Grace and the Life of David

If we read the story of David's life, it is hard to avoid the conclusion that he was a passionate man who lived from the heart. Religious people in general tend to live in a straightjacketed manner. They are often not people who seem to be living life to the full. David did. It was not some life of contrived excitement either. It was a real entering in to the spheres of human interaction, be they personal, political, military, literary, indeed religious. David lived with exuberance and it was not skin-deep. There is a richness and passion about the way he approached life.

Yet despite the fact that his drive and zeal for life sometimes overflowed into unrighteous conduct, he is a central figure in the Bible. He is mentioned just a few verses before the close of Revelation. Jesus is speaking in Revelation 22v16. He associates his earthly lineage with David and thereby honours him highly. In the prophetic sense the Holy Spirit does the same in Isaiah 11.

Why is this so? Some of my thoughts:

While David loved the Law, he found delight in the Lord Himself. He got a grasp on grace and mercy. He entered into intimacy with the Lord. He was a poet and musician, and in his writings, he was granted a prophetic revelation of the Messiah, the Christ. He came to understand that God did not desire ritual and procedure, even that which He Himself had given, as much as he desired fellowship. He came to understand that the prime motive in God's heart is eternal delight in those who bear His image and have the capacity to be His children. To this end, the Saviour would suffer and die, and be resurrected. David perhaps only perceived these things dimly, but he often lived in the good of them. He understood that God desired a humble and contrite heart more than ceremonial observances. If the sacrificial ceremonies reflected a contrite heart, well and good. If not they were worthless. If the heart was contrite, God would overlook the fact that the sacrifices were not performed.

There was mutual delight in God's encounters with David (Psalm 18v19, 37v4). We have a capacity for delight. With no delight, life is dull and laborious. Will we give that capacity we have for delight to the Lord first? It will be a stabilising factor in our lives and will predispose us towards righteousness in our conduct. It will help us to live in the Spirit and so fulfill the righteous requirements of the Law (Romans 8v4).