I was just in Malibu, CA last week at Pepperdine University. What a gorgeous location to be renewed and refreshed. I’m not sure how students ever graduate there as the ocean is right there calling all the time. During our week, speakers focused on King David and his connection to life, love, and God. David was quite the man but not always in the most honorable ways.
David was a selfish man. You see that in 1 Samuel 17 when he fights Goliath. One of the first questions he asks in King Saul’s presence is, “What does the man get who kills Goliath?” We always hear the story of a man defending God’s honor when no one else would stand up and fight. While David did stand up to be counted, he first checked to see what was in it for him.
David was a lustful man. He wanted what was not his to take in the woman Bathsheba. She was married to one of David’s mighty fighting men, Uriah, who was off to war. David used his power as a man in a patristic society and his power as king to have his way with someone else’s wife.
That event allowed us to see David as someone trying to hide and using murder to make his problem go away. Bathsheba’s husband was called home from the war. You see, Bathsheba was pregnant with David’s baby and David wanted to hide what he did so he invited Uriah home to sleep with Bathsheba. Once that happened, David would have no worries. But Uriah would not sleep at home because his men were out in the field fighting. So, David wrote a letter to the general of his army which Uriah delivered on his way back to the front. The letter put him at the front of the fighting which led to Uriah’s demise. David is guilty of committing adultery and murder in this one family.
Yet, we read in the Bible that David was a man after God’s own heart. How? As we look at David closely, we see a flawed man who has sin in his life. But even though he makes poor decisions, God still pursues him and David pursues God. While making major mistakes, we see David never ceases to want to be near God, always seeks God, never rejects God.
And as we watch the life of David, we see ourselves in the story as well. People who have made some poor decisions and made major mistakes. Even so, God still pursues us. He loves us. David is much like the rest of us. We are much like David. So take comfort in knowing God loves you although we are far from perfect. And how are we perfect? Through Jesus Christ his son. Romans 5 reminds us that “while we were sinners, Christ died for us.” Don’t get down. Don’t be anxious. We have a real king…the most high king who loves us more than anything. There is nothing you can do to make God love you any less than he does right now. Blessings on your journey.