Views from the Palace of David outside the old city walls of Jerusalem."The discovery of the location of the palace of King David is of extreme importance to our understanding of ancient Jerusalem," says Dr. Mazar, in an exclusive interview with the Jerusalem Christian Review. "We now have tangible remains of the place where the most famous king in history once lived."
"In fact," says Dr. Eilat Mazar, "we know quite a bit about this palace from the Bible." It was "a house of cedars" (1 Chronicles 17:1), built by Phoenician builders (2 Samuel 5:11 & 1 Chronicles 14:1) who used the cedars of Lebanon and developed a distinct style of stone masonry.
King Hiram of the Phoenicians offered King David to build him a palace fit for an emperor (2 Samuel 5:11; 1 Chronicles 14:1): "Now Hiram king of Tyre sent messengers to David, along with cedar logs and carpenters and stone masons, and they built a palace for David." (2 Samuel 5:11, NIV)
"One of the reasons researchers were at a loss in finding this important place was that they assumed that King David, as logic would dictate, built his home in the safest, best protected part of the city, inside the Jebusite city walls," says Mazar. However, this was not the case.
The Jebusite city, while almost impregnable, was also very small, approximately 9 acres in size. Nevertheless, scholars continued to search for King David's residence within the city walls. No remains were found that pointed to the existence of a great palace like that which the Bible describes, and scholars began to doubt biblical claims that such a grand structure ever really existed.
"But one of the main clues in finding King David's palace," says Mazar, "was surprisingly from the Bible itself." 2 Samuel 5:17 states that: "When the Philistines heard that David had been anointed king over Israel, they went up in full force to search for him, but David heard about it and went DOWN [from his palace] to the [citadel]." (NIV, capitalization added for emphases)
Psalm 81
A Psalm for the Choir from Asaph. On the Gittith.English Standard Version, David Cochran Audio
1 Sing aloud to God our strength;
shout for joy to the God of Jacob!
2 Raise a song; sound the tambourine,
the sweet lyre with the harp.
3 Blow the trumpet at the new moon,
at the full moon, on our feast day.
4 For it is a statute for Israel,
a rule [just decree] of the God of Jacob.
5 He made it a decree in Joseph
when he went out over [against] the land of Egypt.
I hear a language I had not known:
6 “I relieved your [his] shoulder of the burden;
your hands were freed from the basket.
7 In distress you called, and I delivered you;
I answered you in the secret place of thunder;
I tested you at the waters of Meribah.
Selah
8 Hear, O my people, while I admonish you!
O Israel, if you would but listen to me!
9 There shall be no strange god among you;
you shall not bow down to a foreign god.
10 I am the LORD your God,
who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.
Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it.
11 “But my people did not listen to my voice;
Israel would not submit to me.
12 So I gave them over to their stubborn hearts,
to follow their own counsels.
13 Oh, that my people would listen to me,
that Israel would walk in my ways!
14 I would soon subdue their enemies
and turn my hand against their foes.
15 Those who hate the LORD would cringe toward him,
and their fate would last forever.
16 But he would feed you with the finest of the wheat,
and with honey from the rock I would satisfy you.”
"May the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart - be acceptable in Your sight, Oh Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer."
Psalm 81 - to me - is the most mercurial of the Psalms. Some days I read it and it seems to me all possibilities open to God are there for me. Yay!!!!! And other days.... I'm not so sure. And that is faith, in the human existence - mostly. God knows exactly where we are in our faith - better than we know it ourselves. We do not hide from Him. God is for us. In days of sunshine and plenty. The days where just one more thing happens and ... it is ALL terrible. A song for each day.
Asaph wrote this one (song) & saw David go from living in a caves and just ditches as a fugitive, for 22 years, David was anointed without being King. And Asaph saw David dance as His Ark came in.
Consider Mark 7:31-37
31 Then he returned from the region of Tyre and went through Sidon to the Sea of Galilee, in the region of the Decapolis. 32 And they brought to him a man who was deaf and had a speech impediment, and they begged him to lay his hand on him. 33 And taking him aside from the crowd privately, he put his fingers into his ears, and after spitting touched his tongue. 34 And looking up to heaven, he sighed and said to him, “Ephphatha,” that is, “Be opened.” 35 And his ears were opened, his tongue was released, and he spoke plainly. 36 And Jesus charged them to tell no one. But the more he charged them, the more zealously they proclaimed it. 37 And they were astonished beyond measure, saying, “He has done all things well. He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.”
Sure the dead are raised, the deaf hear, speak and the blind see - I have the faith to believe this. Yet no matter where we are in faith - this is the One - Jesus - Whom we place our trust upon. Now the way that Jesus healed the deaf man - that is Someone. Our hero. Jesus. Look up. The LORD. God the Almighty.
And a song for Him.
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