August 25, 2025 • 29 mins
In this second installment of our series on Tehillim 27, we dive into the Book of Samuel to uncover the deeper meaning behind David's "one request from God." The story we discovered was darker than anticipated, yet it ultimately casts new light on David's hopeful conclusion: "Had I not believed to see the goodness of the Lord..."
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*Correction: The verse from I Chronicles is from 28:3.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Welcome back to our series on the David Hashem O re.
We've been digging back into ouraudio files and re editing these
episodes to make them even better than they were the first
time, and I'm especially excitedabout how this one came out.
As part of this remastering, we're actually splitting this
episode up into two parts. They are already both in your
feed, so listen away. Welcome back to Tehillim
(00:57):
Unveiled. This is Ari Levison.
I'm Rev Jeremy. And this is our second episode
ever. Double trouble.
How'd you feel the first time went?
Awesome. We got deep.
Yeah, we got deep. Truth is though, in my mind,
everything we did last week was really just an excuse to get to
this week. We're.
Going to be continuing our series on the David Hashem Ori
(01:19):
Tehilam Khafzai in 27 Last time we described the overall
structure of them is more the story that it tells on a shot on
a like a literal level. This time I want to dive deep
into David's life itself. We touched on that last time,
but now I want to really and better ourselves into the David
(01:40):
story and uncover what I think is is the real heart of this
Miss Moore. And to me, why?
It just tears my heart in piecesand puts it back together all
over again. Let's do it.
You ready for that? I'm ready.
All right, why don't we start with a recap of what we did last
time? So we see in the beginning of
this music, more David starts from this place of security,
(02:00):
right? He says, who can touch me,
right? Why should I be afraid?
I'm in the stronghold. None can come close to me.
And we saw that as the news moreprogresses, we see that tenor
for David change shifting from looking at the people to looking
at the divine and saying God, really what I want.
I don't want to be in the stronghold.
I want to be in the palace. I want to see.
You the the opportunity and the idea of actually seeking a
(02:22):
spiritual connection with God isonly unlocked once the enemies
are no longer a concern of his. Once those physical wars are in
the back of his mind, then that that tense, that of God, which
was originally the thing that was protecting him, now is this
opportunity. It's this place where he can
offer sacrifices, where he can sing praises, where he can see
(02:42):
God's face. You're fair, right?
And we talked about this transition from Lehul Sarai,
right Kui been Afshi right, of of David moving inwards.
And as he makes this inward morespiritual transition, we see
that we'd move again from this place of confidence to this
place of not only lack of confidence, but also a
vulnerability of questioning, ofno longer saying confidently,
(03:03):
this is what I have. I'm beginning to ask, God, can I
see you? Can I have you right?
Can I be close to you? And from that deep place of
insecurity, he brings us back tothat sort of place of, of
surety. Now maybe not so much as
announcement as hodab, but now is like Tila Lulaya mandelor
Petu Hashembehr. It's kaim kavela shem, Kazakhvi
mint tibeka de kavela shem saying I want to just see you, I
(03:27):
want to be with you. And taking again this line
Kazakhvi mint tibeka normally isis almost a battle cry and
turning it into a a spiritual tila, a spiritual call, you
know? One of the things though, that I
felt was just kind of missing there was our interpretation of
those last two lines felt like we had beginning of something,
but there was something missing.What is Debbie doing in the end?
(03:49):
He seems to console himself saying like the lay Hamanti that
wrote the 2 of Hashem, Barrett Kayim.
Had I not trusted to see the good of Hashem in the land of
the living, dot, dot, dot? Where did that trust come from?
What exactly is it that he's trusting in?
What is the 2 of Hashem, the goodness of God that he's
talking about here? That's what I want to try to
(04:11):
answer in this week's episode. But to do that, I want to focus
on on what perhaps the most memorable line of this entire
mismore, this request Davy makes.
He says, I thought Shaltima it Hashem.
There's one thing that I asked from God.
And, you know, I was thinking about that and thinking about
David's life and thinking about,well, when was there a time when
(04:33):
David asked something from God, like not a not a small little
thing like, you know, God help me find my missing headphones, A
life changing request that he made from God, something that he
would never forget, something that his whole life he might be
thinking about. That brought me into second
Samuel Chapter 7 through all that Parekh Zion with Jamie.
(04:54):
What goes on in this chapter? In this beginning, in the
beginning of this Parekh, he just settled in, right?
He's living in his palace. And suddenly he turns to
Natanana Navi and he says, I'm living in this amazing palace,
but the Arun is sitting in a tent.
How can I be sitting in a home when there's not a permanent
home for the Arun? What's he really asking?
He's saying, let me build for Hashem, amigdash a palace.
I want to create a space that Hashem has, that sort of home
(05:18):
and that place of living among us.
Natan says go for it, do whatever you want.
That's during the day. Then we get to the night.
Hashem comes to Natan in the night and says, is this
something that I ever asked for?Can you think of a single time
when I went to anybody in Jewishhistory until now and said, I'm
mad at you, You're in trouble because you didn't make me a
(05:38):
house? Shem says.
Did I need a house before when Idid all of these amazing things,
when I brought Israel out of Egypt?
Shem says, the house is not something that I need, right?
And then he speaks a little bit further, says Hashem.
He says, this is what I want younow to tell David.
I've been with you all your life.
I've been with you in your battles.
I've been with you to make you the king.
(05:58):
And he actually says the opposite of what David was
asking, right? Shem says, not only are you not
going to build me a house, I'm going to establish your house,
son. I'll basically establish your
house forever. And he says even further than
that, it's not only that Shlomo is going to be the establishment
of your house, but it's Shlomo who will build my house.
David is like the precursor or almost this observer, but not
(06:20):
the builder. Nothing comes and says it to
David. David is ecstatic, right?
He says this is so amazing and and he basically continually is,
is praising exactly this idea that David's house will be
established and that's really the thing that cuts to the core
for him. Right.
So on the surface, if you would describe why God denies Debbie's
request? Shim says I don't have a need
(06:42):
for a house, really. Right, it's not you, it's me.
You say that right? Exactly, exactly.
You almost get the sense that Hashem is saying I don't want a
house, I don't need a house, andI don't want people to get the
idea that I need a house. Now obviously Hashim says there
will be one for me, right? Shlomo will build me a MC Dash,
but Hashem is almost a little put off by that request and that
(07:02):
response it seems like. Right.
And and no, you might be familiar with a different
version of this story, right, where God gives a much darker
reason for why David cannot build this house, right, But
that's actually in the Dvray Hayamin, the Chronicles version
of this, of this whole events. And we're we're going to come
back to that. But for now, let's just focus on
(07:23):
this. So let's let's come back to tail
him for a second and now try to imagine it in this light, this
parrack of Shmuel. It started off by saying vahi Ki
is shav hamalapavaitao. When David was sitting in his
own house, the shem he niaflo MIsaviv call ivav God gave him
(07:45):
rest from all his enemies surrounding him.
Right Armismor starts off with those first 4 verses that are
describing how David is so confidently victorious.
Noir. He opens by saying, how can I be
afraid? Shem is my light, my salvation,
right? They come to consume me.
They fail every time. He's untouchable.
(08:06):
Yeah. And, and the context of this
story in Safer Shmuel is David has just defeated all his
political enemies. He's conquered Jerusalem and he
comes there and he builds this grand palace for himself.
But then he's sitting in this amazing cedar palace, but he's
kind of unhappy with it. He says this is this is like
(08:29):
nice, but I don't want to be living in this grand palace.
You're. Starting to get me thinking
about how we how we look at thisnews more.
David is sitting in this palace and he's saying this is not the
real house. This is not the real building
that I care about. There's another building that I
actually care about, that I actually want to see come to
life. And so he says, Akasha altimet
(08:50):
Hashem, there's one thing I ask of God, like one thing that I
just really, really, really wantOttava kesh.
This is what I seek out shifty vait Hashem call you may Faye.
I I live not in my house. I live in God's house.
I remember how he uses the language of house versus tent in
(09:12):
Shmuel, right. By house, he doesn't just mean
living in, in the Mishkan, in the Tabernacle.
He means I want to build God a house, a real House of cedar, a
palace. And that's where I want to live
with him, not in my own palace. And as he says, Keats Benini,
Bisuka Bjora, he's a trainee Biseter a hello, right.
(09:33):
Because when I was fighting all of this time, when I was
fighting against my enemies, he was protecting me in a suka a, a
booth. He hid me in his tent.
All this time God has been dwelling in a booth in a tent,
but I don't want that anymore. I want him to dwell in a house
and I want to dwell there with him.
This is the request of David's life.
(09:57):
And then God says no. And on one hand there must have
been some disappointment on that.
But if you put yourself in David's shoes and imagine what
God tells you and he says, look,it's not you, right?
For 400 years in Jewish history,I've never asked anyone to build
me a house. But actually, because you asked
this, I'm going to make a promise to you that your, your
(10:19):
house, your family is going to live on forever and your
children are going to take the reins after you.
And actually, the thing that youwanted to do, the thing that no
one has ever done before, your children aren't going to do
that. So how does David respond to
that? Joyously.
And even he, like, offers a prayer, right?
Maybe that's what it means here in the tillam, Ashiwaba,
(10:41):
Zamrallah Hashem. Interestingly, he's still in
God's tent at this point in the tillam, right?
He never switches over to God's house.
He's still in God's tent. But he's like, you know what?
OK, I get it. We'll stay in your tent.
But while I'm here, I have a lotof reason to offer offerings and
sing and praise God. And to follow that up, he says,
laksha Amar libi bakshu pannan. He's like, OK, I get it that I
(11:07):
can't build you a temple. But you know, I actually I hear
my heart saying something. My heart is saying Laksha
amarlibi Bakshu Panai seek on myface a panerfa sham of Acacia.
I see it good God's face. And it's kind of this like
alternative towards this big grand physical castle is we can
still have a great spiritual. Relationship.
(11:29):
I was also reading it a little differently.
I wonder if there's a element here of revelation for David
that it's not that David is saying, OK, I'll settle for your
face, I can't have your house. But David first says the only
thing that I asked Shivdi vivet Hashem lahazzut manorma Shim
oliva Karbek. Hello, right.
Where do I want to see Hashem? I want to see Hashem in the
(11:50):
palace. And we think about the spiritual
dynamics here where Shem says you're not going to see me in my
palace. And then what?
Suddenly Leibio merrily, right? It's almost surprising, right?
David hears it almost as if it'soutside of him saying what you
really want. This is, is la hazard banoa
mashem, not Levaka berhalo at Panera Shemavakesh, right?
And that's sort of what opens upthis whole element for David.
(12:13):
Also, again, of that spiritual vulnerability of saying it's
really your face I always wantedbecause that closeness, that
feeling of connection, that's what I was always lacking.
And I always had that with you, and I always want to have.
That with you yeah. And and you know what happened
basically after God tells him this is he he basically offers
this beautiful prayer to God andhe says in verse 27 there kya
(12:34):
tashemtzvo TA locate Israel Galita T ozen of the Khali more
bait avnelak and you, God the the Lord of hosts of Israel,
you've revealed to the ear of your servant.
Basically, you've told me sayingbait avnelak, I'm going to build
you a house, al Cain matsa avdhaET libo.
(12:57):
Therefore, literally I have found my heart to pray to you
this prayer. And I wonder if that's what he
means here. Lacha Amar libi bakshu panai.
All of a sudden, as you said last time, right to you, my
heart says, seek my face, and then I kind of respond to my own
heart. David in his mind had this, this
(13:18):
this whole building campaign that he wanted to do.
But then through God's response,he realizes what he actually
wanted deep down in his real heart.
And it's that heart that sings and that speaks this prayer,
this fila to God. We mentioned before that this is
(13:43):
only one version of the story ofDavid asking to build the
temple, right? The other version is from
Chronicles. It's from Dvrahayamim Aleph,
chapter 27, verse 3. This is David talking to his son
Shlomo as he's kind of handing over the reins and he says
Valohim Amarilli Lotivna by Italy, Shmukhi Ishmael Khemo
(14:07):
Tata, the Dameem Shafafta. God said to me, you're not going
to build a house for my name because you are a man of war and
you have blood on your hands. That's very different from the
story that we just read. Before.
It was kind of God saying it's not you, it's me.
(14:28):
Now, at the end of David's life,he's turning to his son and
said, no, it, it was me. Right, right.
And, you know, it's interesting because there's no evidence that
God actually told him this, but somehow by the end of his life,
he seems to understand, or at least believe himself, that this
(14:48):
is the real reason why God said no to letting him build the
temple. Which makes you wonder, where
did he come to that realization?Right when we left him earlier
in his life, when originally that request was denied, He was
really happy about it. He felt really good about God's
response. He sings this beautiful prayer
to God. And at some point something
(15:09):
changes. That if you decide suddenly
what? God was just letting me down.
Easy, right? So I'll be honest, for a while I
didn't really have much of an explanation for what changes.
And my original plan as of about2:00 AM last night was that
beer. Maybe because it's going to
leave that as an open question or discuss that, sure, But as I
(15:29):
was lying in the head. All good ideas come at 2:00 AM.
That's true. I couldn't fall asleep last
night. I was running over this year in
my head, mostly pointlessly. Just nonsense going over and
over and over, turning into gibberish.
But then it hit me. I think I know at what point W
comes to this realization, or atleast what events bring W to
(15:52):
this realization. And Jeremy, I think that you
actually know it, too. Do what I'm finding out now.
The reason I say that is becauseyou brought up the story
multiple times last week. You, you really had a strong
feeling that this story was a really strong part of this Miss
Moore. But Sheva.
Yeah, this is Second Samuel chapter 11-4 chapters after the
(16:18):
one that we just read. Man Yun.
Can you give us the AL ragel Akhat version of the story?
Well, as Leonard Cohen told us, you saw her bathing on the roof,
David, basically again on top ofthe world.
He comes out, he sees, but Shevasees this beautiful woman
admires her beauty. He says I want her right.
He brings her and actually they,they sleep together, right?
(16:39):
But what's the problem? But Sheva's married, and she's
married to a a member of David'sarmy, and now she's pregnant.
And what makes this particularlyproblematic is the fact that
Uriah is out at war. So if Bat Sheva, his wife, gets
pregnant, everyone's going to know that she cheated on him,
right? And, and, and of course, right,
it's hard to say no to the king,right?
So if there's anyone to blame here for for this happening,
(17:02):
right, he certainly seems like he used his power to take
advantage of her. And so basically his, his only
way out is to try to cover over this fact by sending Oriya home
so that he can be with his wife.So he invites Oriya to the
palace and he tells Oriya, go home, go be with your wife, take
a take a vacation, take a break and listen to Oriya, responds
(17:23):
Vyomer. Oriya al David.
Or he says to David Aron, the Sur al the Huda Yoshimba,
Sukkots, the Ark and Israel and all Judah, they're all dwelling
in tents. Sukkots.
What does that remind you of? Our Lushon and to heal him,
right Right. That God is dwelling in a tent.
And also what David said previously about his own reason
(17:45):
for wanting to build the temple for God is like the Ark of the
Covenant is in some flimsy tentsright now, right?
He says, look, the ark and all everyone's in tents.
Vaduni Yaav, the yaav who's the general Vadde Aduni Vapenias,
Sadeh Khanim. The whole army is camping in the
field Vani of Vlabeti. And I'm going to go to my house
again, my house, my house, my real house.
(18:08):
Lachel really Stokes Lishkov Imishti to eat and drink and
sleep with my wife Kayaka, the Kaye Nafshaha e-mail said to the
visor. How could I do such a thing?
It's so similar to that languagethat David himself just used
when he was talking about wanting to build a house for
God. He's like, how can I live in
(18:29):
this big beautiful house? Well, God and in the Ark of the
Covenant are dwelling in this flimsy tent.
Right. Wow.
Imagine if you're divvied. How do you feel when you hear
that? Right, right.
You've basically gone against your principles.
You've done something inappropriate in front of
everybody and it stands to be found out.
And you bring this guy back to try to cover what you did.
(18:51):
And what is he? He's bound by honor.
Especially when he basically uses David's own language, his
own words about how could God's ark be in this tent and I'm
going to go hang out in my beautiful house with my wife.
And I wonder how about that irony would have meant the
David? I wonder if you would have
realized the irony there. So what does he do next?
(19:13):
First, he tried to do it basically the easy way.
Yeah. And what's he left with now?
In for a penny, in for a pound, right.
And this is where the story getsgets dark, right?
Where David writes to you of I need you to put Oriya on the
front lines. I need you to put Oriya in the
heart of danger. Right.
And especially thinking about war back then, the front lines
are not even the most dangerous place.
(19:33):
You're basically a goner. Yeah.
And so he says, put Oriya on thefront lines and that's what
happens where he gets killed in battle.
And Bathsheba is is widowed through this whole interaction.
And then David is able to take her as a wife immediately and
there's a time she's pregnant. No one knows that there's any
(19:54):
wrongdoing. So as far as David's concerned,
it's like he got away with it. He got the girl, the guys out of
the picture even though we as the reader are disturbed by his
actions. David is sleeping soundly.
Right, right. And so then what happens?
The Shem is obviously just like us, as the reader, displeased
with what David has done, and sends Natan, the very prophet
(20:14):
who just a few chapters ago conversed with David about
building the Benamita, right, About building the temple for a
Shem. Natan comes back, and he comes
before David, and Natan does something unusual.
He starts telling a story, a story that seems completely
unrelated to anything, tells thestory of a rich man who has a
lot of sheep and a poor shepherdwho only has one sheep.
(20:36):
And the rich man basically comes, and through trickery,
through deceit, through guile, he steals that sheep from that
poor man, leaving him with nothing.
Now, if you're David, you're like, OK, I don't know what's
going on here. Right?
Like you said, David's sleeping soundly.
He's not thinking about this. We don't get the sense that
David, with a guilty conscience is looking to see the
(20:57):
consequences of what he's done in his life.
Right? And that's so true that when he
hears this story, he's totally unfazed.
He says this rich guy should be punished, he should be killed.
And we said last time that Davidbasically the words are he gets
mad the language of off at this hypothetical rich man.
And that was the only time that we saw that the language of
(21:18):
anger is connected with David. It's David getting angry at this
hypothetical version of himself that he doesn't realize is
actually himself, right. You're fake, you see, even in
that parallel, right? How much he was not bothered by
this until this point, right? And then Natan obviously hits
him with the message of the story, right?
You're the rich guy. You just did this.
(21:41):
You're literally the subject of the story I just told.
And David, rather than fighting it, rather than getting
defensive, immediately says, right, right.
You're completely right. That's exactly what I did.
I totally did wrong. Natan tells David that the
result of his actions will have massive implications for him,
right? And this is what we discussed
last time, right? The sword will never leave,
(22:01):
never leave your house, right? You will also have your wives
taken from you just like you took somebody else's wife.
And you know, for DaVita, obviously, immediately, most
tragically, right, this child that you have with Butsheva is
not going to survive. DaVita has this whole mourning
ritual that comes with that. And then the narrative skips
from there at least nine months.David and Butsheva have another
(22:22):
child, right? Totally just skips what happens
in between and just brings us tothat next child and shows us the
contrast. This child who was born not out
of guile and trickery, right, but out of repentance, it says
Vashimovo, right? Sham loves this child.
By the end of chapter 12, you feel like David's come back to
himself, right? He snapped back to the hero that
(22:44):
we've known for so many chaptersanyway.
He's really one of the most heroic characters early on in
his life. And you wonder what happened in
the middle, what what happened to him that he could descend to
such depths morally. And I I think the answer is
really the first words of Chapter 11.
Vahili chuvatashana late sitam Lahim.
(23:07):
What's that the context of this story that the TANF embeds it
in? It's wartime.
It's when the kings go out to battle.
The whole context of the story, everything about this story is
about battle. And as we said last time, like
the main thing we talked about was how war can really corrupt
the person. It it takes a toll on the soul
(23:29):
of the person fighting. And he's actually the king who
is chiefly responsible for that fighting.
And it's interesting, right? Because war is not only the
framing of the story, it's also the mechanism of the story,
right? Both in the sense of Oria being
in battle, coming back from battle, right?
Paralleled with or contrasted with David's sort of private
(23:49):
battle, right? His inner sort of strategist
coming out trying to win this public fight, this fight of
public opinion. Right.
It's almost like as if in David's mind, as long as I win,
at the end of the day, it's all OK because those are the rules
of war. Except this isn't war, right?
This is someone's someone's family that you've just
interrupted. This is a husband that you just
(24:12):
led to his death. And I think that when Natan
confronts him and David realizeswhat he's done, I think this
might also be the moment where he realizes what his involvement
in the war has done to him. And my proof for that is what he
names that second child, right? The redo, the one where he's
already done Shuva, he's repented for what he's done.
(24:35):
What does he name him? Don't know.
Which literally means peace. Peace.
He's like, I need to correct what I've done.
And maybe I will never achieve peace in my own life.
But this son who I've already been promised, right?
My my son is going to build the temple.
I'm going to name him peace in the hopes that he will actually
(24:57):
live a life of peace and he won't get pulled into the mud of
war like I have and won't sufferthe consequences of war like I
have. And let's just do an exercise
and close your eyes for a secondand imagine we're Debbie did
that point and given everything you said that your son is is
(25:19):
dying or your son maybe just diddie.
And you're so you're so upset about it and everything.
And maybe you're going for a walk and you're reflecting and
you're, you know, you're wondering, how could I have done
such a thing? And you're coming to this
realization that it's really it's your involvement in war
that has taken you to this pointthat has worn down your soul so
(25:41):
tragically. And then it hits you.
You know, a while back, I asked God to build a temple.
And he, he said no. And he gave me an explanation
that kind of made sense, but it wasn't really an answer, was it?
I mean, God basically just said,I don't really need it.
Oh, but your son is going to do it.
(26:03):
And I kind of just let that slide because I was so happy
about the promise that God made to me that my children will
carry on the Kingdom forever. But maybe, maybe there was
another reason. Maybe my involvement in war has
done something to me. What if that's the real reason?
God wouldn't let me build this temple?
Now imagine you're a David at this point.
(26:24):
How's that feel? What's going through your mind?
What do you want to say? First of all, I would, I would
feel, I would feel ashamed. I would feel embarrassed for
what I had done. You think about this movement of
David, you know, I would be saying to myself, I've fallen so
far, Mamash, I don't even recognize myself.
(26:45):
Natan had to tell a story about somebody else to get me to see
who I really am, right, To hold up in the mirror.
I well, in that regard, I just I've fallen so far.
It's that moment where David really has to confront what he
did and. I wonder if that's what the last
third of the mismore and tahilimis.
Altastair Panachamimani, Don't hide your face with me.
(27:08):
I'll tell Zani. Don't abandoned me.
And now it's not you, Hashem, who, who have been there for me
when I had nobody else. Now it's you, Hashem, who have
every right to abandon me after what I've done.
Who I I could understand why youwould not want somebody like
this to be the king of your nation, the poet who brings you
(27:30):
into the world, somebody close to you.
And. When he says a line like Harini
Hashem, atar kafa, show me God, teach me God your way.
And all of a sudden that has newmeaning too.
It's teach me all right, becauseI think I've lost it.
(28:03):
Through it all, I wonder if there's a little feeling even of
hope. I'm thinking as David, like you
said, it all comes crashing in the depth of how far I've
fallen, the pain at who I am. But then I would think back to
Hashem's promise, which was not that.
David, if you're good, then I will have a house.
(28:24):
But it was David, there will be a house and it will be through
you, but it won't be through your hands.
I wonder if there there's even apiece of me that would insert to
say, well maybe the door is still open.
And you know, that's the one thing that we haven't seen yet
in this park of Tahila, which issuch a key part of both of these
stories we just read, is Davidson Shlomo, who is going to
(28:47):
build the temple. God answers W's request through
Shlomo. So I wonder what would it
actually look like to reference the story of Shlomo building the
Makdash? We're actually going to end
part. 2A here. It's been a heavy conversation
so far. We broke down the story where
one of our greatest heroes totally lost himself.
(29:09):
But as we pointed out, there is.Hope and that.
Hope's name is Shlomo. The only question is, does our
mismore itself talk about Shlomo?
That's what we'll explorer in Part 2B.
It's already in your podcast feed, so whenever you're ready.
We'll see you there.
Welcome back to our series on the David Hashem O re.
We've been digging back into ouraudio files and re editing these
episodes to make them even better than they were the first
time, and I'm especially excitedabout how this one came out.
As part of this remastering, we're actually splitting this
episode up into two parts. They are already both in your
feed, so listen away. Welcome back to Tehillim
(00:57):
Unveiled. This is Ari Levison.
I'm Rev Jeremy. And this is our second episode
ever. Double trouble.
How'd you feel the first time went?
Awesome. We got deep.
Yeah, we got deep. Truth is though, in my mind,
everything we did last week was really just an excuse to get to
this week. We're.
Going to be continuing our series on the David Hashem Ori
(01:19):
Tehilam Khafzai in 27 Last time we described the overall
structure of them is more the story that it tells on a shot on
a like a literal level. This time I want to dive deep
into David's life itself. We touched on that last time,
but now I want to really and better ourselves into the David
(01:40):
story and uncover what I think is is the real heart of this
Miss Moore. And to me, why?
It just tears my heart in piecesand puts it back together all
over again. Let's do it.
You ready for that? I'm ready.
All right, why don't we start with a recap of what we did last
time? So we see in the beginning of
this music, more David starts from this place of security,
(02:00):
right? He says, who can touch me,
right? Why should I be afraid?
I'm in the stronghold. None can come close to me.
And we saw that as the news moreprogresses, we see that tenor
for David change shifting from looking at the people to looking
at the divine and saying God, really what I want.
I don't want to be in the stronghold.
I want to be in the palace. I want to see.
You the the opportunity and the idea of actually seeking a
(02:22):
spiritual connection with God isonly unlocked once the enemies
are no longer a concern of his. Once those physical wars are in
the back of his mind, then that that tense, that of God, which
was originally the thing that was protecting him, now is this
opportunity. It's this place where he can
offer sacrifices, where he can sing praises, where he can see
(02:42):
God's face. You're fair, right?
And we talked about this transition from Lehul Sarai,
right Kui been Afshi right, of of David moving inwards.
And as he makes this inward morespiritual transition, we see
that we'd move again from this place of confidence to this
place of not only lack of confidence, but also a
vulnerability of questioning, ofno longer saying confidently,
(03:03):
this is what I have. I'm beginning to ask, God, can I
see you? Can I have you right?
Can I be close to you? And from that deep place of
insecurity, he brings us back tothat sort of place of, of
surety. Now maybe not so much as
announcement as hodab, but now is like Tila Lulaya mandelor
Petu Hashembehr. It's kaim kavela shem, Kazakhvi
mint tibeka de kavela shem saying I want to just see you, I
(03:27):
want to be with you. And taking again this line
Kazakhvi mint tibeka normally isis almost a battle cry and
turning it into a a spiritual tila, a spiritual call, you
know? One of the things though, that I
felt was just kind of missing there was our interpretation of
those last two lines felt like we had beginning of something,
but there was something missing.What is Debbie doing in the end?
(03:49):
He seems to console himself saying like the lay Hamanti that
wrote the 2 of Hashem, Barrett Kayim.
Had I not trusted to see the good of Hashem in the land of
the living, dot, dot, dot? Where did that trust come from?
What exactly is it that he's trusting in?
What is the 2 of Hashem, the goodness of God that he's
talking about here? That's what I want to try to
(04:11):
answer in this week's episode. But to do that, I want to focus
on on what perhaps the most memorable line of this entire
mismore, this request Davy makes.
He says, I thought Shaltima it Hashem.
There's one thing that I asked from God.
And, you know, I was thinking about that and thinking about
David's life and thinking about,well, when was there a time when
(04:33):
David asked something from God, like not a not a small little
thing like, you know, God help me find my missing headphones, A
life changing request that he made from God, something that he
would never forget, something that his whole life he might be
thinking about. That brought me into second
Samuel Chapter 7 through all that Parekh Zion with Jamie.
(04:54):
What goes on in this chapter? In this beginning, in the
beginning of this Parekh, he just settled in, right?
He's living in his palace. And suddenly he turns to
Natanana Navi and he says, I'm living in this amazing palace,
but the Arun is sitting in a tent.
How can I be sitting in a home when there's not a permanent
home for the Arun? What's he really asking?
He's saying, let me build for Hashem, amigdash a palace.
I want to create a space that Hashem has, that sort of home
(05:18):
and that place of living among us.
Natan says go for it, do whatever you want.
That's during the day. Then we get to the night.
Hashem comes to Natan in the night and says, is this
something that I ever asked for?Can you think of a single time
when I went to anybody in Jewishhistory until now and said, I'm
mad at you, You're in trouble because you didn't make me a
(05:38):
house? Shem says.
Did I need a house before when Idid all of these amazing things,
when I brought Israel out of Egypt?
Shem says, the house is not something that I need, right?
And then he speaks a little bit further, says Hashem.
He says, this is what I want younow to tell David.
I've been with you all your life.
I've been with you in your battles.
I've been with you to make you the king.
(05:58):
And he actually says the opposite of what David was
asking, right? Shem says, not only are you not
going to build me a house, I'm going to establish your house,
son. I'll basically establish your
house forever. And he says even further than
that, it's not only that Shlomo is going to be the establishment
of your house, but it's Shlomo who will build my house.
David is like the precursor or almost this observer, but not
(06:20):
the builder. Nothing comes and says it to
David. David is ecstatic, right?
He says this is so amazing and and he basically continually is,
is praising exactly this idea that David's house will be
established and that's really the thing that cuts to the core
for him. Right.
So on the surface, if you would describe why God denies Debbie's
request? Shim says I don't have a need
(06:42):
for a house, really. Right, it's not you, it's me.
You say that right? Exactly, exactly.
You almost get the sense that Hashem is saying I don't want a
house, I don't need a house, andI don't want people to get the
idea that I need a house. Now obviously Hashim says there
will be one for me, right? Shlomo will build me a MC Dash,
but Hashem is almost a little put off by that request and that
(07:02):
response it seems like. Right.
And and no, you might be familiar with a different
version of this story, right, where God gives a much darker
reason for why David cannot build this house, right, But
that's actually in the Dvray Hayamin, the Chronicles version
of this, of this whole events. And we're we're going to come
back to that. But for now, let's just focus on
(07:23):
this. So let's let's come back to tail
him for a second and now try to imagine it in this light, this
parrack of Shmuel. It started off by saying vahi Ki
is shav hamalapavaitao. When David was sitting in his
own house, the shem he niaflo MIsaviv call ivav God gave him
(07:45):
rest from all his enemies surrounding him.
Right Armismor starts off with those first 4 verses that are
describing how David is so confidently victorious.
Noir. He opens by saying, how can I be
afraid? Shem is my light, my salvation,
right? They come to consume me.
They fail every time. He's untouchable.
(08:06):
Yeah. And, and the context of this
story in Safer Shmuel is David has just defeated all his
political enemies. He's conquered Jerusalem and he
comes there and he builds this grand palace for himself.
But then he's sitting in this amazing cedar palace, but he's
kind of unhappy with it. He says this is this is like
(08:29):
nice, but I don't want to be living in this grand palace.
You're. Starting to get me thinking
about how we how we look at thisnews more.
David is sitting in this palace and he's saying this is not the
real house. This is not the real building
that I care about. There's another building that I
actually care about, that I actually want to see come to
life. And so he says, Akasha altimet
(08:50):
Hashem, there's one thing I ask of God, like one thing that I
just really, really, really wantOttava kesh.
This is what I seek out shifty vait Hashem call you may Faye.
I I live not in my house. I live in God's house.
I remember how he uses the language of house versus tent in
(09:12):
Shmuel, right. By house, he doesn't just mean
living in, in the Mishkan, in the Tabernacle.
He means I want to build God a house, a real House of cedar, a
palace. And that's where I want to live
with him, not in my own palace. And as he says, Keats Benini,
Bisuka Bjora, he's a trainee Biseter a hello, right.
(09:33):
Because when I was fighting all of this time, when I was
fighting against my enemies, he was protecting me in a suka a, a
booth. He hid me in his tent.
All this time God has been dwelling in a booth in a tent,
but I don't want that anymore. I want him to dwell in a house
and I want to dwell there with him.
This is the request of David's life.
(09:57):
And then God says no. And on one hand there must have
been some disappointment on that.
But if you put yourself in David's shoes and imagine what
God tells you and he says, look,it's not you, right?
For 400 years in Jewish history,I've never asked anyone to build
me a house. But actually, because you asked
this, I'm going to make a promise to you that your, your
(10:19):
house, your family is going to live on forever and your
children are going to take the reins after you.
And actually, the thing that youwanted to do, the thing that no
one has ever done before, your children aren't going to do
that. So how does David respond to
that? Joyously.
And even he, like, offers a prayer, right?
Maybe that's what it means here in the tillam, Ashiwaba,
(10:41):
Zamrallah Hashem. Interestingly, he's still in
God's tent at this point in the tillam, right?
He never switches over to God's house.
He's still in God's tent. But he's like, you know what?
OK, I get it. We'll stay in your tent.
But while I'm here, I have a lotof reason to offer offerings and
sing and praise God. And to follow that up, he says,
laksha Amar libi bakshu pannan. He's like, OK, I get it that I
(11:07):
can't build you a temple. But you know, I actually I hear
my heart saying something. My heart is saying Laksha
amarlibi Bakshu Panai seek on myface a panerfa sham of Acacia.
I see it good God's face. And it's kind of this like
alternative towards this big grand physical castle is we can
still have a great spiritual. Relationship.
(11:29):
I was also reading it a little differently.
I wonder if there's a element here of revelation for David
that it's not that David is saying, OK, I'll settle for your
face, I can't have your house. But David first says the only
thing that I asked Shivdi vivet Hashem lahazzut manorma Shim
oliva Karbek. Hello, right.
Where do I want to see Hashem? I want to see Hashem in the
(11:50):
palace. And we think about the spiritual
dynamics here where Shem says you're not going to see me in my
palace. And then what?
Suddenly Leibio merrily, right? It's almost surprising, right?
David hears it almost as if it'soutside of him saying what you
really want. This is, is la hazard banoa
mashem, not Levaka berhalo at Panera Shemavakesh, right?
And that's sort of what opens upthis whole element for David.
(12:13):
Also, again, of that spiritual vulnerability of saying it's
really your face I always wantedbecause that closeness, that
feeling of connection, that's what I was always lacking.
And I always had that with you, and I always want to have.
That with you yeah. And and you know what happened
basically after God tells him this is he he basically offers
this beautiful prayer to God andhe says in verse 27 there kya
(12:34):
tashemtzvo TA locate Israel Galita T ozen of the Khali more
bait avnelak and you, God the the Lord of hosts of Israel,
you've revealed to the ear of your servant.
Basically, you've told me sayingbait avnelak, I'm going to build
you a house, al Cain matsa avdhaET libo.
(12:57):
Therefore, literally I have found my heart to pray to you
this prayer. And I wonder if that's what he
means here. Lacha Amar libi bakshu panai.
All of a sudden, as you said last time, right to you, my
heart says, seek my face, and then I kind of respond to my own
heart. David in his mind had this, this
(13:18):
this whole building campaign that he wanted to do.
But then through God's response,he realizes what he actually
wanted deep down in his real heart.
And it's that heart that sings and that speaks this prayer,
this fila to God. We mentioned before that this is
(13:43):
only one version of the story ofDavid asking to build the
temple, right? The other version is from
Chronicles. It's from Dvrahayamim Aleph,
chapter 27, verse 3. This is David talking to his son
Shlomo as he's kind of handing over the reins and he says
Valohim Amarilli Lotivna by Italy, Shmukhi Ishmael Khemo
(14:07):
Tata, the Dameem Shafafta. God said to me, you're not going
to build a house for my name because you are a man of war and
you have blood on your hands. That's very different from the
story that we just read. Before.
It was kind of God saying it's not you, it's me.
(14:28):
Now, at the end of David's life,he's turning to his son and
said, no, it, it was me. Right, right.
And, you know, it's interesting because there's no evidence that
God actually told him this, but somehow by the end of his life,
he seems to understand, or at least believe himself, that this
(14:48):
is the real reason why God said no to letting him build the
temple. Which makes you wonder, where
did he come to that realization?Right when we left him earlier
in his life, when originally that request was denied, He was
really happy about it. He felt really good about God's
response. He sings this beautiful prayer
to God. And at some point something
(15:09):
changes. That if you decide suddenly
what? God was just letting me down.
Easy, right? So I'll be honest, for a while I
didn't really have much of an explanation for what changes.
And my original plan as of about2:00 AM last night was that
beer. Maybe because it's going to
leave that as an open question or discuss that, sure, But as I
(15:29):
was lying in the head. All good ideas come at 2:00 AM.
That's true. I couldn't fall asleep last
night. I was running over this year in
my head, mostly pointlessly. Just nonsense going over and
over and over, turning into gibberish.
But then it hit me. I think I know at what point W
comes to this realization, or atleast what events bring W to
(15:52):
this realization. And Jeremy, I think that you
actually know it, too. Do what I'm finding out now.
The reason I say that is becauseyou brought up the story
multiple times last week. You, you really had a strong
feeling that this story was a really strong part of this Miss
Moore. But Sheva.
Yeah, this is Second Samuel chapter 11-4 chapters after the
(16:18):
one that we just read. Man Yun.
Can you give us the AL ragel Akhat version of the story?
Well, as Leonard Cohen told us, you saw her bathing on the roof,
David, basically again on top ofthe world.
He comes out, he sees, but Shevasees this beautiful woman
admires her beauty. He says I want her right.
He brings her and actually they,they sleep together, right?
(16:39):
But what's the problem? But Sheva's married, and she's
married to a a member of David'sarmy, and now she's pregnant.
And what makes this particularlyproblematic is the fact that
Uriah is out at war. So if Bat Sheva, his wife, gets
pregnant, everyone's going to know that she cheated on him,
right? And, and, and of course, right,
it's hard to say no to the king,right?
So if there's anyone to blame here for for this happening,
(17:02):
right, he certainly seems like he used his power to take
advantage of her. And so basically his, his only
way out is to try to cover over this fact by sending Oriya home
so that he can be with his wife.So he invites Oriya to the
palace and he tells Oriya, go home, go be with your wife, take
a take a vacation, take a break and listen to Oriya, responds
(17:23):
Vyomer. Oriya al David.
Or he says to David Aron, the Sur al the Huda Yoshimba,
Sukkots, the Ark and Israel and all Judah, they're all dwelling
in tents. Sukkots.
What does that remind you of? Our Lushon and to heal him,
right Right. That God is dwelling in a tent.
And also what David said previously about his own reason
(17:45):
for wanting to build the temple for God is like the Ark of the
Covenant is in some flimsy tentsright now, right?
He says, look, the ark and all everyone's in tents.
Vaduni Yaav, the yaav who's the general Vadde Aduni Vapenias,
Sadeh Khanim. The whole army is camping in the
field Vani of Vlabeti. And I'm going to go to my house
again, my house, my house, my real house.
(18:08):
Lachel really Stokes Lishkov Imishti to eat and drink and
sleep with my wife Kayaka, the Kaye Nafshaha e-mail said to the
visor. How could I do such a thing?
It's so similar to that languagethat David himself just used
when he was talking about wanting to build a house for
God. He's like, how can I live in
(18:29):
this big beautiful house? Well, God and in the Ark of the
Covenant are dwelling in this flimsy tent.
Right. Wow.
Imagine if you're divvied. How do you feel when you hear
that? Right, right.
You've basically gone against your principles.
You've done something inappropriate in front of
everybody and it stands to be found out.
And you bring this guy back to try to cover what you did.
(18:51):
And what is he? He's bound by honor.
Especially when he basically uses David's own language, his
own words about how could God's ark be in this tent and I'm
going to go hang out in my beautiful house with my wife.
And I wonder how about that irony would have meant the
David? I wonder if you would have
realized the irony there. So what does he do next?
(19:13):
First, he tried to do it basically the easy way.
Yeah. And what's he left with now?
In for a penny, in for a pound, right.
And this is where the story getsgets dark, right?
Where David writes to you of I need you to put Oriya on the
front lines. I need you to put Oriya in the
heart of danger. Right.
And especially thinking about war back then, the front lines
are not even the most dangerous place.
(19:33):
You're basically a goner. Yeah.
And so he says, put Oriya on thefront lines and that's what
happens where he gets killed in battle.
And Bathsheba is is widowed through this whole interaction.
And then David is able to take her as a wife immediately and
there's a time she's pregnant. No one knows that there's any
(19:54):
wrongdoing. So as far as David's concerned,
it's like he got away with it. He got the girl, the guys out of
the picture even though we as the reader are disturbed by his
actions. David is sleeping soundly.
Right, right. And so then what happens?
The Shem is obviously just like us, as the reader, displeased
with what David has done, and sends Natan, the very prophet
(20:14):
who just a few chapters ago conversed with David about
building the Benamita, right, About building the temple for a
Shem. Natan comes back, and he comes
before David, and Natan does something unusual.
He starts telling a story, a story that seems completely
unrelated to anything, tells thestory of a rich man who has a
lot of sheep and a poor shepherdwho only has one sheep.
(20:36):
And the rich man basically comes, and through trickery,
through deceit, through guile, he steals that sheep from that
poor man, leaving him with nothing.
Now, if you're David, you're like, OK, I don't know what's
going on here. Right?
Like you said, David's sleeping soundly.
He's not thinking about this. We don't get the sense that
David, with a guilty conscience is looking to see the
(20:57):
consequences of what he's done in his life.
Right? And that's so true that when he
hears this story, he's totally unfazed.
He says this rich guy should be punished, he should be killed.
And we said last time that Davidbasically the words are he gets
mad the language of off at this hypothetical rich man.
And that was the only time that we saw that the language of
(21:18):
anger is connected with David. It's David getting angry at this
hypothetical version of himself that he doesn't realize is
actually himself, right. You're fake, you see, even in
that parallel, right? How much he was not bothered by
this until this point, right? And then Natan obviously hits
him with the message of the story, right?
You're the rich guy. You just did this.
(21:41):
You're literally the subject of the story I just told.
And David, rather than fighting it, rather than getting
defensive, immediately says, right, right.
You're completely right. That's exactly what I did.
I totally did wrong. Natan tells David that the
result of his actions will have massive implications for him,
right? And this is what we discussed
last time, right? The sword will never leave,
(22:01):
never leave your house, right? You will also have your wives
taken from you just like you took somebody else's wife.
And you know, for DaVita, obviously, immediately, most
tragically, right, this child that you have with Butsheva is
not going to survive. DaVita has this whole mourning
ritual that comes with that. And then the narrative skips
from there at least nine months.David and Butsheva have another
(22:22):
child, right? Totally just skips what happens
in between and just brings us tothat next child and shows us the
contrast. This child who was born not out
of guile and trickery, right, but out of repentance, it says
Vashimovo, right? Sham loves this child.
By the end of chapter 12, you feel like David's come back to
himself, right? He snapped back to the hero that
(22:44):
we've known for so many chaptersanyway.
He's really one of the most heroic characters early on in
his life. And you wonder what happened in
the middle, what what happened to him that he could descend to
such depths morally. And I I think the answer is
really the first words of Chapter 11.
Vahili chuvatashana late sitam Lahim.
(23:07):
What's that the context of this story that the TANF embeds it
in? It's wartime.
It's when the kings go out to battle.
The whole context of the story, everything about this story is
about battle. And as we said last time, like
the main thing we talked about was how war can really corrupt
the person. It it takes a toll on the soul
(23:29):
of the person fighting. And he's actually the king who
is chiefly responsible for that fighting.
And it's interesting, right? Because war is not only the
framing of the story, it's also the mechanism of the story,
right? Both in the sense of Oria being
in battle, coming back from battle, right?
Paralleled with or contrasted with David's sort of private
(23:49):
battle, right? His inner sort of strategist
coming out trying to win this public fight, this fight of
public opinion. Right.
It's almost like as if in David's mind, as long as I win,
at the end of the day, it's all OK because those are the rules
of war. Except this isn't war, right?
This is someone's someone's family that you've just
interrupted. This is a husband that you just
(24:12):
led to his death. And I think that when Natan
confronts him and David realizeswhat he's done, I think this
might also be the moment where he realizes what his involvement
in the war has done to him. And my proof for that is what he
names that second child, right? The redo, the one where he's
already done Shuva, he's repented for what he's done.
(24:35):
What does he name him? Don't know.
Which literally means peace. Peace.
He's like, I need to correct what I've done.
And maybe I will never achieve peace in my own life.
But this son who I've already been promised, right?
My my son is going to build the temple.
I'm going to name him peace in the hopes that he will actually
(24:57):
live a life of peace and he won't get pulled into the mud of
war like I have and won't sufferthe consequences of war like I
have. And let's just do an exercise
and close your eyes for a secondand imagine we're Debbie did
that point and given everything you said that your son is is
(25:19):
dying or your son maybe just diddie.
And you're so you're so upset about it and everything.
And maybe you're going for a walk and you're reflecting and
you're, you know, you're wondering, how could I have done
such a thing? And you're coming to this
realization that it's really it's your involvement in war
that has taken you to this pointthat has worn down your soul so
(25:41):
tragically. And then it hits you.
You know, a while back, I asked God to build a temple.
And he, he said no. And he gave me an explanation
that kind of made sense, but it wasn't really an answer, was it?
I mean, God basically just said,I don't really need it.
Oh, but your son is going to do it.
(26:03):
And I kind of just let that slide because I was so happy
about the promise that God made to me that my children will
carry on the Kingdom forever. But maybe, maybe there was
another reason. Maybe my involvement in war has
done something to me. What if that's the real reason?
God wouldn't let me build this temple?
Now imagine you're a David at this point.
(26:24):
How's that feel? What's going through your mind?
What do you want to say? First of all, I would, I would
feel, I would feel ashamed. I would feel embarrassed for
what I had done. You think about this movement of
David, you know, I would be saying to myself, I've fallen so
far, Mamash, I don't even recognize myself.
(26:45):
Natan had to tell a story about somebody else to get me to see
who I really am, right, To hold up in the mirror.
I well, in that regard, I just I've fallen so far.
It's that moment where David really has to confront what he
did and. I wonder if that's what the last
third of the mismore and tahilimis.
Altastair Panachamimani, Don't hide your face with me.
(27:08):
I'll tell Zani. Don't abandoned me.
And now it's not you, Hashem, who, who have been there for me
when I had nobody else. Now it's you, Hashem, who have
every right to abandon me after what I've done.
Who I I could understand why youwould not want somebody like
this to be the king of your nation, the poet who brings you
(27:30):
into the world, somebody close to you.
And. When he says a line like Harini
Hashem, atar kafa, show me God, teach me God your way.
And all of a sudden that has newmeaning too.
It's teach me all right, becauseI think I've lost it.
(28:03):
Through it all, I wonder if there's a little feeling even of
hope. I'm thinking as David, like you
said, it all comes crashing in the depth of how far I've
fallen, the pain at who I am. But then I would think back to
Hashem's promise, which was not that.
David, if you're good, then I will have a house.
(28:24):
But it was David, there will be a house and it will be through
you, but it won't be through your hands.
I wonder if there there's even apiece of me that would insert to
say, well maybe the door is still open.
And you know, that's the one thing that we haven't seen yet
in this park of Tahila, which issuch a key part of both of these
stories we just read, is Davidson Shlomo, who is going to
(28:47):
build the temple. God answers W's request through
Shlomo. So I wonder what would it
actually look like to reference the story of Shlomo building the
Makdash? We're actually going to end
part. 2A here. It's been a heavy conversation
so far. We broke down the story where
one of our greatest heroes totally lost himself.
(29:09):
But as we pointed out, there is.Hope and that.
Hope's name is Shlomo. The only question is, does our
mismore itself talk about Shlomo?
That's what we'll explorer in Part 2B.
It's already in your podcast feed, so whenever you're ready.
We'll see you there.
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