The close connection
betwixt the seeking of Jehovah their God and David their king, likewise
claims our attention. David and his family had been elected by God to
be the mediator between Him and the [Pg 289] people--the channel
through which all His blessings flowed clown upon the people--the
visible image of the invisible King, who, at the end of the days, was,
in Christ, most perfectly to reflect His glory. The Israelites, in
turning away from David their king, turned away, at the same time, from
Jehovah their God,--as was but too soon manifested by the other signs
of apostasy from Him, by the introduction of the worship of calves,
etc. He who refuses to acknowledge God in that which He has Himself
declared to be His visible image (from Christ down to every relation
which represents Him in any respect, _e.g._, that of the father to the
son, of the king to the subject), will soon cease to acknowledge
Himself. But as, first, the ten tribes, and afterwards, the entire
people, apostatized from God, by apostatizing from David, so, by their
apostasy from him, they excluded themselves from all participation in
the privileges of the people of God, which could flow to them only
through him. It is only when they return to David by returning to
Christ, that, from their self-made God, they come to the true God, and
within the sphere of His blessings. That the same thing is repeated
among ourselves in the case of those who have forsaken Christ their
King, and yet imagine still to possess God, and that it is only by
their returning to the brightness of His glory that they can attain to
a true union with the Lord their God, and to a participation in the
blessings which He bestows,--all this is so obvious as to require
nothing beyond a simple suggestion. A perfectly sound interpretation of
this passage is to be found in _Calvin_, who remarks: "David was, as it
were, a messenger of the Lord, and, hence, that defection of the ten
tribes was tantamount to a rejection of the living God. The Lord had,
on a former occasion, said to Samuel (1 Sam. viii. 7), 'They have not
rejected thee, but they have rejected Me.' But how much more was this
applicable in the case of David, whom Samuel had anointed at the
command of God, and whom the Lord had adorned with so many glorious
attributes, that they could not reject his rule without, at the same
time, publicly rejecting, to a certain extent, the Lord Himself! It is
true, indeed, that David was the