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

David is a man after God's own heart.  How many times have I heard this?  This reference for him first shows up in God's rejection of Saul when God says he is going to choose someone to replace him that is a man after the Lord's heart.  In Acts, Paul quotes this classification in a message he delivers in a synagogue. 

To call him this title seemed so clear when I just read the Psalms.  Besides, I thought, and was taught, he's also relatable because he messed up: He did the whole Bathsheba and Uriah thing.  And, on top of that, he was repentant. 

But then I re-read David's story through Samuel and Kings for the first time in years.  The illicit relationship with Bathsheba and Uriah's murder is child's play compared to all the other things David did. 

-He killed two hundred men in order to get Michal as his wife.  He also cut off all of these dead mens' foreskins to give to Saul, as Saul requested. 

-He kills a lying messenger who claims to have killed Saul, but fails to discover that the guy didn't kill anyone. 

-David, for most of his reign, keeps a murderer named Joab employed as his general.  Joab kills opponents or people he dislikes left and right.  David only finally turns on him when Joab joins one of David's sons who intended to succeed David in his old age. 

-Two guys kill one of Saul's relatives thinking that this will make David happy.  It does not and, rightly, David accuses them of killing an innocent man.  But not only does David have them killed, but their hands and feet are hacked off and their bodies are hung up near a public place.
 

-After one defeat of the Philistines he has all of the conquered people lay down and measures them in groups.  For every group he spared, two more were executed.  The surviving people were made into slaves.  This sounds more like ISIS than a leader of God's people.

-While David marries Michal fair and square, Saul steals her and she marries another man, Palti.  Later David wants her back.  Palti weeps and follows her, clearly in love.  But she is ripped from him.  Then, in her pain and jealousy, Michal makes a pointed comment to David when he dances publicly in a worship parade of sorts.  He punishes her for the rest of her life, by never sleeping with her again and therefore leaving her childless, a humiliating curse in this time period.

-Just before his death he enjoins his son Solomon to make sure to follow the Lord's ways…and then provides Solomon with a hit list.  One of the people on the list includes a man, Shimei, who insulted David.  David also swore not to kill him.  Yet, now, David requests that Solomon "arrange a bloody death for him."

The implied accusation must be tempered with the fact that we cannot possibly know the reality of life and warfare of this time in history.  Granted, all kingdoms that seek to maintain stability and safety for their inhabitants must engage in some level of violence.  This is not the world as we wish it, but the world as it is.  While this pass, as it were, accounts for a great deal of David’s actions, it still does not acquiesce our indignation over rampant execution of innocents, personally ordered assassinations, degrading collections of human foreskins, or even manhandling of women.
 

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? 

I will tell you my answer in part 2 next week.