Why David?

 “Who am I, O Lord God, and what is my house, that you have brought me thus far?”(2 Samuel 7:18)

This is the question David asks God upon hearing the promise, the Covenant, God has made to raise up his seed and establish his kingdom and throne forever. And this is the question I have asked myself when contemplating the connection that I have felt with him, a figure about whom I know very little. I am not unique in this regard, King David has held sway in the psyches of many, across cultures and years. I feel the answer lies somewhere a bit beyond the more obvious candidates: David’s humble beginnings, David as the faithful servant, David as the underdog against Goliath.

Samuel Anoints David, 3rd century, unknown artist

To begin to try to find the answer to this question, I turned to 1 and 2 Samuel; the Old Testament provides an intimate view to David, his life, and his character. We first meet David mid-way through 1 Samuel, the first half of which describes the transition of power from the eponymous Samuel, a priest over the Israelites, to Saul, the son of Kish of the tribe of Benjamin. The people of Israel, partially in reaction to the wickedness of the sons of Samuel, have demanded to be ruled over by a king, like the other nations are. Angered, the “Lord” (just who this actually is, is a complicated issue in itself) forewarns the people about the type of king they will have and tells Samuel he will send to him a man from the land of Benjamin. Samuel is to anoint him as ruler over his people Israel. Samuel gathers all the tribes and Saul is selected by lot, soon after which he defeats King Nahash and the Ammonites who have been gouging out the right eye of each Israelite east of the Jordan. This is cause enough for him to be made king.

Despite victories against many of the enemies of the Israelites (Moab, Edom, Zobah, the Ammonites, Philistines, and Amalekites), Saul’s reign is all but smooth. He first provokes the ire of the Lord when he prematurely offers the burnt offering at Gilgal before a battle instead of waiting for Samuel to arrive. Following this, Saul’s son Jonathan gives offense when he unknowingly violates a vow Saul has made, pertaining not only to himself but all his people, to abstain from food until he has been avenged. Saul permanently falls out of the Lord’s favor when he spares King Agag of the Amalekites and all their best animals despite the edict to utterly destroy all the Amalekites, men, women, children, and beasts alike. The Lord rejects Saul as king of the Israelites and sends Samuel to meet Jesse, for there is a king among his sons.

King David and His Musicians, 8th century, unknown artist

Jesse, son of Obed, is a Bethlehemite of the tribe of Judah. Jesse has eight sons, and as each of the first seven come before Samuel, each is also rejected by the Lord. Samuel asks Jesse whether these are all of his sons, to which he responds that there is yet one more, the youngest, and he is tending the sheep. This is David. He is brought in, and described as ruddy and handsome, with beautiful eyes. But he is chosen not because of his outward appearance but because of the contents of his heart. Samuel anoints him from the horn of oil, and the spirit of the Lord comes upon him, to be with him from that day forward. 

As the spirit of the Lord comes to David, it leaves Saul, and instead an evil spirit from the Lord is sent to Saul. Saul’s servants advise him to seek out a harpist in the hopes that the music will relieve him of the evil spirit. One of the servants happens to know that David is skilled at the harp, and this is how David enters Saul’s service, becoming his armor-bearer in addition to his personal musician. From there, David’s path to kingship is a circuitous one. He finds favor with the people of Judah and Israel, and hateful envy with Saul, by defeating the giant Philistine Goliath. This is the catalyst for Saul’s infamous and relentless pursuit of David spanning many years and inclusive of many attempts on his life. David is forced to flee, often times living in the wilderness while also, together with the people of the tribe of Judah who have joined him, defending the people of Israel from attacks on them by the Philistines. Eventually, while David is trying to rescue his wives who have been kidnapped by the Amalekites, the Philistines mount an attack that Saul and his men cannot withstand, having lost the favor of the Lord. Both Saul and his son Jonathan are killed. Soon after, David goes up to Hebron where he is made king of the house of Judah, while Jebosthe, another son of Saul, is made king over the Israelites. Jebosthe reigns for a few years before he is slain by Rechab and Baana, at which point David is made king of all of Israel, when he is 30 years of age. His reign is to last 37 years.

Upon examination of these events and others, detailed in 1 and 2 Samuel, David draws a complex figure. He is as courageous and noble as one would expect of a legendary king. But he also possesses a certain softness, or sensitivity, that emerges in between heroic exploits, seen in moments such as when he is showing mercy to his enemies, professing his love for Jonathan, and humbling himself before his Lord. But then too, David’s life is punctuated by strange lapses in judgment, incidents that seem out of place, incongruent with the overall narrative that has been composed. 

David with the Head of Goliath, 1620s, Turchi

David’s renown comes in large part from his military success, and this is not undeserved as his career comprises victory after victory with seemingly not a single enemy of the Israelites excluded from the list of defeated. The precise reasons for his success are not enumerated, or rather are attributed to the Lord he serves. No doubt, David is brave and bold, and this may be exemplified in one of the first episodes in his story, his encounter with Goliath. Volunteering to engage in one-to-one combat with a giant six cubits in height does require some bravery. But perhaps the virtue that evinces itself the most throughout the narrative is his nobleness. Time and time again, David puts himself in danger in order to come to the aid of those who need protection, and often when he is living as a renegade in the wilderness, himself without a place of safety to return to. He saves the city Keilah and repeatedly guards the Israelites from the Philistines while he is living in the wilderness. He takes those who have also made an enemy of Saul, such as Abiathar son of Ahimelech, under his protection. The men who follow him and fight with him, over whom he is made captain after fleeing Saul, are the distressed, the indebted, the discontented. David is a champion of the downtrodden and dispossessed, echoing, or rather foreshadowing, Jesus.

Importantly, David does not end up on the throne by force of his own hand, even staying his hand and sparing Saul when he has ample opportunity to kill him and assume kingship. At one point Saul’s pursuit of David has him backed into the recesses of a cave in the wilderness of En-gedi. Saul enters the cave in order to relieve himself, not knowing David is there. Instead of killing Saul, David cuts off a corner of his cloak, is immediately aggrieved for having done even that much, and tells his men not to attack. Later on, Saul either takes his own life, or is willingly killed by an Amalekite after a defeat by the Philistines while David is pursuing the Amalekites. David not only mourns Saul, his enemy, but has the man who claims to have killed him executed for raising his hand against the anointed of the Lord. In similar fashion, when Jebosthe, Saul’s son and successor, is murdered by Rechab and Baana, David does not reward them but has them put to death for slaying a righteous man in his own home, on his own bed. It is after this when the elders of Israel anoint David as king over all Israel. Having succeeded Saul, David then asks whether there is anyone of the house of Saul left, not in order to terminate his line, but instead to restore to him all of Saul’s lands. And that he does, not only giving Saul’s lands to Mephibosheth, son of Jonathan, but also allowing him to eat from his table from that day on. Though not detracting from his generosity, this act may have been made even more pleasing to David due to his love for Jonathan. From the beginning David and Jonathan have been devoted to each other; on the day when David slays Goliath, “the soul of Jonathan was bound to the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul”(1 Samuel 18:1). On Jonathan’s passing, David laments “I am distressed for you, my brother Jonathan; greatly beloved were you to me; your love to me was wonderful, passing the love of women”(2 Samuel 1:26) It is hard to view this love as strictly platonic. 

David and Saul, 1885, Kronberg

David is not only just, generous, and noble, but is also known for his great faithfulness to the Lord. He continually seeks the Lord’s counsel prior to decisions and battles, and heeds the Lord’s words even when fear drives him to want to do otherwise. David’s desire to serve the Lord, as well as the intent to make Jerusalem the religious and political capital, leads him to bring the ark up out of Baale-judah. As he does so, David “dances before the Lord with all his might” to the consternation and embarrassment of David’s wife Michal. David is not ashamed, responding to Michal’s rebuke by declaring “I will make myself yet more contemptible than this, and I will be abased in my own eyes”(2 Samuel 6:22). It is therefore all the more surprising that for a period of one year and four months, David works for the Philistines, who worship a different god, battling the Geshurites, Girzites, and Amalekites on behalf of king Achish. Not only that, but David agrees to and is ready to go to war with the Philistines against the Israelites before Achish’s commanders protest and David returns to Ziklag instead. This is but one of multiple puzzling developments that stand out in stark contrast against the backdrop of a man painted as faithful and noble as David. Another of these is an incident involving the shepherd Nabal, in which David is less than heroic. David again is in the wilderness of Paran, and hears that Nabal, owner of three thousand sheep and one thousand goats, is shearing his sheep. David sends ten men to Nabal, “asking” him for whatever he has at hand, which he presumably is owed, as he and his men have not harmed the shepherds all the time they have been in Carmel. Abigail, Nabal’s wife, prevents bloodshed by bringing David a cornucopia of offerings, and at this, David blesses her and thanks her for keeping him from bloodguilt. Then not least of all is David’s affair with Bathsheba, wherein David not only lays with a married woman but has her husband Uriah killed by sending him to the front lines.

These indiscretions, out of place and uncharacteristic, beg questions. Is it possible that the narrative told in 1 and 2 Samuel doesn’t comprise the authentic account of the life of one man, that it may be a patchwork quilt of stitched-together accounts belonging to different people, at different times. Or even outright fabrications. A cut and paste job, as Paul Wallis might say, as was done for the singular “God” of the Old Testament. Or is it really all that unusual, when examining a lifetime of actions, to find a few transgressions. David has endured hardship, loss, and betrayal. He has been pursued relentlessly by a madman, forced to live as a nomad in the wilderness, for years. It is not hard to imagine that under such circumstances one might lose their way, might do things they had never imagined they would. If the stories of any of our lives were to be told, would there be no wrongdoings found in any of the chapters. Granted, David’s iniquities are on a grand scale but then so are his virtues.

King David in Prayer, 1637, de Grebber

If it is in Samuel where we learn about David’s life, it is in Psalms where we come to know his heart. The Psalter comprises five collections of Psalms. Seventy-three of the one hundred and fifty Psalms are superscripted with the words “Of David”, which Derek Kidner of the Kidner Classic Commentaries asserts is the genitive, meaning belonging to David, written by him, which we can be confident in because of the expanded title of Psalm 18. David’s authorship has been challenged on various grounds, most of which are speculative. We cannot know if he wrote them himself, but there is no good reason not to believe so. In the Psalms, David shows a stunning openness and vulnerability. His deeply personal thoughts and feelings are on full display, and he expresses emotions ranging from despair and sorrow to gratefulness and joy. In them, we get a rare glimpse into the first-hand experience of the events related in Samuel; fourteen of the Psalms are directly tied to events such as David’s deliverance from Saul and time in exile after fleeing his son, Absalom, as a companion to the narrative. The language is simple and plain, as only seems appropriate for the barefaced, humble expression of innermost fears and desires before a God. And the form is unstructured, allowing for the free unconstrained flow of feelings.

The Psalms provide a view to David’s emotional state during many of the events described in 1 and 2 Samuel. David is as one might expect if in exile, pursued relentlessly and wanted dead, first by Saul and then by his own son, Absalom. He is sorrowful and terrified. In Psalm 6, he says “Be gracious to me, O Lord, for I am languishing; O Lord, heal me, for my bones are shaking with terror. My soul is also struck

King David, 1956, Chagall

with terror” and “I am weary with my moaning; every night I flood my bed with tears; I drench my couch with my weeping. My eyes waste away because of grief; they grow weak because of all my foes.” And in Psalm 69, “Save me, O God, for the waters have come up to my neck. I sink in deep mire, where there is no foothold; I have come into deep waters, and the flood sweeps over me. I am weary with my crying; my throat is parched. My eyes grow dim with waiting for my God.” On reading, it becomes quickly clear that he was a person pushed beyond his limit, struggling and desperate. It is in the Psalms that David comes to life, and now as a living and breathing anguished and despairing human, it becomes perhaps a little bit easier to understand his mistakes. And for these, David is self-reflective and penitent, “My wounds grow foul and fester because of my foolishness; I am utterly bowed down and prostrate; all day long I go around mourning” and “For I am ready to fall, and my pain is ever with me. I confess my iniquity; I am sorry for my sin” (Psalm 38). And “Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. Against you, you alone, have I sinned, and done what is evil in your sight”(Psalm 51).

Returning to the words of the Lord as related to David by Nathan, regarding the Covenant that has been made with him and his descendants, “When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your ancestors, 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. I will be a father to him, and he shall be a son to me. When he commits iniquity, I will punish him with a rod such as mortals use, with blows inflicted by human beings. But I will not take my steadfast love from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away from before you. Your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me, your throne shall be established forever”. David transgressed, and so will his descendants, and yet they will always have God’s favor. So why David? Because he was flawed. But he was also sincere, self-honest, quick to admit of his failings. He tried. A wise person once said that the meaning of the word “repentance” is “unremitting tendency towards the bettering, the beneficial, and the Good”. I think David knew and understood this. And when we come to understand this, through hardship, suffering, and full realization of the weight of our own mistakes, and yet continue to press on in pursuit of the betterment of ourselves, we have become David.