Some Are Loyal to David in the Crisis

Again the procession stopped. “There was Zadok also, and all the Levites with him, bearing the ark of the covenant of God.” To the people with David, the presence of that sacred symbol was a pledge of deliverance and victory. Its absence from Jerusalem would bring terror to Absalom’s followers.BOE 370.1

At the sight of the ark, for a brief moment joy and hope thrilled the heart of David, but soon other thoughts came. The glory of God and the good of his people were to be the most important in his mind, for he was the appointed ruler of God’s heritage. God had said of Jerusalem, “This is my resting place” (Psalm 132:14), and neither priest nor king had a right to remove the symbol of His presence from the city. And David’s great sin was always in his memory. It was not his place to remove from the nation’s capital the sacred statutes that represented the will of their divine Sovereign, the constitution of the realm and the foundation of its prosperity.BOE 370.2

He commanded Zadok, “‘Carry the ark of God back into the city. If I find favor in the eyes of the Lord, He will bring me back and show me both it and His dwelling place. But if He says thus: “I have no delight in you,” here I am, let Him do to me as seems good to Him.’”BOE 370.3