David, Part 1: A Heart God Can Shape (1 Samuel 16–31)
Transcript
All right. We're going to be in the book of 1 Samuel tonight, starting in chapter 16. So if you want to get your Bibles out and try to follow along, we're mainly just going to be in 1 Samuel and looking at the life of David. What an exciting storyline and character to look at. I've been looking forward to this one. I knew this one would be fun whenever we got to it. David is certainly one-of-a-kind in all of Scripture for the amount of information we have about him. There's probably more narrative information and works of David compiled than just about anybody throughout history, especially in biblical times. So there's a whole lot of information.
We're not going to be able to dive deep into all the different events and scenarios to dissect them, and I'm going to leave out details of certain things that he did and certain things that happened. But I hope to give you a good overview of David in two sermons. That's my goal, two sermons. We're going to take it in two big chunks. The first chunk is before David became king, and then the second chunk is going to be after David becomes king. So I hope that you'll find this helpful and encouraging as we study about this man. David is the most interesting because he is described by God as a man after God's own heart.
And so as we're reading the story of David and we're learning about David, really what we're getting is an image, an illustration of the kind of heart that is pleasing to God, the kind of heart that God's looking for in all of us. And as we read the story of David, we're going to see a lot of Christ-likeness but also we're going to see a lot of humanity and the fact that he's not a perfect man. So the story of David gives us a really good understanding, I think, of how we're supposed to be, because we are men and women who are human and not divine, but at the same time we're striving to be Christ-like, and I think David is as well, even though he hasn't seen Christ yet. He is very much resembling Christ and striving to be very similar.
David's story enters the Bible narrative at the time when Saul has been rejected by God from being king. If you remember King Saul decided he knew what was best. He decided to offer up a sacrifice early before Samuel had come, even though Samuel told him to wait for him. Saul got real antsy and decided to offer up a sacrifice for himself. So he was rejected from being king then and then later he decided to take Agag and all the good animals of the Amalekites for himself and disobeyed God again and of course his kingdom is going to be torn from him as according to what Samuel told him. So Saul was the people's king. Saul was the king that they had asked for. He was a king like the nations had. He was a king who looked the part.
He was the tallest. He was head and shoulders above everybody else, and he was your typical type of king. He was self-seeking. He was self-glorifying and self-exalting. He gathered people for himself and took a lot of the strong men to serve in his army so that he could go up against those Philistines. He spent a lot of time in battle against the Philistines and setting things up for himself in his dynasty which unfortunately would not continue past his death. He died and of course David eventually does become king. But the story of David doesn't start when Saul dies. It's interesting that the story of David starts early in David's life at a time period when no one knows who David is.
David was a nobody from nowhere. If you would have seen him, you wouldn't have thought anything of him. And in fact, his family didn't even think anything of him. After the debacle with Saul, Samuel is told to go down to Bethlehem to find a son of Jesse who he would anoint to be the next king of Israel. He would be a man after God's own heart. And when Samuel comes down to the house of Jesse, Jesse pulls his sons in and he displays them before Samuel and Samuel goes up to the oldest and thinks surely this is the guy I mean he's big and beautiful and strong and he looks the part so this this guy just feels like he's gonna be the king but God speaks to Samuel and the Lord says to Samuel do not consider his appearance or his height for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart. So now Samuel is being told that your eyes are gonna fail you. Your eyes are gonna tell you that this guy can be the king and he's gonna have everything that's needed to be a king, but I know differently.
I have someone in mind who has the right kind of heart, and that person is going to become the next king. Well, Samuel starts looking down the line at all the sons of Jesse, and lo and behold, none of them will be king. It turns out that this person who's going to be the king is so obscure, so not obvious. I mean, there's no way he could be that Jesse hasn't even bothered to bring this son in to show him to Samuel. He's out tending the sheep, and Samuel has to ask, are these all the sons? Because God says none of these will be king, and he says, well there's David outside. He's shepherding the flock. So they pull David in and they anoint him to be the next king of Israel. He is a nobody from nowhere. Nobody expects him to be the king, and he is overlooked twice by men. And so it's interesting that he seems so insignificant, and yet whenever God looks at him, he sees his heart and he selects him, and he wants him to be the most powerful man in all the nation. He wants him to be the man who's gonna set the example for everyone else. For everyone else.
The very first king that God is going to establish on the throne of Israel that is his king. And this tells us something really interesting. That even though we're born with physical frailty, abnormalities, ugliness, none of that matters. God doesn't care. God doesn't look at any of that stuff. What God sees is within us, and what's within us can be beautiful without what's outside being beautiful. It doesn't matter if we're the smallest or the weakest, that's not what God cares about. God sees and he knows David. Now David might not have felt like anybody sees him or anybody knows him. He's just living his life, going out shepherding the sheep, caring for the sheep. He's not trying to exalt himself, he has no ambitions or anything like that, but he's trusting in the Lord and he's living faithfully for the Lord and God sees him and understands his heart, and he loves him, and he wants to exalt him. But see, there's a problem.
Because if he's going to be that good-hearted man, how is he going to become king? You know, in the business world they say, those nice guys, the world just chews them up and spits them out. Like, they just take advantage of you, and they cause all kinds of problems for you so that they They can exalt themselves. They step on you as a stepping stool to reach wherever it is they wanna go. So how is it that David, without exalting himself, is going to become king? And Saul's already king. How is he gonna take over the kingship now? How is Saul gonna be removed? Well, it's interesting that the story of David, we're kinda left wondering about that in chapter 16, when all of a sudden we get news that David is called to service in Saul's very throne room, that he is there with Saul, playing musical instruments to soothe Saul as Saul has an evil spirit upon him.
So what we see almost immediately is that even though David is not gonna exalt himself, God is going to be exalting David. God is gonna be providentially working to put David in the right places to understand the kingship, to understand the situation in the kingdom, to be around it all so he's prepared for the day when he will take over. But it's kind of interesting because in chapter 17 we kind of move to a battle scene where David is not in Saul's throne room playing music for him. Instead he's back at home tending to the sheep. So I guess this was a temporary thing or maybe as they went out to war Saul can't have somebody playing music for him, and maybe that doesn't sound very macho, I don't know what it was, but for some reason David was back at home shepherding the flock for his father again. His older brothers were out at this battle against the Philistines, and David was curious about what was going on, but he was tending his sheep until his father gave him an assignment to bring food to the battle lines to take care of his brothers.
Well, as David entered the camp, he could hear Goliath, the giant, calling out. We all know the story of Goliath. Goliath has been calling out for days, saying, send me a warrior to battle against me. And if he wins, then we will be your servants. But if I win, then you will be our slaves.
And he speaks out against Israel. and he speaks out against Israel's God. David overhears this, and he has a jealousy that spurs up within him. He says, who is this uncircumcised Philistine? And what we see in David is that he is upset about what's going on when no one else around him is really upset in the same way. Everybody around him is upset, but But they're upset because they're terrified and David is upset because who's allowing this loudmouth to talk about our God and his armies this way? He has a jealousy for God and everybody else around him is like terrified because nobody wants to go up and fight against him and they don't believe anybody can defeat Goliath because he's a giant.
I don't know how big Giants are really, but it says nine and a half feet So it's like way high up there nine and a half cubits so like way up there big big guys That's well feet huge. Okay, and so everybody's scared to go up and fight him but David's not and Saul has made a Claim that anybody who will go out and defeat him he will receive this treasure He'll get to marry the king's daughter and and he'll receive no taxes. He'll have a great life everything will be easy for him." And David says that sounds kind of good. But his brothers come in saying, what are you doing here, David? You just want to see the battle. I mean, everybody's against this whole notion of what David's saying and what David's trying to do. We see in David a totally different mindset and a totally different heart. He doesn't care about the size of the man who is going fight against him. He cares about the glory of the Lord. He cares about God being honored as he deserves to be honored. God allowed Israel to go into the land and defeat their enemies and destroy the giants. So God can defeat this guy and David knows it.
So he goes to Saul and he tells Saul that he will fight the Philistine. Now that's an amazing statement and I think it shows the the fool-hardiness of David. David is so trusting and so believing in God that he is believing he who's not even a soldier can go out and defeat him. I mean everybody who would be looking at him, even we ourselves, would be like okay this is all a good joke, surely nobody's gonna send this guy out there to fight. But David convinces them saying God was with him as he was tending the sheep and And a lion came out and he destroyed the lion. A bear came out and he struck down the bear because God was with him and he said, I'll strike down this Philistine.
He goes out and he picks up some smooth stones and he has this talk with Goliath and Goliath banters with him saying that he's gonna be dead and David goes back and says, man, these birds are gonna have a feast over your dead body so he can talk right back. then he starts whipping that stone and he throws it and it sinks into Goliath's forehead and you know the story. The big man falls flat on his face and David comes over and he grabs Goliath's sword that he's dropped and he cuts off Goliath's head. They don't show that in the kid cartoons by the way. He cuts off Goliath's head and I imagine he holds it up for all the Philistines to see this big old head that's now detached from the body and all the Israelites come running and they defeat the Philistines. Well this is a great victory for David and it really makes a name for him that will last him for decades. This victory becomes shared by all Israel. Everybody is so excited because now they have defeated the Philistines thanks to the faith and the trust that David had in in the Lord. It wasn't David who did this, it was the Lord who did this.
And the Lord did this because David had faith in him and because he wanted to exalt David and that's exactly what he did. The problem is Saul doesn't really like David being exalted. David starts to gain some popularity and some reputation. And all the people are looking at David and women are singing about David. Saul's killed his thousands. David's killed his ten thousands. And Saul starts to despise David, even though David is the one who is providing Saul with military victory after military victory. He's just slaying the Philistines. They stand no chance against him. But Saul is so jealous that he tries to pin David to the wall. Jonathan comes in and talks some sense into his father and his father makes a covenant saying, I won't do that anymore. You're right. David's okay. I won't kill him.
But then he comes and he tries to kill him again. And all the while, David was just serving faithfully. He was doing everything that Saul asked him to do. And Saul eventually, after trying to get him killed at the hands of the Philistines, he gets to the point where he can't stand it any longer, and he tries to kill David again, and this time he sends his soldiers after him, and he really starts pursuing David on a continual basis. Unfortunately, this results in a lot of suffering for David. But in the midst of all this, he had gained extreme popularity. All the people knew about David. Everybody loved David, but Saul's hatred caused them to question David and his loyalty. Saul was spreading all kinds of lies about David, and David had to deal with that. But throughout this time period, as David was growing popular, it's interesting that we don't see any of the popularity go to his head. It's not as though he's really guilty of anything. He didn't speak out against Saul. He wasn't trying to usurp the throne or anything like that, he was just trying to serve the Lord.
He was excited about the victories that God was giving Israel through him, and that was ultimately the way he was looking at it. So he seems totally blameless and totally innocent in his youth. As Saul is coming out against him, he seems to be pure of heart, but now he is on the run. He goes up and he sees Samuel, and he tries to find some refuge there, but then Saul comes after him and God protects him. And then he goes back to, as Saul comes after him, he goes back to the capital city and talks to Jonathan and convinces Jonathan, but then he is forced to go out on his own into the wilderness, so to speak. He's out in the desolate places of Israel, hiding in caves, and all those who were distraught over Saul and the the things that were going on and all those who were broken and suffering, they started to gather around David. And David starts to have his own little group that he started to lead that were just the misfits. They were the people who nobody else wanted. And even some Gadites who were mighty men came down and they joined themselves to David. But nothing is right. David is discouraged.
David is broken. You can just imagine, he's lost his home, he's lost his wife, he's lost his role in the kingdom, he's lost everything because Saul got upset with him on a whim, decided he wanted to kill David. And so he goes to the Philistines and whenever they see him, the king is ready to kill him, so he acts like a madman. He starts drooling and deceives the king in order to escape. And then as he's on the run, he he realizes there's a city being attacked by Philistines. He goes, tries to save the city. He does save the city, but then they betray him and Saul comes down to try to kill him.
And he's on the run from Saul continually. And his faith is constantly being tested as he's dealing with trial after trial after trial. A man named Nabal, he tries to take care of his sheep and Nabal, he goes to him asking for some of the spoil of the harvest of the sheep, and Nabal refuses to give it to him. And he cracks, he loses his mind. He says, I'm gonna kill that man and everyone in his household. And thankfully Nabal's wife comes, Nabal's wife comes, and talks some sense into him and prevents him from making a mistake that he would have regretted. But throughout Throughout this time period, there are so many different events that happen.
And throughout it all, we see in David a picture of hope for those who are broken. He is going through suffering. He's the Lord's anointed. He's the one that God loves. He's the one who has a heart that's after God's own heart. And yet, He is constantly being tested and tried. His life is not easy. Just because He loves God, God doesn't do everything for Him. He doesn't roll out the red carpet, but all along the way, he's trusting in the Lord. And he writes songs about his experience. David is a great musician, not just playing music, but also writing lyrics. And as you read through the Psalms, you're going to find more songs of David than any other author.
And some of these are heartfelt prayers and others are songs of lament, or songs of pleading with God, asking for God to help. In Psalm 57 verse 1 it says, this is David as he was in a cave hiding from Saul. He calls out to God, he says, be merciful to me O God, be merciful to me for in you my soul takes refuge. In the shadow of your wings I will take refuge till the storms of destruction pass by. I cry out to God Most High, to God who fulfills His purpose for me. He will send me from heaven and save me. He will put to shame Him who tramples on me.
Selah, God will send out His steadfast love and His faithfulness. You see how David is trusting in the Lord. Here he is in a cave with Saul coming after him and and Saul's about to kill him and in some cases God would send word to Saul there's an army attacking and Saul would have to leave and God would deliver him. In other in another case God brought Saul into the cave with David to go to the bathroom and David's able to sneak up behind Saul and David's men are like here's your chance God's giving you an open door just kill him and David says I can't do that to the Lord's anointed so he just cuts off his robe and then he goes out and says I feel bad I cut off your robe but why are you here I'm nothing I'm nobody I'm a flea I've not I've not sought to hurt you or kill you none of this is true whoever's telling you that is lying and he convinces Saul to repent and to leave without killing David.
But Saul comes after him again, and again he goes into the camp of Saul this time, and he steals his sword, his shield, and his spear, and he calls out and tells him about what he's done. God is providing for and protecting David all throughout his time in the wilderness, and he's trusting in the Lord over and over and over again. And so we have all of these stories about David in the wilderness and about David before he becomes king because these are very vivid pictures for us that we can hold on to when we are going through serious trials. David becomes so upset and anxious about the whole deal with Saul that he ends up running back down into the Philistine area and he speaks to the Philistine king and he says, Let me just take Ziklag and I'll make some raids and I'll provide you with some good stuff and I'll be allied to you And I'll be on your side and you won't have to worry about anything. I'll take care of it so he basically swapped sides he leaves Israel for a time period and This becomes a major problem when the Philistines decide they're gonna go up in battle against Saul now David's loyalties are gonna be tested is he gonna remain faithful to the Philistines?
or is he gonna be faithful to Israel who God loves? Is he really gonna fight against his own people? This is really gonna make a problem for him if he becomes king. Well he goes with the king of the Philistines, one of the kings of the Philistines, up to battle against Israel and on the way they meet the other kings of the Philistines who say, this guy is an Israelite, we don't want him here. And so they make him leave with all his soldiers, which is like, whoo, he didn't have to fight Israel. But on his way back, we find that his home and all the homes of his family have been destroyed and his his wives and his children have all been taken off by somebody and they didn't know who and they found out who and they and they went after them. But before they found out, you You can imagine David was in a place of deep despair.
He's like, I can't fight. I can't do anything. Everything is destroyed. God, I trusted in you to protect my people and all the men with him turn against him and they say, we're going to stone him. We're going to kill David because of the situation he's gotten us in. But it says that he was trusting in the Lord. and he instead of giving up decides to go after those men. In all this we see David is not perfect. David makes mistakes. Okay, he is a human. He doesn't know the right things to do at all times, and he doesn't always seek God's guidance and everything that he's gonna do. We saw he lies. He lied about being insane. He lies to the priest in order to get some bread, but he wants to kill Nabal's house. I mean, he's not a perfect guy, but he continually has faith in God.
And that faith keeps him strong even when he's at his lowest points. I love this statement whenever David is at this low point and all of Ziklag has been destroyed and his wife and children and all their wives and children been taken off into captivity and they're ready to destroy him. I mean, I can't even imagine having gone through all that he's gone through, having his own men now turn against him to kill him. I can't even imagine the weight on his shoulders and maybe the desire to just give up at this moment, but it says David strengthened himself in the Lord his God. David remembered that God is the one who saw him when no one else did, and he decided instead of trusting in these men who were foolish, he decided he would put his trust in the Lord and believe that even though things were really dark, that there would be a light at the end of the tunnel, that there would be a hope of a turnaround that could happen, and we're going going to learn a lot about that turnaround in two weeks whenever we get back together.
But know that he does find his wife and children, he does save them, and he is going to be okay, and there is a kingship that of course is coming. In all of this, I hope that we learn that our lives are not going to be perfect either. As we look back on our lives, we're going to see our weaknesses, we're We're going to see our failures and it's going to discourage us, and we have to have faith that God sees and knows what's in our heart. He knows that we're trusting in Him, that we're striving to serve Him, that we're overcoming our sins, and that we're pursuing a life that is pleasing in His sight.
And whenever we're going through our struggles, I hope we, like David, can strengthen ourselves in the knowledge that God sees us, even when no one else does. But the thing that I love most about David as I study his life is how much he resembles his descendant. Of all the types we've been studying about throughout the Old Testament, as we've looked at all these different Bible characters, none come close to David. As you're reading through the story, you can find occasion after occasion where there's a resemblance to Jesus in the life of David and I can't go through all of them but I just want you to understand that David is so portrayed as who Jesus is gonna be and what Jesus is gonna do. The information that God gives us about David is intended to show us Jesus as the Messiah. It's like God knew beforehand what Jesus was gonna be like and who Jesus was so he revealed these things about David so that we would see that David is just a picture of who Jesus would become. David of course is born in the city of Bethlehem, obscurity and nobody from nowhere. That's the same thing that they say about Jesus. He's from Nazareth. Can any good thing come from Nazareth?
Nobody believes it. And just like David went out and defeated the enemy of God's people and helped them to find the success and the victory over the Philistines, the slavers that were enslaving them. We see Jesus, he trusted in God and he fought against Satan for us. And he brought us the victory over sin and over death. And he granted to us freedom and life. We see, much like we've seen so far in the first half of David's life that Jesus also endured tremendous suffering as he was waiting for the Lord to make him king. He didn't take it for himself. He had opportunity. He had temptations, just like David did.
Satan said, I'll give it all to you. And Jesus refused, just like David. So there's so many similarities that are fascinating. As you study through the life of David, see if you can find other similarities. I'm sure that you can. But learn the lesson that overall we're receiving from David. The fact that God saw him as a man after his own heart and yet still allowed him to suffer. I think that's probably one of the most important lessons that we can learn from the life of David. Just because God loves you doesn't mean you're going to live a pristine and easy life. Suffering is a part of it. And eventually, if you wait on the Lord, He will deliver the glory.
He will deliver all the promises that He's made you. He will exalt you. There are promises throughout the Old Testament of a new David coming, and there are promises of God making a covenant with us, much like the covenant He's going to make with David. We just have to wait on the Lord and believe He's going to provide all of those things. And in the process of suffering and enduring these trials, God is forming us. He's developing us. He's making us want to trust in Him more and more. If David were rushed to the throne at a young age, I don't think he would have been ready for it. And God was allowing him to see he can't do it on his own.
And all these men around him are going to betray Him. He can't trust in them. He has to be strengthened in the Lord, and he has to rely on Him to exalt Him. And that's exactly what David does. That's why the Psalms are there. He's calling for God over and over again. God, I need you. God, I'm relying on you. Everyone else has turned against me, but I know that you will be there with me. The words of David are even the words of Christ as He is suffering on the cross. thinking about those Davidic words of suffering and remembering the hope that David wrote down in the midst of his suffering that God would remember him and provide what's needed. If you're struggling I hope that that encourages you to remember God sees you, God loves you, and God is working to help you endure and to develop and he at one point will exalt you as well. Thank you for your attention tonight. Thank you for your presence. If anybody here tonight needs anything, we're always here to help, and we always offer an opportunity for you to let us know what you need.
We'll pray with you. We'll help you in any way. Just let us know. Please come as we stand and