The Life of King David

I need to get back to posting more regularly and as I read of the end of David's life this morning it felt like a milestone too significant to pass without comment.

When we first meet him he is overlooked by his father. When Samuel invites Jesse and sons to a feast and subsequently asks if Jesse has brought all of his sons we get:
"There is still the youngest," Jesse answered, "but he is tending the sheep."
That, along with other glimpses into his early home life, makes me wonder if David was seen as the runt of the litter. The good looking, poetic sheep tender of little substance and lesser value.

Through an interesting series of circumstances David finds himself at court. Knowing he has been anointed but not pressing the issue. His battle with Goliath, as I have pointed at previously, comes AFTER some time at court. But it is this event that thrusts him into the limelight and begins the animosity from Saul.

He is thrust into a life in the wilderness where God teaches him what it is to be a leader of men, preparing him to be king. How interesting that his preparation happens out there rather than in the palaces of kings.
His "rule" in marked in stark contrast to Saul's.
One of the hallmarks of David's time in the wilderness is his repeated command to his men that they must not take Saul's life, even when it appears God has given it to them, because he is "the Lord's anointed." All the while Saul is pursuing David, who IS "the Lord's anointed", in order to take his life.

As David comes into his own we see that he has a bit of an eye for the ladies. In the case of Abigail (1Sam 35:29) he waits until she is "available" but he manipulates the situation when it comes to Bathsheba (2Sam 11:16).

He is by no means perfect but through it all he is referred to as a "man after God's own heart"...which I love because it lets ME off the hook in terms of trying to perform at some sort of religiously perfect level.

We find him to be a loving father although one who has trouble ruling his own household.
I wonder if his inability to confront his sons rebellions...Absalom and and Adonijah...stems from the way his father treated him as a boy?

He appears to be quite politically adept, confronting when it is needed (outside of his family), and allowing things to go unaddressed when the time is not right. In this regard I find his interaction with Joab interesting. He obviously knows when Joab has crossed the line but chooses not to do anything...leaving that finally to his son Solomon.

Although he is one of the "heroes" of the bible I see him as a kind of "everyman" or perhaps better said as the kind of man that we can easily aspire to...a God-fearing warrior-poet who is far from perfect, willing to confess his own shortcomings, and strong enough to step up to the plate and do something about them from time to time.

I must confess I am sad to "see him go"...I almost want to suspend the journey through the bible here and go back and read "his-story" again.