David's Heart

Well, I wanted to cover something today that I think does tie together with what we're seeing around us, maybe not from the standpoint of the prophetic tone of things that could be leading into things that we know are predicted here at the end of the age. But all of us as we've listened to the different news cycles that we have, certainly in the last ten days, the last two weeks, we've had a number of very significant things being reported on, the election, and not only the national election, but a number of other elections.

And clearly, as we've already mentioned, the warfare, the battling that has begun over in the nation of Israel, around toward the nation of Israel, in the city of Jerusalem. I think when I mentioned that earlier, I meant to go ahead and say they had said that a rocket had been fired and had gotten into Jerusalem, which is a little further away than I think some of their other targets. Tel Aviv is also one of the bigger cities in Israel, and a little closer, and closer certainly to the Mediterranean coast. And I heard on the news the other day that it was back in 1970 that a rocket had been able to be shot into Jerusalem the last time it happened.

And I was thinking, well, in 1970, or I think they also said 1967, that was an unsettled time, a very conflicted time in the region. And I was thinking, well, there I was in 1969. They were in Jerusalem throughout the summer. A young kid, a college kid, didn't have a clue what they were fighting about, what they were fighting over, whether there was significance. I knew there had been disturbances with the Alotzah Mosque and at the Temple Mount.

But being at that point, only about 20 years old, I didn't know too much about all of the contrasts or the conflict between the people in the region. And so it was surprising to hear that it's been that long since there's been that kind of an attack, or at least that particular type of attack. And of course, we've seen a number of other changes there within the Arab nations, the Arab communities around the nation of Israel. And you see changes in Egypt, even more so because of the problems that the elections there have had, because they don't really have maybe the stability that you would hope that they would have. And we also, here in the reporting cycle of the news, we've been hearing a lot about the Libya embassy and it's the bombing there or the attack that occurred there.

This is actually a couple of months ago, even though they're still arguing over what happened and who did what and where everything is occurring. And of course, during this time, we see the CIA director, General Petraeus, resigning and resigning, saying that he was doing so because of an extramarital affair. So he needed to just get up and out of the way of the CIA or in the CIA. And I know that yesterday he was asked to go to some hearings and I'm sure that this debate is going to go on and on and they're going to be continuing to watch how this was reported or how it was presented and actually what did happen.

But in conjunction with David Petraeus, in trying to explain the situation, you saw different error in different ones of the networks present different ways of stating. Well, he said he's resigning because of an affair and of course he's been married to his wife for 37 years, as he said. And they tried to describe this or they described this circumstance by, well, it was a human failing or it was a moral failing or it was an error in judgment. Surely, yeah, that was certainly true.

He described it as unacceptable and certainly said he deeply regrets that that happened and for that reason he felt he ought to step down. There may be a whole lot more to that and I don't know. I don't know that it makes a whole lot of difference for what I want to say here.

But I bring that up because we also know that even within the church that we have endured a resignation of one of our council members and the subsequent replacement of other council members, which the church certainly can do and we can be able to move forward.

We're looking to Jesus Christ as the head of the church. But this was done over acknowledged, unspecified sins and faults. We've had letters that have explained this as much as it needs to be explained. But in light of that, I thought it might be good and that it's so much around us, I thought it might be beneficial for us to review and be reminded of what the Word of God says about perhaps one of your favorite Bible characters.

I don't know. I think he is for me. He's one of the most significant kings in Israel, an individual that is mentioned over a thousand times in the Bible, an individual that God says he's going to use as a king in Israel in the world tomorrow. That, of course, is King David. I think all of us are pretty well familiar with his life. It's pretty clearly chronicled in 1 Samuel and then more so 2 Samuel because that really is the bulk of his reign as a king is in 2 Samuel.

As you get into 1 Kings, he darks. Pretty much the first thing that the beginning of 1 Kings has is the death of David. But as you know, David's faults, David's sins, are chronicled for us. They are written for everybody to see. And yet, not just for us to see and know about, but I think also to learn from. Because if we turn back to 2 Samuel 11, you know certainly one of the chapters that I'm sure David wishes were not in the Bible, but it is. In 2 Samuel 11, you find the account of his reigning in Jerusalem.

Him being at the temple or at his, I don't guess it says exactly where he was, maybe it does here. Starting in verse 2, it says, it happened late one afternoon when David rose from his couch and walking about the roof of the king's house.

So he was at his house. And it says that he saw from the roof a woman bathing and she was very beautiful. And David sent someone to inquire about the woman. And it was reported, well, that's Mashaba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite. And so David sent messengers to get her. And she came to him and he lay with her. And later here in verse 5, it says, she conceived and sent word to David, I'm pregnant.

Now that is, in a sense, a very brief summary of what happened. I would assume this had to take a little longer. You wouldn't know immediately that someone was pregnant, but in a short period of time you would know. But you see those verses that are written here that describe lust, that describe adultery, that describe certainly a wrong reaction. It was a very human reaction. Yeah, you could say that was a human failing.

That was a moral failing. That was clearly unacceptable. But what we want to learn from this is that, well, this is actually, this is just the beginning. This is the beginning of David being off target. David not, see now David knew the law. He was aware of it. He was familiar with it. When we read, and as we will a little later, he knew a lot about what he was supposed to do. But that didn't deter him this particular time.

And of course, you find as he learned, she, Bathsheba had a husband whose name was Uriah. He was actually one of the leading warriors that David sends out with Joab and others to fight the battles for Israel. And you find that in verse 14, actually, before that, you see David trying to figure out a way to get Uriah to come back and to cover this whole mess by, you know, at least entering into the scene. And so that, well, perhaps there would not be a reason to report the facts, to try to cover it up, to try to do this secretly.

And when that didn't work, Uriah did come back, and yet he didn't go to his house. He didn't go to his wife. He felt that would be dishonorable. You know, I'm supposed to be out in the field fighting, and that isn't the right thing to do. And so, unfortunately, you see in verse 14 that David, you know, his thinking is getting fuzzier and fuzzier as he goes along here.

He is basically spinning out of control because he even sends in the hand of Uriah the letter that is a death sentence. It says in verse 15 in the letter he had written, Set—this is a letter to Joab who was the captain there—set Uriah in the front of a hardest fighting and then draw back from him so that he may be struck down and die.

Amazing. You know, apparently Uriah didn't read the note on the way. You know, he must have had enough honor, and it surely looks as if he did have a great deal of honor, a great deal of respect for the job he was employed to do.

And yet you see this actually happening, and of course, you know, you find Joab reporting that back to David through a servant. And it says in verse 26 when Bathsheba heard that her husband was dead. She made lamentation for him, but when the morning was over, David sent and brought her to his house. She became his wife and bore him a son.

And see, David probably even at this point may have been thinking, well, this is just a bad scene. I've tried to cover it up as best I can. I've gotten rid of Uriah now.

Well, I'll go ahead and marry Bathsheba, and maybe not too much will be thought about this.

Of course, I didn't doubt that he realized Samuel was recording this.

Samuel was writing it down. Samuel, of course, at least wrote the account of it. I don't know when he was writing it down. And yet, what we find is in this chapter, David is clearly off target.

He's clearly messed up over and over, and it wouldn't just be a moral failing. It is flat-out sin. And I think he probably realized that it was sin. He surely knew that that was the case.

And yet, his thinking certainly was very blurred. And that's a very unfortunate situation to find him in, and even to read about. I'd like for us to also go, and I'm not sure exactly the timing of that particular incident. I think that's earlier in David's reign.

And yet, you go to the very end of 2 Samuel, again right before we run into the book of 1 Kings, and David will die. And you find another problem that David has. He's numbering the people of Israel. He's numbering the troops. He's wanting to see how strong are we militarily. And in verse 1 of chapter 24, it says, again, the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel. Actually, even though Israel was winning battles, even though they were being victorious, and David was well aware of that. He knew that. What we see is that the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel.

And it says he incited David. You see in the chronicles that he allowed Satan to incite David.

So David must have been letting down. He must have not been on the top of his game. He must have been, and I would have to think after reading this and just thinking about it, I think David was probably gloating in his victories. He could look back over quite a successful life and quite a powerful rulership of the kingdom that he had been entrusted with. And yet he was looking at his victories, and I think he had to allow, which Satan would clearly love, to just get in someone's head.

He allowed the thoughts of pride and of arrogance and of dominance, and, you know, nobody can touch me. And that certainly was not the case, because as we see, God allowed Satan to get into David's head. And so David decides, I'm going to ask Joab to go count the people of Israel and Judah.

And so the king sent to Joab and his commanders of the army who were with him, go through all the tribes of Israel from Dan to Beersheba, take a sense of the people so I may know how many there are. Now they have counted the people before. There were times, you read it in numbers, a couple of different times, you know, they needed to know how many were there. But in this case, what we find was what they counted was soldiers. They counted, you know, the ones, and it says here 1.3 down in verse 9. 1.3 million over in Chronicles, it says 1.5 million soldiers. And apparently, you know, they had to be counting a couple of, they either were not counting all of them in one of them. I don't know exactly why the two numbers, but there was a sizable army, a sizable army that David commanded and that he directed through Joab and others, and through Uriah even earlier, didn't have him available anymore. But David says, I want you to go and take this census of the people for whatever reason. You know, why would he want to do that? Well, maybe he was thinking of other conquests. Maybe he was thinking, you know, it just clearly is that he was not thinking of obeying God, of honoring the Word of God, of doing, you know, relying on God for his deliverance. And yet, you know, you find, even here in verse 3, Joab had been with David a long time. He knew David. Of course, he knew what he'd done to Uriah. So he probably watched his back a little, I would have to think. And yet, it says in verse 3, Joab said to the king, May the Lord your God increase the number of the people a hundred fold, even while your eyes, the eyes of the king, are still here to see it. He says, I know you're old. I know, you know, you're waning, and you may not live a whole lot longer. But God can give us any victory he wants to give us. You know, he can cause us to, you know, to thrive and be able to be victorious. He can make the enemy run, because I'm sure he had seen that many, many times.

And he even said, why does the Lord, or my Lord the king, want to do this? He almost tried to talk him out of it. And yet it says, the king's word prevailed against Joab and his commanders of the army. And so Joab and the commanders went out in the presence of the king to take the census of the people. Actually, they started, you know, going through the ranks, going through the tribes. It took them a long time. It took them about 10 months, I think it says. So they had quite a task to try to count all the people. And yet, as we'll learn, you know, this was a horrible, horrible mistake. This was a sin. This was not relying on God, not trusting God for deliverance.

And that, of course, you know, again, I'm sure David is not proud of 2 Samuel 24. I'm sure if he, as he will look back and see what all of us have been easily privy to, he wouldn't be proud of those 2 chapters for sure. And so the sins of David are easily visible to us all. And yet, we also know that David is stated to be a man after God's own heart. See, I think most all of you are familiar with that statement. David is stated not only in the Old, but also in the New Testament to be a man after God's own heart. So it is possible to be a man after God's own heart and sin, which I think all of us know. And yet, it's very clear in David's life. I'd like for us to turn back to 1 Samuel 13. 1 Samuel 13, you see the record of what happened to the first king, the king that the people had asked for and wanted, King Saul. What happened to him? Well, he started out. He said the right things. He seemed to be humble. He was a tall guy. Everybody looked up to him. He started out in his reign. I think that probably pretty quickly went to his head from his actions. And actually, when you read the life of Saul, you see that he was in trouble just stepping from one problem to the next. He was always doing something that was viewed by God in a negative light. And here in this chapter, you see that Saul takes it upon himself that he's offering the burnt offerings. Instead of waiting for Samuel, I'm going to at least tell you the story instead of reading all of it because it would take a little longer. But instead of waiting for Samuel to come and do the offerings and ask for God's blessing and help with the activity that they were going to be involved in, Saul forces himself to go ahead and do that. And he wasn't supposed to. That wasn't his job. He wasn't authorized to do that. And as soon as he does, of course, Samuel shows up. And you see the discussion here in chapter 13 in verse 11.

Samuel says, What have you done? When I saw the people were slipping away from me, then here's Saul starting to make his excuses. I've got excuses. They looked like they were going to leave. Everybody was going to... It just wasn't going to work. It goes ahead. I had to had to force myself in verse 12 and offer the burnt offerings. I rationalized everything in my mind. I thought, this looks like the best thing for us to do. This was not what God had said, not what he had pointed out through Samuel. He was supposed to do. But in verse 13, Samuel said to Saul, You have done very foolishly. You have not kept the commandment of the Lord your God, which He commanded you. And the Lord, He would have established your kingdom over Israel forever.

He really wanted to help you. He really wanted you to have a right rulership.

And yet what Saul had shown, and I think surely was not only in this one incident, but probably at other times, that he just simply didn't pay attention. He didn't obey when he maybe even knew he was supposed to do something. It was clear he knew what Samuel had told him to do, but he just didn't do it. And so in verse 14, he says, Now your kingdom will not continue. He says, The Lord has sought out a man after his own heart, and the Lord has appointed him to be ruler over his people.

You know, this was information that God had to communicate to Samuel somehow, because David was not yet selected. He was not yet anointed to be king initially, because, as you know, Samuel sent to Jesse or came to Jesse's house and went through all his older boys. And, well, none of those are the right one. And finally, don't you have any more? He says, Oh, yeah, there's David. He's out in the field with the sheep. Well, bring him in. And whenever they brought him in, you know, it was indicated to Samuel, well, this is the one. I want him. I'm going to have him be king over Israel. And he was the one who was being spoken of here. The Lord has sought out a man after his own heart.

And so, even as what I would assume to be a teenage shepherd boy, as he was out in the field nurturing the flock, caring for them, protecting them, watching over them as his father directed him to do, you know, David's outlook, David's view of life, David's view of God, I think was extraordinary. It was extraordinary because of what you see him doing, of course, as he goes into even his teenage, older teenage years. And then, ultimately, as he becomes a kind of a servant to Saul, and eventually, you know, when Saul dies, he becomes king over Judah, in Hebrew, at least, and ultimately then over all of Israel. I guess Judah would not be right. At least he was king in Hebrew for seven years, and later in Jerusalem for 33 years. And yet, what I want to point out is, you know, what this tells us about David, it doesn't, you know, say exactly, you know, how would we view other things that David would do, and other things that we would find recorded about him.

It tells us he was a man after God's own heart. And I'm sure that this is written for us to learn about how it is that David was, even though he was flawed, even though he did sin, which, of course, all of us have and do, but he had the type of heart, a type of attitude that was certainly quite different from Saul, and was going to be shown throughout his lifetime, and throughout his failings, and throughout his victories, as being very, very significant. And, of course, I think we want to seek that same type of heart.

And I ask, you know, can it be that each one of us can have a heart like David's, or more importantly, a heart like God's? Because that's what it says David had. He had a heart that was like God's. So I'd like for us to think about that and consider how it is that God is working with us and certainly understand. And I know there may be many factors that we could go through the life of David and describe, and I want to cover some of them.

I'm certainly not going to go over all of them. You don't want me to do that. I don't want to do that because you'd be here way too long, and I don't even know. I mean, I know some of them. I know a few things that stand out about David, and certainly some of them are very obvious, and yet some of them may not be as obvious. And so I hope that it would be helpful in going through these, and I'm not giving an all-inclusive list at all.

But certainly we know from the life of David, as I said, pretty much listed here in the latter part of the book of 1 Samuel and throughout the book of 2 Samuel. That's where David's life is recorded, and it's actually a really good study to read through that, and just to read it even in a Bible that is a little more of a translation that even flows a little easier than King James does. It really makes an extremely good story to read and to think about how it was that David interacted with so many different things. But the first thing I want to point out is simply that David was so different from all the other kings of Israel or even Judah.

So we see that Saul, the first human king of Israel, was defective. He would not obey God, he would not do his will, he would not follow God, and so God deposed him. He appointed David, and of course after David, Solomon, and then you've got multiple others. And I was thinking of a listing that I saw the other day that had a listing of the kings of Israel and then the kings of Judah, because after David died, after Solomon died, actually, then there was a division of the kingdoms between Judah and Israel, and so there were consecutive kings running down through several hundred years.

And then finally, both Israel and Judah go into captivity. And whenever you look, I was looking at this listing the other day, it had a number of the names of the kings of Israel and Judah, it had their dates, of course, I think it is pretty specific as far as how long they lived or how long they reigned, at least, probably how long they lived. But it had those dates, and I'm sure they were at least reasonably accurate, because David was living about a thousand years before the time of Jesus Christ.

So that's when he lived, and that's all pretty easily calculated. But then they had a category, and the category for all of these kings, and I would guess there was about 20 and 15, maybe 35, I'm not exactly sure. But in the line of the kings of Israel after Solomon and after there was this division, in the line of the kings of Israel, how many do you think were designated as being in the good category? Who's sake? None. And in the lines of the kings of Judah, which were, I think, about 15 of them.

Again, I'm trying to think back. There were three or four that they noted to be better, at least good. And yet even the rest of them were all bad. And so you had very few people, very few kings in Israel or Judah, who paid attention to God, paid attention to the Word of God or the law of God.

And yet what we find about David, see, unlike most all the other kings in Israel or Judah, you find David absolutely loving the Word of God. Absolutely loving. And of course we know he wrote many of the Psalms, and I feel that he wrote many of them. Some of them you can see directly. It is a Psalm of David. There are many other Psalms that may not have a name connected to them, but it looks to me like David's writing most of these. I mean, it looks like that to me. And if it doesn't say, we can't know for sure. But what is it that we know? What is it that we generally think of?

Psalm 119, verse 97, and if this was David, it sounds like David to me. If he was writing this long, as we know, 176 verses in this Psalm, 119 and verse 97, it says, Oh, how love I, thy law, it is ever with me.

And when you back up to verse 47 and verse 48, he says, I delight in your commandments. I delight in your commandments. And he says a little later in that verse, because I love them and I meditate on them all the time. See now, that's quite a contrast from what you see most of the kings of Israel and Judah. And of course, I guess in Judah, you find at a time that they're finding the law.

Shock! We certainly haven't been observing it. We haven't been paying attention to it. It isn't something we thrive on. And yet what David said, and during the time of his reign, I think he showed or taught the Word of God. You see in Psalm chapter 40, Psalm chapter 40. And of course, there's a lot of Psalms we can go to that would indicate that David had a deep love for the Word of God. He had a real delight in the law of God.

Here in chapter 40, now this is a Psalm of David as your subtitle there probably says, but it says in verse 8, he says, I delight to do your will, O my God, because your law is within my heart. See, your law is within my heart. You see other statements of a similar type here in the book of Psalms where David is writing about how wonderful. See, is that the way we view? Is that the way we think about our Bible study? Our reading and thriving on the Word of God?

You know, sometimes I'm sure it is. Sometimes it may be. Sometimes it may be more of a labor to you know study and to think about the Word of God. And yet to refresh that every day, to do that on a daily basis, that's clearly what David was I think thriving in. He was delighted to know the law and to know that the law was within his heart. And he expresses the same type of thing and many different. Actually, when you read some of the very final statements that David made and are recorded, he says, your Word is upon my tongue. See, that denotes to me a heart that was truly who delighted in the Word of God and who also delighted in teaching. That Word to others. And I think in a sense he was a teacher or an instructor of the law, as certainly there were others who did that in Israel, but he also loved that law and allowed it to guide him, guide his heart in his rule. You also see, and of course this is kind of exclaimed throughout the Psalms and certainly by David about how much he appreciated just praying to God. Praying and honoring God. Psalm 116 has a couple. This one doesn't directly say it's by David, but again, I think it's certainly very likely it could be. He says in verse 1, I love the Lord.

Psalm 116, verse 1, I love the Lord because he has heard my voice. He has heard my supplication.

Because he inclined his ear to me, therefore I will call on him as long as I live.

See, prayer shouldn't be a labor. Sometimes we may make it that way, but it shouldn't be.

And I think David's record and what he shows about how it is that he had a rapport with God in the Word of God, in the law of God in his heart, and then in the communion that he has with God.

You know, I think Psalm 55, that would be a very... we've probably read that one more recently here.

Verse 16, I will call upon God and the Lord will save me evening and morning and at noon I utter my complaint and moan and he will hear my voice. See, the first thing we can acknowledge about David is that he was integrated. His heart was wrapped up in knowing the law of God and in communing with God in prayer. And that's very important. It's very significant to be fed spiritually on a daily basis, on a regular basis. It is something we... it's certainly an attribute that we can appreciate about David. I secondly want to go to what you also find... you know, we already read the sins of David and we can see how horrible those must have been at that time. But we also want to see the response. We want to see how it was that David responded whenever these sins were pointed out to him. See, David clearly was not sinless, but he was very sensitive. He was very sensitive to sin.

And I think you could say that it... sin weighed on his heart. He was bothered. He was bothered by sin. Maybe he had to have it pointed out real clearly, at least here initially when we go back to you know, 2 Samuel 12. Initially he might have thought, well, maybe this isn't going to be noticed. Maybe this isn't going to be acknowledged. Maybe I'm not going to be pointed out for the sinner that I am. And yet here in 2 Samuel 12, you see God sending Nathan to David and he's going to reveal to him that he knows, that God knows, that Nathan knows, and that the whole nation is going to know what it is that David has done. And if we look in verse 9, as Nathan discusses with David the problems that he's just created, he says, why have you despised the Word of God? See, it wasn't that David didn't know the Word of God. We've already seen he loved the Word of God. He liked the Word of God, as I'm sure all of us like. You know, we enjoy, and I believe are probably more biblically literate than most. Probably far more than many. Maybe almost everyone. You know, we study the Word of God daily. But here Nathan says, why have you despised the Word of God? Why have you despised the Word of God to do what is evil in his sight? You struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword. You've taken his wife to be yours. You've killed him. Now therefore, the sword shall never depart from your house. David is actually being told that your sins, even though they are going to be forgiven, as he points out later, your sins have created a problem that you're going to live with. The consequences of those sins are, you know, going to still be there. He says, the sword will not depart from your house, for you have despised me. And so, you know, is sin against just other people? Well, no, it's against God. And of course, David knew that. He's writing about that, or will write about that quite extensively here a little bit, as we'll get into Psalm 51. But he says, you know, for you have despised me and taken the wife of Uriah, thus the Lord says, I will raise up trouble against you from within your own house.

Oh, well, David would he would rue the day that he created this mess, because David's family, whenever you read about it, would not be the paragon of righteousness. It would not be.

It would be a chaotic, turbulent mess. Particularly Absalon is one of his sons, as well as numerous others that are mentioned here, as you see descriptions in David's family.

But he says, I'm going to take your wives before your eyes and give them to your neighbor, and he shall lie with your wives in the sight of the very Son. For you have done this secretly. And so he pointed out to David, well, you thought you were hiding it. You thought you were covering up. You thought... See, that's the problem with that kind of thinking and with lying. You know, it really starts getting hard to remember. Hard to remember what it was that was said, when it was said.

And I think we see, you know, even within our national news, they can't get a straight score in story. It's very unusual, which I don't know that we would expect. But you always have considerable cover-up. But he says, you've done this secretly, but I'm going to do this before all of Israel and before the Son. And so it dawned on David. God knows everything. He knows what I've been doing. He knows what I've been thinking. You know, this is not just a one- a-moment situation. This has lasted for months now. And David responds with simply the statement that I have sinned against the Lord. You know, I have despised the Word of God. I have despised God. And I want to acknowledge that sin. See, I think this reveals.

Nathan says, the Lord will put away your sin and you will not die. But nevertheless, this deed you have, by this deed you have scorned the Lord and the child that is born is going to die.

See, so David learned some very dire news at this time. And then certainly it had to touch his heart to know what was going to happen. And of course, I won't read the rest of this as far as him actually going into his house and pleading with God and fasting and certainly just rending his heart over the mess that he had created and that his sins had created. You see a similar response when we go to 2 Samuel 24. In 2 Samuel 24, where we read about David's sin of numbering the people or numbering the troops, what I would say to be a sin of pride, a sin of self-exaltation.

Why David would be thinking about that at this time, late, late in his life? I don't know. But again, he may have been quite prominent. He may have been really very successful in virtually everything he did, but again, not so much because of him, but because of God and God's blessing upon him. And God didn't want him to have that type of arrogance that he saw in so many others around and certainly in the nations around Israel. But here in verse 10, after David had sent Joab out and they'd trooped around the country for quite a long time now, 10 months, David's got plenty of time to think about how stupid was this? This was ridiculous. Joab tried to talk me out of this and for whatever reason, and I think when we put together Chronicles and Samuel, it appears that God was not pleased, not only with David's attitude, but probably with the attitude of many in Israel. And he allowed Satan to stir up David to think, you know, maybe I can conquer others, maybe I can be even more of an exalted leader. But it says afterward in verse 10, what happened? David's heart was stricken. It says, David was stricken to the heart because he had numbered the people. And what did David say? What did he respond to God? Whenever he got it, whenever he realized his sin, whenever he acknowledged that sin, he says, I've sinned greatly, greatly in what I have done. But now, Lord, I pray you, take away the guilt.

And I'm sure he was feeling very guilty at this time because he created a lot of problems, and clearly this was another problem. He says, I have done very foolishly. What I have done, you know, just has no explanation. And I am so sorry for this. I am deeply repentant. I want to fully acknowledge this. And but again, it goes on to say, you know, that dad came to David, gave him some choices, none of which were good choices, as far as what's going to happen.

And David said in verse 14, I'm in great distress. Let us fall into the hand of the Lord for his mercy is great. And let me not fall into human hands. He didn't want to go into battle and not win. That wouldn't truly look good. And that would be a very extensive problem. And, you know, the famine was going to be a long-term problem. He says, let me, let me fall into the hands of God and unfortunately, through the pestilence that God sent on Israel, 70,000 people died. See, terrible.

Because of David's sins, 70,000 in Israel died. And of course, David was distraught about that, too. And he said in verse 17, when David saw the angel who was destroying the people, he said to the Lord, I alone have sinned and I alone have done wickedly, but these sheep, what have they done? Let your hand, I pray, be against me and my house. So he was fully accepting responsibility or accountability. It didn't stop the slaughter of 70,000 of his people. But you see that David's response was truly heartfelt. Do you actually see whenever Saul realized he messed up, oh, oh, I sinned, I sinned. But it didn't ever seem to touch his heart. It didn't ever seem to really affect him. Whereas what you see written about David, and of course, as we go on to Psalm 51, you know, the Psalm that David wrote, a Psalm of repentance regarding, you know, what we read about in 2 Samuel 11 regarding his murder and adultery. You know, he wrote, you know, this Psalm that we sing about and that we, I think, are mostly pretty familiar with. In verse 3, he says, against you and you alone, talking about God, against the Lord have I sinned and done this evil in your sight. And down in verse 10 of Psalm 51, what does it say? David says, well, I want to quote the right verse. I think it's verse 10. Maybe I want to back up to verse 9.

Well, in verse 7, he says, purge me with hyssop and I will be clean, wash me, and I will be whiter than snow. Now, did he feel dirty? You know, did he feel like his sins were, you know, the worst thing that could ever happen? Well, that's what he said. And he said in verse 10, create in me a clean heart. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me. Don't cast me away from your presence. Don't take your spirit from me, but restore to me the joy of your salvation and sustain me in a willing spirit or a generous spirit. To hear he said, restore me. Clarify in my heart and mind. My heart is dark. My heart is sullied. My heart, you know, my soul needs to be cleansed. You know, his appeal to God was certainly accepted.

And yet it was a description of a man that was not sinless, but a man who was deeply repentant.

Deeply repentant. Sorry for his sins. And maybe not even fully aware, even though it appears he clearly had to see, you know, some of the difficulty he brought upon his own people because of his sins and that God was working with him. God had given him his spirit, as we see here in verse 11. He says, don't take your Holy Spirit from me. See, he had seen what had happened to Saul. Saul had resisted God and had disobeyed God and not just so disobeyed, but his heart was just not right before God. And God retracted that. And yet, David said, I want you to restore me to the joy of your salvation. I want you to extend the mercy and forgiveness of God to me because I desire to have your promises fulfilled in my life. You know, he was expressing an attitude and outlook that certainly displayed what all of us want. You know, the type of heart, the type of mind that we want to have. Another thing that I'll mention, actually I've got way too many things to mention about David, but specifically I want to mention another thing about David because it's very clear that he was repentant, that he sought forgiveness, that he sought the mercy of God, and that he appreciated the fact that God would forgive him and restore him. But even beyond that, what we see about David is that not only did he request forgiveness, but he also extended forgiveness to others. See, this is in a sense almost remarkable to read about someone, especially in the Old Testament, although we know that David was close to God and he had been given the Spirit of God. And yet he exemplified what we see Jesus teaching in the New Testament, what we see each of us understanding the New Covenant, understanding the way that God wants us to live. You know, what does he tell us? Well, pray that we should be forgiven, but that not only that we would be forgiven, but that we would forgive others. If we go over to 2 Samuel, 2 Samuel verse 14 and 15, again I'm only going to briefly mention these, because in 2 Samuel 14 and 15 you see the problems that David's son Absalom created for him. Absalom was, I think, one of his older sons. And yet Absalom had murdered one of his brothers, because that brother had actually raped Absalom's sister. Quite a chaotic family that David is dealing with here. And of course, after this happened, you know, Absalom was kind of banned. And yet he was then brought back. And you see in chapter 14 that he's brought back to Israel, and Joab tries to intercede a little bit. And yet it says in verse 28 Absalom lived two full years in Jerusalem without even seeing the king. He didn't want to see him. He didn't want to have anything to do with him. He just was pretty much done with him. And Absalom sent to Joab that he wanted to see the king. And so he had to work out a way whereby he would get their attention. And yet, when Joab in verse 33 went to the king and told him he summoned Absalom. And so he came to the king. Absalom did and prostrated himself with his face to the ground before the king. And the king accepted him. The king kissed him. Now this was the king's son. This was the son who had done horrible things, clearly, out of revenge, out of anger, out of upset, creating family chaos. And David had pretty much set him aside for a couple of years. And actually, I guess, David may have had a feeling or a desire to get rid of him.

But he didn't. He in a sense accepted him. And in verse 15, or excuse me, chapter 15, you will have to read this yourself. Because Absalom starts undermining David's authority. He starts figuring out how to get all the people to follow him instead of following his father. And so he starts this huge revolt where David is essentially pushed out or pushed out of the city of Jerusalem and caused to be on the run. And Absalom is going to become king. He's going to take over the kingdom.

And here in chapter 16, you see not only Absalom creating these problems, but it says, King David came to bar him, and a man in the family of the house of Saul came out, and his name was Shimei. And he came out cursing and throwing rocks at David and all the servants of the king. And Shimei didn't want to have anything to do with David. He thought David was a scoundrel. He thought he was a murderer. He thought he ought to be dismissed. And we'll go with Absalom.

And you can read the account here, and again, I won't take time to do so.

But it's on down from verse 5 on through verse about 14, where you see a dialogue between Shimei and one of David's servants says, you know, can't we just get rid of him? He's just creating all kinds of problems. He's out here kicking the dirt and throwing rocks and yelling and screaming. And, you know, we can just get rid of him. And David says, verse 10, what have I to do with you, O son of Zoriah? If he's cursing because the Lord has told him to curse David, then should we say, why have you done this? See, David got to thinking about it. So, well, you know, that looks like odd behavior to me, and that's not very respectful of the king. But maybe, you know, maybe God told him to do it. You know, he was giving him every benefit of the doubt. And he says in verse 11, David said to Abishai and his servants, my own son is seeking my life. How much more now may this Benjamite just let him alone, let him curse. The Lord has bidden him. It may be that the God will look at this distress and the Lord will repay me with good for the cursing of me today. He says, maybe God will turn something good out of this. I don't know. Don't bother him. And they go on. David goes on, and Shimei goes on, cursing as he goes, throwing rocks, flinging dirt at him. You know, creating just the biggest scene you've ever seen. And David just kind of, okay, well, I'll just let that go. You actually see a little bit later when in Absalom, the son who is trying to depose David, the one who is trying to use sift the throne, the one who's got him on the run, you know, he is being chased by David's men, Joab, and finally he gets stuck in a tree, and Joab does eventually kill him. And he brings that information to David, and in chapter 18, what do you see David's response to be? You know, David was certainly distraught. He was upset over the death of his son. In verse 33 of chapter 18, the king was deeply moved. He went up to his chamber out the gate, and he wept. As he went, he said, oh, my son Absalom, my son Absalom, would I have died instead of you?

See, he was truly broken up, and of course this was his son. He did have some love for him.

He'd done a lot of despicable things that were truly, in many ways, you know, you wouldn't think that David could easily reconcile that. But it's interesting to see actually Joab comes to the king because David is moaning the fact that Absalom has been killed, and Joab comes and says, well, what were we supposed to do? You sent us out after him. You sent us out, you know, you are dishonoring all of us who have been fighting for you. And actually, he makes a statement here.

Let's see in verse 5, Joab came to the king and said, today you have covered with shame the faces of all of us, the officers who have saved your life and the lives of your sons and daughters, the lives of your wives. See, Joab was telling him, we just did what you told us to do, or what you had, you know, you thought you needed to do to protect you. And he says, for love, in verse 6, love of those who hate you, and for hatred of those who love you. See, you have made it clear today that the commanders should mean nothing to you. And I perceive that if Absalom was alive, then all of us would be dead. You'd be glad. See, the statement that he makes in verse 6, I think is indicative of something that David was learning, and that we're learning about loving those that hate us. That's clearly something that Jesus says we are learned to do. And yet, when David was dealing with people, and especially later on in his life here, when he's under this kind of duress, he has an attitude of mercy, an attitude of forgiveness, an attitude of being loving toward even those who absolutely hate me. We see Shimei cursing him, Absalom chasing him.

You see a conclusion to this. Of course, he's broken up over Absalom, and yet the way that Joab describes it in verse 6, I think is remarkable in connection with what we are learning about the type of heart that David had and that God has, and he'd want us to have as far as loving those who even hate us. You see in verse 18, on down through verse 23, you see David actually being again approached. David comes back to Jerusalem. He's being kind of reinstated in his office. Absalom and his rebellion has been taken out of the way, and Shimei comes back, oh, I really didn't mean to be kicking and throwing and cussing. I didn't mean all that.

Absalom, or Shimei, I even said, your servant knows that I've sinned, therefore, and I've come this day to come down to meet the king. You'd think, well, David could easily dismiss him, and certainly get rid of him, but what it shows, he says you're not going to die. Just go on. I forgive you. I'm not holding that against you. As you saw earlier, he thought, well, I've done enough things. I can certainly stand, you know, this son of Saul, a grandson or a relative of Saul, to be cussing me for a while. And you also see in dealing with verse 24 down through 30, you know, David dealing with Mephibosheth, who was also a son of Saul, or grandson of Saul, descendant of Saul, who he had had had some conflict with, and yet he was very merciful with him, and he was very supportive and very encouraging. What we see about David's heart is that he extended mercy to others. And of course, this is not even going into the ways that David trusted God to deliver him. That could easily be an entire story out of 1 Samuel 17 with David and Goliath. And the fact that as he came to Saul, he says, I'll go out and fight the Philistine. The Lord will deliver me. You know, I know he's delivered me from the lion and the bear, and I know he'll deliver me from the mouth and the hand and the oppression of this Philistine.

See, he knew that. He knew that God would deliver him. I think another thing about David is that God had made him some promises that he believed. He believed that his son would reign, Solomon. He believed that. He believed what God told him about the future and about even a coming kingdom that would be coming. He believed those things. He knew that there was something in the future. You also see that what we read there in 1 Samuel 13 about the difference between Saul and David, Saul was rejected because he wouldn't follow God and do his will. He wouldn't follow God and do what God told him. But what we read about here in Acts 13 is really the New Testament description of why David is favored in this way. And it says in Acts 13, and Paul is explaining a history of Israel. And he says in verse 21, they had asked for a king and God gave them a king. His name was Saul and he reigned for 40 years.

And when he had removed him, which God did, he removed Saul. When God had removed Saul, he made David their king in verse 22. And in his testimony about David, the Lord had said, I have found a man, I have found David, the son of Jesse, to be a man after my own heart, a man who will do all of my will, who will carry out all of my wishes.

See, that's what he described here in the New Testament about how David was willing to do the will of God. He asked for the will of God to be done and he was willing to do what God has said.

Now, yes, he was flawed and yes, he had sins and yes, those were notable sins and they hurt the nation. But God looked at him and said, overall, his heart is right. His heart is a heart like mine.

His heart is sensitive to sin. It turns whenever it's pointed out and then he extends mercy.

See, I think it's important for us not only to learn this about David and know why it is, at least these are some of the reasons. Surely there are other reasons that could be thought of about why it was that David was said to be a man after God's own heart.

But see, what we have been taught, what we're taught as Christians, what we're taught by Jesus, even as far as what we are to pray about. And we're all familiar with the model that he gave his disciples and that he gives to us. See, what are those things? How can those be integrated into our lives, into our hearts, into our relationship with God?

What he said was to pray for your kingdom, my kingdom, to come. See, David appreciated the promises that God had made to him and we need to do that too. We need to appreciate the kingdom that is to come, the promised kingdom. But of course, when he had to tell his disciples and us today, well, give us this day our daily bread, not only physically but spiritually. The Word of God, our communion with God in prayer, forgive us our sins, really do that from the heart. And when you do that, as you do that, well then forgive those who sin against you. See, these are directly what he saw in David and what he told all of us. And of course, we know the statement about deliver us from the evil, from the evil one. That's exactly what David was displaying whenever he defied the gliath or the giant of the Philistines and said, God will deliver me. I will be able to come out of this alright. Perhaps he certainly had to focus on how God is going to do that. But see, Christians are encouraged to pray from the heart. We're encouraged to have the same type of heart that God has, the same type of heart that David displayed. And I think as we do that, then each of us can truly have the same heart that David had. And we can be a man or woman with God's own heart.