His Reign Over All Israel.  Saul’s kingdom having fallen, Israel assembled in great numbers at Hebron and asked David to become king over all the nation.  Upon his ascendancy to the throne of the united nations the Philistines sent an army into the Hebrew country.  The brief record of these wars shows that they were very bitter and that at one time David was forced to take refuge in the Cave of Adullam and carry on a sort of guerrilla warfare.  But finally in the valley of Rephaim he was enabled to strike such a crushing blow to the Philistines as to compel a lasting peace and leave him free to develop his kingdom.  This reign of David, lasting thirty-three years after he became king of all, was the ideal reign of all the history of the Hebrews.

The element of success and chief acts of his reign may be summed up somewhat as follows:  (1) His capture of Jerusalem (formerly called Jesub,) a Canaanitish stronghold that had resisted all attacks from the days of Joshua, and making it his capitol.  This choice showed great wisdom. (2) His foreign relations.  David’s foreign policy was one of conquest.  He not only defended Israel but subdued other nations.  Besides the subduing of the Philistines and capture of Jebus, already mentioned, he conquered the Moabites. the Syrians, the Edomites and the Ammonites.  He also made an alliance with Hiram, the king of the Phoenicians, who became his lifelong friend. (3) His home relations and policies.  His policy at home may be said to be one of centralization.  One of his first acts was to bring up the ark and place it on Mount Zion and to center all worship there.  This would tend to unite the people and to make more powerful his authority over all the people.  In line with this plan he conceived the idea of building the temple and during the years he gathered materials and stored riches with which to build it.  He acted with a wise consideration for the rights of his subjects and in every way sought to promote their happiness.  As a ruler, he differed very widely from the kings of other countries.  He possessed none of their selfish aims.  He did not oppress his subjects with heavy taxes, nor spoil them of their possessions, nor seize them for soldiers against their will.  He recognized that the king was for the people and not the people for the king.

His Great Sin and Its Bitter Consequences.  David’s high ideals and noble chivalry could not withstand the enervating influence of his growing harem.  The degrading influence of polygamy with its luxury, pleasure seeking and jealousies was soon to undermine his character.  His sins and weak indulgencies were destined to work family and national disaster.  These sins reached a climax in his trespass with Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah.  In this crime he fell from his exalted position to the level of an unprincipled eastern monarch.  It stands out as one of the darkest crimes of all history and “shows what terrible remnants of sin there are in the hearts even