King David

Psalm 42:5 “Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation.”

This verse in Psalm 42 is repeated a few times. Almost like the chorus to a song. In psalm 42 David is talking to the Lord and asking Him why He is having to go through all that he is having to face. He is wondering where God is and asking Him how long He is going to stay away for. I find David fascinating. He was such a good king and was favored by the Lord and yet he did some pretty awful things as well. I am not sure how much you know about King David, I did not know nearly as much as I do now after listen to Father Mike talk about him during the Bible in a year podcast. Let me give you a very quick summary. I am sure I will leave some things out.

David had several brothers. He was the youngest I believe and he was tasked with tending to the family’s sheep. His older brothers went off to war. One day David was bringing them lunch and he saw that their was a giant that was threatening the soldiers. However, because the giant was so big, everyone was afraid to fight him. David was not afraid as he knew that God was with him. So, he persuaded the king to let him go up against this giant. The king wanted David to wear armor but it did not fit him so he did not. He went up to the giant with a sling shot and 4 flat stones in his pocket. The giant mocked him for being so small. David shot one rock at the giant and it hit him right between the eye, I think, and the giant went down. One rock and the giant was dead.

Then David went back to tending to sheep. Then when it was time to look for a king, the prophet Samuel was sent to David’s father’s house. He thought he was sent there for one of David’s brothers, but God told him no, he wanted David. David was anointed, but was not yet ready to be king. David was anointed for 10 years before he became king. This annointing did not come with any instructions. David had no idea when he would be king, he just accepted the anointing and then waited for God’s timing.

Can you imagine what that must have been like for him? Can you imagine having a prophet of God tell you that you were selected by God to be king of his chosen people, and then just go back to your regular job of tending sheep and wait 10 years? I wonder what that 10 years was like for him. I wonder if he ever doubted, or got impatient. I am pretty sure I would have done both. Waiting on God’s timing is so difficult. I know his timing is best and yet when you are waiting for something important, it seems like our timing is best.

Once David became King, he was a good king. He was favored by the Lord because he walked in the steps of the Lord. He frequently consulted the Lord before making big decisions and he praised the Lord often. However, David did not always do what is right in the eyes of the Lord. One day he was on the roof of his home and noticed a woman on top of another house. He had this woman brought to him and he had relations with this woman. He then found out that she was pregnant and was worried her husband would know what he did. He tried to get her husband to go home and be with her so that he wouldn’t find out. When he was unsuccessful in those attempts, he sent her husband to the front lines of the battle they were in and basically had him killed. Then he took this woman as one of his wives.

One thing that David was really good at, was turning back to the Lord and praising the Lord. The Psalms are filled with letters that David wrote to God. Some were written when David was rejoicing and some were written when he was running for his life. Before David became King, Saul was king. David had gone to work for Saul. He played the harp for him. However, Saul had become jealous of David and wanted to kill him. David was hiding in the caves when he wrote some of these letters. However, it seems no matter how down and out David was he always seemed to praise the Lord. He will go from complaining and asking how long God is going to forsake him and then in the next sentence he will be praising the Lord and saying how great God is.

David knew how the Lord wanted him to be. He knew the laws and he tried to walk in an upright way. However, even when he failed, David always knew that God was there for him if he repented. I wish we all knew this. I wonder how it was so easy for David to know this and so hard for us to believe it. Was it because he was anointed? Was it because of what his parents taught him about God when he was younger? Was it because of all the times that God had been there for him in the past? What was it about David that made his faith so strong? I really wish I knew. I wish I knew how he was able to have such radical faith in God that no matter what he did, God would never forsake him.

Then I wonder, was it easy for him? Just because he always repented and turned back to the Lord doesn’t mean it was easy for him. People do things all the time that are not easy. Maybe it wasn’t that it was easy for him, maybe he was just really disciplined or determined. I think we can assume a lot of things. When we see people succeeding, often times we will wonder, why things come so easily to them. We see them achieving their goals and everything working out for them and we compare ourselves to them. We may just be starting out and yet we compare our progress to theirs and assume that they had it easy. We assume that things must have just been handed to them. However, what we don’t see is the years of hard work and all the things that didn’t work out. We don’t see how many times they got knocked down and got back up again before they reached their success. I have heard a number of my mentors say, “Don’t compare the beginning of your journey to someone else’s ending.” You are not in a race with anyone. All of our journeys are uniques. That goes for your career, family, self-discovery, and faith journey. Your journey is yours.

Do you compare yourself with the people in the bible? Do you assume they had it easier for one reason or another. If we don’t study the bible and the lives of those in the bible it is easy to assume they had it easy. Before learning more about David’s life, all I knew was that he defeated Goliath with a slingshot and that he was a great king. Knowing this it can be easy to assume that because God favored David, it was easy for him to believe in God. It is easier to keep your faith in God when all things are coming up in your favor. Success is not the time when we usually question if God is with us. However, after knowing that he was running for his life because the king wanted him dead, it makes it a little harder too see how he kept his faith through all of that. It helps us to see him as a human and not someone that we need to put on a pedestal. It helps us to see that just because we believe in God and that he is on our side doesn’t mean we won’t struggle. Even those that God loved did not live in a perfect world without struggle.

Today’s verse is Psalm 42:5 “Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation.” In this verse I think it is showing us that it was not always easy for David. He is asking himself why he is cast down and in turmoil. He knows he should not have to worry because God is on his side and God always gets him through and yet he is still cast down. I think this is great to hear verses like this, because I think sometimes we can get in our own heads and chastise ourselves for being upset. We tell ourselves that we should know God is there and therefore why are we upset. Yet,knowing that even someone who was as close to God as David was still has his moments of feeling hopeless or downcast is reassuring. If we know this we can feel better about ourselves. We can be more graceful with ourselves.

The verse also reminds us that when we feel like this we can have hope in God and praise him for our salvation. Hope and praise are things I have talked about before and yet I feel will be reoccurring themes. After being on the discernment team for my prayer group for over 2 years, one things is very clear. God repeats Himself a lot. Each month I feel as though He is saying the same type of thing, just in different ways. It’s like He has a few central themes and He really wants us to get them. I think God wants us to know how much love He has for us, I think He wants us to know that He is always there for us, I think forgiveness, mercy, grace are all important to Him. I think God repeats himself because we don’t seem to be getting it. Repetition is the key and if He keeps saying the same thing in different ways, one day He is bound to say it in a way that speaks directly to each one of our hearts. This why I think he uses a variety of people as His instruments as well.

How can you help to spread God’s word? We all have own unique abilities. What is it that you can do that is special to you? You may not think you have anything to say, or you may think that you don’t know enough. However, all you need to do is say yes and give God permission to use you as His instrument and He will. Will you say yes to the Lord today?

Dear Heavenly Father and I pray that you bless everyone listening to this episode today. Lord God we pray that you help us to have hope in you. Father we ask that you help us have the strength of David when we do something wrong so we can turn back to you and repent. Lord help us to praise you every single day. Jesus help us not compare ourselves to others but to see ourselves through your eyes. Lord I ask that you help every person listening to this know how special they are to you. I ask that you fill them with the knowledge that there is nothing they can do that would make you turn away from them. Lord you are amazing, and we love you so very much. We ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus is holy name, Amen.