Bible Men: King David: Why He was A Man after God’s Heart

But now thy kingdom shall not continue: the LORD hath sought him a man after his own heart - 1Sa 13:14  

for the LORD seeth not as man seeth - 1Sa 16:7  

The Natural versus Spiritual: Why David was Different

In natural life we go by what we see with our own eyes. In the spiritual it is what the heart sees, much like intuition. So we see differently and hear differently because the heart and nature have a voice and speech.

It is why misunderstandings happen. For one will hear “Elias” while another will hear “Jeremiah.” One will hear “thunder” but another will hear “nothing.” But to David (and he was a born poet) not even the wind’s sound was vague, but it had a bearing to his God of the hills. “The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork.  Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge.  There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard” (Psa 19:1-3).  

The Natural Hates to Look Small

Eliab may have worried about how small his young brother David made him look (and that was natural because he was the first to be born).

But that’s also the curse of self-love. For no one likes to think of himself as being small (or playing second). It is why nations go to war. But all these are the ravages of sin. It is the offshoot of our fall. And Jesus said to his disciples: “And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet” (Mat 24:6).  

God sets our eyes on the eternal. But a lot of time we are caught up over who is first. I think that’s why young David and his elder brother Eliab saw things differently. The one cared about the honour of God, the other worried about his own honour.

So at last there’s such a thing as being “born again”. There’s such a thing as dying first. Paul called it “a high calling” and this always has bearing to God of heaven, who is the beginning and end of all things.

God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. Joh 4:24  

But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. 1Co 2:10 

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  The same was in the beginning with God.  All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.  In him was life; and the life was the light of men.  And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not. Joh 1:1-5 

That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not. Joh 1:9-10 

Faith is a Mystery

So King David could cry in trouble: “Have mercy upon me, O LORD; for I am weak: O LORD, heal me; for my bones are vexed” (Psa 6:2). David could cry like that because he knew his God “personally.” Have you known him like that? Can you cry to him like that? Or does the fear of losing yourself scare you?

And yet we can never quite be free in this life until we die. It is a paradox but true. “Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal” (Joh 12:24-25).  

So David was a man after God’s heart because he lived not for himself but for his God. His ideals were quite above this world. As Paul put it:

But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory. 1Co 2:7 

Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints. Col 1:26

Faith Punches above the Weight: The Boy who Killed Goliath

For forty days Eliab and his army couldn’t see God. He wasn’t in their minds but only the terror of Goliath. But fear does that. Unbelief can fix one on one spot for “forty days.”

Young David came and saw what Eliab had seen. But David saw God in it and not Goliath. His faith reached to the clouds. “Art thou careful and troubled about many things? One thing is needful. This one thing I do. I fix my eyes on Christ.” David’s life was fixed on God.

What time I am afraid, I will trust in thee. Psa 56:3 

From the end of the earth will I cry unto thee, when my heart is overwhelmed: lead me to the rock that is higher than I. Psa 61:2  

My times are in thy hand. Psa 31:15 

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever. Psa 23:6  

It is Possible to Know God in the Inward Parts

It is written: “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts” (Isa 55:8-9).  

But it is possible to know God and know him quite intimately. In David’s psalms we see that every day.

“Thou hast searched me, and known me” cried David in the opening of Psalm 139. May we now end this devotion with David’s closing words in that psalm: “Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”