2 Samuel 5:11

DAVID BUILT HIMSELF A CEDAR HOUSE

"And Hiram king of Tyre sent messengers to David, and cedar trees, also carpenters and masons who built David a house. And David perceived that the Lord had established him king over Israel, and that he had exalted his kingdom for the sake of his people Israel."

"David's policy as king was that of being strong at home, but living side by side with other nations as his allies. Here he made an alliance with Hiram king of Tyre, and later an alliance with Toi king of Hamath (2 Samuel 8:9); and it was his proposed alliance with the Ammonites, which, due to their rejection of it, led to his war with them and with the Aramaeans."[13]

"Hiram king of Tyre sent messengers to David" (2 Samuel 5:11). This king is also mentioned in 1 Kings 9:10-14; and, critics always alert to find something they can contradict in the Bible. Since Hiram is mentioned as king in the 20th year of Solomon's reign, Bennett declared, "Hiram I cannot have been reigning so early in David's reign."[14] We might ask, "Indeed! And Why not?" Manasseh reigned over Israel for over fifty years; and since this event was probably in the eighteenth year of David's reign, and since the use of the past perfect tense in 1 Kings 9:10 indicates that what Hiram did for Solomon had been done at some indefinite time in the past, there is no reason whatever that demands that the Hiram in this chapter and in 1 Kings 9 must be considered as two different men. Keil did not hesitate to conclude that "Hiram reigned at least forty or fifty years."[15]

"Who built David a house" (2 Samuel 5:11). From the mention of cedar trees, it is evident that this house was built of cedar, as David also mentioned in 2 Samuel 7. There is no more desirable timber from which a house may be built. At Washington-on-the-Brazos, once the capital of the Republic of Texas, tourists may see the cedar house which was built for the first president of that state. The cedar wood is hostile to all kinds of insects and creeping things; and even after more than 150 years since the place was built, the attendant sweeps the dead insects out of that house every morning.

"God exalted his kingdom for the sake of ... Israel" (2 Samuel 5:12). Tatum remarked that, "It appears strange that at the very time when God was so richly blessing David, he seemed so utterly selfish. He built his own house BEFORE thinking of building a house for God."[16] There is even more evidence of David's selfishness in his sinful multiplication of his wives and concubines as related a little later. As this verse states, it was not anything that David personally deserved that resulted in all of God's wonderful blessings; those blessings were directed to the good of God's people Israel, and eventually to the salvation of all mankind.