David is one of the most significant figures in the Bible. He was a musician, one of history’s greatest poets, the boy warrior who killed the giant Goliath, a devout servant of God, a great leader of men and ultimately Israel’s greatest king. His stories cover the second half of the First Book of Samuel and all of the Second Book of Samuel, and his legacy was such that Jesus himself was born in the “City of David” to fulfill prophecies. For all that, David the man was not perfect. Most notoriously, he ordered his soldiers to make sure one of their comrades was killed in battle because he had seen the man’s wife bathing and wanted her as his own. He was also willing to actually ally with the Philistines for a time, while his predecessor Saul was still king. But in spiritual terms, David’s meaning matches his reputation: He represents the Lord, and especially the Lord as we are able to know Him and understand Him. The Writings call this “divine truth,” and it can be our ultimate guide if we want to serve the Lord and make His desires our own. This representation makes sense if we look at following the Lord as a whole picture. There are essentially two elements. First, we need to accept the Lord, believe in Him, open our hearts to Him, worship Him. These are matters of affection, and related to the Lord’s divine goodness. And they are generally represented by priests, who lead worship and perform rituals. Second, we need to act in accord with the Lord’s wishes: We need to serve others, care for those in need, defend the defenseless and work to make life and society better for everyone. These actions require thought, judgment, design, and are thus related to Lord’s divine truth, or divine guidance. They are generally represented by kings, who are men of action and are responsible for the activity of their nations. As the greatest of the kings, David represents this truth in its greatest form.

Like so many common verbs, the meaning of "know" in the Bible is varied and dependent on context. And in some cases -- when it is connected to ideas or objects -- its spiritual meaning and natural meaning are essentially the same. When the Bible talks about people knowing each other and especially when it talks about the Lord knowing people, the meaning has more to do with the states of love within people than it does with any factual knowledge. This makes sense if you think about it. When we really "know" somebody, what we mean is that we know what kind of person they are, what their motivations are, what they love, what they hate, what makes them tick. Those things are far more important than knowing their parents' names, where they were born or what year they graduated from school. Most often then, especially applied to people, "knowing" has to do with the perceptions we have about other people's loves and the conjunction that can exist between those with similar loves, not just a collection of facts.