{Disclaimer: these are my rough teaching notes I use in my Mishkan Katan weekly broadcasts. There will be "typos". Proceed at your own risk, lol.You can find all my Mishkan Katan video teachings on my YouTube channel: genahood2818 . Look on the playlist called Messianic LAMB TV Network.}
Boker Tov! Good morning, and welcome back to Mishkan Katan, where we are continuing on in our journey through the psalms. Normally, I write on Mondays and Tuesdays, to prepare for the Wednesday morning live broadcast here on LAMB. However, three weeks ago, a member of my family died, and I attended his funeral out of state. This week, his mother is at the point of death. That means I’ll be going back out of state to attend her funeral. I loved both these family members very much. I also took a planned trip last week and came home with bronchitis, or it was waiting for me when I arrived back in my home state. Needless to say, it has been a topsy-turvy time. In the midst of that I’ve still been writing, recording and usually teaching here at Mishkan Katan live. But, due to the uncertainties of both deaths, I’ve been planning lessons on a very rigorous schedule, not at all in the routine. I’m sharing this to give you a laugh because when I started planning to teach Psalm 78, before I looked at the psalm I looked at the commentary I use most often and I started flipping pages and flipping and flipping and flipping and I was like, “HOW LONG IS this psalm!” Finally, after 36 pages of commentary, I just started laughing. I was so overwhelmed! But, ok, we are going to do this together, right? And, as I’m just starting to study it as I write this, I hope we can finish it in one session. We’ll see.
Ok, so, there is a very good reason this psalm is so long. The author, Asaph, is going over the history of the Jewish people over a 400 year period, the time span from the bondage in Egypt to the reign of King David. This psalm is a maskil, which means that it was written for instruction. So, it is a musical history lesson, basically. But, it is not quite that simple. Let’s jump into it.
The sages say that the unifying thread in this psalm is contained in the very first verse.
78 (0) A maskil of Asaf:
Listen, my people, to my teaching;
turn your ears to the words from my mouth.
The word, teaching, here is the word “Torah” in Hebrew.
Even though this is Asaph speaking, this message is central to Hashem’s relationship with His covenant people. The sages say that initially Hashem gave several nations an opportunity to accept the Torah, but they refused. When it was offered to the children of Israel, by contrast, they accepted, saying, “We will do and we will hear.” Ex. 24:7 at Mt. Sinai. In Hebrew, that is na'aseh ve-nishma , a phrase signifying a voluntary acceptance of divine commandments, and promising obedient action before full having received a full understanding. Note that they did not proclaim, “We will hear/understand and we will do.” Big difference.
Asaph goes on to say that he is going to relate in stories the experiences of His people, things he learned from his elders and which he is teaching to his young as well, stories of the mighty deeds of Hashem. Verses 2-4
2 I will speak to you in parables
and explain mysteries from days of old.
3 The things which we have heard and known,
and which our fathers told us
4 we will not hide from their descendants;
we will tell the generation to come
the praises of Adonai and his strength,
the wonders that he has performed.
The ancient Jews were masters at preservation of theological content, through both the oral and the written law. Every archeological discovery in relatively modern times has corroborated this. If you can’t accept the accuracy and the veracity of the Bible, then you must be intellectually honest enough to discard all written history then, because the Bible, the ancient Hebrew texts, are more error-free, textually consistent and miraculously preserved than any other ancient writing.
Verses 5-7 are a reiteration of the previous verses, with the extra point being that Ya’akov, Jacob, was the holy line of ancestry Hashem established leading toward King David and ultimately, Mashiach.
5 He raised up a testimony in Ya‘akov
and established a Torah in Isra’el.
He commanded our ancestors
to make this known to their children,
6 so that the next generation would know it,
the children not yet born,
who would themselves arise
and tell their own children,
7 who could then put their confidence in God,
not forgetting God’s deeds,
but obeying his mitzvot.
Verse 8 is so optimistic, so full of promise! Don’t we all pray fervently that our children and grandchildren will be closer to God than we are? Don’t the people of God long to have children who love him like they do, or even more so? Yet, I don’t know about you, but I have at times been guilty of being stubborn, rebellious, coming to God unprepared, casually, dismissively, frivolously. There have been many time I have been unfaithful to Him, too many to count.
8 Then they would not be like their ancestors,
a stubborn, rebellious generation,
a generation with unprepared hearts,
with spirits unfaithful to God.
This psalm and the commentary taught me something about Ephraim. I think that most believers in Yeshua who have not seriously studied the Tanakh (Old Testament) don’t know what this reference to Ephraim means in the following verses. Let’s read them first, verses 9-11.
9 The people of Efrayim, though armed with bows and arrows,
turned their backs on the day of battle.
10 They did not keep the covenant of God
and refused to live by his Torah.
11 They forgot what he had done,
his wonders which he had shown them.
So, from the earliest days after the twin sons of Joseph were blessed by Ya’akov, their grandfather, and made two of the twelve tribes, Ephraim, who had received the greater blessing, the blessing of the oldest son, felt like he was more special than the other sons of Jacob, because he was the was descended from Jacob’s favorite son, Joseph. And, it was not without cause, they were not only Hebrew “royalty”, they were also “Egyptian royalty”, because their mother was of the Egyptian royal family, it was said.
The sages say that there was a time-honored belief that calculated the 400 years of exile in Egypt from the moment of Isaac’s birth. But, Ephraim did not calculate it that way. That tribe stubbornly said that the 400 years had started 30 years earlier, at the time of the Abrahamic Covenant, the covenant where Hashem and the smoking pot passed between the parts, the two halves of the sacrificed bull. This occurred when Abraham was 70 years old. So, 30 years too soon, this grandson of Ephraim, a guy named Yagnon, arose as a false prophet among the Hebrew people in Egypt. He claimed he had been appointed by Hashem to lead the Hebrew nation out of Egypt. No one followed him except for a sizeable portion of the tribes of Ephraim. It is unclear what happened to these misguided families, because the wives and children went too. Verse 9 says merely they “retreated in the day of battle”. They were either killed, it is said, by their former Egyptian overlords, who pursued them and slaughtered them by the 10s of thousands, or they traveled through Philistia toward the land of Abraham and were decimated there. Sad story.
And then, there was the matter of Joshua the son of Nun, one of the two loyal spies, Moshe’s right hand man, who apprenticed with him for 40 years and then led the Hebrew children in conquering the land of Cana’an. He was of the tribe of Ephraim. Furthermore, the Tabernacle, the forerunner of the Temple, had been situated in Shiloh, in the territory of Ephraim, for 369 years! And, even after David moved the Tabernacle to Jerusalem, Ephraim still did not accede to Hashem’s choice of royal, Messianic line. Sadly, during the time of Solomon, Yeravam ben Nevat of Ephraim challenged Solomon and was instrumental in the 10 Northern Tribes “seceding from the union”, from the rule of the tribe of Judah. The 10 tribes who chose idolatry over the one true God eventually became known as Ephraim. So, when you see reference to Ephraim, after the big split occurred, it is usually referring to the 10 lost tribes. Look ahead with me to verses 67 and 68.
67 Rejecting the tents of Yosef
and passing over the tribe of Efrayim,
68 he chose the tribe of Y’hudah,
Mount Tziyon, which he loved.
Ephraim was a rebel, bucking the will of Hashem for many generations. And, we cannot thwart the will of our Father, Hashem! We may not understand or “agree” (which is a stupid concept to contemplate - - as if He needs us to agree with what He sovereignly chooses to do), but He always does what is right and perfect, and we need to humbly accept that. Sometimes, we (as the New Testament put it) kick against the boundaries. The illustration is about two behemot, two oxen, who kick against the guard rails that keep them yoked into place when pulling a wagon or other conveyance.
Verses 10 and 11 are a criticism leveled at the entire Israelite nation as a whole, but it seems the remainder of the tribe of Ephraim was particularly guilty of arrogance, rebellion and insubordination.
Asaph then goes on to list the wonderful and miraculous things Hashem has done for His people over the centuries. These are not in chronological order. It’s Iike Asaph listed them as he remembered them. We won’t read these verses all at once right now, but just follow along as I comment.
In verse 12, Asaph refers to the wonderful things Hashem did in the land of Egypt. The region (or in some translations “the field”) of Zoan refers to the capital city of Egypt at the time of the psalm’s writing, according to Numbers 13:22 and Isaiah 30:4.
Then, in verse 13, he is obviously referring to the splitting of the waters at the Yam Suf, the Sea of Reeds. If you look back at Psalm 77:19, it reads “your paths went through the mighty waters”. Your translation might say “path”, but it is actually a plural: “paths”. The sages say therefore that when the sea split there were actually 12 pathways across, one for each of the 12 tribes, and that this enabled them to get across in an expedient manner. Well, whether that is what actually happened or not, we surely do know from the scripture here, verse 13, that he made the waters stand up on either side like a wall of water.
Verse14 refers to the pillar of cloud which miraculously led the Hebrews by day and the pillar of fire that guided them by night. I can’t even imagine what that was like! If you look carefully at this verse though we discover something curious. In most translations it says something like the light from a fire.
14 He also led them by day with a cloud
and all night long with light from a fire.
Not a fire itself, which would give off heat, but the light from a fire. The desert’s intense heat is offset and rebalanced by nighttime cooling. A column of actual fire, which gave off intense heat would disrupt this process. There would never be any relief from the insufferable heat. So, God makes it clear in His word that it was more like a column of light, as opposed to a column or pillar of fire. Fascinating!
Verse 15 refers to when Moses summoned water from The Rock on more than one occasion. The sages say that although Moshe struck only one rock, the psalmist here uses the plural “rocks” because simultaneously with the striking of the one rock, Hashem uncapped many water sources throughout the desert, an entire lush network of oases. This seems to contrast with the many times the Hebrews lacked for water in their wilderness years. The sages say that when they wandered from the ways of Hashem, beginning to doubt Him, He diminished their water supply. Also, the sage Rashi and others say that this “rock” that Moses was commanded to strike was a unique type of miraculous well. It was a round rock that had holes in it, like a colander. And, it rolled along wherever the Israelites went. Each tribe had a prescribed area in which to camp, based on an organization plan given by the Lord. Every tribe would camp in this same order/arrangement every time they stopped to make camp.
When they would stop, so would the rock, in the middle of the camp, and would begin to produce fresh drinking water. This was called the well of Miriam. Each leader of the 12 tribes would dig a shallow trench from the well to his tribe’s campsite, to serve the needs of his tribe.
Verses 18-20 record how the Hebrew nation grumbled and rebelled by being dissatisfied with Hashem’s miraculous provision of water and manna. Exodus 16:18 tells us that, miraculously, no matter how much manna each person gathered, when they got to their domicile/tent, they would each have one omer, no more, no less. And, yet, everyone had enough. Also, because it fell every evening and disappeared with the morning sun, the people did not have to store or to transport it. Fascinating stuff! Did you know that Jews do not “say grace” before their meals? No. They say their thanks AFTER they have consumed a meal. The blessing is called the Bircat HaMazon. The Talmud says, in Berachot 48a, that Moshe composed the Bircat HaMazon for the nation of Israel when they began to be content with eating the heaven-sent manna.
Verses 23-25 are so beautiful! Look at them:
23 So he commanded the skies above
and opened the doors of heaven.
24 He rained down manna on them as food;
he gave them grain from heaven —
25 mortals ate the bread of angels;
he provided for them to the full.
The verse just before that set is devastatingly sad. It is the crux of the entire problem with the Hebrew people, and with many humans today, as well. Verse 22 - -
22 because they had no faith in God,
no trust in his power to save.
Now, see, I would have put a Selah after verse 22. That is a heavy verse that deserves much grief, repentance and contemplation. If you don’t understand the message of the Old Testament, you might have expected that verse to say, “because they did not follow His 613 commandments”, etc. But, Asaph understood this truth - - it has always been about the faith relationship.
Most Christians dismiss the Old Testament because they think it is all about “working to earn salvation with God” and they exclusively focus on the New Testament because, oh that amazing grace. But, there is no true dichotomy between the two!
Here is what actually happened at Mount Sinai.
When Hashem gave to Moshe the 10 commandments, the foundation of The Law this was and is the first one: "I am the Lord your God 𝘸𝘩𝘰 𝘣𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘌𝘨𝘺𝘱𝘵."
Did you catch that? It basically says, “I rescued you. I saved you out of slavery.” What you see here is GRACE preceding law, and it has always been that way.
The commands weren't some sort of performance pathway in order to gain a relationship with God.
Keeping the commandments was the heartfelt 𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘱𝘰𝘯𝘴𝘦 to the soul’s rescue that had already given! Keeping them was living out the truth of the relationship. They were a means of deepening the relationship, of “drawing near” to God.
As Ryan White puts it: “What if obedience was never about earning anything—but about expressing gratitude for what's already been done?”
Ryan’s website is: FaithofMessiah.com. I find his work very thought-provoking and compelling.
Verses 26-31 tell of how Hashem also provided meat from the skies for the grumbling nation. This story is recorded in Exodus 16. If you are watching this video in real time, that was from our parsha for a couple of weeks ago, B’Shelach. It is also mentioned in Numbers 11. Verse four there says, “And the mixed multitude that was in their midst fell into lust, and the children of Israel also wept again and said, ‘Who shall feed us meat?’ ”. It is interesting that the mixed multitude is mentioned here, highlighting the fact that it was not only Hebrews who came out of Egypt in the Exodus. It was also some Egyptians who left. Do you think the verse is implying that it was the non-Jews who led the Jews into this? The verse says that first the mixed multitude began to lust after other food…and then the children of Israel ALSO began to weep again. Not looking to place blame, but it surely does seem like the Hebrew nation was led into this particular bout of complaining by the foreign element among them. The sages go on to say that manna was a perfect, nutritional food, the most efficient nutrient possible; but, there was not anything about it that would make people crave it. So, in essence, if you look at Numbers 11:6, these people desired, lusted for something that they could crave. They were still affected by the natural, human desire of appetite, despite having been provided the perfect nutrient. The Sages call this incident the Graves of Desire, because after sending more than abundant quail on a southeasterly wind, from the sea (Numbers 11:31), although they appeared to fall from the desert skies, the people ate, became sickened and many of them died. Hashem had warned, in Numbers 11:20, that they would eat far too much of this meat and that they would overeat to the point that it would “come out of their nostrils”, that it would become loathesome to them. That must have been some good-tasting bird!!
Verse 31 is intriguing too. In the translation in the ArtScroll Tanakh Series, Tefillim volume 2, it says, “When the wrath of God rose against them and slew their most corpulent; The chosen of Israel He bent over.” Hmmmm….“corpulent”, as most of you know, means overweight or fat. There are various interpretations of who this group might be. Of course, you could take it at face value and say that the overeating of too much bird flesh killed the most unhealthy among them, the most fat. Other interpretations point to members of the Sanhedrin, or to the elite class, or merely to the strongest, healthiest Jews. Hard to tell. Then, the latter part of the verse seems to indicate that even the youth were not exempt from this plague. BaKOOR is usually applied to young males, the youth, even though the word in isolation means “chosen one”. Here, the commentators say, it refers to the greatest sages among them. The reference to “bent over” indicates the crumpling of the body which occurs at death. If you have never witnessed a death, I am glad for you. I have seen a loved one leave this world for the next, and when the spirit leaves the body, it is similar to a balloon deflating.
Verses 32-41 describe the cycle of obedience/loyalty – disobedience/idolatry – discipline/trouble – repentance/return – obedience/loyalty that the chosen people went through again and again, not just in the wilderness wanderings of 40 years, but over the millennia! The Israelites who survived the quail incident. You’d have thought they’d have learned an important life lesson, right? But no! In their ongoing desire for “more” they continued to test Hashem (vs. 41), because as the psalmist said in verse 37 “their heart was not constant with Him.” (ArtScroll Tanakh series version). Out of their discontent, the sages count a total of 10 tests they gave Hashem (Num. 14:22), and eventually, verse 33, Hashem ended that generation’s days in vanity and terror, by saying that none of that generation would see the land of promise.
The Talmud has some wild stories to explain how none of those over age 20 at the time of the report of the spies (except for Joshua and Caleb) lived to be older than 60 years old. It is said that, during those 40 years, on the eve of the day (Tisha B’Av, the 9th day of the month of Av) on which the spies brought back the evil report, a herald would announce that everyone of that generation was to go out and dig a grave for themselves. Then, that night, each of them slept in their own grave. In the morning, the herald would rise and cry out, “Let the living separate themselves from they dead!” The survivors would climb out and those who had reached sixty years of age and any younger Hashem chose to take, were buried in the grave in which they slept. A pretty efficient system of accountability, if you ask me, but it would certainly strike terror into one’s soul.
Don’t you just hate to forget something important? Especially when it hurts another person that you were thoughtless. It makes them think you aren’t important to them, and the truth is that other things WERE more important at the time you forgot. But, the Hebrew people did not accidentally forget their God. They willingly turned away from Him, to serve idols, false gods. And, this willful wandering gave them spiritual amnesia. They became so bedazzled by the false gold of the idols that they completely forgot the wonderful God who had betrothed their nation to Himself. Asaph returns to the miracles of Egypt and the Exodus in the next verses, 42-51, as he talks about the various plagues. Had they truly remembered Hashem’s signs and wonders, which He did among them in Egypt, they would never then have questioned His desire or His ability to provide for them in the wilderness. Some of the plagues were signs, that is, advance warning of them was given to the Egyptians. Others were done without advance warning; these were wonders. The “sign” plagues were blood, frogs, wild bests, pestilence, hailstones, locusts and the smiting of the firstborn. These were wonders: boils, lice and darkness. Let’s read these verses, 42-51.
42 They didn’t remember how he used his hand
on the day he redeemed them from their enemy,
43 how he displayed his signs in Egypt,
his wonders in the region of Tzo‘an.
44 He turned their rivers into blood,
so they couldn’t drink from their streams.
45 He sent swarms of flies, which devoured them,
and frogs, which destroyed them.
46 He gave their harvest to shearer-worms,
the fruit of their labor to locusts.
47 He destroyed their vineyards with hail
and their sycamore-figs with frost.
48 Their cattle too he gave over to the hail
and their flocks to lightning bolts.
49 He sent over them his fierce anger,
fury, indignation and trouble,
with a company of destroying angels
50 to clear a path for his wrath.
He did not spare them from death,
but gave them over to the plague,
51 striking all the firstborn in Egypt,
the firstfruits of their strength in the tents of Ham.
There’s lots of symbolism that is attached to each plague, although we are not going to study those in detail today, because of time constraints. But, for example, here’s one. The plagues all corresponded to some false god that the Egyptians worshipped as well some wrong that the Egyptians had done to the Hebrew nation. The first plague targeted the Nile River because the Egyptians worshipped the Nile, its tributaries, and its canals. Furthermore, the Egyptians tried to prevent the Jews from using their ritual mikvah baths to fulfill Torah commandments for cleanliness. So, God afflicted the waters the Egyptians bathed in.
Onward. With the pivotal “But” at the beginning of verse 52, Asaph turns and describes the journey from Egypt to the Sea of Reeds to the land of promise, in verses 52-55.
52 But his own people he led out like sheep,
guiding them like a flock in the desert.
53 He led them safely, and they weren’t afraid,
even when the sea overwhelmed their foes.
54 He brought them to his holy land,
to the hill-country won by his right hand.
55 He expelled nations before them,
apportioned them property to inherit
and made Isra’el’s tribes live in their tents.
After living in tents in the wilderness for over 40 years, the Israelites had finally entered the Promised Land and began to conquer it. However, many followers of Yeshua do not realize that although the Hebrew warriors led by Joshua had made a great start, they did not fully conquer the land or drive out the pagan societies from before them. Therefore, after Joshua’s time, we had the period of the Judges. During this time, the Hebrews made small gains to lay claim to the rest of the land, but by and large, they did not follow Hashem. Each man “did what was right in his own eyes.” (Judges 21:25)
Verses 56-59 of this psalm describe this period.
56 Yet they tested El ‘Elyon
and rebelled against him,
refusing to obey his instructions.
57 They turned away and were faithless, like their fathers;
they were unreliable, like a bow without tension.
58 They provoked him with their high places
and made him jealous with their idols.
59 God heard, and he was angry;
he came to detest Isra’el completely.
Let’s consider for a moment verse 57, the analogy about a “bow without tension”. Another translation calls it a “warped bow”. A bow that does not function properly is not only unreliable; it is also dangerous to the archer, because it can backfire against him and injure him, or not protect him properly from adversaries. The Hebrew people were intended to be flaming arrows of faith, that would pierce the paganism that surrounded them. Instead, they let themselves become warped and corrupted by the pagan nations of Canaan. Malibim says that they turned their arrows against the Almighty, attacking His ways instead of defending them.
Yes, there were some righteous judges - - Ehud, Deborah, Gideon, at times Samson, and the last Judge….Samuel. However, although they were able to turn and lead the people back to righteousness, back in the proper direction, that influence died with the judge, because the people then returned to their godless idols.
The “rock bottom” of this period occurred during the priesthood of Eli and his evil sons. At this time, the Tabernacle had remained at Shiloh for 369 years. But, things had gotten so evil…We can read about the story in 1 Samuel 4, and Jeremiah 7:12 also references it. But, we are not going to turn there and read those passages today. The depths of depravity were so bad that Hashem allowed the Philistines to overrun the city of Shiloh and to capture the Ark of the Covenant. The Ark/Tabernacle never did return to Shiloh. It became an abandoned site. Next, after the Ark was rescued, it “lived” in Keriath-Je’arim until it was taken by David to reside in Jerusalem. Let’s read verses 60-64.
60 He abandoned the tabernacle at Shiloh,
the tent he had made where he could live among people.
61 He gave his strength into exile,
his pride to the power of the foe.
62 He gave his people over to the sword
and grew angry with his own heritage.
63 Fire consumed their young men,
their virgins had no wedding-song,
64 their cohanim fell by the sword,
and their widows could not weep.
Verse 63 might be a puzzle to non-Jews. Let me explain what is being communicated here. Deuteronomy 24:5 gives newly married couples some time together by exempting the grooms from ordinary military service. However, in times of war in defense of the homeland, these same young men are not exempt. So, at this time, when the Philistines were attacking, even the young grooms had to report for duty and go to the battle lines. Many of them were killed, leaving their virgin brides with no wedding song. This tradition still endures in Israel today, by the way, because it is a mitzvah, a commandment.
Verse 64 has hidden meanings too. If you know the story of the ark being captured by the Philistines in 1 Samuel 4, the two evil priest/sons of Eli, Pinchas and Chofni were accompanying the ark into battle. They were both killed, along with other priests present. The wife of Pinchas, when she heard the tragic news, went into premature labor, had a very difficult birth and actually died in childbirth, which gave her no time or opportunity to mourn the death of her husband. Still, interestingly enough, her dying words were focused on the capture of the Ark of the Covenant, which she rightly recognized as a far greater tragedy than the death of her own husband. Wild times……
The remaining verses of this psalm describe the transition from the period of the Judges to the period of King David. The first king of Israel was from the tribe of Benjamin. That was King Saul, who ruled for 40 years and overall had a good reign, although he got crazy as a bedbug in the latter part of it. But, the true Israeli monarchy was of the tribe of Judah. Let’s read now to the end of the chapter, verses 65 through 72.
65 Then Adonai awoke, as if from sleep,
like a warrior shouting for joy from wine.
66 He struck his foes, driving them back
and putting them to perpetual shame.
67 Rejecting the tents of Yosef
and passing over the tribe of Efrayim,
68 he chose the tribe of Y’hudah,
Mount Tziyon, which he loved.
69 He built his sanctuary like the heights;
like the earth, he made it to last forever.
70 He chose David to be his servant,
taking him from the sheep-yards;
71 from tending nursing ewes he brought him
to shepherd Ya‘akov his people,
Isra’el his heritage.
72 With upright heart he shepherded them
and guided them with skillful hands.
Verse 65 is figurative language, of course, because “He watching over Israel slumbers not nor sleeps” (Ps. 121:4-6). That’s a preview of sorts, as we will be studying that psalm in a few months.
Verse 68 is the climax of this psalm. Not only did Hashem elevate the tribe of Judah to royalty, He also gave the supreme preference to the territory of Judah, for the location of His dwelling place on Earth. Neither of these choices will ever be abrogated, because the Word of God stands forever.
Verses 70 through 72 indicate that it was David’s experiences with the sheep which prepared him to be the King of Israel. The rabbis point out that because he was able to care beautifully for the most vulnerable sheep, the most vulnerable of the vulnerable, because as we learned with Psalm 23 sheep are completely unable to care for themselves adequately without the aid of the shepherd, because he was able to care so beautifully for these mother ewes and their suckling young, this demonstrated his good and caring heart. Furthermore, the skills he gained giving such care translated into his success as a Torah scholar, warrior and the greatest king Israel has ever known.
David was, of course, a type of his descendant, the Mashiach Yeshua, who called Himself the Good Shepherd, who lays down his life for his sheep. And, who actually did.
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