"DAVID, THE SOMETIMES FAITHFUL SHEPHERD"
Last Sunday John told us the story of David and Bathsheba, when David
took the wife one of his trusted soldiers in adultery and compounded his
sin by arranging for the death of her husband in battle, in order to
cover up what he had done. David learned that as a consequence he
would face rebellion in his own household, and Nathan, the prophet of
God, told him "the sword shall never depart from your house, for
you have despised me, and have taken the wife of Uriah…to be your
wife." (2 Sam. 12:10) Today we shall follow up on the
result of David’s way of life, but also, let us take a look at who
David
was, that he so touched the heart of God that God made him a patriarch
of Israel and an ancestor of Jesus.
The religious ideal of the people of Israel was to obey God and live
together in harmony. Leaders had hoped that God would be king of
the Israelites, and their security would rest in him But the
ideal was not the reality.
The people cried to Samuel for him to appoint them a king to govern
them, like other nations. There was debate over having a king. A
king might bring cohesiveness and greater security.
But also a king might increase taxes, conscript an army and restrict
person liberty. Today 3,000 years later, we have tax debates and
limitations on our liberty through the Patriot Act as we seek
security. A faithful king might lead the people along a righteous
path, but a disobedient king could lead them to tragic ends. This,
too, we see, for when leaders follow their own interests for wealth and
political favor, the people, and sometimes the world, suffer as a
result.
Samuel prayed over the people’s requests, but God and Samuel ended up
giving the people what they demanded—a king. First Samuel
anointed Saul, but God turned away from Saul, because of Saul’s
disobedience. God instructed Samuel to anoint another king—this
time from the household of Jesse of Bethlehem. Jesse brought his
seven sons before Samuel one at a time, but God did not chose any of
them, though they were handsome and manly. Samuel told Jesse,
"[T]he Lord does not see as mortals see; they look on the outward
appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart." Then Samuel
asked,
"Are all your sons here?" Jesse admitted the youngest
was out keeping the sheep. Samuel told Jesse to send for
him. When the youngest came, he was ruddy, had beautiful eyes and
was handsome. This was the young David, not yet a man—just the
youngest son without any inheritance and destined to be a shepherd, a
nobody. Samuel anointed David to be king, and the spirit of the
Lord came mightily on David from that day forward and departed from
Saul. David, still very young, returned to the sheep.
Now I had always supposed shepherds to be gentle, peaceful folk.
After all, Jesus is called the good shepherd, and we think of him as
gentle. The life of a shepherd was a solitary life. It was
suitable for meditation and prayer, but also dangerous, forcing the
shepherd to develop fighting skills, to ward off wild animals such as
bears and lions, hungry for lamb. And so, David communed
with God, trusted in him and learned to be skilled in fighting against
some very dangerous opponents. David also learned to play
the lyre very skillfully.
Saul lapsed into mental illness, and Saul’s servants brought David to
him to play music to soothe Saul. Saul loved David greatly, and
David became Saul’s armor-bearer.
Then came the day that the Philistines challenged Saul’s forces.
A giant of a man, named Goliath, came forth as the champion of the
Philistines. Young David volunteered to step forth to fight
Goliath on behalf of the Israelites. At that time David was about
17. David faced Goliath in the name of the Lord, with a slingshot
– undoubtedly a weapon he had used in the field against animal
attackers. David managed to kill Goliath. This so unnerved
the Philistines that they ran.
This victory made David the hero of the people, and made Saul
insanely jealous, so that Saul repeatedly attempted to kill David and
pursued him. While on the run, David had opportunity to kill Saul,
but did not. Eventually Saul and all of his sons were killed in
battle. David became king of Judah when he was about 30. He
soon united all of Israel under him and made Jerusalem its center of
power.
David was a natural born leader, a strong warrior, a good politician and
good administrator of the nation. David was God’s man and always
accepted God as his ruler. His faith was strong, his loyalty to
God was sure, and his personal ambition blended well with the needs of
the nation. David remained God’s beloved, and God did not take
his presence from him. David ruled 40 years. Some 1,000 later,
Jesus was born in Bethlehem of the house of David, and the Star of David
is still the honored symbol of Judaism.
But David had sinned and broken Moses’ commandments: he had
coveted Uriah’s wife; he had committed adultery with her; he had the
faithful Uriah killed; and he had born false witness to the
nation. David repented fervently in the prayer known as David’s
Prayer, Psalm 51. This is a beautiful and much quoted prayer for
mercy and forgiveness. David in his faithfulness to God truly
repented. He was reconciled to God in the same way the prodigal son in
Jesus’ parable was reconciled to his father. The repentance
removed the guilt but not the consequences. In modern terms, the
dark passions of David’s mid-life crisis returned to haunt him in his
own household.
David’s sons were not men of deep faith or morality. David’s
eldest son Amnon enticed his half-sister Tamar into his quarters through
pretense and took her against her will, then threw her out. Tamar
was David’s daughter, but David did nothing, for he loved his
son. Tamar fled to her full brother, Absalom, who took her in and
swore revenge for his sister. This revenge may also have been
politically motivated, because Amnon stood
between Absalom and the crown, and Absalom was ambitious. Absalom
shortly killed Amnon, which alienated David and Absalom.
Eventually Absalom led a rebellion against his father, even entering
David’s chambers and lying with David’s concubines, in such a way as
to be of public notice and intentional insult. Absalom in full rebellion
pursued David’s warriors but found himself by mischance left hanging
helpless in a tree. David would have had spared him. But David’s
fiercely loyal commander would not leave Absalom’s fate to a doting
father. He killed the rebellious son, thereby preserving the
kingdom. Here, there was no reconciliation between father and son;
David had to live with the burden of his grief.
And so in his own life, David was the father of the woman taken in
shame, and the father of the man who took her, as David took Bathsheba.
He was the father of the man who killed David’s first-born son, as God
was the father of Uriah taken by the hand of God’s son, David.
Thus, David experienced the consequences of the dark actions he had
taken played out in his own household. It is so with us, as it was with
David some 3,000 years ago. If we raise our children to live a
faithless life, careless of our own behavior, we raise them to grief –
a grief that we suffer through them.
David cried, "O my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom!
Would I had died instead of you. O Absalom, my son, my
son!" Here we hear our cries as parents for the consequences
our children have brought upon themselves. But we perhaps also
hear the cries of an anguished God over his earthly children when he
sees what they have done to one another. God does not curse
our lives and punish us by design: when we are unfaithful to holy ways
of living, as individuals or as nations, we cause tragedy in the human
family and we bring the natural consequences upon ourselves and our
nation.
And so, in the story of the very human David we see ourselves-- as
worthy of God’s great love and forgiveness, but also as individuals
within a nation, responsible for the consequences of our own individual
and national misdeeds, needing always to remain faithful to the purposes
and direction of our Creator, if we would live reconciled to others in
peace.
Let us close with words from the prayer of David from Psalm 51:
Have mercy on [us], O God,
according to your steadfast love;
according to your abundant mercy
blot out [our] transgressions.
Wash us thoroughly from our iniquity,
and cleanse us from our sin.
Create in [us] a clean heart, O God.
and put a new and right spirit within [us].
Amen.
