Thursday, July 25, 2013

David

Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love (Psalm 51:1).

For Christians, King David is one of the great men of the Bible.  He was a man who loved the Almighty with deep passion and joyful exuberance.  As a youth, he fought a giant warrior named Goliath armed with little more than a confident faith in God. He was an accomplished musician who grew into a successful general and leader of men. He was the target of multiple assassination attempts by King Saul, yet never responded in anger.  Upon ascending the throne himself, David built Israel into a powerful nation dedicated to God.  He designed a magnificent temple for the LORD, a structure that would be built by his son Solomon.  And this great king wrote most of the Book of Psalms, the very first hymnal of the Church.  David was a warrior poet of the highest caliber.

Yet for all of his accomplishments, David did not always act wisely.  He did not see the treachery of his son Absalom until it was too late, and the country was plunged into civil war as the two men struggled for control.  But his worst lapse of judgment happened when he fell in lust with another man’s beautiful wife.  Their affair got Bathsheba pregnant.  David called her military husband home for leave, hoping that the timing of pregnancy could be thus be explained away.  But the soldier was an honorable man who refused pleasure with his wife while the other men in his unit were on deployment.  In desperation, David ordered the man into a battle where he was certain to die, silencing the only person who could be certain of Bathsheba’s infidelity.  But God knew what David had done—coveting another man’s wife, committing adultery and telling multiple lies to cover it up, capping off the whole sordid mess with premeditated murder.  When confronted with the enormity of his sin David wrote Psalm 51, the deepest expression of guilt and confidence in God’s mercy ever set to paper.

We often behave foolishly as well.  We do things impulsively in the heat of passion, with no consideration of the long-term consequences.  David is an example for us that is both good and bad.  It is comforting to know that God is willing to forgive even the most horrible mistakes, things we might never forgive ourselves for saying or doing.  He helps us to understand the human heart—our own and each others'.  He assists us in treating each other with kindness and respect.  There are times when we fail to act wisely; thank God that He shares His wisdom with us in the pages of sacred Scripture.

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