David: Life in the Presence

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If King David were alive today he could be prosecuted for war crimes. If an accurate film of his life was made it would have an 18 certificate. It is a story of near-constant war, driven by jealousy, adultery, family breakdown and betrayal. It is laden with sex and violence. What is it doing in the Bible and what are we supposed to learn from it?

Is David a good role model? He sinned with Bathsheba, murdered her husband and raised sons who were ready to kill him and each other. In a culture where we search for people to imitate, should we be looking to David?

It is possible to read the Bible looking for secrets of a successful life, but the message of the Bible is not self-help. It is the revelation of God reaching down to help a helpless people. And in the story of David we see our own sinfulness, our jealousy, lust, anger and greed reflected back at us - and all the dreadful consequences. We know that if we could get away with murder we probably would.

In the story of David we see a God who loves sinners who seek his forgiveness. We need this forgiveness daily.

The key to reading the Bible narratives is to see God as just as present an actor in the events as any of the human beings. It is a daily challenge to think of God as someone other than a distant moral force, a watchmaker who set the world ticking and then went on his way. But in the Bible we encounter the violence and injustice of reality and also the presence of a God who refuses to look away when confronted with the worst outpourings of our sin. In Jesus, he will share in our sufferings to the point of death. In his resurrection he will unleash hope upon our planet that cannot be surpassed.

This is why we need to read these strange and scary stories from the so-called Old Testament. In reading each tale we see the glories and failings of our humanity dramatically demonstrated with a realism no news report can match. We also encounter the living God as the words describe his actions and His Holy Spirit makes the text live. We should take our sandals off when we open the Bible, but possibly put on protective visors.

Walter Bruggeman, describing the Reformer Martin Luther’s approach to Scripture, said: “[The] Bible is a voice of revelation not to be confused with, encumbered by, or contained in any human categories of interpretation that make the voice more coherent, domesticated or palatable.”

In the first verses of the story of David our typical understanding of God is challenged. We read at the end of 1 Samuel 15 that “the Lord was grieved that he had made Saul king over Israel.”

Can God feel emotions such as regret? Western Christianity has pushed for a conception of God in which he is almost static, beyond space and time and certainly not prone to such “human” feelings.

But throughout the Old Testament, such as when arguing with Abraham over whether to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah, we meet a God who engages and interacts with his creation, who allows us to somehow share in shaping the future.

Yet he is also the sovereign God who chooses to transform the destinies of people. This is seen most explicitly in the love-motivated giving of the life of Jesus so that people who believe in him may have eternal life.

And in the story of David, God tells the prophet Samuel: “How long will you mourn for Saul, since I have rejected him as king of Israel? Fill your horn with oil and be on your way; I am sending you to Jesse of Bethlehem. I have chosen one of his sons to be king.”

God exercises his sovereign will in choosing David as the king. David never forgets this astounding lesson that the world is drenched in the presence of God. In times of joy and sorrow, glory and sin, David shouts psalms which express, fear, praise, repentance and hope.

There was no divide between the sacred and the secular in David’s life. Unlike Jonah, he knew he could not escape God. This is the example we should follow, recognising that that life is holy and God is near, regardless of whether we are at the communion table, the office desk or the operating table. Samuel said that in David the Lord had “sought out a man after his own heart”.

As soon as David is anointed king we read “the Spirit of the Lord came upon David in power”.

The spirit which moved above the waters creating the earth rushed into a sheep-tender in Bethlehem. When Jesus emerged from the waters of his baptism the spirit would descend on him, just as it would also anoint the first Christians at Pentecost.

At this point in the story there was no logical reason to expect David to rise to the highest rank of Government. Well, not if your conception of logic excludes the determined actions of God. But just as Yahweh worked to make David the leader of a united kingdom, so we should expect Him to work to complete his promises in our time. Is he creating a new people from every tribe, tongue and nation who are united in a perplexing love for one another? If so, this is one of the most exciting moments in history.

David lived in the utter confidence that God was more powerful than any human being. His eyes rolled when he saw his people standing terrified before the giant Goliath.

He strode forward with the words: “Let no-one lose heart on account of this Philistine.”

When he slung the stone from his sling which shattered the forehead of the giant, he knew he was doing so with the power of the creator of the laws of physics working through him.

The confrontation between Goliath and David mirrors the conflict we see every day as forces of greed and violence bellow and we struggle to keep hold of a faith in a God who has the power to rescue, redeem and transform.

Listen to the shout of Goliath. We read: “He looked David over and saw that he was only a boy, ruddy and handsome, and he despised him. He said to David, ‘Am I a dog, that you come at me with sticks?’ And the Philistine cursed David by his gods. ‘Come here,' he said, 'and I'll give your flesh to the birds of the air and the beasts of the field!’”

What are the giants that we confront today? Take a moment and think. Do we have the courage to shout a response like David’s?

He exclaimed: “You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the LORD Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. This day the LORD will hand you over to me, and I'll strike you down and cut off your head. Today I will give the carcasses of the Philistine army to the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth, and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel. All those gathered here will know that it is not by sword or spear that the LORD saves; for the battle is the LORD's, and he will give all of you into our hands.”

David was able to encourage his people to win battles because he knew that the power and righteousness of God is the bedrock of all reality. The supposed might of the Philistine warrior could be toppled with a stone. We have seen the collapse of communism and the decimation of Wall St in two decades. Neither capitalism nor socialism nor any other ideology can provide a ethic or an explanation for the universe which trumps faith in a God who loves and guides. The message of the church is thus the same as David’s: Do not lose heart.

This gleefully gory story of giant-killing pits swords and javelins against the name of the Lord.

What are the forces we fear will define our lives in the way the Israelites trembled at the sight of swords and javelins? It might be the spectre of unemployment, a sense of guilt or shame, or perhaps anger at events in the past. Or maybe we are in direct engagement with people who are intent on evil? Persecution is a reality for millions of Christians throughout the world. But in being able to call on the name of the Lords we live in the hope of salvation.

David became a magnet for “all those who were in distress or in debt or discontented”. These people do not sound like Sandhurst or West Point material. But the disciples Jesus gathered were also a rambunctious bunch of volatile characters.

Paul told the Christians in Corinth in his first letter: “Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.”

God’s people may not look like the type of characters you would pick to fill a presidential administration, a boardroom, or an officer corps. But the image of God's coming victory is just as starkly different to our ideas of what it means to triumph. God’s kingdom will be one where all peoples share in his goodness.

We read in Isaiah 25:

On this mountain the LORD Almighty will prepare
A feast of rich food for all peoples,
A banquet of aged wine—
The best of meats and the finest of wines.
On this mountain he will destroy
The shroud that enfolds all peoples,
The sheet that covers all nations;
He will swallow up death forever.
The Sovereign LORD will wipe away the tears
From all faces;
He will remove the disgrace of his people
From all the earth.
The LORD has spoken.
In that day they will say,
‘Surely this is our God;
We trusted in him, and he saved us.
This is the LORD, we trusted in him;
Let us rejoice and be glad in his salvation.’

David learned to cope with the wild uncertainty of how he would survive each day. In his encounter with the king of Moab we see him making practical arrangements while utterly depending on the activity of God.

He asked the king: “Would you let my father and mother come and stay with you until I learn what God will do for me?”

The heroes in the Bible are the people who live in such a way, alive to the presence of God. David’s future wife, Abigail tells him:

“[The] life of my master will be bound securely in the bundle of the living by the LORD your God. But the lives of your enemies he will hurl away as from the pocket of a sling.”

Where is God hurling us in our lives? What is he building on this planet? Where is he carrying us? In the life of faith we quickly discover incredible knowledge about the identity of God and his work in history but we are simultaneously plunged into the mystery of his plans.

In our years on earth we stumble, sin, and sometimes act as if it was our job to discredit the Gospel rather than proclaim it. But God is the protagonist in this story of salvation.

We are like the birds riding on the back of the rhino. God is thundering towards his goal and we are invited to share the adventure.