Sunday
Sunday
King David
David shepherded them [God’s people] with integrity of heart.
Psalm 78:72
Already before David ascended the throne, he appeared an attractive and promising character. As a youth, by faith in the living God, he had rid Israel of Goliath, the Philistine champion. He had made a covenant of friendship with Jonathan. Then, having been secretly anointed king by Samuel, the Spirit of the Lord had come upon him. And later, with an extraordinary magnanimity of spirit, he twice spared Saul’s life. He also showed statesmanlike qualities, not least in establishing Jerusalem as his capital city.
It is all the more tragic, therefore, that David did not live up to these expectations. In his uncontrolled lust for the beautiful Bathsheba, he broke at least five of the Ten Commandments: he murdered, committed adultery, coveted, stole, and bore false witness. And in his insistence on the taking of a census of men capable of bearing arms, he manifested another kind of weakness, putting his confidence in the arm of the flesh instead of in the arm of the Lord.
In the light of these serious sins, how could he be described as a man “after God’s own heart” (1 Sam. 13:14; cf. Acts 13:22)? Certainly he had genuinely repented. But, above all, unlike Solomon his successor, his heart did not turn aside to other gods but was “fully devoted to the LORD” (1 Kings 11:4). It is not altogether incongruous, therefore, that the promised Messiah would be “the son of David.” He could sing from his heart,
I love you, O LORD, my strength.
The LORD is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer;
my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge.
Psalm 18:1–2
For further reading: Psalm 78:70–72