If you only sat in church to learn all your
beliefs, you might picture David as being almost Christ-like. But there were times some
churches might have excommunicated him.
I am sure almost everyone is aware of the
incident with Bath-Sheba. This was when David saw someone else’s wife nude on her
rooftop. David thought, "Gee, what a great idea I just had. I’ll find out
whether she is married and, if she is, have the competition killed. Then I can have her
for my own wife."
Then there was the time David joined an
opposing army. Whatever happened to patriotism? I have heard being a double-agent is not
such a good idea, anyway.
David was prudent in speech, skillful in
playing a musical instrument, and a man of valor according to the Bible. Yet being a man
of war and having killed a lion with his bare hands did not seem to give him the strength
to wear Saul’s armor in battle. Even so, with no protection at all, other than that
of his God, David slew Goliath, the giant the entire army of Saul feared.
As confusing as all this sounds, his
friendship with the king’s son, Jonathan, was even more so. After all, on many
occasions King Saul tried to kill David. Among the people, David was achieving a
popularity Saul could only dream of.
But David, in contrast to his shortcomings,
fought against the idea of assassinating "God’s anointed one," Saul. Not
only that, when David’s own son, Absolom, attempted to take the kingdom away from
him, David demanded that Absolom be allowed to live. He was not.
Much of the poetry in the Book of Psalms was
composed by David to be performed to music to honor his God. In these we can see his
emotions played out, sometimes in praise of God, sometimes in hatred of the enemy. Yet he
never lifted a hand against Saul. In fact, once when David was in a cave where King Saul
came to relieve himself, David cut off a piece of Saul’s clothing. This he later
showed Saul as an expression of peace. For David could easily have killed Saul there in
the cave.
David wanted to build God’s Temple, but
it was Solomon, his son, whom God permitted to do so. And though Solomon is famous in
being the Temple’s builder, David was the architect.
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