What was it about David that so endeared him to the heart of God

What was it about David that so endeared him to the heart of God? We know that he was greatly beloved of the Lord, and the apostle Paul spoke of him at Antioch of Pisidia after this wise, according to the scripture: "And when he had removed him [Saul], he raised up unto them David to be their king; to whom also he gave their testimony, and said, I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after mine own heart, which shall fulfil all my will" (Acts 13:22). I fully believe that what made David a man after God's own heart was the qualities of honesty, humility, and his full dependency of faith in God's mercy. I am certain that we can go nowhere with God apart from these qualities, and I am just as certain that David did not waver from being of an honest and humble spirit, or from trusting fully in God's mercy all his days. That is not to say that David never failed the Lord's commandments, because he did. It IS to say however that he never failed to own up to his faults, or repent from them when they were manifested to him. That is why we see scriptures like the following in the Kings: "Now in the eighteenth year of king Jeroboam the son of Nebat reigned Abijam over Judah... And he walked in all the sins of his father, which he had done before him: and his heart was not perfect with the Lord his God, as the heart of David his father" (I Kin. 15:1,3). We know that David failed greatly in the matter of Bathsheba and her husband Uriah, who was a faithful and mighty warrior in David's army. But when he was confronted by the prophet Nathan about the greatness of his sin, David's immediate and only response was, "I have sinned against the Lord" (II Sam. 12:13). Because he confessed only what was true before God on this matter and though he was worthy of death twice over according to the law, God's response to his response was this: "And Nathan said unto David, The Lord also hath put away thy sin; thou shalt not die." As opposed to Saul, who was king before David; when he was confronted by Samuel for failing the commandment of the Lord to kill all of the Amalekites, including their animals and children; his response to Samuel was this: "Yea, I have obeyed the voice of the Lord, and have gone the way which the Lord sent me, and have brought Agag the king of Amalek, and have utterly destroyed the Amalekites. But the people took of the spoil, sheep and oxen, the chief of the things which should have been utterly destroyed, to sacrifice unto the Lord thy God in Gilgal" (II Sam. 15:20,21). Saul's was a longer response because more words were needed to try to cover over the bare fact that he had not done what the Lord had sent him to do.

The scripture speaks of David as if the only failure of his life was in the case of Bathsheba and Uriah, but that only means that it was his greatest and most notable failure (I Kin. 15:5). It was in that failure also that we see David's great faith in the mercy of God as being greater than the enormity of his sin,as he expressed in Psalm 51: "Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions. Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me. Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest... Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow... Hide thy face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me... For thou desirest not sacrifice; else would I give it: thou delightest not in burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise." The truth is there were plenty of other failures of God's law in David's life, most notably when he was determined to number the people of Israel, and his grievous error cost seventy thousand people their lives (II Sam. 24:2,15). He brashly refused the advice of Joab, his captain of the host, and made him go throughout Israel to number the people so that he could know just how great his kingdom was (II Sam. 24:3,4). Yet when David came to the realization that he had sinned in numbering the people, his response was typically humble and contrite: "And David's heart smote him after that he had numbered the people. And David said unto the Lord, I have sinned greatly in that I have done: and now, I beseech thee, O Lord, take away the iniquity of thy servant; for I have done very foolishly" (II Sm. 24:10). When David was offered by the prophet Gad to choose between three chastisements for his sin, we see again the greatness of his faith in God's love, and his total dependency on God's mercy: "And David said unto Gad, I am in a great strait: let us fall now into the hand of the Lord; for his mercies are great: and let me not fall into the hand of man" (II Sam. 24:14).

We see many other evidences of faultiness on David's part in the Psalms, in passages like the following: "There is no soundness in my flesh because of thine anger; neither is there any rest in my bones because of my sin. For mine iniquities are gone over mine head: as an heavy burden they are too heavy for me. My wounds stink and are corrupt because of my foolishness" (Psm. 38:3-5). David was well acquainted with the reality which was later written by his son Solomon, who no doubt learned this invaluable truth from David: "He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy" (Prov. 28:13). The truth of the matter is that only someone who loves the commandments of God can be humble, contrite, and repentant upon breaking them. Now I want us to consider that David was the greatest man not only in Israel, but in the entire world while he was living. He had vast wealth at his disposal as well, and those facts magnify the humility of his heart when we see statements by him like the following: "This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles" (Psm. 34:6). And this: "But I am poor and needy; yet the Lord thinketh upon me: thou art my help and my deliverer; make no tarrying, O my God" (Psm. 40:17). This as well: "For I am poor and needy, and my heart is wounded within me" (Psm. 109:22). These priceless qualities of humility and honesty were what brought David to the throne of Israel, and the fact that he retained these things all his days are why we know him as a man so greatly beloved of the Lord for all time. In fact David knew himself well enough to be able to make statements like in this famous verse: "Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever" (Psm. 23:6). So it wasn't that David never failed, and it wasn't that he never had problems to deal with. He had plenty of both actually. What was and is so endearing to the Lord about his servant David, is really the only things that can endear any of us to God. It is an insult to God for anyone to not acknowledge their sin if they have sinned. It is just as appalling to the Lord for anyone to exalt themselves about anything they have or anything they are. So is it an abomination to God for anyone to think they can be righteous by any other means than to fully rely on his mercy to make them so. These are the things we want to remember if we want to be known in heaven as 'beloved.' I believe David left us a very good pattern to look at and study, to see if we are measuring up in these qualities. Amen.