The path to David’s coronation did not run as smoothly as this passage may indicate. His succession was nothing like the transition from King George VI to the present Queen Elizabeth. Despite the fact that God had anointed David king, that anointing preceded this one of the text by quite some time. Blood was shed, more than we like to remember - some by David, though he was careful never to lay his hand on God’s anointed, his predecessor Saul, but much of the slaughter was by David’s lieutenants.

Despite the fact that King David became one of the outstanding symbols - to be like David was to be like the Lord’s anointed, messianic - the Scriptures do not glamorize his kingship. Saul’s failures, David’s weaknesses, and the sins of his successors fill the Scriptural accounts. Alongside his w…