Recently we have been studying the
life of David on Friday nights at IHOP NW. Why David? What sets David apart
from other Kings in Israel’s history? David wrote over half of the Psalms, he
conquered all of Israel’s enemies, he was a mighty warrior, he supplied most of
his wealth for the building of the temple and he set up night and day worship
in the tabernacle. Yet most importantly David cultivated intimacy with God through
worship which sustained and rooted him in who he was before God. It says in 1
Samuel 13:14 that “the Lord has sought out for Himself a man after His own
heart.” David was a man after God’s heart that did not find his identity in
being a king or in what the people thought of him, but in who God said he was.
I believe that David learned to
worship at a young age while tending his family’s sheep. One of Saul’s servants
said to Saul “Behold, I have seen a son of Jesse the Bethlehemite who is
skillful musician, a mighty man of valor, and a warrior, one prudent in speech,
and a handsome man; and the Lord is with him,”(1 Samuel 16:18). This was spoken
of David when he was 17 or 18 years old. I can imagine that David was sent out
to tend his family’s sheep for many days and nights at a time. David used his
time wisely to cultivate a relationship with God, practicing his harp and sling
shot. The Lord gripped David’s heart with an understanding of eternity and God’s
holiness. David was obedient to what God showed Him and cultivated what the
Lord gave him through writing the Psalms and setting up day and night worship
around the Ark of the Lord. David wrote in Psalms 27:8 “When you said, ‘Seek My
face,’ my heart said to You, ‘Your face, O Lord, I shall seek.’”
David was thrust into national
spotlight during the reign of Saul when a crisis erupted: Israel went out to
fight the Philistines and Goliath came out, challenging Israel to find a man to
fight with him. This was no small matter.
If Israel lost, then the Philistines would kill all their men and
enslave their women and children; it was a matter of national survival. When
David heard the threats of the enemy Goliath, he said to King Saul, “Your
servant has killed both the lion and the bear; and this uncircumcised
Philistine will be like one of them, since he has taunted the armies of the
living God,”(1 Samuel 17:36). David had confidence in a living God who was for
His people Israel. This kind of confidence does not just appear out of nothing,
but is cultivated in winning smaller victories through faith and obedience to
God. David had confidence in who God was as a deliverer and protector because
the Lord had showed Himself faithful against the lion and the bear.
The small, seemingly insignificant
victories today will build confidence and strength for when we have to face
more significant challenges. If David
had not been faithful in protecting His family’s sheep from the lion and the
bear, (1 Samuel 17:33-37), he would not have been ready to engage Goliath and
win. After all who, would have blamed him, if he had lost a few sheep to a lion
or a bear? Yet David understood the importance of being faithful in all he did.
David did not just cultivate
faithfulness in protecting his family’s sheep, he also nurtured a worshipful heart to the
Lord. God showed Himself faithful to David at an early age. Psalm 27:10 says,
“For my father and my mother have forsaken me, but the Lord will take me up.”
The time that David spent cultivating worship and intimacy with the Lord would
successively impact a whole nation.
When David became King, he
established worshipers and singers to sing in front of the tabernacle day and
night. “Now these are the singers, heads of father’s households of the Levites,
who lived in the chambers of the temple free from other service; for they were
engaged in their work day and night, (1 Chr 9:33, 1 Chr 6:31-32,16:16, 16:4-6,
16:37, 25:1,3,5-7).
I wonder what David saw or what He
encountered in His relationship with God that motivated Him to build a temple
for His God and place worshipers and singers in front the Ark of the Testimony
day and night. When God established a covenant with Israel, He gave the blue
prints for a tabernacle but never talked to them about setting worshipers in
His temple day and night. Nevertheless we know from Revelation 4 that God has
worshipers all around His throne. We know and believe that God is worthy of
praise and worship. It says in Psalm 100:4 “Enter His gates with praise. Give
thanks to Him, bless His name.”
David’s faithfulness to God sets a
precedent of wholehearted devotion for us to follow today. David was not just
faithful to God in worship and obedience but in skill and might. He was a man
of war, if he had not worked on staying physically fit or on his slink shot
than he would not have led Isreal into so many victories. David relied on his
small victories against the lion and the bear to conquer Goliath. What are your
small victories?
Some in the church today have a lax
lifestyle of compromise when it comes to daily disciplines; communion with the
Lord, victory over seemingly small sins, eating well and exercising. Saint
Bernard of Clairvaux said that “There are more people converted from mortal sin
to grace, than there are religious converted from good to better.” Where do you
find your solace, in food or in Jesus? As a church in America, some of us have
been lulled to sleep in believing that our lives are insignificant or that a
little compromise is not a big of deal. David could have said that as a young
boy tending the sheep. Instead he was diligent in practicing the small
responsibilities he had been given. The slinger of stones became the slayer of
giants and his songs to the Lord in the wilderness became national hymns. He made himself ready and available for when
God called on him, as a result, He brought about a great victory for Israel. Today we need radical believers, Christians
with personal and dynamic relationships with the Lord, who are fit and ready to answer the call of
God.
