Psalms 78:70

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] The art of feeding cattle and the art of ruling men are sisters, saith Basil.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

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

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Ver. 70. He chose David also his servant. It was an election of a sovereignly gracious kind, and it operated practically by making the chosen man a willing servant of the Lord. He was not chosen because he was a servant, but in order that he might be so. David always esteemed it to be a high honour that he was both elect of God, and a servant of God.

And took him from the sheepfolds. A shepherd of sheep he had been, and this was a fit school for a shepherd of men. Lowliness of occupation will debar no man from such honours as the Lord's election confers, the Lord seeth not as man seeth. He delights to bless those who are of low estate.

Ver. 70. He took him from the sheepfolds. The art of feeding cattle, and the art of ruling men are sisters, saith Basil. John Trapp.

Ver. 70-71.

1. David's calling. Two questions present themselves.

1. How was David's shepherd life an unconscious preparation for his calling?

2. How did the divine summons, when it came, fit him for his mighty destiny?

Observehe was sent back to his flocks. Nothing could train him more perfectly than that waiting. Two great convictions awakened in him then, that formed in him elements of strength.

1. The belief in a divine leader (see Ps 23:1-6).

2. The belief in a divine choice.

2. Its modern lessons.

1. There is a divine plan in every life.

2. There is a divine vocation for every man.

3. There is a divine Shepherd for every man. E. L. Hull.

Ver. 70-72. Spiritual promotions.

1. Analogies between lower and higher service, Ps 78:71.

2. Humbler work, a preparation for higher, Ps 78:71-72.

3. Promotion the act of the Divine will, Ps 78:70-71.

4. Our powers shall be equal to the position to which God promotes us.

Ver. 70-71. See Psalms on "Ps 78:70" for further information.

Ver. 70-72. Spiritual promotions. See Psalms on "Ps 78:70" for further information.

Charles H. Spurgeon's The Treasury of David (1869–1885) — public domain. Psalms only. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

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 God’s 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 God’s 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.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

70. (Psa 78:70) And chose David (as) his servant, and took him from the sheep-folds. Having spoken of the tribe and the particular locality preferred to Ephraim and Shiloh, he now brings into view the personal instrument or agent, by whom it pleased God that the theocratic kingdom should be founded. He did not choose David because he was his servant, i.e. a good man, but to be his servant, in the same pregnant and emphatic sense in which the title is applied to him in Psa 18:1. The sovereignty of the choice is indicated by the humble occupation and condition from which he was promoted.

Joseph Addison Alexander, The Psalms Translated and Explained (1850) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

78:70-72 The God who had turned against his own people (78:62) chose David, a shepherd (Gen 46:34; 1 Sam 16:10-11), to become their shepherd (Ps 78:52; cp. 23:1).

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 70. He chose David] See the account, Clarke, "1Sa 16:11", &c.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

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.

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

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.

70–72. The choice of David as king.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

From following the ewes great with young,.... Or, "from after" them (a); it was usual with the shepherd to put them before him, and to follow them, and gently drive them, which is expressive of his care and tenderness of them; see Gen 33:13, the same is observed of David's antitype, the great and good Shepherd of the sheep, Isa 40:11. David was a type of Christ as a shepherd; as he kept his father's sheep, so Christ keeps those that the Father has given him, Joh 10:29, as David kept his flock with great care and courage, and in safety, Sa1 17:34, so does the Lord Jesus Christ keep his flock in safety, and preserves it from Satan, the roaring lion, and from grievous wolves that enter into it, and every beast of prey that would devour it; and particularly as David took special care of those that were with young, so does the Lord take special care of such that are newborn babes, that have Christ formed in them, and are big with desires after him, carry a burden, and are weary, and heavy laden: the Targum, Jarchi, and Kimchi, interpret the word (b) of such that give suck, and so it most properly signifies:

he brought him to feed Jacob his people, and Israel his inheritance; that is, to rule over them: this is said in allusion to his having been a shepherd; and nothing is more common than for kings to be represented as shepherds, and their acts of government by leading and feeding; and one and the same word in the Greek language signifies to feed and rule: and so the Targum,

"he brought him to rule over Jacob his people:''

this was a great honour indeed, to be the governor of the Lord's people, a special people above all people on the face of the earth, and whom he had chosen to be his inheritance; and in this also he was a type of Christ, who has the throne of his father David given him, and who reigns over the house of Jacob, one of whose titles is King of saints; for as the government of the world in general, so of the church in particular, is on his shoulders, Luk 1:32.

(a) "de post", Montanus, Vatablus, Gejerus; "a post", Michaelis. (b) "lactantes", Vatablus, Gejerus, Michaelis.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

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.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

He chose David also his servant. (see 1Sa_16:1, 1Sa_16:12) And took him from the sheepfolds. (comp. 1Sa_16:11, 19 2Sa_7:8)

The grace of Divine selections.

"He chose David also his servant, and took him from the sheepfolds." The selection of David may be. viewed from two sides. It was an act of Divine grace toward David himself; and an act of Divine grace in providing such a king for the people.

I DIVINE GRACE TOWARD DAVID HIMSELF. A careful study of David"s early life brings out the fact that he was, in some sense, the despised one of the family. He was evidently much younger than his brothers; probably the child of another mother, who was brought into the family under somewhat peculiar circumstances. While all the brothers went to the war, David was kept at home. When Jesse called all his sons before Samuel, he left David out, as if he hardly came into the family reckoning. It was, then, the despised one, who had been sent to the sheepfolds with the women, who was selected by God for the highest place in the new state. God constantly makes the "poor of this world to confound the wise." But not arbitrarily. Only because he seeks to fit men to places, on the ground of their endowments and character and fitness for their positions. There is "no respect of persons with God." David was selected as the fitting man.

II DIVINE GRACE PROVIDING SUCH A KING FOR THE PEOPLE. He was selected on the Divine judgment as to what was best for the people. Compare Saul, selected as meeting the people"s idea of what was best for them. Kingsley says, "I look on David as an all but ideal king, educated for his office by an all but ideal training. 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 God"s 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." It may be pointed out that, in David, were qualities of kingship which would have made him a blessing to any nation, in any age. And it may further be shown that, in him, there were characteristic abilities, which made him specially the man for his time.

Lead on to show that the one thing which made David"s reign a supreme blessing to the people was his personal and governmental loyalty to the theocratic idea. He never failed through any disloyalty to his Overlord, Jehovah. R.T.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

General Information:

The writer continues to describe what God did

from the sheepfolds

"from where he was working in the sheepfolds" Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information

sheepfolds

spaces with walls around them where sheep are kept safe

to be shepherd of Jacob, his people, and of Israel, his heritage

The word "shepherd" is a metaphor for one who leads and protects other people. AT: "to lead and protect the descendants of Jacob, his people, and of Israel, his heritage" (See: Metaphor)

his heritage

"the ones he had chosen to be his forever" See how this is translated in Psalms 78:62.

David shepherded them

The word "shepherded" is a metaphor for leading and protecting. AT: "David led them and protected them" (See: Metaphor)

translationWords

David

servant

ewe

shepherd

Jacob

inherit

integrity

heart

hand

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

and took him from the sheepcotes Heb. ממכלאתצאן, from the stalls of the sheep, as (Hab. 3: 16): “The flock will be cut off from the fold (ממכלה).”

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.