The Types of Christ · The Persons
David, a Type of Christ
David is the one Old Testament man whose own songs are quoted in the New Testament as the words of Jesus — and whose throne God promised to somebody who had not been born yet. This page follows that promise to where it lands.
The Son Nobody Called In
— 1 Samuel 16 — the prophet waits at the table while the boy is out with the sheepTHE ARTWORKFélix-Joseph Barrias paints the anointing rather than the harp or the giant, and that is the right choice for this page. Everything here runs from the oil: the promise, the psalms, the throne, and the long wait in between. Look at where the brothers are standing.
Samuel comes to Bethlehem to anoint a king and Jesse produces seven sons, none of whom is the one. The eighth is not at the table. He is out with the sheep, and the whole company has to stand and wait while somebody goes to fetch him. Then the oil is poured, in front of his brothers, and Samuel goes home to Ramah — and David goes back to the sheep.
Now the LORD said to Samuel, “How long are you going to mourn for Saul, since I have rejected him as king over Israel? Fill your horn with oil and go. I am sending you to Jesse of Bethlehem, for I have selected from his sons a king for Myself.”The commission: God has provided Himself a king among Jesse's sons.
When they arrived, Samuel saw Eliab and said, “Surely here before the LORD is His anointed.” But the LORD said to Samuel, “Do not consider his appearance or height, for I have rejected him; the LORD does not see as man does. For man sees the outward appearance, but the LORD sees the heart.” Then Jesse called Abinadab and presented him to Samuel, who said, “The LORD has not chosen this one either.” Next Jesse presented Shammah, but Samuel said, “The LORD has not chosen this one either.” Thus Jesse made seven of his sons pass before Samuel, but Samuel told him, “The LORD has not chosen any of these.” And Samuel asked him, “Are these all the sons you have?” “There is still the youngest,” Jesse replied, “but he is tending the sheep.” “Send for him,” Samuel replied. “For we will not sit down to eat until he arrives.” So Jesse sent for his youngest son and brought him in. He was ruddy, with beautiful eyes and a handsome appearance. And the LORD said, “Rise and anoint him, for he is the one.” So Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the presence of his brothers, and the Spirit of the LORD rushed upon David from that day forward. Then Samuel set out and went to Ramah.Seven sons pass, and the one God chose is not in the room.
We should think a military life, but God saw a pastoral life (which gives advantage for contemplation and communion with heaven), the best preparative for kingly power, at least for those graces of the Spirit which are necessary to the due discharge of that trust which attends it. David was keeping sheep, though it was a time of sacrifice; for there is mercy that takes precedence of sacrifice.
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible, 1710Puritan
1 Samuel 16:11
Therefore the boy who tends the sheep is sought in the pastures, because He submits Himself to the Father in obedience even unto death; yet who shall declare His generation (Isa. 53:8)? He is called the little one because the grace of His humility is commended. He is therefore called the little one, who is declared by the Psalmist to have been made lower than the angels (Ps. 8). But the little one tends the sheep, because through humility He is lowly, and through majesty He is exalted.
Gregory the Great· Commentary on 1 Kings, Book 6, Chapter 3, 604Church Father
1 Samuel 16:11
Anointed, and waiting
The gap is the instrument. David is the anointed king from the moment the oil runs, and he does not sit on a throne for years. Everything in the dashed middle happened to a man who was already king.
The oil
Anointed at Bethlehem
The prophet pours it over the youngest son, in front of his brothers, and then goes home. Nothing else changes that day.
1 Samuel 16:13→the years in between
Then
A harp in Saul's court
The anointed king spends his first years serving the king he is to replace.
Then
The cave, and the wilderness
Hunted, homeless, and twice refusing to take the throne by force when it is within reach.
Then
Ziklag, among the Philistines
The anointed king of Israel living outside Israel, in the country of her enemies.
The throne
King over all Israel
Scripture gives the age at the throne — thirty — and never dates the anointing, so the exact length of the wait is not on record. What is on record is that it was years.
2 Samuel 5:4-5→Read the band from left to right and the shape of the type is visible without a single application being made: anointed, then a long wait in which the kingship is real and unseen, then the throne.
The artwork
The same scene, seventeen centuries earlier, painted on the wall of a synagogue in Roman Syria — one of the oldest surviving pictures of any biblical scene, and a Jewish one. It is here because the anointing of David is not a Christian possession: the community that first sang these psalms painted this moment on their own wall, and a Christian reading of David stands on their shoulders rather than in their place. Samuel is at the centre; the brothers are lined up behind.
Dura-Europos synagogue, David Anointed by Samuel (3rd century AD) — Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
What the New Testament Does With David
— four separate moves, and none of them is a resemblanceSome Old Testament types have to be argued for, because the New Testament never draws the line itself. David is the opposite case. The apostles — and Jesus — go to David directly, repeatedly, and argue from him. Four moves carry this page, and all four are quotations, not parallels.
1 · Jesus argues from Psalm 110
While the Pharisees were assembled, Jesus questioned them: “What do you think about the Christ? Whose son is He?” “David’s,” they answered. Jesus said to them, “How then does David in the Spirit call Him ‘Lord’? For he says: ‘The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at My right hand until I put Your enemies under Your feet.”’ So if David calls Him ‘Lord,’ how can He be David’s son?” No one was able to answer a word, and from that day on no one dared to question Him any further.He asks whose son the Christ is, quotes David's own psalm back at them, and nobody answers.
2 · Peter argues from an empty tomb and a full one
Brothers, I can tell you with confidence that the patriarch David died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. But he was a prophet and knew that God had promised him on oath that He would place one of his descendants on his throne. Foreseeing this, David spoke about the resurrection of the Christ, that He was not abandoned to Hades, nor did His body see decay. God has raised this Jesus to life, to which we are all witnesses. Exalted, then, to the right hand of God, He has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit and has poured out what you now see and hear. For David did not ascend into heaven, but he himself says: ‘The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at My right hand until I make Your enemies a footstool for Your feet.”’ Therefore let all Israel know with certainty that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ!”David is dead and buried and his tomb is down the road — so he was speaking about someone else.
3 · Gabriel names the throne
Behold, you will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to give Him the name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David, and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever. His kingdom will never end!”The angel does not say “like David's throne.” He says the throne of His father David.
4 · The crucifixion is narrated in Psalm 22’s words
Matthew 27:35 and 46 and John 19:24 do not compare the cross to Psalm 22. They report the cross using its sentences — the cry, the divided garments, the lot cast for the seamless coat. The psalm is handled below at length.
It is worth saying plainly, because the sibling page on Joseph and Joshua has to be honest in the other direction: David’s New Testament footing is far stronger than Joseph’s. Joseph’s parallels are mostly church tradition. David’s are apostolic argument. Both pages say which is which.
The Two Lords Line
— Psalm 110:1 — the argument Jesus made, shown as dataThe two Lords line
In English, Psalm 110:1 prints the same word twice — The LORD said to my Lord. In Hebrew they are two different words, and David uses the second one of a superior. That difference is the entire argument Jesus put to the Pharisees, and the reason nobody answered Him.
The control — same psalm, four verses later
Psalm 110:5 is not a repeat of verse 1. It is a different lemma entirely, which is how a reader with no Hebrew can check the claim: three distinct words stand behind the English “LORD” and “Lord” in this one short psalm, and verse 1 keeps two of them side by side in a single sentence.
Matthew 22:46 records the result: “no man was able to answer him a word.” The question was not a riddle. It was this line, read carefully, in front of men who knew the Hebrew as well as He did.
The LORD said to my Lord: “Sit at My right hand until I make Your enemies a footstool for Your feet.”The verse quoted more often in the New Testament than any other Old Testament line.
. Ver. 1. The LORD said unto thy Lord. Jehovah said unto my Adonai: David in spirit heard the solemn voice of Jehovah speaking to the Messiah from of old. What wonderful intercourse there has been between the Father and the Son! From this secret and intimate communion springs the covenant of grace and all its marvellous arrangements.
Charles Spurgeon· The Treasury of David, 1885Reformed Baptist
Psalm 110:1
The Hebrew word Adon is one of God's titles, signifying his power and authority over all things, and therefore is most fitly given to the Messiah, to whom God hath delegated all his power Matt. xxviii, 18.
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament, 1765Wesleyan
Psalm 110:1
The Lord said to my Lord - This his dominion, to which David himself was subject, shows both the heavenly majesty of the king, and the nature of his kingdom. Sit thou on my right hand - That is, remain in the highest authority and power.
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament, 1755Wesleyan
Matthew 22:44
If David then call him Lord, how is he his son? Therefore he is both Lord and son, because he is son according to the flesh, since he drew his origin from him, and Lord according to his divinity.
Thomas Aquinas· Commentary on Matthew, 1274Scholastic
Matthew 22:45
A modern reader on the same question
C.S. Lewis, in Reflections on the Psalms (chapter 11), reaches the same place from outside the commentary tradition:
When He asked how Christ could be both David's son and David's lord, He clearly identified Christ, and therefore Himself, with the 'my Lord' of Psalm 110—was in fact hinting at the mystery of the Incarnation by pointing out a difficulty which only it could …
C.S. Lewis· Reflections on the Psalms, ch. 11, 1958Anglican
Psalm 110:1
Lewis is in copyright — quoted briefly, and named so you can go to the book itself.
The LORD has sworn and will not change His mind: “You are a priest forever in the order of Melchizedek.” The Lord is at Your right hand; He will crush kings in the day of His wrath.The oath that makes this king a priest — and, four verses on, the third word for Lord.
. Ver. 4. We have now reached the heart of the psalm, which is also the very centre and soul of our faith. Our Lord Jesus is a Priest King by the ancient oath of Jehovah: "he glorified not himself to be made an high priest, "but was ordained there unto from of old, and was called of God an high priest after the order of Melchizedek.
Charles Spurgeon· The Treasury of David, 1885Reformed Baptist
Psalm 110:4
The Covenant Spine
— 2 Samuel 7 to Luke 1:32 — a promise with nowhere to land for a thousand yearsDavid wants to build God a house. God answers by promising to build David one — a throne, a son, and a kingdom established forever. Solomon takes the throne and builds the temple, and it is clear inside a generation that Solomon is not what “forever” meant. The kingdom divides. The line goes into exile. And the promise sits open for a thousand years until an angel picks the sentence up again in a village in Galilee.
And when your days are fulfilled and you rest with your fathers, I will raise up your descendant after you, who will come from your own body, and I will establish his kingdom. He will build a house for My Name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be his Father, and he will be My son. When he does wrong, I will discipline him with the rod of men and with the blows of the sons of men. But My loving devotion will never be removed from him as I removed it from Saul, whom I moved out of your way. Your house and kingdom will endure forever before Me, and your throne will be established forever.”Your house, your kingdom, your throne — established forever.
For my name - That is, for my service, and glory. For ever - This is not meant of Solomon, for his kingdom was not forever. But it is to be understood of David's posterity, in general, and with special respect to Christ, in whose person the kingdom was to be lodged forever.
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament, 1765Wesleyan
2 Samuel 7:13
This is that covenant of royalty celebrated ( Ps. lxxxix. 3 , &c.) as typical of the covenant of redemption and grace. Others of them relate to Christ, who is often called David and the Son of David, that Son of David to whom these promises pointed and in whom they had their full accomplishment.
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible, 1710Puritan
2 Samuel 7:15
He shall be called the Son of the Highest - In this respect also: and that in a more eminent sense than any, either man or angel, can be called so. The Lord shall give him the throne of his father David - That is, the spiritual kingdom, of which David's was a type.
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament, 1755Wesleyan
Luke 1:32
Psalm 22, Read From the Cross
— the details are not read into the crucifixion; the Gospels read them out of itDavid wrote a psalm about his own extremity, and it contains things that never happened to David. Hands and feet pierced. Bones out of joint and countable. Garments divided, and a lot cast for one of them. A crowd standing round staring. And the first line of it is the sentence Jesus said out loud at the ninth hour, in Aramaic, so that everyone standing there would know which psalm He meant.
My God, my God, why have You forsaken me? Why are You so far from saving me, so far from my words of groaning?The words Jesus quoted from the cross — He named the psalm by saying its first line.
For dogs surround me; a band of evil men encircles me; they have pierced my hands and feet. I can count all my bones; they stare and gloat over me. They divide my garments among them and cast lots for my clothing.Pierced hands and feet, countable bones, and lots cast for the clothing.
Ver. 1. My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? This was the startling cry of Golgotha: Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani. The Jews mocked, but the angels adored when Jesus cried this exceeding bitter cry. Nailed to the tree we behold our great Redeemer in extremities, and what see we? Having ears to hear let us hear, and having eyes to see let us see! Let us gaze with holy wonder, and mark the flashes of light amid the awful darkness of that midday midnight.
Charles Spurgeon· The Treasury of David, 1885Reformed Baptist
Psalm 22:1
Ver. 18. They part my garments among them, and cast lots upon my vesture. The garments of the executed were the perquisites of the executioners in most cases, but it was not often that they cast lots at the division of the spoil; this incident shows how clearly David in vision saw the day of Christ, and how surely the Man of Nazareth is he of whom the prophets spake: "these things, therefore, the soldiers did." He who gave his blood to cleanse us gave his garments to clothe us.
Charles Spurgeon· The Treasury of David, 1885Reformed Baptist
Psalm 22:18
Spurgeon on verse 16, and why the imagery is not decorationPsalm 22:16 · The Treasury of David
Spurgeon reads the psalm the way a man reads a legal filing: every item in the description is being urged, presented to God as a reason to act. That turns the vivid language from scene- setting into argument, and it is why the details are worth counting rather than admiring.
Ver. 16. We are to understand every item of this sad description as being urged by the Lord Jesus as a plea for divine help; and this will give us a high idea of his perseverance in prayer. For dogs have compassed me. Here he marks the more ignoble crowd, who, while less strong than their brutal leaders, were not less ferocious, for there they were howling and barking like unclean and hungry dogs. Hunters frequently surround their game with a circle, and gradually encompass them with an ever narrowing ring of dogs and men.
Charles Spurgeon· The Treasury of David, 1885Reformed Baptist
Psalm 22:16
“My Servant David”
— Ezekiel 34 — written four hundred years after the funeralEzekiel is prophesying in Babylon, four centuries after David died. He indicts the shepherds of Israel for feeding themselves, says God will come and shepherd the flock Himself — and then says God will set up one shepherd over them, my servant David. The name is in the future tense, and there had been no ruler of that name since. Ezekiel says it again three chapters later (37:24), in the same breath as the dry bones.
For this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘Behold, I Myself will search for My flock and seek them out. As a shepherd looks for his scattered sheep when he is among the flock, so I will look for My flock. I will rescue them from all the places to which they were scattered on a day of clouds and darkness. I will bring them out from the peoples, gather them from the countries, and bring them into their own land. I will feed them on the mountains of Israel, in the ravines, and in all the settlements of the land. I will feed them in good pasture, and the lofty mountains of Israel will be their grazing land. There they will lie down in a good grazing land; they will feed in rich pasture on the mountains of Israel. I will tend My flock and make them lie down, declares the Lord GOD. I will seek the lost, bring back the strays, bind up the broken, and strengthen the weak; but the sleek and strong I will destroy. I will shepherd them with justice.’God says He will do the shepherding Himself — search, gather, bind up, and feed.
I will appoint over them one shepherd, My servant David, and he will feed them. He will feed them and be their shepherd. I, the LORD, will be their God, and My servant David will be a prince among them. I, the LORD, have spoken.One shepherd, my servant David — and God Himself as their God.
I will set up one Shepherd - my servant David - David, king of Israel, had been dead upwards of four hundred years; and from that time till now there never was a ruler of any kind, either in the Jewish church or state, of the name of David. This, then, must be some typical person; and from the texts marked in the margin we understand that Jesus Christ alone is meant, as both Old and New Testaments agree in this.
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible, 1832Methodist
Ezekiel 34:23
David also is called the Christ, as when Ezekiel prophesied to the shepherds and added, in the person of God, "I will raise up David my servant, who will shepherd them." For the patriarch David will not be raised up to shepherd the saints, but Christ.
Origen of Alexandria· Commentary on the Gospel of John 1:146, 253Church Father
Ezekiel 34:23
One shepherd - Christ, the great good, chief, only shepherd, that laid down his life for his sheep. My servant David - The seed of David, the beloved one, who was typified by David, and is in other places called by his name, as Jer. xxx, 9 chap. xxxvii, 24 Isaiah xxxvii, 35 Hosea iii, 5. He shall feed - Do all the office of a good and faithful shepherd, and that forever.
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament, 1765Wesleyan
Ezekiel 34:23
"God by Him reconciling all things unto Himself, whether things in earth or in heaven." David--the antitypical David, Messiah, of the seed of David, which no other king after the captivity was: who was fully, what David was only in a degree, "the man after God's own heart." Also, David means beloved: Messiah was truly God's beloved Son (Isa 42:1;
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, 1871Reformed
Ezekiel 34:23
One root, thirty-one times, in one chapter
Ezekiel 34 hammers a single Hebrew root — the verb for shepherding and the noun for a shepherd — thirty-one timesin thirty-one verses. Four of them land in verse 23 alone: a shepherd, he will shepherd, and he will shepherd them, into a shepherd. The chapter’s argument is carried by its vocabulary before it is carried by its sentences.
ra’ah (h7462) → — 177 occurrences canon-wide, 31 of them in this one chapter.
Where the Type Breaks
— a type is a picture, not an equalEverything above is true, and this is also true: David committed adultery and then arranged a man’s death to cover it, and 2 Samuel 11 and 12 report it without a word of mitigation. Scripture does not protect its own hero. The prophet walks into the palace and tells him he is the man.
This is the single most important sentence on any typology page, and David is the man who earns it: a type is a picture, not an equal. The likeness runs to the office and the promise — the anointed shepherd-king, the throne God swore about, the words the Spirit gave him to write. It does not run to his record, and no honest reading of the type asks it to.
Which is, in the end, the point of a type at all. If the picture were adequate there would be no need for the thing it pictures. Peter’s argument at Pentecost is exactly this: David died, David was buried, and David’s tomb is with us to this day — so the psalm was not about him.
What travels, and what does not
- Travels:the office — anointed shepherd, then king; the promise of an everlasting throne; the psalms the New Testament quotes as Christ’s own words.
- Does not travel: the man’s conduct, his household, his wars, his census, or the succession he left behind him.
- Not settled here: what Goliath was. That question has its own page and its own evidence, and this one does not borrow the argument.
Read the Great Books
— the writers quoted above, in their own handsThe Treasury of David
Charles Spurgeon · 1869-1885
Twenty years of work on the Psalms, and the single best free companion to this page. Every Spurgeon quotation above is from it — go and read Psalm 22 and Psalm 110 whole.
READ IT FREE AT CCEL →Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament
John Wesley · 1765
Short, warm and verse-by-verse. His note on 2 Samuel 7:13 — “this is not meant of Solomon” — is the covenant argument of this page in one line.
READ IT FREE AT CCEL →Commentary on the Bible
Adam Clarke · 1832
For Ezekiel 34. Clarke does the arithmetic out loud — four hundred years, no ruler of that name — and lets the conclusion follow.
READ IT FREE AT CCEL →Reflections on the Psalms
C.S. Lewis · 1958
Chapter 11 takes up Psalm 110 and the question Jesus asked about it. Lewis is reading as a literary critic who believes, which is a useful second pair of eyes.
In print — find it wherever books are sold.