Psalm 46
OT Reading: 1 Samuel 24.1-17
NT Reading: Luke 14.12-24
Title: King David – a flawed hero
I want to speak tonight about that loveable but flawed hero, King David. In tonight’s story King Saul has become so jealous of David’s prowess in the wars against the Philistines that he has threatened to kill him. Warned of his rage by Saul’s son Jonathan, David has fled the court with a small band of his closest associates, but Saul has come after him, determined to eliminate what he sees as a threat to his throne. As Saul squats down to relieve himself in the cave of Engedi, David is presented with what his associates regard as a God-sent opportunity to slay him. He creeps forward, knife in hand, but uses it to take just a small corner off the hem of Saul’s cloak.
It’s hardly surprising to read stories in the Bible which show Israel’s greatest king in a positive light. The Hebrew Bible is after all the foundation stone of Israel’s cultural and political identity. Such documents, patriotically edited in later centuries, are not generally noted for their unbiased objectivity. And David clearly was a leader whose charisma made men glad to work and fight, and even to die for him. Having grown up as a simple shepherd boy, he displayed consummate political skill in securing the throne of a united kingdom. His generalship won freedom from the Philistines. His courage, dignity and patience survived many tests; he showed admirable respect for other men’s courage, as when he refused to drink the water brought from the well at Bethlehem by soldiers who risked their lives show their affection for him; he employed his talents as a musician to soothe the manic tendencies of King Saul; his capacity for affectionate friendship knit him to the heart of Saul’s son Jonathan; as we have already seen, he showed great generosity of spirit in sparing Saul’s life; he could display both joyful exuberance in dancing before the ark of the covenant as it was being taken up to Jerusalem – and great tenderness in mourning the deaths not only of Jonathan his friend and Absalom his son, but also that of Saul who had driven him into exile. In so many ways, what a paragon he was.
Yet the Bible does not shrink from giving us the other, darker side of David’s character, which cuts him down to size, much like some of our own flawed leaders. Just as David arranged for Uriah the Hittite to be placed in the thick of the fighting, and killed, so that he could marry his beautiful wife Bathsheba, it is not unknown in our own day for a charismatic leader in a position of supreme power to be brought down by his inability to control his sexual appetites. Nor is it particularly unusual for great men and women to show disastrous judgment in the bringing up of their own children. David fails with his eldest son Amnon, who rapes his half-sister Tamar before turning bitterly against her. He fails with Absalom, who waits and schemes before murdering Amnon, claiming the kingdom for himself, and leading an armed rebellion against his father. He fails with Adonijah, of whom we read: ‘never in his life had his father corrected him or asked why he behaved as he did.’
So why does the Bible choose to present Israel’s greatest king with such glaring flaws of character? One reason might be that the true hero of the story is not so much King David as God himself, who remains faithful to his promises through all the vicissitudes of a turbulent era. When David has arranged for Uriah to die in battle, the prophet Nathan tells him the story of a poor man whose one precious lamb is stolen by his rich neighbour to provide a feast for his unexpected visitors. When David is asked what he thinks of such behaviour, he is outraged and immediately responds that the rich man should be put to death, whereupon Nathan famouslyrounds on him with the accusation: You are the man. Thus sharply convicted, David makes no attempt to excuse himself. He recognises his sin and seeks God’s forgiveness. Nathan assures him that he is indeed forgiven, but he warns David that there will be trouble in his own household. We do not need to regard the misbehaviour of his children, including Absalom’s rebellion, as God’s punishment – it is just as likely to have been the natural consequence of David’s own behaviour. But grief he will have for the rest of his life. His sons fight for the succession, and Bathsheba’s child dies in infancy, but David’s forgiveness is confirmed as she conceives again, to give him in Solomon a worthy son and heir.
So what do the ups and downs of David’s story have to say to us? As a boy protecting his father’s sheep from lions and bears, or facing the might of Goliath, he put his trust in God, facing every challenge confidently in God’s name. It took courage of a different sort to refuse the opportunity to kill Saul when he had the chance. The Bible does not tell us where David found such simple, fearless trust, and there is less evidence of it in the narrative as he grows older. But it may not be too fanciful to suppose that the young shepherd boy, alone on the open hillside with his sheep, was more open to God’s presence, than the busy king of later years, in his fine house, surrounded by commanders and courtiers as well as several wives and a large family. Even then, he could still recapture that closeness to God when he stopped to think and pray, as we hear him doing from time to time, for example when in humble obedience he has to come to terms with God’s command that he should not himself build a temple to house the ark of the covenant (2 Sam 7). We are moved by the tenderness of his lament for Saul and Jonathan, as also by the heart-breaking agony of his grief for Absalom. We recognise in David the humanity that bound him to others, the generosity and authenticity of that love for God and neighbour to which we are all bound by the two great commandments. It is no surprise that so many of the Psalms are attributed to him, with their profound experience of the human relationship with God. Like David we may need to step aside from the pressures of our busy lives, to reconnect in the stillness with that sense of the reality of God’s presence which once we knew. Perhaps that is why some of us are here tonight.
The second thing we may learn from David’s story concerns our own frailty. We set out with the best of intentions, as David did, but as our careers take off, we may lose sight of the things that really matter in our lives, and do something very wrong or foolish, as David did. If that happens, we should be quick to recognise, as he was, that we have done wrong, that we must seek God’s forgiveness, and try to make amends where we can. That is a painful experience, but we can take comfort from seeing that, despite what David did to Uriah, which was tantamount to murder, God never gave up on him. He never forgot the reservoir of love and trust at the bottom of David’s generous heart.
These are some of the things we may learn from David’s strengths as well as his weaknesses. We are unlikely to face a giant like Goliath, but we may need just as much courage to oppose some aspect of the secular culture which stands so tall in our world, whether at home or at our work. In facing such challenges, we may need to use all the power we can command, all the physical strength, financial muscle, or political influence we can muster, just as David did, and like him we should put our simple trust in what we believe to be right in accordance with God’s will. If we have the courage to do that, as well as the humility to know when we have done wrong, and to throw ourselves on God’s mercy, he will stand by us in all our frail but loveable humanity, just as he stood by David.