Sanctuary was to be reared, David, with characteristic energy, began immediate preparations for a work, the

greatness of which the king measured by his estimate of Him for Whose service it was designed (1

Chronicles 22:5). It almost seems as if in these arrangements all David's former vigor had come back,

showing where, despit e his weaknesses and failings, the king's heart really was. Besides, the youth of his

son and successor Solomon,51 and the consideration that probably no other monarch would wield such

influence in the land as he had possessed, determined David not to neglect nor defer anything that he might

be able to do. First, he took a census of the "strangers,"  52 and set them to prepare the stone, iron, and

timber work.

His next care was to give solemn charge to Solomon concerning what was so much on his own heart.

Recapitulating all that had passed, when he first proposed to "build an house unto the Name of Jehovah,"

he laid this work upon his son and God-appointed successor, as the main business of his reign. Yet not as a

merely outward work to be done, but as the manifestation of spiritual religion, and as the outcome of

allegiance to God and His law (1 Chronicles 22:6-12). Only such principles would secure true prosperity to

his reign (ver. 13). For himself, he had "by painful labor"  53 gathered great treasures,54 which were to be

devoted to the building of the new Temple; and he had made all possible preparations for it. Finally,

summoning "the princes of Israel, with the priests and the Levites" (1 Chronicles 23:1, 2), and presenting to

them his son Solomon as successor in the kingdom, he entreated their co-operation with him in what was to

be the great work of the future - making it not a personal, but a national undertaking, expressive of this, that

they had "set heart and soul to seek Jehovah" their God (1 Chronicles 22:19).

It was in this solemn assembly of laity and priesthood that Solomon's succession was announced and

accepted, and that the future organization of the Temple Services was determined and fixed.55

A census of the Levites gave their number, from thirty years and upwards, at 38,000 men. Of these 24,000

were appointed to attend to the general ministry of the sanctuary (23:28-32), 6,000 to act as "officers and

judges," 4,000 for instrumental music, and 4,000 as choristers - the latter (and probably also the former class)

being subdivided into adepts, of which there were 288 (25:7), and learners (25:8). As all the Levites, so these

288 adepts or trained choristers were arranged by lot into twenty-four courses, a certain number of

"learners" being attached to each of them. Each course of Levites had to undertake in turn such services as

fell to them. Those who had charge of the gates were arranged into classes, there being altogether twenty-

four posts in the Sanctuary in which watch was to be kept (1 Chronicles 26:1-19). Similarly, the priests, the

descendants of Aaron, were arranged by lot into twenty-four courses for their special ministry (1 Chronicles

24:1-19). Lastly, the sacred text gives a brief account of the work of those 6000 Levites whom David

appointed as "scribes and judges" (1 Chronicles 26:29-32), and of the final arrangement of the army, and of

all the other public offices (1 Chronicles 27.).

4. David's last hymn and prophetic utterance (2 Samuel 22-23:2-7). - The history of David appropriately

closes with a grand hymn, which may be described as alike the program and the summary of his life and

reign in their spiritual aspect. Somewhat altered in language, so as to adapt it to liturgical purposes, it is

inserted in our present Psalter as Psalm 18, to which we accordingly refer. This grand hymn of thanksgiving

is followed - to use the language of an eminent German critic  56 -by the prophetic testament of the king, in

which he indicates the spiritual import and bearing of his kingdom.

If Psalm 18 was a grand Hallelujah, with which David quitted the scene of life, these his "last words" are the

Divine attestation of all that he had sung and prophesied in the Psalms concerning the spiritual import of the

kingdom which he was to found, in accordance with the Divine message that Nathan had been

commissioned to bring to him. Hence these "last words" must be regarded as an inspired prophetic

utterance by David, before his death, about the King and the Kingdom of God in their full and real meaning.

The following is the literal rendering of this grand prophecy:

The Spirit of Jehovah speaks by me,57

And His Word is on my tongue!58