If you had to describe Israel’s great king David in one phrase, what would it be?
Since April 2024, as we worked our way through the books of 1st and 2nd Samuel, concluding last week with David’s passing in 1st Kings chapters 1 and 2, we have observed David’s messy, dramatic, and utterly fascinating life. Numerous times as I was working on posts in the series, I thought, “This needs to be a TV show like The Chosen.” Consider the near constant drama and surprises in David faced; the down-to-earth humanity of the characters, the good and evil, the heroes and villains. David’s life includes underdog stories, romance, friendship gained, friendship lost, monarchy, betrayal, lust, war, and murder.
Given all that, maybe it is difficult to summarize David’s life into a short phrase, precisely because there are so many divergent facets of David’s life. Yet there is one phrase that David is most known for: he was a man after God’s own heart. We read about that in 1 Samuel 13:14 and Acts 13:22, but neither of those passages are about events during David’s lifetime.
1 Samuel 13:14 takes place during the story of David’s predecessor, King Saul and his failure. The prophet Samuel tells Saul, “Because of your sin, God is looking for someone to replace you, someone after his heart.” So 1 Samuel 13:14 is a forward-looking reference, one that does not mention David by name. Because David is the man whom God selects (see 1 Samuel 16), we know that what Samuel says to Saul in 1 Samuel 13:14 is describing David.
Then we fast-forward way past the life of David, traveling one thousand years forward in history to Acts 13:22. In Acts 13, the Apostle Paul is preaching in the town of Psidian Antioch. Paul wants the people of the town to hear about Jesus, so Paul steps back in history to talk about the nation of Israel, and how Jesus was the fulfillment of God’s covenant with Israel. In the middle of that historical account, Paul brings up Israel’s greatest king, David, and Paul depicts God as saying of David, “I have found David, son of Jesse, a man after my own heart; he will do everything I want him to do.” Thus Acts 13:22 is a backward-looking reference, and it does mention David by name. In Paul’s view, the fact that David is a man after God’s own is the defining characteristic of David.
But did David ever talk about his own heart? In the account of David’s life, as told by 1st and 2nd Samuel and 1st Kings chapters 1 and 2, the author rarely reveals David’s thoughts. We can describe David’s character based on the quality of his actions. But what did David himself think about the idea that he was a man after God’s own heart? Did David see himself that way?
There is a way we can read David’s actual thoughts. David wrote about fifty percent of the psalms collected in the biblical book of Psalms. In essence, those nearly 75 psalms are like his spiritual journal. David pours out his thoughts and emotions to God, sometimes in anguish, sometimes with joy. Also in those psalms, David talks about his heart or the concept of the heart (not the blood-pumper, but the seat of our intention, will and desire) frequently.
Over the weekend, I encourage you to skim through the psalms, looking for the psalms written by David. For each psalm, your bible will list the psalm # and directly under that number, it will tell you if the psalm is written by David, by someone else, or if it is unattributed. When you find one written by David, look for the word heart. What does David say about the heart? Then on the blog next week, we’ll talk about the patterns and themes that emerge, and what David can teach us about being people who have hearts that are after God’s own heart.
We get started back here on Monday.
Photo by Mateus Campos Felipe on Unsplash
Engaging Scripture 