“After removing Saul, God made David their king. He testified concerning him: ‘I have found David son of Jesse a man after my own heart; he will do everything I want him to do’.”
David was a man who committed adultery, who had one of his closest friends murdered, and he had so much blood on his hands that God said David could not be the man to rebuild His temple in Jerusalem.
1 Chronicles 28:3 (NKJV) But God said to me, ‘You shall not build a house for My name, because you have been a man of war and have shed blood.’
David made many mistakes and committed lots of sins in his life, so why does God call him a man after God’s own heart?
The answer to this question requires an understanding of the character of David, which can only truly be seen by studying his entire life. So, if you want a deeper understanding of this answer, I would suggest you study the entirety of David’s interactions with God in the Bible during his life. However, for the purpose of this post I will highlight a few significant characteristics of David that show he was a man who understood God’s heart.
Let’s take a look at Psalms chapter 51. While we read this, think about what this shows us about David’s relationship with God and how David viewed God.
David wrote this Psalm right after he had stolen another man’s wife (Bathsheba) and then had that man killed to cover up the thievery. This is obviously a very bad thing to do and definitely made God upset. God then sent his prophet Nathan to confront David about this sin and Psalms chapter 51 (NIV) is David’s response.
Have mercy on me, O God,
according to your unfailing love;
According to your great compassion
blot out my transgressions.
Wash away all my iniquity
and cleanse me from my sin.
For I know my transgressions,
and my sin is always before me.
Against you, you only, have I sinned
and done what is evil in your sight;
so you are right in your verdict
and justified when you judge.
Surely I was sinful at birth,
sinful from the time my mother conceived me.
Yet you desired faithfulness even in the womb;
you taught me wisdom in that secret place.
Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean;
wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.
Let me hear joy and gladness;
let the bones you have crushed rejoice.
Hide your face from my sins
and blot out all my iniquity.
Create in me a pure heart, O God,
and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
Do not cast me from your presence
or take your Holy Spirit from me.
Restore to me the joy of your salvation
and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.
Then I will teach transgressors your ways,
so that sinners will turn back to you.
Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God,
you who are God my Savior,
and my tongue will sing of your righteousness.
Open my lips, Lord,
and my mouth will declare your praise.
You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it;
you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings.
My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit;
a broken and contrite heart
you, God, will not despise.
David shows us in these verses what part of being a man after God’s own heart means. These verses show us that David did not deny his mistakes; he didn’t try to lie to God or make up excuses. Instead he understood three things.
1) That he was a sinner before God.
2) That he needed God to forgive Him.
3) That God is loving, so He would forgive Him.
Now, what does this mean for us today?
It shows us that in order to be men and women after God’s own heart, we have to understand God’s heart. This means we have to understand what God wants from us and how he feels about us; and have faith that God does not change.
So, what does God want from us and how does He feel about us?
We know that it makes God sad when we sin.
We also know that God loves us, which is why Jesus died on the cross. God knows we can’t pay for our sins ourselves. He paid for our sins for us, so we don’t have to. That way we can be in Heaven with Him some day. So, with this knowledge we should be able to be confident enough to interact with God like David did.
If we make mistakes, understand that God already knows about them, so it makes no sense to try to lie about them or make excuses about them. Instead we should do what David did and talk about the truth with God. People who have accepted Jesus’ payment for them on the cross as their own do not have to be afraid to talk to God.
As Hebrews 4:16 (NKJV) says “Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.”
If we can live our lives with the kind of faith in God’s love and sacrifice that allows us to interact freely with Him. Then our relationship with God can grow. And, as we better understand God, we will better understand His heart, which can help us become men and women after God’s own heart.
This series of blog posts titled, “Holding on to Reason”, is named after Amanda’s favorite C.S. Lewis quote: “Faith is the art of holding on to things your reason has once accepted, in spite of your changing moods.”