Yahweh noticed the young shepherd boy taking care of his father’s sheep and playing his harp on the hillsides of Bethlehem. He listened to the songs flowing out of a grateful heart and loved the young man. He told His servant Samuel to visit the home of Jesse and anoint this son to be the next king of Israel.
All Jesse’s sons were handsome and Samuel was impressed with the oldest three as they were introduced. But not Yahweh, He had other plans! “I don’t look at outward appearances,” He told Samuel, “I look at a person’s heart!” [cited from 1 Samuel 16:7]. Puzzled, Samuel asked if there were any more sons and, hearing about the shepherd boy in the fields, refused to sit down to eat until he arrived. David came in glowing with health, a handsome teenager with beautiful eyes - and something else. Samuel immediately identified Yahweh’s choice!
David shot to fame in Israel when he killed Goliath and later married King Saul’s daughter. His courageous deeds in battle earned him recognition as a national hero, but there would be many hard, difficult years before he was crowned in Hebron. He was thirty years old [2 Samuel 5:4].
Spiritually passionate, fervent in worship, a prolific songwriter, David inspired Israel to worship Yahweh and was much-loved. However, there came a time when, drawn away by the ‘lust of the eyes’, he committed adultery, fathered an illegitimate child and tried to fix things by setting up a murder. Yahweh was not pleased! This story is told in 2 Samuel 11-12, where we read, too, of Yahweh’s chastisement and David’s deep, sorrowful repentance. Psalm 51 was probably written at this time.
Some years after David’s death, Yahweh said of him, “He obeyed my commands. He followed me with all his heart. He did only what was right in my eyes” [1 Kings 14:8]. David had committed adultery and been complicit in murder – but his repentance had been real and heard! His sin, being forgiven, was remembered no more!
Yahweh never forgets, but He chooses not to remember. This is glorious, powerful and age-lasting: forgiven sin is remembered no more!
Photo by mark tulin on Unsplash
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The Test Of LoveWe look at our lives through a spiritual lens now, as we see how our actions as husbands and wives, fathers and mothers, friends and coaches, workers and employers relate to [Yahweh's] will.
Timothy Peck
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