The Life of David

It's been about two months since my last blog post about Caleb and Joshua. I've covered a lot of ground in those two months. I am currently reading First Kings. I've been studying the man David, the man after God's own heart, and it is truly amazing how much information we have about David in scripture. This great worshiper, warrior, King- literally covers hundreds of pages in scripture.

I've been listening to a thirty part series on the life of David and it is really just too much to even summarize in a blog post, so I thought I would just do a little commercial, a plug to encourage others to study this man.

For me it begins in the book of Ruth. A beautiful story about loyalty and redemption. The book of Ruth culminates with the birth of David's grandfather, Obed. Scholars don't really know who actually wrote the book of Ruth, but my humble opinion is that it was David. My only reason for saying that is because I use to love listening to my grandpa tell stories about his parents and grandparents. Who is more inspired to write down grandpa's stories than one of his own grandkids? Who else even sees the value in the day grandpa was born? I imagine Obed being told the story of Ruth over and over again by his own grandma Naomi. Obed retells it to Jesse and the grandkids, and when one of those grandkids of his becomes King of all Israel the story becomes part of her story to tell as well.

Most of us know the stories of David's young life; Samuel anointing him as king, Goliath, his friendship with Jonathan....

We even know the stories of his son Solomon who becomes a wise and wealthy king.

And then the kingdom is taken from the hands of his grandsons as God brings judgment on a nation for turning to other gods, again.

So from great-great grandmother Naomi to David's grandchildren we have a lot of information about his life, but what fascinates me is the depth of his heart that we find in the book of psalms, and the depth of the wisdom of his son, Solomon that we find in Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and the Song of Solomon. Literally hundreds of pages of music, poetry and emotion.

Anyone who knows me knows I LOVE music, poetry and emotion. I can't get enough of it.

There is so much to learn from David's heart. The way he loved God is in my opinion unmatched in scripture, except by perhaps the apostle John. If you want to learn what it looks like to love God, study these two guys together- David and John. They weren't perfect men, but they were confident in the love of God and they knew what they looked like through his eyes.

Through David we get this huge window into God's heart and what He is like. Loads and loads and loads of insight that isn't found in scripture prior to David's life.

I could write a book about this stuff, but this is just a commercial.

If you haven't read this stuff in a while I encourage you- read it. Read the stories with the Psalms- realizing it is the same guy. A little boy taken from the back hills of Bethlehem, playing his guitar (harp) out with the sheep alone, day after day after day, growing in the knowledge of God and then elevated to the place of King by the age of 30 by the hand of God. Follow his life and see how that heart and life before God that he cultivated as a child never left him. He never held on to his position, it was never his greatest identity- his identity was always rooted in being a lover of God.

When he sinned, he owned it before the God he loved and was truly broken. He knows things about the personality and nature of God that few others know and through the Living Word of God he is eager to reveal them to us through his life.

Fascinating stuff- time consuming, yes, but well worth the journey.