David knew that God’s high purpose for Israel could be met only as rulers and people should seek with unceasing vigilance to attain to the standard placed before them. He knew that in order for his son Solomon to fulfill the trust with which God was pleased to honor him, the youthful ruler must be not merely a warrior, a statesman, and a sovereign, but a strong, good man, a teacher of righteousness, an example of fidelity. (PK 26.1) MC VC

With tender earnestness David entreated Solomon to be manly and noble, to show mercy and loving-kindness to his subjects, and in all his dealings with the nations of earth to honor and glorify the name of God and to make manifest the beauty of holiness. The many trying and remarkable experiences through which David had passed during his lifetime had taught him the value of the nobler virtues and led him to declare in his dying charge to Solomon: “He that ruleth over men must be just, ruling in the fear of God. And he shall be as the light of the morning, when the sun riseth, even a morning without clouds; as the tender grass springing out of the earth by clear shining after rain.” 2 Samuel 23:3, 4. (PK 26.2) MC VC

Oh, what an opportunity was Solomon’s! Should he follow the divinely inspired instruction of his father, his reign would be a reign of righteousness, like that described in the seventy-second psalm: (PK 26.3) MC VC

“Give the king Thy judgments, O God,
And Thy righteousness unto the king’s son.
He shall judge Thy people with righteousness,
And Thy poor with judgment....
He shall come down like rain upon the mown grass:
As showers that water the earth.” Psalm 72:1, 2, 6. (PK 26.4) MC VC