Emphasis Preaching Journal

This text is the conclusion of a lengthy narrative which began in 1 Samuel 16. It traces David's long and difficult rise from shepherd boy to royal king. Bruggemann calls it the story of "a genuine nobody to whom power was given." (Walter Bruggemann, First and Second Samuel, Louisville: John Knox Press, 1973, p. 236.) David had already been anointed as king in the south. But it was not until all other potential leaders -- Saul, Jonathan, Abner, and Ishbosheth -- were dead that the north was ready to accept him as their king.