23 My 2020 - 1 Sam 29
“If you just looked at what social media would’ve put
out about David, you wouldn’t have liked David, because social media wouldn’t
have told you why God liked David.”
I love this Facebook post! There were many failings in David’s life and
1 Samuel 29 is one such example. But
instead of discussing what David should or shouldn’t have done, I want to focus
on the way God saw him. He knew what
David was like before He chose him as king, with the capacity to sinning
against God and others, but God chose to call him a man after His own heart (1
Sam 13:14). Of all the Israeli kings, we
know he was someone who trusted God and was passionate about worship. He wrote at least 73 of the Psalms. He was not ashamed to humble himself and
dance before God in front of others (2 Sam 6:14). He set up daily worship in the temple (1
Chron 16: 4, 37) employing 288 singers (1 Chron 25:7) and 4000 musicians (1
Chron 23:5).
So how does this connect to us? In two ways.
Firstly, we need to see others (and ourselves) from God’s eternal
perspective, and not allow others’ faults to become the ‘sum of all they are’. E.g., We are His dearly loved children (Eph
5:1); His banner over us is love (Sol 2:4); love each other deeply because love
covers a multitude of sins (1 Pet 4:8).
Secondly, I would like to challenge you today to learn
from David and develop your relationship with God through songs of
worship. It is not something reserved
for Sundays alone! Get two of your
favourite worship songs, find 5-10 minutes by yourself and sing these to Him,
focussing on His goodness and love for you.
If this is not something you regularly do, try and keep this up for a
week and see what differences you notice about coming into His presence.
My two faves at the moment are:
Good, Good Father
Holy Spirit