David, an evil man after God's own heart? 2

To conclude my part 1 reflections on David's crimes, I wanted to come to terms with why he still seems to be seen as unique.  This is my attempt:

So, what is left to love about David?  How in the world is a he a man after God's own heart?  Is God's heart this black? 

The first, most obvious assumption is that he indeed was a man after God’s heart, but didn’t remain so.  The famous phrase that labels David is given as a predictor of David’s character before he is chosen as a leader.  It was meant to distinguish him from Saul.  One could argue that, as David’s career continued, he didn’t continue to act as a man in tune with the heart of God.

Another answer is that Israel saw him as a man after God's heart because he was so successful in advancing and protecting their land.  This seems like a base compliment for military savvy, but one cannot underestimate the gift this was when you are trying to raise a family in a dangerous culture. 

Still, the statement that he is "after God's heart" is more affective.  It implies an internal state that David possessed that was of inestimable worth.  And I wonder if it is simply that he has an open heart.  This, despite his crimes, makes him different from so many other leader-kings of history.

The first sign of this open heart is that he turned the full torrent of his feelings toward his God.  The many Psalms he wrote attest that David was a man of honesty, not in the sense that he necessarily told others the truth, but that he approached God with his heart on his sleeve.  In this realm, he seemed to throw off propriety and ceremony, and basically, “lets God have it.”  From remorse to joy, from depression to ecstasy, and even onto anger, self-loathing, and hatred, David appears to hide nothing before the Lord.
 

This, to me, reveals something of the heart of God that not even the New Testament does quite as much justice to.  From David we are enjoined to “pour out your hearts before him, for he is our refuge.”  The greatest teaching of the Psalms has nothing to do with doctrine or even praise, in my opinion, but a loud call from the heart of God to us saying, “Come to me, wrestle with me, trust me with your full self!”  This is something that no other writer in the scriptures gives us in such fullness.

The second sign of David’s open heart is his willingness to change course.  Leaders must, by nature, make tough calls, but David, on numerous occasions, shows he is willing to reverse his decision when his heart is touched.

On his way, along with his fighting men, to kill Nabal who, by Scripture’s own admission was a fool, Nabal’s wife pleads a logical and heartfelt case to spare him.  David turns around.  Later, in a similar case, he banishes his rebellious son Absalom from his presence for years, but a common woman appeals to his heart as a parent and David permits Absalom’s return.

The most famous turn around of his life, of course, is seen when Nathan the prophet calls out David’s sin with Bathsheba and Uriah.  It would be par for the course for a King to slaughter a prophet who criticized him, but instead David mourns his own wickedness.

Finally, David, as unimportant as it sounds, has something immeasurably great: affection for God.  This is seen in his desire to build a house for the Lord.  While it might be as misguided a notion as Peter’s desire to build tents for Jesus, Moses, and Elijah on the mount of transfiguration, it does show David’s desire to bless his God.  He appeals to his own feelings, by saying in essence, “How can I live in this great palace when God lives in a tent?  Something’s not right here!”  The fact that he tries to relate to the Lord’s feelings reflects again the depth of David’s affection for God.  This is not a man who just wants to follow religious propriety or shamanism.  He truly loves God.

It is certainly easy to stand over David from such a distance and criticize him.  I live in a much different time, a more stable and safe era, when I can trust the might of my country’s military to protect my suburban home from harm.  I cannot possibly grasp what it was like to live in a largely tribal and uncertain world as existed in the time of King David.

Still, to label someone as a “man after God’s own heart,” one thinks there is something special there, and to find such a man involved in so many horrors, it makes one curious.  My conclusion is not that we absolve him of his crimes, but to look for what about the heart of God was revealed in the narrative and writings of his life.  To me this is the eager desire of God’s heart to welcome our full, unvarnished selves to him, and to interact with him with a humble, open heart.

I hope I, too, can be such a man.