David, a man after God’s heart

These days I was reading about David, a man after God’s heart. You know this story and we will read a bit of it in 1 Samuel and 2 Samuel. The Lord appointed Saul as king over Israel. Later when Saul deserted the Lord, he chose David to succeed Saul.

David was an unimportant person as he was just a shepherd boy. He was the youngest of the family and was looked down upon by his brothers. But God saw something in his heart and He loved him. What are our hearts, our thoughts and ambitions like? If we follow Christ and say we live for Him, are our hearts like His and do we desire to be like Him?

My desire is to be like Jesus is a song we sing, implying that in everything we do, we can say, my heart is like Christ’s. The way I think, how I do things, the way I do my business, that not only people but also God can say it – his heart is like God’s.

It is amazing when you read about David’s life, what he went through, his wasn’t a perfect life. He wasn’t without mistakes. But God said, he has a heart like Mine. When I read this, I desired that for myself with all my heart. Is that your desire? Can you say that you want a heart like God’s? God loved David and He blessed David and was with him, He fulfilled every promise. Even in the NT we read about Jesus being a descendant of David. Roughly a thousand years later, when Jesus was born, they said He was a descendant of David. It is an amazing thought.

2 Samuel 24:25 David built there an altar to the Lord and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. So the Lord heeded the prayers for the land, and Israel’s plague was stayed. 

As I read this last verse, I thought, I must go back and read more about David.

… so that the Lord was moved to compassion for the land … (another translation).

Some translations say he presented an offering, another says he interceded for the nation. One says, the Lord listened to David. In the aforementioned translation it says, the Lord was moved to compassion. The Lord Himself was moved by David’s prayer.

What a man David must have been, that he could pray, speak to the Lord, and the Lord was moved. I was amazed that it is possible that a man, a mere human being, can pray to God and God be moved. I thought, ‘David, teach us your ways, what is it that you grasped that you could do that?’ God does not look at men like we do. There is a verse in Samuel that says – the Lord does not see like men, but He sees the heart.

David was a warrior. He fought battles, not his own, but God’s battles. He was there where God wanted him to be. What battles are you and I fighting? Are you busy with your own things? Or are you fighting God’s battle? It is so easy to fight the wrong battles without God. This does not please Him and you don’t have a heart like His.

2 Samuel 24:1 Again the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and He moved David against them, saying, Go, number Israel and Judah. 

This is interesting, God incited David to do it. I don’t know whether the nation became proud, one doesn’t read it here, maybe because of their victories God blessed them and something developed in them that should not have been there.

God’s anger burned against them, and so He incited David, gave him that urge, to count his warriors. The Lord uses circumstances, people, God’s people, to bring out what is in our hearts. The human response to that is, that it isn’t fair, but God uses it to bring out what is in ones heart that isn’t pleasing to Him so that we can repent of our sin.

So they counted the nation and the Lord said, you have sinned. 70 000 people died because of that. But we read in verse 10, that David was troubled. He was conscience-stricken. Then David prayed, and it moved the Lord. David was quick to admit, I have made a mistake. David had a conscience that was telling him that something is wrong. Do we still have a conscience and react to it immediately? Then he prayed this prayer, not just a confession to satisfy people, it must have come from his heart, a deep, deep confession with remorse. Do you see the heart of David? That is why it pleased God.

Saul on the other hand was totally different – read it in 1 Samuel and the Lord can speak to you. Saul was also anointed by God. And it says the Spirit of the Lord was upon him. 1 Samuel 10:6 says ‘I will change you into another man for the good’ we read in one translation. Saul was also anointed and he had the Holy Spirit, and God placed him there. But what went wrong? How is it possible that a man like Saul, after God put him there, anointed him, gave him His Spirit, later withdrew from him? Even though the book of Samuel should encourage each Christian that God is faithful, at the same time it is a stern warning.

One day Saul became impatient and did his own thing. The Lord was not pleased with him. Later he was told to destroy the Amalekites, and he didn’t. He became jealous when David started conquering more enemies than he did, when the people started praising David, Saul became jealous. To the point where the Lord said, ‘I will remove my hand from you.’ You can go and read it.

1 Samuel 16:14 But the Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the Lord tormented and troubled him. 

God blessed Saul, but Saul became unfaithful to God. Not only did He withdraw His Spirit, but He sent an evil spirit to torment him. It should be a stern warning to every Christian. You can continue readimg about Saul’s life, it became terrible, he never found rest, he even visited the witch and called up spirits. Sometimes Saul admitted that he had sinned, but it was not like David, because he returned to his sin.

David was different. He sinned terribly, then he repented and you don’t read that he did  it again. Don’t play with sin, it will kill you.

There is a story told by a doctor George. He visited Niagara Falls with his family. It was spring time and ice was rushing down the river. “As I viewed the last blocks of ice going towards the fall, I could see carcasses of dead fish in the ice. Sea-gulls were riding down the river, feeding on the fish. As they came to the brink of the falls, their wings would go out and they would escape the falls. I watched one gull, which seemed to delay and wondered when it would leave its ice block. And when it finally came to the brink of the falls, out went its powerful wings, the bird flapped and flapped and even lifted the ice out of the water, but it had delayed too long, so that its claws had frozen into the ice. The weight of the ice was too great, and the sea-gull plunged into the abyss, down the waterfall. The finest attractions of this world become deadly when we become attached to them. They may take us to our destruction when we cannot give them up.”

Dear Christian, young person, is there anything in your life you are sitting on which you know should not be there? Nobody knows about it, you don’t bring it to the light. Possibly you struggle with it alone and you don’t even want it, but it is there. If you sit with it too long, it may be your end. There was a point in Saul’s live where God said, enough is enough, till here, and no further.

Maybe you look at the world, and long for worldly things. Possibly you say, I will just quickly look at this, just a little bit, or I will just imagine a little bit, but by the time you want to get up and stop it, your feet are frozen into the ice and it will be too late.

David was quite the opposite. I’ll just mention a few points.

David and Goliath, we know the story, With David it was not unusual to do something about this problem of Goliath, he had a history of dealing successfully with difficulties.  When he fought the bear and lion God helped him. He did what he had to do and his Lord helped him, ‘now here is this giant, let’s see how we must deal with him’. We must expect giants in our lives. David was courageous. That is why he did it, he trusted the Lord and somehow he knew God would work.

David had a difficult life. Even when he faced Goliath it says his brothers’ anger burned against him. One thinks of David who walked into the arena of the battlefield as a hero, no it wasn’t so, people mocked him. Then Saul took him as his own, the Bible says. He kept him next to him, but later he rejected him, even tried to kill him. David had to flee for his life and joined the Philistines. When Saul died, the Philistines rejected him. He fled from them. Go and read about it. Humanly speaking everything went wrong for him for a very long period of time. But in it all, David was a man after God’s own heart.

I don’t know what your difficulties are, but I doubt that yours are more than David’s. If I were him, I might have asked, Lord are you still with me? He was anointed as king and after that he had to run for his life. Humanly speaking it makes no sense. Somehow even in it all, David’s heart was right.

We mentioned David’s sin and repentance. When David repented, he stopped with it. David was humble, he was the king, but humble. I read these days where someone said; say to yourself, ‘I am nothing’. If someone says you are nothing, it won’t affect you. Why? Because I am nothing. If it angers me, then it shows that I think I am something. If I believe I am the least and someone tells me that I am the least, it won’t offend me. Because I know I am the least.

David was kind and had compassion. In 1 Samuel 22:2 we read; And everyone in distress or in debt or discontented gathered to him, and he became a commander over them. And there were with him about 400 men.

Here is king David who fled for his life, all who joined them were the outcasts of society, they were his men. In 1 Samuel 30 we read about how David went out after the enemy that had plundered his village while he and his men had been fighting in battle, and they had taken everything including kidnapping their wives and children. The army of David went out to pursue the enemy. But after a day or two, 200 of his men said that they are too tired, they couldn’t go further. David continued with the rest of his men, conquered the enemy, captured the soldiers and got back their wives and children, and plundered the enemy camp. Then David and his men went back.

1 Samuel 30:21 – 22   And David came to the 200 men who were so exhausted and faint that they could not follow [him] and had been left at the brook Besor [with the baggage]. They came to meet David and those with him, and when he came near to the men, he saluted them. Then all the wicked and base men who went with David said, Because they did not go with us, we will give them nothing of the spoil we have recovered, except that every man may lead away his wife and children and depart. 

Maybe we would agree, but continue reading.

1 Samuel 30:23 – 25 David said, You shall not do so, my brethren, with what the Lord has given us. He has preserved us and has delivered into our hands the troop that came against us. 24 Who would listen to you in this matter? For as is the share of him who goes into the battle, so shall his share be who stays by the baggage. They shall share alike.  25 And from that day to this he made it a statute and ordinance for Israel.

Isn’t that amazing? That is God’s heart. Compassion. Look out for the next person. See their situation and their needs and help them.

I remember the story which was told about Rev Stegen. I think pigs or food was stolen. So people tried to catch the robbers, and eventually they caught them. They called Rev Stegen and told him that the thieves had been caught. He greeted them and asked them if they were hungry. They said, ‘yes we are’. He said, ‘give them food’. They ate and then left. Do we have that heart?

There is much we can still say about David. Go and read it, I am sure God can still speak to you. David was ambitious. He did great things. God blessed him. He wanted to build a temple for God. But the Lord then said, your son will build the temple. But David prepared all that was needed for the temple. Whatever was needed to make life easier for his people he did, he used what God gave him.

David acted wisely and he prospered.

I want to share one more thought in closing. If you would like to turn with me to Matthew 16:19. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” 

Sometimes we pray and it feels as if the Lord is not answering our prayers. Maybe things happen in a different way to what we expected and we don’t understand it, maybe it happens much later.

I remember Rev Stegen once read this, it says it in the German Bible the same as in this translation. When he read it in the German Bible he called us, he told us to listen: I will give you the keys, authority, of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind [forbid, declare to be improper and unlawful here on earth] will have been bound in heaven. Whatever you loose [permit, declare to be lawful on earth] will have already been loosed in heaven.

The second part is in the past tense. The first part is in the present tense. In other words – if I pray what has already been done in heaven, it will be granted. It was already decided in heaven, I don’t know about it, but I pray for it and it will be granted to me. Sometimes we pray for things that are not God’s will. Maybe I prayed for something for myself. Maybe I don’t think of the next person. And I don’t pray that which is on God’s heart. Because my heart’s in a different place, I pray for something totally different. But if my heart is like God’s heart, I will pray for what is on His heart and what He wants. And it will be granted.

It doesn’t mean we can’t ask for what we see, but that is why we say, God willing, if it is your will, Lord, this is what we ask for. Then it will be so. I remember when Rev Stegen’s wife passed away. He had been praying that the Lord would heal her, and when the Lord took her he said, how will I even preach? But it was God’s will to take her at that time. And he preached at her funeral.

I’d like to add another point. Jonathan was Saul’s son. There is a verse that says the souls of Jonathan and David were bound together. The friendship of David and Jonathan was the affect of divine grace, which produces in true believers one heart and one soul. It causes them to love each other. Where God unites hearts, carnal matters are too weak to separate them. Are you one with your fellow Christian or can you not get on with someone or even sit next to a certain fellow believer?

Another interesting point which I didn’t expound on is, when Saul was chasing David, David had the opportunity to kill him, but he never did. The Lord had left Saul, but David didn’t lift a finger against Saul. Once he cut off a piece of the king’s garment and the Bible says his conscience troubled him. He wanted to show Saul that he had no ill intent towards him. But he was troubled that he had cut off a small piece of his garment. Even when David played the harp for Saul many years previously, Saul once hurled a spear at him to kill him. What a sobering thought – David never lifted a finger against Saul, because Saul was the anointed of God.

Saul often criticised. You don’t read that David criticised. I was listening to a service of Rev Stegen. He spoke about Adam and Eve. He said after they ate of the forbidden fruit, their eyes opened to their nakedness. Then Rev Stegen said, be careful of the one who criticises. Maybe because he has eaten of the forbidden fruit, his eyes have been opened. Because his eyes are now open, he can see every wrong that is happening everywhere. Be careful of the criticising one. It can be the first sign of a fallen person.

May the Lord speak to each one of us and may we daily desire to have a heart like God. So that God can say, I have chosen you, because you have a heart like mine.

S Khumallo

Just briefly before we pray. Here we see two people chosen by God. God had chosen Saul to be king of Israel. After some time he went astray. He sinned against God, and didn’t repent. Then God decided that He would place David in his stead.

And then Saul’s heart changed and he went after David, hunting him down, someone chosen by God. Yes, after some time, David sinned against God, but he repented. Often people mention David’s sin, but we don’t hear so much about his repentance. If you read Psalm 51, it is a Psalm of repentance, where David repents and confesses his sin. A man after God’s own heart. Anybody can make a mistake and can sin. You can start badly, but how wonderful if you end on a good note. Yes, things may happen along the way, but people especially take note of how a person ends.

It is commendable if you have sinned that you repent of your sin, confess your sin, and end well. How heartbreaking that Saul, having been chosen by God, ends up with mediums, soothsayers. You literally find a person growing up in the faith and after some time that child will go to a sangoma, to witches and fortune tellers and you wonder where they learnt it from.

May God grant, through His grace, that we will take after David, who had a heart after God’s own heart. That we take after David in his obedience and in his humility. Pride stops you from receiving God’s blessing. However, here we find David, a king, humbling himself. May God have mercy on us that we will take after him.

Closed in Prayer