Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 78:70
He chose David also his servant, and took him from the sheepfolds:
70. David his servant ] Though any Israelite might profess himself Jehovah’s servant in addressing Him, only a few who were raised up to do special service or who stood in a special relation to Jehovah, such as Abraham, Moses, Joshua, David, Job, are distinguished by this title of honour. Cp. 2Sa 3:18; 2Sa 7:5; 2Sa 7:8; 1Ki 8:24; Psa 89:3; Psa 89:20; Psa 132:10.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
70 72. The choice of David as king.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
He chose David also his servant – He chose him that he might set him over his people as their king. The idea is, that David was selected when he had no natural pretensions to the office, as he did not pertain to a royal family, and could have no claim to such a distinction. The account of this choice is contained in 1 Sam. 15:1-30.
And took him from the sheep-folds – From the humble occupation of a shepherd. 1Sa 16:11; 2Sa 7:8.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Psa 78:70-72
He chose David also His servant, and took him from the sheepfolds.
David, the shepherd, called to be king
A keeper of sheep, suddenly becoming conscious that he was chosen for a great yet terrible destiny; being gradually fitted among the quiet hill-sides to meet this mighty calling; and then, rising to the throne, so gifted with kingly power that he guided the people through their days of peril, and established them in a strength that outlived the wear of centuries–this man (so called) seems to stand far off from ourselves in a distant world of wonder. And yet, if we ask how he was trained unconsciously for his calling–how he was strengthened to discharge it, we shall find that the same Divine hand is shaping our career; the same Divine voice calling us; and the same Divine Spirit willing to fit us for our part in the battle of life.
I. The Divine calling of David.
1. How was Davids shepherd-life an unconscious preparation for his calling? Amid the stillness of the ancient hills, David, the shepherd youth, was learning to feel a presence which surrounded him behind and before, and to realize the nearness of One who read his thoughts in the silence, when the beatings of his own heart were audible, and who watched over him when the great night with its gleaming worlds gathered over valley and hill.
2. How did the Divine summons fit him for his vocation? The hour came when he was to know that through all his years he had been trained for it, when the Spirit of the Lord came upon him from that day forward. And now observe–he was sent back to his flocks; in the full knowledge of his grand destiny, sent to pass years of silent waiting. He knew that a Heavenly will had chosen him for his work; that a Heavenly eye was marking his way; that a Heavenly hand had arranged every trifle in his destiny; and therefore, let the future threaten and storm as it might, he could stand firmly on that rock of belief, amid the whirling tides of trouble.
II. Its modern lessons.
1. There is a Divine plan in every life. We cannot guide ourselves. Great events which we never foresee, or trifles which we despise, are the powers that seem to influence irresistibly the current of our earthly years. And, even when our cherished schemes succeed, they are never what are expected. Now, behind these mysterious forces, and acting through them–controlling these strange disappointments, and rendering them blessings–is the plan of God; which plan, proceeding from the everlasting past to the everlasting future, makes the individual life of every man, as it made that of David, a Divine education.
2. There is a Divine vocation for every man. A Heavenly Spirit is near us all. There are hours when His light flashes consciously across the soul, calling it to arise. Like David, every man was meant to be a king–to be a king in heaven, by becoming on earth a priest in the sacrifice of himself.
3. There is a Divine Shepherd for every man. He gave His life for the sheep That tells us who was the Shepherd whose presence David felt–the Christ, who came into this wild wilderness to seek and to save the lost. (E. L. Hull, B. A.)
Davids training
I look on David as an all but ideal king, educated for his office by an all but ideal training. A shepherd first; a life–be it remembered–full of danger in those times and lands; then captain of a band of outlaws; and lastly a king, gradually and with difficulty fighting his way to a secure throne. This was his course. But the most important stage of it was probably the first. Among the dumb animals he learnt experience which he afterwards put into practice among human beings. The shepherd of the sheep became the shepherd of men. He who had slain the lion and the bear became the champion of his native land. He who followed the ewes great with young, fed Gods oppressed and weary people with a faithful and true heart, till he raised them into a great and strong nation. So both sides of the true kingly character, the masculine and the feminine, are brought out in David. For the greedy and tyrannous, he has indignant defiance; for the weak and helpless, patient tenderness. For there is in this man (as there is said to be in all great geniuses) a feminine as well as a masculine vein; a passionate tenderness; a keen sensibility; a vast capacity of sympathy, sadness, and suffering, which makes him truly the type of Christ, the Man of sorrows; which makes his psalms to this day the text-book of the afflicted, of tens of thousands who have not a particle of his beauty, courage, genius; but yet can fool, in mean hovels and workhouse sick-beds, that the warrior-poet speaks to their human hearts, and for their human hearts, as none other can speak, save Christ Himself, the Son of David and the Son of Man. A man, I say, of intense sensibilities; and therefore capable, as is but too notorious, of great crimes, as well as of great virtues. We may pervert, or rather mistake the fact in more than one way, to our own hurt. We may say cynically, David had his good points and his bad ones, as all your great saints have. Look at them closely, and in spite of all their pretensions you will find them no better than their neighbours. And so we may comfort ourselves, in our own mediocrity and laziness, by denying the existence of all greatness and goodness. Again, we may say, sentimentally, that these great weaknesses are on the whole the necessary concomitants of great strength; that such highly organized and complex characters must not be judged by the rule of common respectability; and that it is a more or less fine thing to be capable at once of great virtues and great vices. But if we do say this, or anything like this, we say it on our own responsibility. Davids biographers say nothing of the kind. David himself says nothing of the kind. He never represents himself as a compound of strength and weakness. He represents himself as weakness itself–as incapacity utter and complete. To overlook that startling fact is to overlook the very element which has made Davids psalms the text-book for all human weaknesses, penitences, sorrows, struggles, aspirations, for nigh three thousand years. (C. Kingsley, M. A.)
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Psa 79:1-13
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 70. He chose David] See the account, Clarke, “1Sa 16:11“, &c.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
70-72. God’s sovereignty wasillustrated in this choice. The contrast is strikinghumility andexaltationand the correspondence is beautiful.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
He chose David also his servant,…. To be king of Israel, the youngest of his father’s family, when he rejected all the rest; see
1Sa 16:6, an eminent type of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is called by his name, Ps 89:3 and the signification of his name “Beloved” agrees with him, who is beloved of God, as his Son, and as man and Mediator; and beloved of men, of all the saints: and so likewise his character as a servant suits with him; who not only frequently has the name of a servant, Ps 89:19, but appeared in the form of one, Php 2:7, had the work of a servant to do, which he has accomplished, even the great work of our salvation,
Joh 17:4, in doing which, and all things leading on and appertaining to it, he took the utmost delight and pleasure, and used the greatest diligence and assiduity, Joh 4:34 and justly acquired the character of a faithful and righteous servant, Isa 53:11, and to this work and office he was chosen and called by his Father,
Isa 42:1,
and took him from the sheepfolds; from whence he was fetched when Samuel was sent by the Lord to anoint him, 1Sa 16:11, so Moses, while he was feeding his father’s sheep, was called to be the saviour and deliverer of Israel, Ex 3:1, and Amos was taken from following the flock to be a prophet of the Lord, Am 7:13, and as David was a type of Christ, this may express the mean condition of our Lord, in his state of humiliation, previous to his exaltation, and the more open exercise of his kingly office.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
70. And he chose David his servant. After having made mention of the temple, the prophet now proceeds to speak of the kingdom; for these two things were the chief signs of God’s choice of his ancient people, and of his favor towards them; and Christ also hath appeared as our king and priest to bring a full and perfect salvation to us. He proves that David was made king by God, who elevated him from the sheepfold, and from the keeping of cattle, to the royal throne. It serves in no small degree to magnify the grace of God, that a peasant was taken from his mean shepherd’s cot, and exalted to the dignity of a king. Nor is this grace limited to the person of David. We are taught that whatever worth there was in the children of Abraham, flowed from the fountain of God’s mercy. The whole glory and felicity of the people consisted in the kingdom and priesthood; and both these are attributed to the pure grace and good pleasure of God. And it was requisite that the commencement of the kingdom of Christ should be lowly and contemptible, that it might correspond with its type, and that God might clearly show that he did not make use of external aids in order to accomplish our salvation.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
Psa 78:70 He chose David also his servant, and took him from the sheepfolds:
Ver. 70. He chose David also ] God chooseth not as man doth, 1Co 1:26 , yet Alexander the Great advanced Abdolominus, a poor gardener, to be king in Sidon.
And took him from the sheepfolds
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
chose David. Compare 1Sa 16:11, 1Sa 16:12. This is the climax of the Psalm.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
chose: Psa 89:19, Psa 89:20, 1Sa 16:11, 1Sa 16:12, 2Sa 3:18, 2Sa 6:21, Act 13:22
and took: Exo 3:1, Exo 3:10, 1Sa 17:15-54, 2Sa 7:8, 1Ki 19:19, 1Ki 19:20, Amo 7:14, Amo 7:15, Mat 4:18-22
Reciprocal: Gen 4:2 – And Abel Gen 31:40 – General Gen 46:32 – shepherds Num 24:17 – a Sceptre Deu 33:7 – and bring 1Sa 13:14 – the Lord 1Sa 16:19 – with the sheep 2Sa 5:2 – feed 2Sa 23:1 – raised 1Ki 3:6 – great 1Ki 8:16 – I chose David 1Ch 17:7 – I took thee 1Ch 17:17 – hast regarded Job 36:7 – with Psa 65:4 – choosest Psa 75:2 – When Psa 89:3 – my chosen Psa 131:1 – neither Jer 23:4 – I Amo 1:1 – who Luk 2:8 – abiding Joh 21:15 – Feed Act 20:28 – to feed
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Psa 78:70-71. He chose David also his servant Out of all the thousands of Israel, and put the sceptre into his hand, out of whose loins Christ was to come, and who was to be a type of him. And took him from the sheepfold As Moses also was taken. For he delights to put honour on the humble and diligent, and to raise the poor out of the dust, and to set them among princes. And he often finds those most fit for public action that have spent the beginning of their time in solitude and contemplation. From following the ewes great with young By which employment he was inured to that care, and diligence, and self-denial which are necessary qualifications in a king or governor; and instructed to rule his people with all gentleness and tenderness; to feed Jacob his people, &c. To be king over Gods peculiar people, who were near and dear to him, which was both a great honour put upon David, and a great trust reposed in him, as he was thus charged with the care and conduct of those that were Gods own inheritance. God, we must observe, advanced him to the throne, that he might feed them, not that he might feed himself; that he might do good, not that he might make his family great. It is the charge given to all under- shepherds, both magistrates and ministers, that they feed the flock of God.