Monday, May 14, 2012

David

And what more shall I say? For the time would fail me to tell of Gideon and Barak and Samson and Jephthah, also of David and Samuel and the prophets: who through faith subdued kingdoms, worked righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, became valiant in battle, turned to flight the armies of the aliens. (Hebrews 11:32-34, NKJV).
David was the anointed king of ancient Israel, a shepherd boy who made good, who became a man after God's own heart.

He was also an adulterer and a murderer, an egotist, and a vengeful adversary.

He was the promised forebear of the Savior of the world, and the Sweet Psalmist of Israel.

And he was a broken-down, faithless, fool.

These biographical aspects of David, the Warrior King of Israel, are good news for us, who are likewise flawed, imperfect, and guilty.

Good news because it affirms God's willingness and ability to make the foolish things and fools of the world useful for His divine purposes, while simultaneously remaking us in the image of His Son, Jesus.

If you conduct a careful study of the individuals who comprise this Hebrews Hall of Faith, you see men and women not much different from you or me, albeit under different circumstances and times. Each of them exhibited obvious human failings coupled with the empowerment of divine grace. Each were used by God to fulfill His plan, but only after they came to the end of themselves and surrendered their lives to Him.

David, I believe, was knit together in his mother's womb precisely to be that leader who would shepherd God's people, Israel, through those vulnerable formative years as they emerged from a primitive tribal organism into a powerful city-state.

David laid the foundations of Jerusalem, and established a kingly line from which Christ Himself would one day emerge.

So beloved of God was David that throughout Israel's many years of subsequent failure and apostasy, long after David died, God spared the nation for My servant David's sake.

For all his weaknesses, David shines forth as an example of someone who was most effective and powerful when he thought the least of himself.

To this day, his writings in the Psalms express, through heartfelt lyricism, the agonies and ecstasies of life in this fallen world, and serve to comfort, encourage and edify men, women and children of God going through the same mountains and valleys of experience; the same kinds of losses, triumphs, betrayals, and tragedies that marked his life 3000 years before.

David lived a life of flawed faith, but it was a life of faith. He recognized from where his strength came, and to Whom his allegiance belonged.

When confronted with his egregious sins, he did not cover up or evade, he confessed them before his God and his people, and in doing so, provided an example for us to follow, especially in those times when we face our own Goliaths, Absaloms, and Bathshebas.

And what, I think, sets David apart perhaps more than anything else? His love for the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and his desire to walk in intimate fellowship with His Creator and Lord.

You can sense his longing and awe in his Psalms. You can sense his understanding of both the vastness and closeness of his God.

And when all is said and done, David went to his grave in faith, believing the promises God had given him and his nation. Believing in his God.

For that, above all else, is the hallmark of a person of faith.