There are so many parallels in the life of King David and in my own existence on this earth. Not so much in the part of David being a King, but in his full dependence on God and the realization of the utter helplessness we have apart from God and the need for total abandonment of self. Nothing in David’s life could make sense unless he was walking hand in hand with the Lord. The fear would have been too great, the temptations to kill Saul and grab the throne before his anointed time would have been too strong, the shame and regret of his affair with Bathsheba would have overwhelmed him without his repentance to and forgiveness from God. The whole purpose of his life would have seemed insane if God was not his compass every minute of every day. David sought God with such passion and relentlessness that he was called by God “a man after my own heart” in Acts 13:22. David didn’t lack alignment in his life. He clearly had God at the top of his life pyramid and everything else came after that. God was first place in his mind and his heart, and that is why he was such a successful leader and effective servant of the Lord. God can only use us to the degree to which we are willing to abandon ourselves to him. Our effectiveness for God’s Kingdom is directly proportional to our level of surrender. The more we surrender, the more God can use us. We all will face many, many different trials and tribulations in this life, but we can certainly learn valuable lessons about how to triumph in this life by reading about the Biblical Heroes such as King David. More than anything, David prayed fervently to God about all aspects of his life. His relationship with God was nothing if not authentic, and boy does this world need that type of authenticity right now. We all need to be authentic in our relationship with God, but many feel like we can’t openly share our true emotions with Him. I think that is an emotion that is very detrimental to our worship of the Creator of the Universe. David never had this problem, he let God know his feelings, both good and bad, in terms we can all relate to. Whether David was frustrated, scared, angry, confused, grateful, ecstatic, depressed, hurt, lonely, impressed, reliant, joyful or many other emotions, he always told God exactly how he felt. The authenticity of David’s relationship with God I think that is why in spite of all his failings and deeply sinful actions he could be called by God a “man after my own heart,” in Acts 13:22. So we’re going to dive headlong into a deeper look into David’s life and how it has been impactful in my own life, and hopefully how the lessons David both learned and taught can be applied to our lives to make us stronger, wiser and bolder.
David was ready to run to the battle line when the time came to fight Goliath because he had been preparing in the solitude of his time tending his father’s sheep in the pastures behind his home. He didn’t waste the wait, but was building up his confidence in God for when a battle came. He was preparing by learning to trust in God by reading scripture and by seeing God’s favor upon him. He was honing his skills by learning to save sheep from the paw of the bear and the paw of the lion, “The Lord who rescued me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will rescue me from the hand of this Philistine.” Saul said to David, “Go, and the Lord be with you.”- 1 Samuel 17:37 David was building his confidence when no one was watching. That is a critical component of why David was so brave when everyone else was so scared. He had seen God work in his life and he had spent time in the scriptures and in his presence in prayer so that it literally engulfed him with rage and fury when he heard Goliath mocking and defiling the Lord God of Israel. “David said to the Philistine, “You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied.”- 1 Samuel 17:45 This is a lesson we can easily apply to our lives as well because we surely all face our own unique battles in this life. What we do when no one is watching or paying attention means so much in the success we may have in the future. In the quiet moments, when it's just us and God, are we seeking Him above all else? Are we praying and reading scripture to prepare us for the battles ahead, because surely they will come. David’s life is a perfect example of the mountain top and valley experiences that all of us will face in our lives at some time or another. In both, relying on God is the only way to successfully navigate them. You may be saying to yourself, “ but wait, I understand in the Valley experiences we need God, but why on the Mountain Tops?” There is an old saying that for every ninety-nine who can handle failure, only one can handle success. Well, as David learned so vividly we are actually most vulnerable when we are on the top. To quote the legendary Jerry Garcia from the band The Grateful Dead “when life looks like easy street there is danger at your door.” David learned all about temptation and sin while staring out at Bathsheba, which led to a wicked downward spiral when he had Bathsheba’s husband and his good friend Uriah killed in battle so he could be with her, and ultimately led to God bringing judgement upon Him so strongly that He wanted to die. God sent Nathan to David to reveal the depth of his sin to him and it led David into a period of incredible pain and remorse as he became aware that his sin was costing him the life of his and Bathsheba’s first born son. There was nowhere to hide and David was forced to face the darkest night of his soul head on. The consequences of his sin were incredibly deep and long lasting, but David acknowledged his sin before God and came forward in earnest repentance. He didn’t try to hide or run away from God, but rather he ran to him. This was another great lesson that David learned the hard way. The pleasure of sin lasts only for a moment, but the consequences stay for a lifetime. However, we can learn a lot from David’s response when confronted by God through his messenger Nathan. Although the damage was done and the consequences would come, he didn’t run and hide or try to blame someone or something else. He took his repentance directly to God and that allowed him to eventually be restored without total destruction coming upon him. There was a period of intense pain, where he would rather have died, but the overall recovery period was greatly lessened by his willingness to admit his grave mistake and own up to it. We can learn a lot from the passages of scripture found in 1 Samuel 17:1-12 that describe in great detail some of these interactions. They have been recorded for us as teaching tools and lessons to help us from making the same mistakes, but if we do it also instructs us on how best to deal with them. One area that God brings to David’s attention by using a parable is the weight of his own guilt and sinfulness for what he had done to Bathsheba’s husband Uriah. He makes David realize that he has been blinded by his own power and prestige as King of Israel to the wickedness in his own heart, and it staggers him, “The Lord sent Nathan to David. When he came to him, he said, “There were two men in a certain town, one rich and the other poor. The rich man had a very large number of sheep and cattle, but the poor man had nothing except one little ewe lamb he had bought. He raised it, and it grew up with him and his children. It shared his food, drank from his cup and even slept in his arms. It was like a daughter to him. “Now a traveler came to the rich man, but the rich man refrained from taking one of his own sheep or cattle to prepare a meal for the traveler who had come to him. Instead, he took the ewe lamb that belonged to the poor man and prepared it for the one who had come to him.” David burned with anger against the man and said to Nathan, “As surely as the Lord lives, the man who did this must die! He must pay for that lamb four times over, because he did such a thing and had no pity.” Then Nathan said to David, “You are the man! This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you from the hand of Saul. I gave your master’s house to you, and your master’s wives into your arms. I gave you all Israel and Judah. And if all this had been too little, I would have given you even more. Why did you despise the word of the Lord by doing what is evil in his eyes? You struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and took his wife to be your own. You killed him with the sword of the Ammonites. Now, therefore, the sword will never depart from your house, because you despised me and took the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your own.’ We really shouldn’t be too surprised that David was so unaware of the sinfulness that had crept into his heart. We are all vulnerable to the attacks of the enemy, and as Jeremiah 17:9 says “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it? We are all so quick to point out the flaws in other people, ( Matthew 7:1-5 ) as David was so quick to point out the wickedness of the rich man who had taken the poor man’s Ewe Lamb to roast for the feast, only to realize that the story was about him and his sinfulness! Can you imagine the guilt and shame he must have felt? David needed to be taught a very harsh lesson, and we can learn much from this story. We too must be slow to point the finger at other people and quick to look at the wickedness in our own heart that needs repentance to keep it clean on a regular basis. God says our sin can keep Him from hearing our prayers, and so repentance is required often ( Isaiah 59:1-2 ) in order to keep those airwaves clear.
God shows us in King David that He looks at things differently than the world sees them. He doesn’t often use the one who appears the most qualified but many times uses the one who appears the most unqualified or unfit. This was certainly true when God sent Samuel to find the next King of Israel to replace Saul and he came upon Jesse’s sons. On the surface, David didn’t appear to have a chance and in fact, wasn’t even in the initial lineup. But God kept rejecting the ones who by appearance or skill would have been the most qualified. In fact, when Samuel came across Jesse’s Son Eliab, who was so physically striking that Samuel thought for sure this must be the one who God had chosen. I love this interaction in 1 Samuel 16:6-7 when it says “When they arrived, Samuel saw Eliab and thought, “Surely the Lord’s anointed stands here before the Lord.”But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” This is a foundational principle in the Bible that is carried throughout both the Old and New Testaments. Simply put, God doesn’t think how we think. Isaiah 55:8-9 makes this clear when it says, ““For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. Jesus chose twelve ragtag guys to be His Disciples and totally transformed the world, all the while confounding the religious scholars, rulers and elites of the day and He is still doing the same today. 1 Corinthians 1:18-31 tells us so when it proclaims, “For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written:“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.” Where is the wise person? Where is the teacher of the law? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him. It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. Therefore, as it is written: “Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord. His way is to take the ones who are available, not the ones who appear qualified. God cherishes availability more than ability.
When you think about King David, the first question that comes to mind is what was it about him that made God say about him that he was a ““man after my own heart,” in Acts 13:22? I mean David sure had his share of sinful failings, including adultery with his friend Uriah’s wife Bathsheba which eventually led to David actually having Uriah killed so that could claim Bathsheba as his own wife. It seems kind of strange that God would call a murderer and an adulterer a “man after my own heart,” and I am sure this would be impossible for non- believers to reconcile. But I believe the relationship David had with God was so real, so raw and so authentic that God knew how much David was seeking Him at all times. If you just look at the prayers of David in the Psalms, of which David is attributed with writing 75 out of the 150 Psalms in the Bible, you can see an authenticity that is unparalleled in scripture. David complained to God, questioned God, cried out to God, feared God, praised and worshipped God, became bewildered by God, didn’t understand God, loved God, thanked God, pleaded with God, felt accursed by God, sought God, depended on God, and considered God his friend, all in the same book of Scripture in the Psalms. That is real life and David let his raw emotions pour out to God like we would to our own best friend or loved one. One thing David never did was sugarcoat how he felt. He knew he worshipped a God who was big enough to handle anything he laid before Him. We can learn a lot about how we should approach God by studying the prayers of David in the Book of Psalms. So let’s take a deeper look at some of the ones that we can apply to our own lives on a daily basis to gain wisdom and discernment, two things David acquired as a result of his time spent in God’s presence over his lifetime.