“And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.”—Romans 8:28
If ever there was a man who loved God and was called for a purpose, it was David, with all his flaws and weaknesses.
The Lord continued to work on David’s character, just as He does with us. “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them” (Ephesians 2:10).
The trials of his household, which partly grew out of his sin with Bathsheba, were a source of heartache for him.
Yet, God taught him grace and used him as an example for generations to come.
He promised David: “When your days are fulfilled … I will set up your seed after you, who will come from your body…I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever”(2 Samuel 7:12-13).
The Lord was referring to Jesus the Messiah, the Holy One, who would come through the lineage of David and establish the Kingdom of God forever.
The next chosen king after David, who would build the Temple and take Israel into her Golden Age, was David’s son, Solomon, the son of Bathsheba.
I doubt that the son of the woman with whom the king committed adultery would have been a lot of church committees’ first choice. What kind of example would that be for the kids?
God chose Solomon because He was making a statement. God redeems sinners and makes them sons and daughters. He forms the character of His Son in us.
Choosing Solomon demonstrated God’s unlimited grace, proving that all things really do work together for good “to those who love God, those who are called according to His purpose” (Romans 8:28).
Remember, from an earlier devotion, character means “to tear, cut in, engrave, cut into furrows.”
The Lord allowed David’s life to go through the tearing, cutting, and engraving process. Only a man who has had God’s character engraved into his soul could have written passages like the Psalms, which so beautifully express the heart of a child of God:
The Lord is my shepherd;
I shall not want.
He makes me lie down in green pastures;
He leads me beside still waters.
He restores my soul.
—Psalm 23
In the annals of world history, David is remembered as a great king, statesman, warrior, and poet. His heroic deeds, character and charisma, talent, and passion continue to be recounted, dramatized, and studied.
But I believe David would ask us to look at his life as an example of God’s handiwork.
Of how the Lord can take any one of us, regardless of our origins, circumstances, abilities, strengths, or weaknesses—and make us into a man or woman who will be remembered, like David, as someone “after God’s own heart.”
“So he died in a good old age, full of riches and honor; and Solomon his son reigned in his place” (1 Chronicles 29:28).
