Useful Bible Studies > 2 Samuel Commentary > chapter 9
Mephibosheth knew that he had no right to expect anything good from David. His grandfather was Saul, the previous king, who had tried to kill David. His father, Jonathan, had been David's friend - but Jonathan, and the rest of Mephibosheth's family, were all now dead. Mephibosheth himself was just a weak, poor young man who could not even walk. David's guards had to bring him on the long and difficult journey to Jerusalem, to see David.
As the king of Israel, David had the power of life and death over Mephibosheth. However, perhaps the knowledge of David's good character gave hope to Mephibosheth. Everyone in Israel knew about the fact that David truly loved God (6:14-15). It was that love that caused David and Jonathan to have such a close friendship (1 Samuel 23:16-18).
Mephibosheth was very careful not to approach David with an attitude of pride. Mephibosheth belonged to the former royal family - in fact, in different circumstances he would have been king. However, Mephibosheth had no desire whatever to claim any honour that might be due to him. If he had any honour, he wanted to use it to show respect to David, his king. With his injury, it was hard for Mephibosheth to bend his body low to the ground. However, he still did it, to give honour to David. He considered himself to be merely a servant of the king - whatever David wanted him to do, he would gladly carry out.
Next part: The honour that David gave to Mephibosheth (2 Samuel 9:7-12)
Please use the links at the top of the page to find our other articles in this series. You can download all our articles if you go to the download page for our free 1000+ page course book.
© 2023, Keith Simons.