moved it aside into the house of Obed-edom the Gittite’ (cf. 2 Samuel 6:10).
After three months, David heard that the LORD had blessed Obed-edom, so David returned to collect the ark to bring it “into the city of David with gladness” (2 SAMUEL 6:12). This time David took notice of the due order (cf. 1 Chronicles 15:2), and the ark was carried accordingly, with much ceremony (2 SAMUEL 6:13). [Jesus said, ‘God is a Spirit: and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth’ (cf. John 4:24).]
The exuberance of this second stage of the ark’s journey is typified by David’s own “dancing before the LORD with all his might” (2 SAMUEL 6:14a), celebrating God’s presence. The mention that David was at this point only “girded with a linen ephod” (2 SAMUEL 6:14b) seems to be part of the reason that Michal, Saul’s daughter, came to “despise David in her heart” (2 SAMUEL 6:16; cf. 2 Samuel 6:20). It became clear hereafter that David’s first wife, Michal the daughter of Saul, would not be the one to bear a successor for David (cf. 2 Samuel 6:21-23).
But it was not only David that was caught up in the moment. As well as the strings and percussion of the first part of the journey (2 SAMUEL 6:5), there was now much “shouting” and “the sound of the trumpet” as “all the house of Israel” at last “brought up the ark of the LORD” to Jerusalem (2 SAMUEL 6:15).
2 SAMUEL 6:17-19. After the ark was set in its place in the tabernacle, the celebration continued with burnt offerings and peace offerings, and David blessed the people in the name of the LORD of hosts (cf. Numbers 6:22-27). In this David took on a priestly role, prefiguring Jesus. Then he distributed to them, along with the flesh from the peace offerings, both bread and wine, prefiguring the communion meal. .
