2 Samuel 5:17 - Meaning and Application

The special work God had raised David up for was to save Israel from the Philistines (2 Samuel 3:18). Here, in the first place, God gives him the chance to do that. We are told of two great victories over the Philistines. These victories not only made up for the shame and loss Israel suffered when Saul died in battle, but also moved toward the complete defeat of these troubling neighbors, the last part of the nations marked for judgment.

In both battles, the Philistines were the ones who started the fight, and they brought destruction on themselves. In the first battle, they came up to look for David, because they heard he had been anointed king over Israel (2 Samuel 5:17). The man who had once slain his tens of thousands under Saul, what would he do now that he was king? So they thought it was time to act fast and crush his rule before it became firmly established. Their earlier success against Saul may have encouraged them, but they forgot that David had God’s presence with him, while Saul had lost it.

This also points ahead to the kingdom of the Messiah, who is Christ. As soon as that kingdom was set up in the world, the powers of darkness attacked it strongly. Jews and Gentiles joined together against it. The nations raged, and the rulers of the earth rose up against it, but all in vain (Psalm 2:1). In the end, the ruin would turn back on Satan’s own kingdom. They took counsel together, but they were broken apart (Isaiah 8:9-10).

In the second battle, the Philistines came up again, hoping to win back what they had lost before. Their hearts were hardened toward their own ruin (2 Samuel 5:22). In both battles, they spread out in the valley of Rephaim, which was very near Jerusalem. They wanted to take that city before David had finished strengthening its defenses. From its earliest days, Jerusalem was marked out for special attacks and hatred. Their spreading out shows how many they were and how threatening they looked. Scripture later speaks of the church’s enemies spreading across the breadth of the earth (Revelation 20:9), but the farther they spread, the easier they become targets for God’s arrows.

In both battles, David was ready to go out against them. As soon as he heard, he went down to the stronghold to secure an important place (2 Samuel 5:17). Yet he did not begin the fight until he asked the Lord by the breastplate of judgment, the priestly means of asking God for guidance (2 Samuel 5:19, 23). He asked two things. First, he asked about his duty: “Shall I go up? Do I have a command from heaven to attack them?” You might think he did not need to ask. After all, what was he made king for except to fight the battles of the Lord and Israel? But a good man wants to see God going before him in every step.

He also asked about timing, “Shall I go up now?” Something may be right to do, but still not right to do at that moment. In all our ways, we should acknowledge God. David may also have felt another concern. Though the Philistines were public enemies, some of them had once been his friends. Achish had shown him kindness in his distress and had protected him. So David might have wondered whether he ought to make peace rather than war. But God said no. They were enemies of Israel and were marked for destruction, so David should not hesitate, but go up.

Second, David asked about success: “Will you deliver them into my hand?” In this way he showed that he depended on God for victory. He knew he could not conquer them unless God handed them over to him. He left the matter to God’s good pleasure. God answered, “Yes, I will surely do it.” If God sends us, he will support us and stand by us. The promise that God will soon crush Satan under our feet should encourage us in spiritual warfare. We do not fight without hope. David now had a large army and strong courage, yet he trusted God’s promise more than his own strength.

In the first battle, David defeated the Philistine army by force of arms (2 Samuel 5:20). When the fight was over, he gave God the glory. He said, “The Lord has broken through my enemies before me.” In other words, “I could not have done this unless he had gone before me.” God had opened the way like a breach in a dam, and once opened, it kept widening. The main work was God’s work, and indeed, God did it all. David’s part was small in comparison. So the glory belonged to the Lord, not to them.

David also believed this first victory would be the opening of a wider judgment, like water bursting through a broken barrier. To keep the memory of it alive, he called the place Baal-perazim, which means “master of the breaches,” because God had broken through their lines and given him victory. He wanted later generations to remember it for God’s honor.

He also put the Philistines’ gods to shame. They had carried their idols into battle to protect them, much like Israel had brought the ark into camp in earlier days. But when they fled, they could not even carry their images away. The idols were just a burden to weary animals (Isaiah 46:1), so the Philistines left them behind with the rest of their baggage. Their gods had failed them completely, so they abandoned them. God can make people grow tired of the very things they once loved most, and he can force them to throw away what they once prized. Even silver and gold idols can be cast to the moles and bats (Isaiah 2:20-21).

David and his men took the rest of the spoil for their own use, but they burned the idols, as God had commanded (Deuteronomy 7:5). They were to burn carved images with fire as a sign of hatred for idolatry and to keep themselves from being trapped by it. Bishop Patrick rightly notes that when the ark fell into the Philistines’ hands, it brought ruin on them, but when their images fell into Israel’s hands, they could not even save themselves from being burned.

In the second battle, God gave David clear signs of his presence. This time God told him not to attack straight on, as before, but to go around behind them (2 Samuel 5:23). God told him to draw back first, as Israel once stood still to watch the Lord save them. Then God promised to strike the enemy himself through an unseen army of angels (2 Samuel 5:24). David would hear the sound of marching, like an army moving through the tops of the mulberry trees. Angels move lightly, and the One who can walk on the clouds can also, when he chooses, walk on treetops. Or, as Bishop Patrick explains it, the sound may have been heard at the head of the mulberry trees, meaning the edge of the grove or hedge of those trees.

By this sign, David would know that the Lord had gone before him. Even though he could not see God, he would hear the sign, and his faith would be strengthened by what he heard. God would go ahead and strike the Philistine army.

When David later defeated them himself (2 Samuel 5:20), he gave the glory to God, saying, “The Lord has broken out against my enemies.” Because David thanked God like that, God later did the work himself, without putting David to extra labor or danger. Those who honor God for what he has done will find that he does more for them.

But even though God promised to go before David and strike the Philistines, David still had to act when he heard the sound of the marching in the trees. God’s grace must stir up our efforts. If God works in us both to want and to do, that does not mean we should sit still as if we have nothing to do. Instead, we should work out our own salvation, which means we should carefully and diligently live out the saving work God has begun in us (Philippians 2:12-13).

The sound of the marching was, first, a signal to David that it was time to move. It is a comfort to go out when God goes before us. Second, it may also have been an alarm to the enemy, throwing them into confusion. If they heard an army marching in front of them, they likely turned back in fear and ran into David’s forces behind them. About those whom God opposes, Scripture says, “The sound of a shaken leaf shall chase them” (Leviticus 26:36).

The result is given briefly in 2 Samuel 5:25. David followed his orders, waited until God moved, and then acted, but not before. In this way, he was trained to depend on God and on God’s care for him. God kept his promise, went before him, and routed the enemy, and David made full use of the victory by striking the Philistines as far as their own border.

When the kingdom of the Messiah was to be set up, the apostles, who would tear down the devil’s kingdom, were not to begin until they received the promise of the Spirit. The Holy Spirit came with a sound from heaven like a rushing, mighty wind (Acts 2:2), which this sound of marching in the treetops pointed to. When they heard that sound, they were to act, and they did. They went out conquering and to conquer.