Why did God choose David as king?
Last Monday, Jackie speaking at our Prayer and Praise chose to speak on the passage in which God commissions Samuel to anoint David King in place of Saul.
And I went away thinking:
So why did God choose David?
In St Paul's sermon at Pisidan Antioch, in which he briefly recounts the history of Israel, he refers to the statement made by God concerning King David:
"I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after My own heart, who will do all My will." - Act 13:22 (cf. 1Sa 13:13-14)
Yet it is the same David
i) who commits adultery with Bathsheba (breaking Commandments 7, 8 and 10),
ii) who then lies about it (breaking Commandment 9),
iii) who then compounds with it murder of Bathsheba’s husband Uriah (breaking Commandment 6)
He breaks at least five of the Ten Commandments at one sitting as you might say – and yet he is “a man after God’s own heart.”
David is also included in the “Hall of Fame of faith” in Hebrews 11 and of course is key in Jesus’ own genealogy.
So what is it about David that makes him a man after God’s own heart?
We can find some characteristics of David from the Scriptures
1. David reverenced God utterly
David had such a high regard for God that he put God before his own self interest
Let me explain
At least twice David had an opportunity to kill his enemy, King Saul and so make his life easier as Saul was chasing him all across Israel
Yet David refused to kill him.
Speaking to Saul, David said:
10 This day you have seen with your own eyes how the LORD delivered you into my hands in the cave. Some urged me to kill you, but I spared you; I said, ‘I will not lay my hand on my lord, because he is the LORD’s anointed.’ (1 Sam 24:10)
On another occasion, Abishai urges David to kill Saul and David replied
11 But the LORD forbid that I should lay a hand on the LORD’s anointed. Now get the spear and water jug that are near his head, and let’s go.” (1 Sam 26:11)
In Psalm 3, we can see how David thinks and we read of David’s utter trust in God in Psalm 3
1 LORD, how many are my foes!
How many rise up against me!
2 Many are saying of me,
“God will not deliver him. ”
3 But you, LORD, are a shield around me,
my glory, the One who lifts my head high.
4 I call out to the LORD,
and he answers me from his holy mountain.
5 I lie down and sleep;
I wake again, because the LORD sustains me.
6 I will not fear though tens of thousands
assail me on every side.
Does that sum the way I think? I don’t think so.
Wow - what a faith!
2. God was at the centre of David’s life
We see the centrality of God in David’s life in some of the Psalms – psalms obviously bathed in prayer and thanksgiving.
We read in Psalm 5:1-3
Listen to my words, LORD, consider my lament.
2 Hear my cry for help, my King and my God,
for to you I pray.
3 In the morning, LORD, you hear my voice;
in the morning I lay my requests before you
and wait expectantly.
3. David put his life on the line for God’s reputation
The motivation for David slaying Goliath wasn’t to make a name for himself.
Rather it was because David could not stand by and see God’s name despised among the heathen
We read in 1 Sam 17, when Goliath shames Israel by challenging any Israelite to a one- on-one fight to see whose God is greater,
26 David asked the men standing near him,
“………….. Who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God?”
And of course we know that David takes up the challenge and kills Goliath.
4. David’s famous sin
Yet you might ask, despite all that, how can David be a man after God’s own heart when he commits adultery with a friend’s wife.
After all Uriah was one of David’s inner circle of commanders and not only does he commit adultery with Uriah’s wife but compounds this by murdering him
I think you will find the key in the 12th Chapter of 2 Samuel where Nathan the prophet confronts David over his sin in committing adultery with Bathsheba
Let me read it to you: 2 Samuel 12
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.
2 The rich man had a very large number of sheep and cattle, 3 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.
4 “Now a traveller 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 traveller 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.”
5 David burned with anger against the man and said to Nathan, “As surely as the LORD lives, the man who did this must die! 6 He must pay for that lamb four times over, because he did such a thing and had no pity.”
7 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.
8 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.
9 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.
10 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.’
11 “This is what the LORD says: ‘Out of your own household I am going to bring calamity on you. Before your very eyes I will take your wives and give them to one who is close to you, and he will sleep with your wives in broad daylight. 12 You did it in secret, but I will do this thing in broad daylight before all Israel.’”
13 Then David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the LORD.”
Nathan replied, “The LORD has taken away your sin. You are not going to die.
14 But because by doing this you have shown utter contempt for the LORD, the son born to you will die.”
Nathan starts cautiously – after all kings in those days were despots and Nathan could easily have wound up a head shorter
So Nathan tells David the story of a man who had one single little sheep that he loved very much.
One day one of the rich local landowners had a friend come to visit.
Instead of taking a lamb from his own flock, he stole the poor man’s only sheep, killed it and put it on the table for his friend.
David is so incensed at the injustice of it all – and you see David’s real heart coming through – that he said that the man who did this must die!!
And in probably the most moving scene of the Old Testament - Nathan looks David in the eye and says: “Thou art the man!” (2 Sam12:7).
What does David do?
Instead of putting Nathan in prison or executing him (like Herod did with John the Baptist) ,
David confesses his sin to Nathan. He says:
“I have sinned against the Lord” (2 Sam 12:13)
And THAT is the key to Paul’s statement that King David was a man after God’s own heart.
David stopped covering up and threw himself on God’s mercy.
St John in his first letter says this: If we say we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and refusing to accept the truth. But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from every wrong.
(1 Jn 1:8-10)
David was quick to repent and God forgave him –
Psalm 51 is a very public repentance – that David wrote
There were consequences within David’s own family of this sin – but that is subject matter for another sermon!
Conclusion
If we wish to be people after God’s own heart, then we need to be people after God’s own heart
We need to put God ahead of ourselves
When we sin we need to recognise our sin and confess it.
We will sin – it is how we deal with our sin that determines if we are people after God’s own heart or not.
We are called to work on our character; 1 Peter 3:5-9 says this
5 For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; 6 and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; 7 and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love. 8 For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 But whoever does not have them is near sighted and blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their past sins.
David was always working on his character and if that is one thing we learn from him, we do well.
Let me end with a quote from Oswald Chambers
You have inherited the Divine nature, says Peter (v.4), now screw your attention down and form habits, give diligence, concentrate.
"Add" means all that character means. No man is born either naturally or supernaturally with character, he has to make character. Nor are we born with habits; we have to form habits on the basis of the new life God has put into us. We are not meant to be illuminated versions, but the common stuff of ordinary life exhibiting the marvel
of the grace of God. Drudgery is the touchstone of character.
The great hindrance in spiritual life is that we will look for big things to do.
"Jesus took a towel...and began to wash the disciples' feet."
There are times when there is no illumination and no thrill, but just the daily round, the common task. Routine is God's way of saving us between our times of inspiration.
Do not expect God always to give you His thrilling minutes, but learn to live in the domain of drudgery by the power of God.
It is the "adding" that is difficult.
We say we do not expect God to carry us to heaven on flowery beds of ease, and yet we act as if we did!
The tiniest detail in which I obey has all the omnipotent power of the grace of God behind it.
If I do my duty, not for duty's sake,
but because I believe God is engineering my circumstances, then at the very point of my obedience the whole superb grace of God is mine through the Atonement.
We will all make mistakes – though our sin may not be as great as David’s. But the Gospel is this – no one is beyond the pale.
