I WILL COME INTO THY HOUSE

It would appear that this psalm follows on from Psalms 3 and 4. David returned to Jerusalem after his flight from Absalom, “David came to his house at Jerusalem”, 2 Sam. 20. 3. He found another revolt in progress: “Sheba … blew a trumpet, and said, We have no part in David … So every man of Israel went up from after David, and followed Sheba”, vv. 1, 2. David’s exercise in Psalm 5 follows.

The rest of the account in 2 Samuel 20 does not make very pleasant reading. The principal men concerned answer to those in Psalm 5: “workers of iniquity”, men of lies and of blood, “their inward part is very wickedness”, etc. Yet in verse 7 there appears a perfect gem: “I will come into thy house in the multitude of thy mercy: and in thy fear will I worship toward thy holy temple”. (Note the four-fold use of the word “thy” in this verse. David may be surrounded by men seeking their own things, but he knew what pertained to God.) David had said that he would see both the ark and God’s habitation again after his flight, 2 Sam. 15. 25, so now that the opportunity presented itself according to God’s favour, David immediately comes “into thy house” to “worship toward thy holy temple”. When trouble was around, his priority was to seek God’s face in His house. This is what Hezekiah did later when the Assyrians surrounded Jerusalem: he “went into the house of the Lord”, and spread the enemy’s letter before the Lord in the house, 2 Kings 19. 1, 14. Similarly in Acts 4. 23; there was trouble, and the apostles “went to their own company”, and they prayed “where they were assembled together”, v. 31. There was trouble in Acts 12. 12, so Peter “came to the house of Mary … where many were gathered together praying”.

David knew that there was only one place: “thy house … thy holy temple”. No other place could satisfy his heart; he knew that this was the place that God had chosen out of all the tribes to put His Name there, Deut. 12. 5. In our experience we would say the same thing for believers today. The local church, the house of the living God, is the only place for the Lord’s people. Later in the O.T. other places sprung up, 1 Kings 12. 28-33, but no faithful king ever went there.

“They were all with one accord in one place”, Acts 2. 1.