Sermon series: Learning Life's Lesson From Old Testament Characters

Subject: David--A Man After God’s Heart

1 Samuel 16:1-13
"Now the Lord said to Samuel, "How long will you mourn for Saul, seeing I have rejected him from reigning over Israel? Fill your horn with oil, and go; I am sending you to Jesse the Bethlehemite. For I have provided Myself a king among his sons."
And Samuel said, "How can I go? If Saul hears it, he will kill me." But the Lord said, "Take a heifer with you, and say, 'I have come to sacrifice to the Lord.' Then invite Jesse to the sacrifice, and I will show you what you shall do; you shall anoint for Me the one I name to you."
So Samuel did what the Lord said, and went to Bethlehem. And the elders of the town trembled at his coming, and said, "Do you come peaceably?"
And he said, "Peaceably; I have come to sacrifice to the Lord. Sanctify yourselves, and come with me to the sacrifice." Then he consecrated Jesse and his sons, and invited them to the sacrifice.
So it was, when they came, that he looked at Eliab and said, "Surely the Lord's anointed is before Him!"
But the Lord said to Samuel, "Do not look at his appearance or at his physical stature, because I have refused him. For the Lord does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart."
So Jesse called Abinadad, and made him pass before Samuel. And he said, "Neither has the Lord chosen this one."
Thus Jesse made seven of his sons pass before Samuel. And Samuel said to Jesse, "The Lord has not chosen these."
And Samuel said to Jesse, "Are all the young men here?" Then he said, "There remains yet the youngest, and there he is, keeping the sheep." And Samuel said to Jesse, "Send and bring him. For we will not sit down till he comes here."
So he sent and brought him in. Now he was ruddy, with bright eyes, and good-looking. And the Lord said, "Arise, anoint him, for this is the one!"
Then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the midst of his brothers; and the Spirit of the Lord came upon David from that day forward. So Samuel arose and went to Ramah."
1 Kings 2:10
"So David rested with his fathers, and was buried in the City of David.

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David is considered by many to be the greatest character in the Old Testament after Moses. I suppose when we start talking about which is ‘greatest,’ it is a matter of personal choice and preference, and there are many factors that enter into our decision. Each of the characters that we have been studying has some particular characteristic, some particular value, that makes him worth studying.
Joshua was blessed, for example, in that he had the opportunity of leading the people into the land which God had promised Abraham; David was blessed in that he had the privilege of setting up the kingdom in that land.
One has but to read through the Book of Judges to discover the terrible deterioration which succeeded the death of Joshua.
For upwards of five centuries a general state of lawlessness prevailed; "In those days there was no king in Israel; every man did that which was right in his own eyes" (Judges 21:25).
Following this was Israel's demand for a king, and that they might be "like all the nations" (1 Samuel 8:20).
Therefore, Jehovah declared; "I gave thee a king in Mine anger, and took him away in My wrath" (Hosea 13:11).
Saul, too, was an apostate, and his history ends by his consulting a witch (1 Samuel 28), and perishing on the battlefield (1 Samuel 31).
Such is the dark background upon which the ineffable glory of God’s sovereign grace now shone forth; such is the historical setting of the life of David we are about to consider.
David's story starts in the sixteenth chapter of 1 Samuel and runs through the rest of the First Book of Samuel. He was born in Bethlehem. Jesus, you will remember, was also born in Bethlehem, because He was of the house and lineage of David. Bethlehem is "the city of David."
We gather that David had a godly mother. There are, I think, two references to that in the Psalms: in the 86th and 116th Psalm both of which are ascribed to David. In Psalm 86:16 he prays to God, 'Turn to me and take pity on me; give Thy strength to Thy servant, and save the son of Thy handmaid.' Likewise in Psalm 116:16 he refers to himself as "the son of Thy handmaid." We may be reading too much into it, but it is nevertheless true that David referred to his mother as "the handmaid of the Lord," at least twice in the Psalms, and the inference from that statement is substantiated by the life of David, in which we find the characteristics of a man who has been brought up by his mother to know the Lord and to trust Him.

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David is described in 1 Samuel 16:12 as "a ruddy lad, with beautiful eyes and handsome." Tradition has it that the word "ruddy" here implies that he had blue eyes and a fair complexion with blond or reddish hair.
And, of course, we know that David was a shepherd. He is described in 1 Samuel 16:11 as keeping the sheep while the rest of the family of Jesse were at home; further on, he describes himself to Saul by saying: "Your servant used to keep sheep for his father, and when there came a lion or a bear and took a lamb from the flock, I went after him and smote him and delivered it out of his mouth; and if he arose against me, I caught him by his beard and smote him and killed him. Your servant has killed lions and bears" (17:34-55).
His bravery is emphasized again in the contest with Goliath.
The Philistines were one of the thorns in the side of the Israelite kingdom in the days of Saul and in the early days of David. They lived down on the seacoast, fifty to sixty miles southwest of Jerusalem, and they extended their territory in a sort of wedge pointed northeast toward the Israelite kingdom, specifically toward Jerusalem. The wedge increased in size as the strength of the Philistines increased, and decreased whenever the Israelites grew strong.
Now the Philistines were engaged in one of those conflicts when someone got a good idea: "Why bother having a full-scale war, when we can settle it with a combat between just two men. Let us pick out one of our men, and let the Israelites pick out one of theirs; and let the two of them slug it out; whichever man is victor, we'll say his side won!" Of course, the Philistines selected a giant whose height was about nine feet. His name was Goliath.
Goliath's head was covered with a helmet of bronze. He wore a coat of mail that weighed 125 pounds! His legs were protected below the knees with greaves (thin plates) of bronze. The head of his spear weighed fifteen pounds.
The sight of this giant struck deep fear in the hearts of the Israelites. When David arrives on the scene, he accepts the challenge of the giant and slays him with one stone striking his head.
The battle is over and Israel is considered the winner, and so is David. He finds himself in Saul's court.
Another of David's characteristics was his musical ability. In Saul's court, his music has therapeutic value for the disturbed king.

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This brings us to the second period of David's life, his outlaw existence. It may seem an improper word to use concerning David but this is exactly what happened! He lived off the country, by marauding and plundering; at one time he had to save his life by taking the shewbread, the bread of the Presence, from the altar of the Lord.
The young man not only became an outlaw with reference to the laws of King Saul, but a violator of the written law of the Scriptures, in order to stay alive!
Then David accepted protection from King Achish, a Philistine king who had been an enemy of his country. If we read the story in chapter 21:19, we find that David seems to have lost much of his faith in the Lord! He went over to the enemy--almost. But he got hold of himself in time and by feigning madness he was able to get away from King Achish.
Then he came to the cave of Adullum (ch. 22), where he went through an experience which I think is reflected in some of the Psalms.
Psalm 34, for example, seems to contain the story of his regaining the faith: "This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him, and saved him out of all of his troubles." The Psalm goes on to say, "O taste and see that the Lord is good!" Some of the other Psalms reflect the same story.
David next gathered around himself a group of outlaws like himself, men who were not acceptable to the government of Saul. With them he succeeded in protecting the borderland of Israel against the forces of the Philistines, so that even though he and his men were not under King Saul, they were actually working in the King's interests.
On two occasions at least, perhaps on three occasions, Saul went after David. David had the opportunity to kill him, but he restrained himself. He had by that time learned to depend on the Lord, not on himself. In Psalm 57, David writes: "Be merciful to me, O God, be merciful to me! For my soul trusts in You; and in the shadow of Your wings I will make my refuge, until these calamities have passed by." (Psalm 57:1)
Although anointed for kingship, David refused on several occasions to do anything whatever to hasten the day when he should take over the throne from Saul.
Just to study this much of his life, without going into the great events of his kingdom is to see something of the character of this man. He had gone through all sorts of adversity, all sorts of persecution; he had even wandered away from the faith which he had at the beginning, into a mild sort of unbelief. He had sought to live by his own

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wits, rather than by trust in God; and then in a rich, deep, spiritual experience he was brought to trust in God and to see how much God would do for him. He was willing to sit back and wait until God’s time would come for him to take over the kingdom. He refused to move on his own, or do anything to get rid of Saul. That was his character!
Observation! I have just mentioned the brief experience of David's flight into unbelief.
1 Samuel 27:1 says: "And David said in his heart, "Now I shall perish someday by the hand of Saul. There is nothing better for me than that I should speedily escape to the land of the Philistines; and Saul will despair of me, to seek me anymore in any part of Israel. So I shall escape out of his hand." Verse 4: "And it was told Saul that David had fled to Gath; so he sought him no more."
Such a conclusion was positively erroneous.
There was no evidence in proof thereof; he had been placed in perilous positions before, but God had never deserted him. How is David unbelief to be accounted for? Because he was just a man! The best of men are men at best and man at his best is such a creature that well might David himself say, "Lord, what is man?"
If faith never gave place to unbelief, we might well be tempted to lift up the believer into a demi-God, and think him something more than mortal!
I stop to point this out in our study of these men who mark the pages of our Bible...they were just men, just like us. "Elijah was a man with a nature like ours..."(James 5:17).
David killed a bear and a lion and slew the giant with his little sling shot, but he was just a man like us. He had his moments of triumph as well as his experiences of failure. He suffered through those lonely nights filled with despair that caused his faith to falter. David had been exposed to a very long trial; not for one week, but for month after month, he had been hunted like a partridge, upon the mountains.
But I believe at the heart of the reason for David's brief flight into unbelief was his lack or absence of prayer! In every other action of David we find some hint that he asked counsel of the Lord...but this time what did he talk with? Why, with the most deceitful thing that he could have found--with his own heart! Having restrained prayer, he did the fool's act: he forgot his God, he looked only at his enemy, and it was no wonder that when he saw the strength of the cruel monarch, and the pertinacity of his persecution, he said, "I shall one day fall before him."
Spurgeon wrote: "Brothers and sisters, would

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you wish to hatch the egg of unbelief till it turns into a scorpion? Restrain prayer! Would you see evils magnified and mercies diminish? Would you find your tribulations increased sevenfold and your faith diminished in proportion? Restrain prayer!"
Our story of David moves on...and Saul is dead, suicide on the battlefield!
After the death of Saul, David located his capital at Hebron, in the south of the land of Palestine. Actually, he was king only of the southern part of the land known later as Judah. There was a tendency toward a division into north and south throughout the history of Israel. Only for a little while was it really united. It was one kingdom during the later portion of David's reign and the early reign of Solomon. Then it broke apart again.
The continuing house of Saul, which had not been killed off (David did not follow the practice of wiping out the whole house) tried to establish a ruling dynasty in the north. For seven years David ruled in the south while the rival kingdom held forth in the north.
One of the first things that he did as king was to conquer the stronghold of the Jebusites, the city of Jebus, later to be known as Jerusalem, The City of David.
David's city, you may be surprised to learn, was not large; about twelve hundred feet long and four hundred feet wide, it was only about as long as two modern city blocks and narrower than one—about eight acres total! But it was a very important city and once; it was taken, once it was made the capital, it became extremely important for all the rest of the history of Israel.
After subduing the neighboring peoples, David turned his attention to the organization of his kingdom. He apparently realized that the kingdom was not to be built on the personality of the king alone, but on an organization of men around him. He seems to have taken many of his ideas from the Egyptians, but whether he got them directly, or through his knowledge of the Philistines, (you will remember that in the days when he was an outlaw he had lived with the Philistines), we do not know. David also made the offices of the scribes and the recorder important and prominent in his kingdom. One of our present-day historians says that the first real historiographer was David. Long before the time of Herodotus or any of the other famous historians, David caused details to be recorded, and this record could be later used for the purpose of constructing an authentic history.

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There is much that is recorded concerning David, but I would like to spend the rest of our lesson talking about some of the prayers of David.
In 2 Samuel 7 David expresses a desire to build of house of cedar in which to place the ark of God.
After Nathan the prophet has a revelation on the matter from God, David is informed that he will not build the house of the Lord. Nathan says: "When your days are fulfilled and you rest with your fathers, I will set up your seed after you, who will come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for My name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever." (2 Samuel 7:12-13).
"Then David went and sat before the Lord; and he said: "Who am I, O Lord God? And what is my house, that You have brought me this far?" (2 Samuel 7:18)
He accepted the Lord's will concerning his denial in building the house of the Lord, and he does it with grace and gratitude. Listen to him pray: "Therefore You are great, O Lord God. For there is none like You, nor is there any God besides You, according to all that we have heard with our ears" (v.22).
"Now, O Lord God, the word which You have spoken concerning Your servant and concerning his house, establish it forever and do as You have said.
So let Your name be magnified forever, saying, "The Lord of hosts is the God over Israel." (v.26)
David has one supreme desire and that was that God might be glorified in whoever built the Lord's house. He was totally submissive to the will of God! Jesus prayed: "Not My will but Thine be done."
David, being a man of prayer, was a man who worshipped God with all his heart. His thoughts of God are magnificent and majestic! After he was delivered from the hand of Saul, his heart breaks forth into song and praise!

"The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer; the God of my strength in whom I will trust; my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold and my refuge; my Savior, you save me from violence. I will call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised; so shall I be saved from my enemies." (2 Samuel 22:1-4).
"For You are my lamp, O Lord; the Lord shall enlighten my darkness. For by you I can run against a troop; by my God I can leap over a wall. As for God, His way is perfect; the word of the Lord is proven; He is a shield to all who trust Him."

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After God had rejected Saul because of his assuming the sacred role of a priest by making a sacrifice, he said these words to Saul: "You have done foolishly. You have not kept the commandment of the Lord your God, which He commanded you. For now the Lord would have established your kingdom over Israel forever. But now your kingdom shall not continue. The Lord has sought for Himself a man after His own heart, and the Lord has commanded him to be commander over his people..."(1 Samuel 13:13-14).
God describes David as a man after his own heart! David knew God as a God of mercy and forgiveness. After his terrible sin with Bathsheba, he prayed: "Have mercy upon me, O God, according to Your lovingkindness; According to the multitude of Your tender mercies, blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin." (Psalm 51:1) "Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me, and know my anxieties; and see if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting." (Psalm 139:23-24). "The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in mercy. He will not always strive with us, nor will He keep His anger forever. He has not dealt with us according to our sins nor punished us according to our iniquities. For as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is His mercy toward those who fear Him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us. As a father pities his children, so the Lord pities those who fear Him. For He knows our frame; He remembers that we are dust." (Psalm 103:8-14).
David believed in the omnipresence of God!
"Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? If I ascend into heaven, You are there, if I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there Your hand shall lead me, and Your right hand shall hold me. If I say, "Surely the darkness shall fall on me," even the night shall be light about me; indeed, the darkness shall not hide from You. But the night shines as the day; the darkness and the light are both alike to You." (Psalm 139:8-12). When we read the Psalms of David, so many are prayers and praises which come from a heart in love with God! David said: "As the deer pants for the water brooks, so pants my soul for You, O God." (Psalm 42:1).
Here is the man, David..." I will bless the Lord at all times; His praise shall continually be in my mouth." Ah! What a man!