Israel’s greatest king, David, is esteemed in Scripture as a great ruler, warrior, poet and musician – and most of all, as a man after God’s own heart.
A man of God
When David comes onto the scene – in contrast to King Saul whose insecurities, fear, pride and jealousy have led to his downfall – David’s first words mark him as one zealous for God (1 Sam, 17:26); he beats the giant Goliath, he quickly wins the love of the people and also of Jonathan and Michael (18:1-21); he refuses to avenge himself against Saul when he has the opportunity (24:2-7; 26:711) and, after Saul’s death, he distances himself from the deaths of Saul’s adherents (2 Sam. 3:28-35; 4:8-12). We are witnessing a man of God in action, and it is inspiring to us.
However he is also…
A man in Adam
Whilst David is represented as a man of great ability and charm, he has some very obvious weaknesses and failings. He is not idealized, in spite of the sympathetic treatment of him. After a meteoric rise to power, and the many blessings that come as a result, he comes crashing down; committing adultery with Bathsheba and ensuring her husband Uriah is killed, and as a result is told that “the sword will never depart from your house” (2 Samuel 12:10). The result is a widening circle of death and violence which spreads from David’s household through Israel, and many of the stories are gruesome. The negative side of David, a man living in Adam (a sinner in need of grace), are very clearly portrayed alongside his positive side.
One commentator talks about something ‘happening to David’s heart’ along the way.
When we first meet him in the text of Samuel, he has taken a club to kill a bear and a lion for the sake of sheep (1 Sam. 17:34-35), but by the end of the book, he has decided that the sheep should die for him, though this time the sheep were people (2 Sam. 24:14, 17). David will not be the good shepherd that will give his life for the sheep – we must keep reading to find another (John 10:11).*
This makes him…
A man pointing forward
1-2 Samuel are books that leave the reader with a question – is the monarchy a real blessing for Israel? The answer seems to be yes and no…yes if the king is good, no if the king is bad. And so, we’re not just left with a question, we’re left looking forward – will a king come who will only be good and always ensure blessing for his people.
Tim Chester puts it like this:
For David is God’s anointed king. The word for “anointed One” in Hebrew is “Messiah” and in Greek is “christ”. So David is God’s christ (small “c”) – his anointed king. It means 2 Samuel is a mirror in which we see Jesus, the ultimate Christ (capital “C”). Again and again, the story of 2 Samuel enables us to see the glory of Christ. When David is strong and faithful and victorious, he prefigures the strength and faithfulness and victory of Jesus. When David is selfish and faithless, we feel our need for a better king – the kind of king we see in David’s greater son.”
Elsewhere, Chester says this:
The history of the first christs leave us longing for the rule of the ultimate Christ
So David points forward to Jesus, the Good Shepherd, the King of Israel, the one who slays the giants of sin and death on our behalf, the King of Kings whose kingdom shall never end and the ‘Lord’s anointed’, who will receive the name above all names (Phil. 2:9-10).
All this makes David…
A man for us today
For many years, I was puzzled as to why David was called a man after God’s own heart. As you read the stories he often seems like a man going against God’s heart and his sins seem just as grievous as Saul’s, who is rejected by God. So why does he end up with a positive, not negative title? I think Psalm 51 tells us. After his atrocities with Bathsheba and Uriah, he comes to God in confession with a broken and contrite heart (vs17) and he asks God for a new heart (vs10). That is why he is a man after God’s own heart – because, in the end, his heart is soft and tender towards God. He is well aware of his own sin and in need of God’s love mercy and cleansing (vs1-7).
So David is a great example for us today, to ensure our hearts, even when we mess up, return to God again and again. The stories of David are very earthy and real, and as we get a good look at his heart (the good, the bad and the ugly) we get a mirror that helps us look at our own hearts, and like David, we can learn to seek God for strength and mercy. Acts 13:26 says David “served God’s purpose in his own generation” – may we too serve God’s purpose in our generation as we too seek God’s heart.
Preaching Series – 1 & 2 Samuel
The life of David starts in 1 Samuel 13 and finishes in 2 Kings 2, so our series will mainly be in 1 & 2 Samuel (which in the Hebrew Bible are one book). Tim Chester helpfully describes 1-2 Samuel as ‘preached history…writing with a purpose… [it] is never less than historical, but as we read it, we are doing much more than reading history‘
To help us reflect on David’s life, we’ll think on his interactions with the other main characters or themes in the book.
- David & Samuel – a man after God’s own heart (1 Sam 16)
- David & Goliath – a man to represent the people in battle (1 Sam 17)
- David & Jonathan – a man protected by spiritual friendship (1 Sam 18-20)
- David & Exile – a man on the run (1 Sam 21-23)
- David & Saul – a man of mercy (1 Sam 24 & 26)
- David & Abigail – a man saved from bloodshed (1 Sam 25)
- David & The Ark – a man in the presence of God (2 Sam 6)
- David & The Kingdom – a man of promise and prayer (2 Sam 7)
- David & Mephibosheth – a man of kindness (2 Sam 9)
- David & Bathsheba – a man shown mercy (2 Sam 11-12)
- David & His Flaws – a man pointing forward to the true Christ (2 Sam 21-24)
Do join us each Sunday, 4:30pm online via zoom.
Many of the insights of this blog have been taken from
- The life of David from The Dictionary Of Biblical Theology (P. E Satterthwaite)
- An introduction to 1-2 Samuel in The New Bible Commentary (Carson, France, Motyer & Wenham)
- 1 & 2 Samuel – Focus on the bible series by Dale Ralph Davies – looking on the heart and out of every adversity
- 1 & 2 Samuel For You – by Tim Chester
*Longman & Dillard – An Introduction To The Old Testament, page 165