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
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(00:00):
Welcome back to our series on the David Hashem Ori.
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. And before I begin, just a
(00:21):
reminder to join our WhatsApp group for insights and updates.
Link in the description. Welcome back to Tehillim
(01:03):
Unveiled. This is Ari Levison.
I'm Rob Jeremy. And this is our second episode
ever. Double trouble.
How did 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 Tehilam Khafzai
(01:26):
in 27 last time we described theoverall 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 we touched on that last time,
but now I want to really embed ourselves into the David story
and uncover what I think is is the real heart of this mess
(01:50):
more. 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 muse more David starts fromthis place of security, right?
He says, who can touch me, right?
Why should I be afraid? I'm in the stronghold.
(02:10):
None can come close to me. And we saw that as the muse more
progresses, we see that tenor for David change shifting from
looking at the people to lookingat the divine and saying God,
really what I want, I don't wantto 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
spiritual connection with God isonly unlocked once the enemies
(02:32):
are no longer concerned 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 seek
God's face. Right.
And we talked about this transition from Lehola Sarai,
(02:53):
right, Khui Benafshi, right of, of David moving inwards.
And as he makes this inward morespiritual transition, we see
David move for again from this place of confidence to this
place of not only lack of confidence, but also
vulnerability of questioning, ofno longer saying confidently,
this is what I have. I'm beginning to ask, God, can I
see you? Can I have you right?
(03:13):
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 hila lulea Mandela rotu hashembehr.
It's Rahim kavel Hashem, Khazakhremitz de betha de kavel Hashem
saying I want to just see you, Iwant to be with you.
And taking again this line, Khazakh Bethemitz de Betha
(03:35):
normally is, is almost a battle cry and turning it into a a
spiritual feel, 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 that there was
something missing. What is Debbie doing in the end?
He seems to console himself saying like Uleiha Manti that
(03:57):
wrote the 2 of Hashem Eretz Kayim.
Had I not trusted to see the good of Hashem in the land of
the living? dot dot dot where?
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 answer in this week's episode.
(04:18):
But to do that, I want to focus on what perhaps the most
memorable line of this entire mismore, this request that he
makes. He says, I thought Sha Alti made
Hashem. There's one thing that I asked
from God, you know, I was thinking about that and thinking
about David's life and thinking about, well, when was there a
time when David asked something from God, like not a not a small
(04:42):
little thing like, you know, Godhelp me find my missing
headphones. A life changing request that he
made from God, something that hewould never forget, something
that his whole life he might be thinking about.
That brought me into second Samuel Chapter 7 from all that
Parekh Zion with Jeremy. What goes on in this chapter?
In this beginning, in the beginning of this parakh, it is
(05:04):
settled in right. He's living in his palace and
suddenly he turns to Natana Naviand 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 Amikdash, a palace.
I want to create a space that Hashem has that sort of home and
that place of living among us. Natan says go for it, do
(05:27):
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 Jewish
history until now and said, I'm mad at you, You're in trouble
because you didn't make me a house.
Hashem says, did I need a house before when I did all of these
(05:47):
amazing things, when I brought Israel out of Egypt?
She 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 you now 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.
And he actually says the opposite of what David was
asking, right? Shem says not only are you not
(06:10):
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
the builder. Nothing comes and says it's
David. David is ecstatic, right?
(06:31):
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 David's
request? Shem says I don't have a need
for a house, really. It's not you, it's me.
Right, exactly, exactly. You almost get the sense that
(06:54):
Hashem is saying I don't want a house, I don't need a house, and
I 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 in that response it seems like.
Right. And and no, you might be
familiar with a different version of this story where God
(07:14):
gives a much darker reason for why David cannot build this
house, right? But that's actually in the
Dvrehayami in the Chronicles version of this of this whole
events. And we're going to come back to
that. But for now, let's just focus on
this. So let's let's come back to the
(07:35):
tailum for a second and now try to imagine it in this slide,
this parakh of Shmuel. It started off by saying Mahiki
is shav hamalfavitao when David was sitting in his own house.
Vashema niyaflo MI saviv kol ivov God gave him rest from all
his enemies surrounding him. And Armismore starts off with
those first 4 verses that are describing how David is so
(07:59):
confidently victorious in war. 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.
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
(08:22):
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
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.
(08:42):
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. Yeah, there's another building
that I actually care about, thatI actually want to see come to
life. And so he says, Akasha altimet
Hashem, there's one thing I ask of God, like one thing that I
just really, really, really wantOttava kesh.
(09:03):
This is what I seek out. Shifty vait Hashem kolume FAI.
I I live not in my house, I livein God's house.
I remember how he uses the language of house versus tent in
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
(09:27):
palace. And that's where I want to live
with him, not in my own palace. And as he says, Keats Benini,
Bisuka Biyomra, he's a trainee Biseter, a hello, right.
Because when I was fighting all of this time, when I was
fighting against my enemies, he was protecting me in a sukkah, a
a booth. He hid me in his tent.
(09:49):
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 light.
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
(10:10):
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
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
(10:33):
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,
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.
(10:54):
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,
Lakshmar libi bakshu pannan. He's like, OK, I get it that I
can't build you a temple. But you know, I actually, I hear
(11:15):
my heart saying something. My heart is saying lacha Amar
libi bakshu panai seek on my face a panerfashem of Acacia.
I see a good God's face. And it's kind of this like
alternative towards this big grand physical castle is we
could still have a great spiritual.
Relationship. I was also reading it a little
differently. I wonder if there's a element
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here of revelation for David that it's not that David is
saying, OK, I'll settle for yourface, I can't have your house.
But David first says the only thing that I asked Shivdi viveda
shem lahazut manorma shem ulva kabek.
Hello, right. Where do I want to see Hashem?
I want to see Hashem in the palace.
And we think about the spiritualdynamics here where Shem says
(12:00):
you're not going to see me in mypalace.
And then what? Suddenly Lebio merrily, right?
It's almost surprising, right? David hears it almost as if it's
outside of him saying what you really want is, is la hazard
banoa mashem, not levaka berhaloat Panera ashema bakesh, right?
And that's sort of what opens upthis whole element for David.
Also, again, of that spiritual vulnerability of saying it's
(12:21):
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 and he says in
verse 27 there kya tashemtzvo TAlocate Israel Galita T ozen of
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the Khali more bait avnelak. And you, God, the the Lord of
hosts of Israel, you've revealedto the ear of your serving.
Basically, you've told me sayingbait avnelak, I'm going to build
you a house, al Cain matzah abdaha ET libo.
(13:02):
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
(13:24):
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 Fela to God. We mentioned before that this is
(13:49):
only one version of the story ofDavid asking to build the
temple, right? The other version is from
Chronicles. It's from Dhivrayamim 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 Amali Lotivna by Italy, Shmekhi Ishmael Khemo Tata, the
(14:13):
Damim Shafaqta. 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.
Now, at the end of David's life,he's turning to his son and
(14:36):
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
is the real reason why God said no to letting him build the
(14:57):
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
changes. That if you decide suddenly what
God was just letting me down easy.
(15:18):
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 about 2:00 AM last night was that maybe
because it's going to leave thatas an open question or discuss
that, sure. But as I was lying in the head.
All good ideas come at 2:00 AM. That's.
(15:39):
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 at
least what events bring W to this realization.
(15:59):
And Jeremy, I think that you actually know it, too.
Do what I'm finding out now. The reason I say that is because
you 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
(16:19):
chapter 11-4 chapters after the one that we just read.
Man Yun. Can you give us the Al Ragel
Arhat version of the story? Well, as Leonard Cohen told us,
you saw her bathing on the roof,David, basically again on top of
the world. He comes out, he sees, but Sheva
sees this beautiful woman, admires her beauty.
He says, I want her, right? He brings her and actually they,
(16:43):
they sleep together, right? But what's the problem?
But Sheva's married, and she's married to a a member of David's
army, and now she's pregnant. And what makes this particularly
problematic is the fact that Uria is out at war.
So if Batcheva, 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,
(17:04):
right? So if there's anyone to blame
here for, for this happening, 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
(17:24):
a take a vacation, take a break and listen to Oriya, responds
Vyomer Oriya al David. Oriya says to David Aron Visur
al Vyuda Yoshimba Sukkots, the ark and Israel and all Judah,
they're all dwelling in tents. Sukots, what does that remind
you of? Our Lashon and to heal him,
(17:46):
right Right. That God is dwelling in the tent
and also what David said previously about his own reason
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 Vapeni has
said that Ronim, the whole army is camping in the field.
(18:06):
Vani of Vaal Beti, and I'm goingto go to my house again, my
house, my house, my real house. Lachel really stout Lishkov
Imishti to eat and drink and sleep with my wife Kayaka, the
Kaye Nafshaha e-mail said to thevisor.
How could I do such a thing? It's so similar to that language
(18:28):
that David himself just used when he was talking about
wanting to build a house for God.
He's like, how can I live in 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
(18:50):
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. 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
(19:11):
irony would have meant the David?
I wonder if you would have realized the irony there.
So what does he do next? 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 gets
gets dark, right? Where David writes to you of I
need you to put Oriya on the front lines.
(19:31):
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. You're basically a goner.
Yeah. And so he says, put Oriya on the
front 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
(19:51):
her as a wife immediately and there's a time she's pregnant.
No one knows that there's any wrongdoing.
So as far as David's concerned, it's like he got away with it.
He got the girl, the guy's out of the picture, even though we
as the reader are disturbed by his actions.
David is sleeping soundly. Right, right.
(20:12):
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 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
(20:32):
story that seems completely unrelated to anything, tells the
story of a rich man who has a lot of sheep and a poor shepherd
who only has one sheep. 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.
(20:54):
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 consequences of what he's done
in his life. 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 he said last time that Davidbasically the words are he gets
(21:15):
mad language of off at this hypothetical rich man.
And that was the only time that we saw that the language of
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 fit, you see, even in
that parallel, right? How much he was not bothered by
(21:36):
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.
You're literally the subject of the story I just told.
And David, rather than fighting it, rather than getting
defensive, immediately says, right, Khattati, right?
You're completely right. That's exactly what I did.
(21:58):
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,
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 David, obviously, immediately, most
tragically, right, this child that you have with Butsheva is
(22:19):
not going to survive. David has this whole mourning
ritual that comes with that. And then the narrative skips
from there at least nine months.David and Butshev have another
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.
(22:41):
By the end of chapter 12, you feel like David's come back to
himself, right? He snapped back to the hero that
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
(23:05):
really the first words of Chapter 11.
Vahili chuvatashana late sitam Lahim.
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
(23:26):
the main thing we talked about was how war can really corrupt
the person. It it takes a toll on the soul
of the person fighting, and he'sactually 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
(23:50):
battle, right? Paralleled with or contrasted
with David's sort of private 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
(24:13):
family that you've just interrupted.
This is a husband that you just led to his death.
And I think that when Natan confronts him and David realizes
what he's done, I think this might also be the moment where
he realizes what his involvementin the war has done to him.
And my proof for that is what henames that second child, right?
(24:35):
The redo, the one where he's already done Shuva, he's
repented for what he's done. 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
(24:58):
temple. I'm going to name him peace in
the hopes that he will actually live a life of peace and he
won't get pulled into the mud ofwar like I have and won't suffer
the consequences of war like I have.
And let's just do an exercise and close your eyes for a second
and imagine we're Debbie did that point and given everything
(25:22):
you said that your son is is dying or you should maybe just
die. 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 donesuch 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 point
(25:44):
that has worn down your soul so tragically.
And then it hits you. You know, a while back I asked
God to build a temple and he, hesaid 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,
(26:04):
I don't really need it. Oh, but your son is going to do
it. 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
(26:26):
temple? Now imagine you're David at this
point. 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 ofDavid, you know, I would be
(26:46):
saying to myself, I've fallen sofar, Mamash, I don't even
recognize myself. 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 I regard, I
just, I, 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 lastthird of the mismore and tahilim
(27:07):
is. I'll tastera Panakamimani, don't
hide your face for me. I'll Tazzani, but 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 you
(27:30):
would not want somebody like this to be the king of your
nation, the poet who brings you into the world, somebody close
to you. And.
When he says a line like Hareni Hashem, atar kafa, show me God,
teach me God your way. Now all of a sudden that has a
new meaning too. It's Teach Me Your Way because I
(27:50):
think I've lost it. Through it all, I wonder if
there's a little feeling even ofhope.
(28:13):
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.
And then I would think back to Hashem's promise, which was not
that. David, if you're good, then I
will have a house. But it was David.
There will be a house and it will be through you, but it
(28:35):
won't be through your hands. I wonder if there there's even a
piece of me that would insert tosay, well maybe the door is
still open. And you know, that's the one
thing that we haven't seen yet in this paragraph.
Tehila, which is such a key partof both of these stories we just
read, is David's son Shlomo, whois going to build the temple.
God answers W's request through Shlomo.
(28:57):
So I wonder what would it actually look like to reference
the story of Shlomo building theMikdash?
We're actually going to end Part2A here.
It's been a heavy conversation so far.
We broke down the story where one of our greatest heroes
totally lost himself. But as we pointed out, there is
(29:17):
Hope, and that Hope's name is Shlomo.
The only question is, does our mismore itself talk about
Shlomo? That's what we'll explore in
Part 2B. It's already in your podcast
feed, so whenever you're ready, we'll see you there.
Oh, and one more thing, don't forget to join our WhatsApp
community. Link in the episode description.
Welcome back to our series on the David Hashem Ori.
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. And before I begin, just a
(00:21):
reminder to join our WhatsApp group for insights and updates.
Link in the description. Welcome back to Tehillim
(01:03):
Unveiled. This is Ari Levison.
I'm Rob Jeremy. And this is our second episode
ever. Double trouble.
How did 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 Tehilam Khafzai
(01:26):
in 27 last time we described theoverall 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 we touched on that last time,
but now I want to really embed ourselves into the David story
and uncover what I think is is the real heart of this mess
(01:50):
more. 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 muse more David starts fromthis place of security, right?
He says, who can touch me, right?
Why should I be afraid? I'm in the stronghold.
(02:10):
None can come close to me. And we saw that as the muse more
progresses, we see that tenor for David change shifting from
looking at the people to lookingat the divine and saying God,
really what I want, I don't wantto 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
spiritual connection with God isonly unlocked once the enemies
(02:32):
are no longer concerned 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 seek
God's face. Right.
And we talked about this transition from Lehola Sarai,
(02:53):
right, Khui Benafshi, right of, of David moving inwards.
And as he makes this inward morespiritual transition, we see
David move for again from this place of confidence to this
place of not only lack of confidence, but also
vulnerability of questioning, ofno longer saying confidently,
this is what I have. I'm beginning to ask, God, can I
see you? Can I have you right?
(03:13):
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 hila lulea Mandela rotu hashembehr.
It's Rahim kavel Hashem, Khazakhremitz de betha de kavel Hashem
saying I want to just see you, Iwant to be with you.
And taking again this line, Khazakh Bethemitz de Betha
(03:35):
normally is, is almost a battle cry and turning it into a a
spiritual feel, 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 that there was
something missing. What is Debbie doing in the end?
He seems to console himself saying like Uleiha Manti that
(03:57):
wrote the 2 of Hashem Eretz Kayim.
Had I not trusted to see the good of Hashem in the land of
the living? dot dot dot where?
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 answer in this week's episode.
(04:18):
But to do that, I want to focus on what perhaps the most
memorable line of this entire mismore, this request that he
makes. He says, I thought Sha Alti made
Hashem. There's one thing that I asked
from God, you know, I was thinking about that and thinking
about David's life and thinking about, well, when was there a
time when David asked something from God, like not a not a small
(04:42):
little thing like, you know, Godhelp me find my missing
headphones. A life changing request that he
made from God, something that hewould never forget, something
that his whole life he might be thinking about.
That brought me into second Samuel Chapter 7 from all that
Parekh Zion with Jeremy. What goes on in this chapter?
In this beginning, in the beginning of this parakh, it is
(05:04):
settled in right. He's living in his palace and
suddenly he turns to Natana Naviand 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 Amikdash, a palace.
I want to create a space that Hashem has that sort of home and
that place of living among us. Natan says go for it, do
(05:27):
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 Jewish
history until now and said, I'm mad at you, You're in trouble
because you didn't make me a house.
Hashem says, did I need a house before when I did all of these
(05:47):
amazing things, when I brought Israel out of Egypt?
She 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 you now 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.
And he actually says the opposite of what David was
asking, right? Shem says not only are you not
(06:10):
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
the builder. Nothing comes and says it's
David. David is ecstatic, right?
(06:31):
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 David's
request? Shem says I don't have a need
for a house, really. It's not you, it's me.
Right, exactly, exactly. You almost get the sense that
(06:54):
Hashem is saying I don't want a house, I don't need a house, and
I 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 in that response it seems like.
Right. And and no, you might be
familiar with a different version of this story where God
(07:14):
gives a much darker reason for why David cannot build this
house, right? But that's actually in the
Dvrehayami in the Chronicles version of this of this whole
events. And we're going to come back to
that. But for now, let's just focus on
this. So let's let's come back to the
(07:35):
tailum for a second and now try to imagine it in this slide,
this parakh of Shmuel. It started off by saying Mahiki
is shav hamalfavitao when David was sitting in his own house.
Vashema niyaflo MI saviv kol ivov God gave him rest from all
his enemies surrounding him. And Armismore starts off with
those first 4 verses that are describing how David is so
(07:59):
confidently victorious in war. 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.
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
(08:22):
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
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.
(08:42):
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. Yeah, there's another building
that I actually care about, thatI actually want to see come to
life. And so he says, Akasha altimet
Hashem, there's one thing I ask of God, like one thing that I
just really, really, really wantOttava kesh.
(09:03):
This is what I seek out. Shifty vait Hashem kolume FAI.
I I live not in my house, I livein God's house.
I remember how he uses the language of house versus tent in
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
(09:27):
palace. And that's where I want to live
with him, not in my own palace. And as he says, Keats Benini,
Bisuka Biyomra, he's a trainee Biseter, a hello, right.
Because when I was fighting all of this time, when I was
fighting against my enemies, he was protecting me in a sukkah, a
a booth. He hid me in his tent.
(09:49):
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 light.
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
(10:10):
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
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
(10:33):
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,
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.
(10:54):
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,
Lakshmar libi bakshu pannan. He's like, OK, I get it that I
can't build you a temple. But you know, I actually, I hear
(11:15):
my heart saying something. My heart is saying lacha Amar
libi bakshu panai seek on my face a panerfashem of Acacia.
I see a good God's face. And it's kind of this like
alternative towards this big grand physical castle is we
could still have a great spiritual.
Relationship. I was also reading it a little
differently. I wonder if there's a element
(11:39):
here of revelation for David that it's not that David is
saying, OK, I'll settle for yourface, I can't have your house.
But David first says the only thing that I asked Shivdi viveda
shem lahazut manorma shem ulva kabek.
Hello, right. Where do I want to see Hashem?
I want to see Hashem in the palace.
And we think about the spiritualdynamics here where Shem says
(12:00):
you're not going to see me in mypalace.
And then what? Suddenly Lebio merrily, right?
It's almost surprising, right? David hears it almost as if it's
outside of him saying what you really want is, is la hazard
banoa mashem, not levaka berhaloat Panera ashema bakesh, right?
And that's sort of what opens upthis whole element for David.
Also, again, of that spiritual vulnerability of saying it's
(12:21):
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 and he says in
verse 27 there kya tashemtzvo TAlocate Israel Galita T ozen of
(12:42):
the Khali more bait avnelak. And you, God, the the Lord of
hosts of Israel, you've revealedto the ear of your serving.
Basically, you've told me sayingbait avnelak, I'm going to build
you a house, al Cain matzah abdaha ET libo.
(13:02):
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
(13:24):
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 Fela to God. We mentioned before that this is
(13:49):
only one version of the story ofDavid asking to build the
temple, right? The other version is from
Chronicles. It's from Dhivrayamim 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 Amali Lotivna by Italy, Shmekhi Ishmael Khemo Tata, the
(14:13):
Damim Shafaqta. 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.
Now, at the end of David's life,he's turning to his son and
(14:36):
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
is the real reason why God said no to letting him build the
(14:57):
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
changes. That if you decide suddenly what
God was just letting me down easy.
(15:18):
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 about 2:00 AM last night was that maybe
because it's going to leave thatas an open question or discuss
that, sure. But as I was lying in the head.
All good ideas come at 2:00 AM. That's.
(15:39):
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 at
least what events bring W to this realization.
(15:59):
And Jeremy, I think that you actually know it, too.
Do what I'm finding out now. The reason I say that is because
you 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
(16:19):
chapter 11-4 chapters after the one that we just read.
Man Yun. Can you give us the Al Ragel
Arhat version of the story? Well, as Leonard Cohen told us,
you saw her bathing on the roof,David, basically again on top of
the world. He comes out, he sees, but Sheva
sees this beautiful woman, admires her beauty.
He says, I want her, right? He brings her and actually they,
(16:43):
they sleep together, right? But what's the problem?
But Sheva's married, and she's married to a a member of David's
army, and now she's pregnant. And what makes this particularly
problematic is the fact that Uria is out at war.
So if Batcheva, 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,
(17:04):
right? So if there's anyone to blame
here for, for this happening, 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
(17:24):
a take a vacation, take a break and listen to Oriya, responds
Vyomer Oriya al David. Oriya says to David Aron Visur
al Vyuda Yoshimba Sukkots, the ark and Israel and all Judah,
they're all dwelling in tents. Sukots, what does that remind
you of? Our Lashon and to heal him,
(17:46):
right Right. That God is dwelling in the tent
and also what David said previously about his own reason
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 Vapeni has
said that Ronim, the whole army is camping in the field.
(18:06):
Vani of Vaal Beti, and I'm goingto go to my house again, my
house, my house, my real house. Lachel really stout Lishkov
Imishti to eat and drink and sleep with my wife Kayaka, the
Kaye Nafshaha e-mail said to thevisor.
How could I do such a thing? It's so similar to that language
(18:28):
that David himself just used when he was talking about
wanting to build a house for God.
He's like, how can I live in 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
(18:50):
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. 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
(19:11):
irony would have meant the David?
I wonder if you would have realized the irony there.
So what does he do next? 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 gets
gets dark, right? Where David writes to you of I
need you to put Oriya on the front lines.
(19:31):
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. You're basically a goner.
Yeah. And so he says, put Oriya on the
front 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
(19:51):
her as a wife immediately and there's a time she's pregnant.
No one knows that there's any wrongdoing.
So as far as David's concerned, it's like he got away with it.
He got the girl, the guy's out of the picture, even though we
as the reader are disturbed by his actions.
David is sleeping soundly. Right, right.
(20:12):
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 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
(20:32):
story that seems completely unrelated to anything, tells the
story of a rich man who has a lot of sheep and a poor shepherd
who only has one sheep. 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.
(20:54):
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 consequences of what he's done
in his life. 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 he said last time that Davidbasically the words are he gets
(21:15):
mad language of off at this hypothetical rich man.
And that was the only time that we saw that the language of
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 fit, you see, even in
that parallel, right? How much he was not bothered by
(21:36):
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.
You're literally the subject of the story I just told.
And David, rather than fighting it, rather than getting
defensive, immediately says, right, Khattati, right?
You're completely right. That's exactly what I did.
(21:58):
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,
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 David, obviously, immediately, most
tragically, right, this child that you have with Butsheva is
(22:19):
not going to survive. David has this whole mourning
ritual that comes with that. And then the narrative skips
from there at least nine months.David and Butshev have another
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.
(22:41):
By the end of chapter 12, you feel like David's come back to
himself, right? He snapped back to the hero that
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
(23:05):
really the first words of Chapter 11.
Vahili chuvatashana late sitam Lahim.
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
(23:26):
the main thing we talked about was how war can really corrupt
the person. It it takes a toll on the soul
of the person fighting, and he'sactually 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
(23:50):
battle, right? Paralleled with or contrasted
with David's sort of private 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
(24:13):
family that you've just interrupted.
This is a husband that you just led to his death.
And I think that when Natan confronts him and David realizes
what he's done, I think this might also be the moment where
he realizes what his involvementin the war has done to him.
And my proof for that is what henames that second child, right?
(24:35):
The redo, the one where he's already done Shuva, he's
repented for what he's done. 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
(24:58):
temple. I'm going to name him peace in
the hopes that he will actually live a life of peace and he
won't get pulled into the mud ofwar like I have and won't suffer
the consequences of war like I have.
And let's just do an exercise and close your eyes for a second
and imagine we're Debbie did that point and given everything
(25:22):
you said that your son is is dying or you should maybe just
die. 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 donesuch 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 point
(25:44):
that has worn down your soul so tragically.
And then it hits you. You know, a while back I asked
God to build a temple and he, hesaid 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,
(26:04):
I don't really need it. Oh, but your son is going to do
it. 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
(26:26):
temple? Now imagine you're David at this
point. 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 ofDavid, you know, I would be
(26:46):
saying to myself, I've fallen sofar, Mamash, I don't even
recognize myself. 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 I regard, I
just, I, 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 lastthird of the mismore and tahilim
(27:07):
is. I'll tastera Panakamimani, don't
hide your face for me. I'll Tazzani, but 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 you
(27:30):
would not want somebody like this to be the king of your
nation, the poet who brings you into the world, somebody close
to you. And.
When he says a line like Hareni Hashem, atar kafa, show me God,
teach me God your way. Now all of a sudden that has a
new meaning too. It's Teach Me Your Way because I
(27:50):
think I've lost it. Through it all, I wonder if
there's a little feeling even ofhope.
(28:13):
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.
And then I would think back to Hashem's promise, which was not
that. David, if you're good, then I
will have a house. But it was David.
There will be a house and it will be through you, but it
(28:35):
won't be through your hands. I wonder if there there's even a
piece of me that would insert tosay, well maybe the door is
still open. And you know, that's the one
thing that we haven't seen yet in this paragraph.
Tehila, which is such a key partof both of these stories we just
read, is David's son Shlomo, whois going to build the temple.
God answers W's request through Shlomo.
(28:57):
So I wonder what would it actually look like to reference
the story of Shlomo building theMikdash?
We're actually going to end Part2A here.
It's been a heavy conversation so far.
We broke down the story where one of our greatest heroes
totally lost himself. But as we pointed out, there is
(29:17):
Hope, and that Hope's name is Shlomo.
The only question is, does our mismore itself talk about
Shlomo? That's what we'll explore in
Part 2B. It's already in your podcast
feed, so whenever you're ready, we'll see you there.
Oh, and one more thing, don't forget to join our WhatsApp
community. Link in the episode description.
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