In time past. — Yesterday, or three days since. A very indefinite phrase, used in Genesis 31:2 of a time fourteen years since, and 2 Kings 13:5 of more than forty years ago.
Leddest out. — To battle.
Broughtest in. — Of the homeward march. David had thus already discharged kingly functions. (Comp. 1 Samuel 8:20; 1 Samuel 18:6; 1 Samuel 18:13; 1 Samuel 18:27; 2 Samuel 3:18.)
The Lord thy God said unto thee. — 1 Samuel 16:13.
Thou shalt feed my people. — Literally, shepherd or tend them. The same term is used of the Lord Himself (Isaiah 40:11; Psalms 80:1). The king then is God’s representative, and as such his right is really Divine (Romans 13:1). The cuneiform documents reveal the interesting fact that the term “shepherd,” as applied to sovereigns, is as old as the pre-Semitic stage of Babylonian civilisation (the second millennium B.C.).