“לַמְנַצֵּחַ בִּנְגִינוֹת מִזְמוֹר לְדָוִד”

“To the conductor with melodies, a song of David.”

Unfortunately, King David himself wasn’t able to see or be part of the actual building of the Beth Mikdash (The Temple). As David says in his will to his son Solomon, in Chronicles 1 22:7-10 :

“And David said to Solomon, “My son, as for me, it was in my heart to build a House in the name of the Lord my God. But the word of the Lord was upon me, saying: ‘You have shed much blood, and you have waged great wars; you shall not build a House in My Name because you have shed much blood to the ground before Me. Behold a son will be born to you; he will be a man of peace, and I shall give him peace from all his enemies around about, for Solomon will be his name, and I shall give peace and quiet to Israel in his days. He shall build a House in My Name, and he shall be to Me as a son, and I to him as a Father, and I shall prepare the throne of his kingdom forever.’ ”

Let’s have a broader look, historically, how we got to this situation of building the Temple of G-d.

The Israelites finished the first part of the journey, from the Exodus of Egypt through Mount Sinai, desert, towards Israel. At that point their leader changes from Moshe to his student, Yehoshua. During  Yehoshua’s time, the twelve tribes conquer most of the Land of Israel, while each tribe get his own portion of it and settles in.
The next era, is known as ‘The Judges’, describes more than once: “In those days (there was) no king in Israel; every man did what was right in his eyes.” . No real leadership. Each time a different enemy/nation attacks Israel, sometimes all of the Land is ruled by it’s enemies, moral corruption among Israel themselves..  Then came King Saul and puts an end to this bad era.
No more ‘short time judge’ who comes and saves the day. From now on, a kingdom with strong leadership.

King David gets a kingdom that is still surrounded by enemies. His life is full of wars and battles against all types, even within his family. Already long time before being a king, in his youth, David saves Israel’s dignity and kills Goliath.

From there on, he proceeds to destroy all the enemies, by that, brings the peace to The Land of Israel. David aims for more than that, his bigger and real inspiration is building the holy Temple for HaShem.

Indeed, as we opened this post with, King David himself wasn’t the one who built the Beth Mikdash, nevertheless, some of it he did..
Along with Samuel the prophet he made the plans, collected all money and materials needed for the construction, and… prepared the Levite for their role in the Mikdash and composed songs that will be sung there.

“To the conductor with melodies..”
Among these songs, is the following one, Psalm 4, “To the conductor with melodies, a song of David.”