Bible Men: King David: Kingship and Sensitivity

David's heart smote him - 1Sa 24:5 

The Search for the True Man Continues

Sensitive. Men tremble at that word. It is not a beautiful word.  It conjures defeat. It is not a mountain word but a valley one.

But David’s heart smote him.

That is a peculiarly King James Bible word (that book which is alone the word of God and a literary masterpiece). The word roughly means to beat and cause wounds.

One remarkable thing about our forefathers is that they lived the ideal of manhood to the full. They brooked no sensitivity. They fought everything fiercely including the heart. It is only in our age a man can say to his boy, “I love you, son.” My grandpa would’ve spat to the ground for such “nonsense.”

They had no God or hope in the world. So they knew nothing about praise. And without love the heart wilted. They died early because of an overkill of anger and hate.

Nevertheless today’s man is in a different maze. He doesn’t want to become like his fathers. He detests it. But he doesn’t also want to be consumed in the flames of love. It confuses him about his manhood. Fears ravage him. If he speaks his mind he is a chauvinist. If he doesn’t speak he is useless. If he hates he is a bigot and a hater.

But man is human. He feels, he hates and he loves (he judges).  But if he denies the testimony of his own heart he shall never have peace.

He should love to believe God, but he fears for his education. Reason is his refuge but also his jail. He can’t beat or fight because he will be called an abuser. He can’t even beat his own heart or allow it to beat him.

Our fathers took one path and ignorantly died in it. “Wisely” we tread the middle path, but it is a path without convictions. Our fathers paid the price of churlishness; I believe we pay the price of indifference. And to die without a heart usually denotes the beginning of hell.  

David’s heart smote him. We have to feel again. We have to be beaten in the heart without flinching because we are human.

God insisted on the children of Israel to be different in the world. But he also insisted on them learning how to fight. Today’s boy child cannot kill a snake because of mom’s protection. His dad absconded. He also fears his wife. So the boy child lives in a limbo.  

But if we want to be true men I think we have no choice but to be different. God shows how to fight differently. It can be through prayer or his word. Therein is his power.

Have you searched for joy in this life but without success? Try God. His joy will surprise you! “Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and shew thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not” (Jer 33:3).  

I think we err to kill humanities because of love of money. I think it is a fruitless search. Money is good, but without the heart we cannot breath.

David was Sensitive: That is why He was Man after God’s Heart

He may have been a king, but he was also constantly aware of his own poverty. “Have mercy upon me, O LORD; for I am weak.” Today we tell jokes to hide our sensitivity. But that is cowardly. Besides jokes can backfire badly.

But to know that “in me dwelleth no good thing,” to know one’s own proclivity for depravity, that demands deep sensitivity, and it is always to dwell closer to God.

O LORD, thou hast searched me, and known me. Ps 139:1

O God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee: my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is;  To see thy power and thy glory, so as I have seen thee in the sanctuary.  Because thy lovingkindness is better than life, my lips shall praise thee. Psa 63:1-3 

As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God. My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God: when shall I come and appear before God? Psa 42:1-2 

Give unto the LORD, O ye mighty, give unto the LORD glory and strength. Give unto the LORD the glory due unto his name; worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness. Psa 29:1-2  

David’s Strength was His God

David was a well-rounded man. He was a “war machine,” but he was also a lover of men and family. He could dance like mad for his God, but he could also cry like a child without shame. Now that is a free man! “If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed” (Joh 8:36). 

Who is your strength?

In the Bible God has given us the perfect example of manhood. He has given us Christ. He also gave us Solomon (and the prophets) to show us the futility of being in love with anything else in this world apart from him. We came from him, and we shall return to him.

Some men aver that Samson broke one chief rule of manhood. He became sensitive. So Delilah’s “love” killed him.

But it’s not that he became sensitive. Rather it is because he became insensitive to God. That is how he lost his strength.

It is the same fate which met King David. While he was running away from King Saul he was very sensitive towards God. But after Saul died and he became king, things eased off. That is how he met Bathsheba, and how he lost his strength. So too followed one of the most insensitive acts of his life.

And David’s heart smote him.

But always there will be things right and things wrong in this life, and to lose that is to lose sensitivity. God did not abolish the manly attributes. He ennobled them. He gave them the coat of beauty and glory. “What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?” (Psa 8:4).  

God picks the rough diamond from the dust and washes it clean. You are that diamond. Have you been washed? I beg you to ask him! He will do it.