Have you reached verse 12 yet?

By verse 3 it was a done deal: They had inaugurated him King of Israel.

But it was not until verse 12 that David perceived he was King of Israel.

What took him so long?

There was no doubt pomp and pageantry at verse 3. Official agreements were transacted. The historical clock of his administration started ticking at that juncture. So it was official, right? It must have been the right thing to do.

Right?

It was not until verse 12 that David perceived he was King of Israel.

It speaks of a rich interior life, where communion with God takes place, where the green light of God is finally given, where the true lineaments of external events are seen for what they really are ...

... or are not.

Before they are perceived in this way, external things (titles, positions, ownerships, commitments) are not really ours even if they are ours by pomp or public appearance.

They are only ours when -- and if -- God allows us to perceive ourselves in that role, or that ownership, or that commitment.

Happy is the man who lives only by what he has perceived, and is free from the pomp and circumstance of mere external appearances.

So, where are you today? Have you reached verse 12 yet?

Or are you still closer to verse 3?

Logos2Go

2 Samuel 5.1-12 1 Then came all the tribes of Israel to David unto Hebron, and spake, saying, Behold, we are thy bone and thy flesh. 2 Also in time past, when Saul was king over us, thou wast he that leddest out and broughtest in Israel: and the LORD said to thee, Thou shalt feed my people Israel, and thou shalt be a captain over Israel. 3 So all the elders of Israel came to the king to Hebron; and king David made a league with them in Hebron before the LORD: and they anointed David king over Israel. 4 David was thirty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned forty years. 5 In Hebron he reigned over Judah seven years and six months: and in Jerusalem he reigned thirty and three years over all Israel and Judah. 6 And the king and his men went to Jerusalem unto the Jebusites, the inhabitants of the land: which spake unto David, saying, Except thou take away the blind and the lame, thou shalt not come in hither: thinkinga, David cannot come in hither. 7 Nevertheless David took the strong hold of Zion: the same is the city of David. 8 And David said on that day, Whosoever getteth up to the gutter, and smiteth the Jebusites, and the lame and the blind, that are hated of David’s soul, he shall be chief and captain. Wherefore they said, The blind and the lame shall not come into the house. 9 So David dwelt in the fort, and called it the city of David. And David built round about from Millo and inward. 10 And David wentb on, and grew great, and the LORD God of hosts was with him. 11 And Hiram king of Tyre sent messengers to David, and cedar trees, and carpenters, and masonsc: and they built David an house. 12 And David perceived that the LORD had established him king over Israel, and that he had exalted his kingdom for his people Israel’s sake.

James 4.1-4 What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? 2 You want something but don’t get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do not ask God. 3 When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures. 4 You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God?