“All the Days of My Life” (2 Samuel 18)

David: Son, Husband, and Father

It’s Father’s Day. On this special day we say “Thank you” to our earthly fathers. On this special day we also say “Thank You” to our heavenly Father who formed us in our mother’s womb, rescued us from darkness to light, has led us with his tender and strong arm up to this day. 

This morning I would like to invite you to join me in listening to the story of David, who was a son, a husband, and a father. In many ways, David was no role model. He was a poor parent and unfaithful husband. But the emphasis of David’s story is not on the person David, but on God’s grace and God’s faithfulness in David’s life. Throughout all the seasons of his life – spring, summer, fall, and winter – we see God’s merciful, loving, and powerful hand is upon him. Interestingly, we find no miracles in David’s story. But somehow we see David experience God in his everyday life – in his highs and lows, in the ordinary, the sordid, and the tragic. So David’s story is both earthy and godly. In his book Leap over a Wall, Eugene Peterson writes, “David’s is a most exuberant story. Earthy spirituality characterizes his life. Earthy: down-to-earth, dealing with everydayness. Spiritual: moved and animated by the Spirit of God and therefore alive to God.” David’s story is the story of ours who want to experience God in our everyday life.

My prayer is that as we listen to David’s story, may God give us a consuming desire to know Him, experience Him, and love Him all the more.

Spring: The Shepherd Boy

David is the 8^th and youngest son of Jesse from Bethlehem. He is a kid from nowhere. He is so forgotten that when Samuel comes to pronounce a great prophecy over one of Jesse's sons that his family doesn’t even bother to call him back in. David is a forgotten shepherd boy. The good news is: he may be forgotten by people who look at outward appearance, but he is never forgotten by God who always looks into the heart (1 Sam 16:7).

The heart matters to God. Everyday life matters to God. David’s heart is not shaped by one “aha” moment, but by his daily walk with God. In early morning David would lead forth the flock from the fold to green pastures. There he would watch them all day long, taking care that none of the sheep strayed. When predators appear – lions, bears, and wolves, he would protect the sheep and fight back. When his day is done, he would bring the flock back into the sheepfold and sleep across the door to protect the sheep while they sleep. On the next day he would repeat his daily routine all over again. Probably David would repeat the same routine over thousands of times. But in the ordinary and routine, keeping on doing those small things, David experiences the living God personally and profoundly. So when he is challenged by Goliath, with confidence he says to King Saul in this way:

… Your servant has killed both lions and bears; and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be like one of them, since he has defied the armies of the living God. David said, "The LORD, who saved me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear, will save me from the hand of this Philistine!" (1 Sam 17:36-37a, NRSV)

Where does David’s confidence and courage and strength come from? His daily walk with God! His daily experience with God! David does not expect to conquer Goliath by some miracle of divine intervention. He expects to win with skillful hand which he learned in the ordinary and routine and with upright heart shaped by his daily walk with God. God meets us in the ordinary. And God honors the heart shaped by our daily walk with Him.

Summer: The Great King

David is now no longer a young unknown shepherd boy. Now he has become an armor-bearer for King Saul, then a commander of a thousand, then Saul’s son-in-law, and eventually he has become a king of Israel. As soon as his kingdom is established, the first thing he does is to bring the Ark of God to the heart of his kingdom, Jerusalem. This is his spiritual act of worship, saying, “God, we enthrone you. We put you first. We welcome you, we honor you, we worship you. You are King of kings, Lord of lords!” God is pleased with David, saying, “You are a man after my own heart. I will do all my will” (cf. Acts 13:22). And God makes a covenant with David, promising that Messiah, the Christ, would come from his lineage and would establish his eternal kingdom:

“… I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come forth from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever…” (2 Sam 7:12-13)

And David replies, “Who am I, O Lord God, and what is my house, that you have brought me thus far?” (v. 18) I think that could be the highest moment of David’s life. But the Bible says, “So if you think you are standing, watch out that you do not fall” (1 Cor 10:12). Unfortunately, when everything seems to go well, David falls – falls hard. He commits adultery with Bathsheba, a wife of David’s loyal servant, Uriah. To make things worse, he plots to kill Uriah to cover up his adultery. Murder and adultery – David commits two grave sins. His heart is still hardened. But God is not done yet with David. With love God sends the prophet Nathan and convicts David of his sins. And David repents:

“Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love… Against you, you alone, have I sinned, and done what is evil in your sight… Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me.” (Psalm 51:1, 4, 10)

David is forgiven. Though Bathsheba’s first child dies as a consequence of sin, God gives another child whose name is Solomon, or Jedidiah, which means “Beloved of the Lord.” Here God is saying to David, “You are still so loved! You are beautifully broken. You are my beloved son.” David experiences God in the valley as well as at the top of the mountain. Our God is the God of the mountain, and the God of the valley.

Fall: The Heartbroken Father

Now David is going through a midlife crisis within his own family. Amnon, David’s oldest son, loves his step-sister Tamar. And he rapes her. In his indignation Absalom kills Amnon. David keeps thinking he has just hit the bottom and can sink no lower. But he is wrong. While he is still grieving, he hears even more shocking news that his son Absalom turns against him, revolts and seizes the throne.  Though few in number, David and his men are experienced and disciplined. Absalom and his army are defeated; Absalom is killed in battle. David’s sorrow is beyond description. There is no psalm of David in the Bible eulogizing Absalom, no beautiful song lamenting his death. David has no energy even to pray! All he can do is just weep bitterly: “O my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom! Would I had died instead of you, O Absalom, my son, my son!” (2 Sam 18:33)

There are times when we feel like we hit the bottom and then sink even lower. There are times when we feel like our strength is all gone. No strength to bear. No strength to love. No strength to pray. At the very moment someone is praying for us – the Holy Spirit. “Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words” (Rom 8:26). The Spirit prays for David, sustains him, upholds him. In the same way, today the Spirit is praying for you, delivering you from the pit of despair and hopelessness!

Winter: The Old Man Dying  

King David is now very old. He’s cold, cold all the time. No matter how many blankets covers him, he cannot keep warm. He lays in bed, dying. And now he reflects on all the seasons of his life. He realizes that God was with him when he was so forgotten, God was with him when he was standing before Goliath, God was with him when he sang and played the lyre before King Saul, God was with him when he was mourning and grieving over the loss of his two sons. He realizes that God was with him all the days of his life.

Many scholars believe that Psalm 23 is written by David in his last years as he looks back on his life. To many, this psalm is considered a psalm of trust:

The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.

He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.

He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil:

for thou art with me;

thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.

Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies:

 thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life:

and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.

At the center of Psalm 23 we find these four words: “You are with me.” This is David’s personal experience with God. And this is God’s promise to all his people: “I am with you.” In our faith journey, we will face all kinds of life challenges. We will say goodbye to our loved ones. We will face fear of dying process – getting weak, ill, forgetful, wasting away. But through it all, one promise is most important: God is with us all the days of our lives. So let us trust, trust, trust. Amen.