When David took it, he named it Jerusalem, or the vision of peace,
fortified it, built a palace there, and fetched thither with songs and
solemn dances, the long-hidden Ark, so that it might be the place where
God's Name was set, the centre of worship; and well was the spot fitted
for the purpose. It was a hill girdled round by other hills, and so
strong by nature, that when built round with towers and walls, an enemy
could hardly have taken it. David longed to raise a solid home for the
Ark, but this was not a work permitted to a man of war and bloodshed,
and he could only collect materials, and restore the priests to their
offices, giving them his own glorious Book of Psalms, full of praise,
prayer, and entreaty, to be sung for ever before the Lord, by courses of
Levites relieving one another, that so the voice of praise might never
die out.
David likewise made the Philistines, Moabites, Ammonites, and Edomites
pay him tribute, and became the most powerful king in the East,
receiving the fulfilment of the promises to Abraham; but even he was
far from guiltless. He was a man of strong passions, though of a tender
heart, and erred greatly, both from hastiness and weakness, but never
without repentance, and his Psalms of contrition have ever since been
the treasure of the penitent.
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