Psalm 51 is one of my favorite psalms. It reveals some of David’s inner thoughts, fears, and concerns after his terrible sin (2 Samuel 11). Below is a brief survey of this psalm.
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I. THE PURPOSE AND ARGUMENT OF PSALM 51
A. Purpose
David is one of the most well known and perhaps the most respected leader of the Old Testament. He was not perfect, but with God’s guidance he led the nation of Israel to prominence and success it had never experienced in its thousand years of history. (Even an atheist believes David to have been an important figure.)
This blog post will showcase twelve leadership principles from the life of David.
Each principle will start with a related Scripture, an observation about David, and then a principle about leadership.
In today’s post we are studying the Holy Bible, chapter 4 of 2 Samuel in an effort to learn how we can faithfully follow and serve the leader(s) above us based on what David modeled for us as a young man in Israel.
We pick up with the story of David just after Abner has been killed and buried. As a reminder, Abner was the commander of Saul’s army and Ishbosheth’s army. He was killed by Joab, the commander of David’s army. Abner has been buried and word spreads across Israel that he has died.
In this part of our story we see that when Ishbosheth, the king of Israel, hears about Abner’s death at Hebron, all of Israel becomes paralyzed with fear. Abner was the true leader of Israel with Ishbosheth being a somewhat “puppet” king who Abner controlled. Israel is now fearful of what might happen to them as a nation since their more fierce warrior and main leader, Abner, is dead. That’s when we read about two men who take matters into their own hands.
Over the past few blog posts that we have observed David show great respect for the king by killing the Amalekite man who claimed to have killed Saul. Then we observed David follow God regarding how he should proceed in becoming king of Judah.
Today we get to see another example of how to faithfully serve and follow God and our leader when we see David Practice Patience in God’s Timeline.
In 2 Samuel 3 we observe David Practice Patience in God’s Timeline through the reaction he has when presented with opportunities and ways to become king over all of Israel. 2 Samuel 3:1 starts out by telling us that a battle between David’s men of Judah and Ishbosheth’s men of Israel “was the beginning of a long war between those who were loyal to Saul and those loyal to David. As time passed David became stronger and stronger, while Saul’s dynasty became weaker and weaker.” David is slowly gaining strength and momentum in his rise to become king of Israel.
In my last post about David we learned about him killing the Amalekite man because the Amalekite man claimed to have killed King Saul. Then David wrote a funeral song for Saul and Jonathan while he and his men mourned and wept over their wrongful deaths. Now, in 2 Samuel chapter 2 we read about what David does knowing that Saul and Jonathan are dead. This is important because David (and many other people at that time) knows he has been anointed to become king of Israel.
In chapter 2 of 2 Samuel we see David again relying on God for guidance. After David and his men have mourned over the death of King Saul and Jonathan, David immediately asks the LORD, “Should I move back to one of the towns of Judah?” to which God says, “Yes.” Then David asks, “Which town should I go to?” and the LORD answers, “To Hebron” (2 Samuel 2:1).
David faithfully follow’s God’s instructions, and he and his men settle in the villages near Hebron. (They had to settle in the villages near Hebron because 600 of David’s men and their families would have overwhelmed a small city such as Hebron.) Then, we see what might be the most exciting moment of David’s young life.
In our study of David we take a slight shift today. Today’s blog post is a little different because we are digging deeper and seeking to discover what is going on inside of us. We already know from 1 Samuel 24 that we should, Never Hurt the LORD’s Anointed One. But today we are going to look for why we do what we do, specifically, why we might hurt our leader.
The book of 2 Samuel begins after David is sent home from the Philistine army because the commanders do not trust that he will fight against the Israelites. The Philistines and Israelites go into battle against each other and the result of that battle is that Saul, the king of Israel, and all of his sons die.
Now that Saul is dead there is no king of Israel. Saul’s sons have also died with him in battle, so there is no direct heir to the throne. Many people at that time knew that David had been anointed years earlier to become king of Israel, and some people believed that David was the next in line to be king.
I am not sure about you, but I am loving this study on the life of David which shows us how to faithfully follow and serve both God and our leader.
Today we pick up on a period in David’s life where we see him make some decisive decisions, which happens to be a great characteristic of a leader.
Throughout our studies we have watched David make many decisions, most of them quickly. (Sometimes too quickly.) And in 1 Samuel 30 we see those decisive decisions being made by David again.
We continue our study of the life of David today, but we are taking a turn in how we look at David’s life.
In chapter 29 of 1 Samuel we start to see some of the parts of David that are less admirable and less commonly talked about regarding his character. David was not perfect and he had faults (just as we all do). This chapter brings to light some of those faults.
Let’s catch up with David who is hiding from Saul in the Philistine area under King Achish of Gath. David is hiding because he is fearful that eventually Saul is going to catch and kill him. And there were certainly some times when Saul was close to catching David. David has also been raiding towns and killing the people in those towns who were “kinda” allies of the Philistines, but they were also enemies of Israel.
As we have seen from 1 Samuel and some of the Psalms that we have read, David is hurting, sad, and desperate.
When we endure following a poor leader (just as David did), we need to be mindful that we are not as tough as we might think we are. While our leadership and character is tested we might have less patience to handle circumstances and situations that come our way.
Where we left off yesterday in our study of the young years of the life of David is when he restrains himself and his men from killing Saul in the cave. Then, once Saul leaves the cave, David confronts Saul. He says that he (David) is innocent of the accusations that he is trying to harm Saul, but that Saul has tried to kill him. (You think your leader is bad, David’s leader actually threw spears at him in an attempt to kill him!)
Today we will cover one of my favorite topics in our study of the life of David in his young years before becoming king. It is also is the most important of all the lessons we will learn from the life of David. We will learn a principle from David: “never hurt the LORD’s anointed one.” Our study of the life of David today is from 1 Samuel 24 and Psalm 142.
In the last chapter, we saw David barely escape from Saul because as Saul approached David, Saul received news that the Philistines were raiding Israel. Thus the Israelites needed Saul and his men to protect the city, so Saul and his men could not continue to pursue David and his men.