The one nobody called in
Samuel is sent to a family in Bethlehem to anoint a king, and the sons are brought past him one by one. He is impressed by the tall one, and corrected.
But The Lord God said to Samuel, "Don't look on his face, or on the height of his stature; because I have rejected him: for I see not as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but The Lord God looks at the heart."
None of the seven is the one. Samuel asks whether that is all of them. There is one more, the youngest, out with the sheep, and nobody had thought to fetch him (1 Samuel 16:11).
They send for him, and the Lord God says, arise, anoint him, this is he (1 Samuel 16:12). Samuel pours the oil, and the Spirit of the Lord God comes on David from that day (1 Samuel 16:13).
He goes back to the sheep.
The giant
A champion of the Philistines stands out between the armies for forty days and no one will face him. David, delivering bread and cheese to his brothers, hears him and asks why nobody has (1 Samuel 17:26). He is offered armour and cannot walk in it, so he takes it off. What he says to the giant is the whole of his theology in one sentence.
Then David said to the Philistine, "You come to me with a sword, and with a spear, and with a javelin: but I come to you in the name of The Lord God of Armies, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied.
Five smooth stones and a sling. One was enough.
Hunted, then king
What follows is years of being chased by the king he plays music for. Twice he has Saul at his mercy and twice he will not touch him (1 Samuel 24, 26). Then Saul falls in battle, and David is made king, first over Judah and then over all of them (2 Samuel 2, 5).
The Recitation remembers him as a king who was given strength, wisdom and discernment in speech (The Recitation 38:20), and as one who repeatedly turned back to the Lord God (The Recitation 38:17). It says the mountains and the birds were made to repeat praises along with him (The Recitation 21:79, 34:10, 38:18–19).
It says iron was made pliable for him and he was taught to make coats of mail, and told to work righteousness (The Recitation 34:10–11, 21:80). And it gives him and his son a shared case: two men judging about a field that sheep had wandered into, with the Lord God as witness to both judgements (The Recitation 21:78–79).
What he did wrong
The Torah's histories do not protect him. One evening he is on the roof and sees a woman bathing, sends to ask who she is, is told she is the wife of Uriah, and sends for her anyway (2 Samuel 11:2–4). When she is with child, he arranges for Uriah to be put where the fighting is hardest, and Uriah is killed (2 Samuel 11:14–17).
The prophet Nathan comes to him with a story about a rich man who took a poor man's one lamb, and David burns with anger at the rich man. Nathan says four words.
Nathan said to David, "You are the man."
David does not argue, does not explain, and does not send Nathan away. He says, "I have sinned against The Lord God" (2 Samuel 12:13). The consequences run on for years and the book records them in full. But the turning was immediate.
The psalm he wrote afterwards
Psalm 51 is the prayer of a man with nothing left to bargain with.
Have mercy on me, God, according to your loving kindness. According to the multitude of your tender mercies, blot out my transgressions.
Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity. Cleanse me from my sin.
For I know my transgressions. My sin is constantly before me.
He asks for a clean heart and a right spirit (Psalm 51:10). He says the sacrifices of the Lord God are a broken spirit, and that a broken and contrite heart He will not despise (Psalm 51:17).
And the psalm people know best is his too, written by a man who had actually kept sheep.
The Lord God is my shepherd: I shall lack nothing.
What the Lord God said of him
He chose him when his own family had left him in the field, and said He looks at the heart (1 Samuel 16:7). He made him king and delivered him from Saul's hand (2 Samuel 12:7).
He said of him, through Nathan, "I will be his father, and he shall be my son", and in the same breath said that if he did wrong he would be corrected (2 Samuel 7:14).
He put away his sin when he owned it (2 Samuel 12:13). He called him "Our servant, David, the possessor of strength", and said he was one who repeatedly turned back (The Recitation 38:17). And He gave him an office and a warning together.
"O David, indeed We have made you a successor upon the earth, so judge between the people in truth and do not follow desire, as it will lead you astray from the way of The God."
A king, given the Psalms, corrected in public, and forgiven. All four of those are in the record, and the record keeps none of them quiet.
A prayer
Lord God Almighty, You look at the heart when everyone else is looking at the height. Choose us out of the field. When we are told "you are the man", let us say what David said and say it at once. Have mercy on us according to Your loving kindness. Create in us a clean heart. Be our shepherd, and we shall lack nothing.
Questions people might ask
What did David do wrong?
He took another man's wife and had the man killed (2 Samuel 11). Nathan the prophet told him a story that made him judge himself (2 Samuel 12:1-7). The Recitation tells of the two who came to him with a case, and of his turning back (The Recitation 38:21-24).
Was he forgiven?
Yes. Nathan said the Lord God had put away his sin (2 Samuel 12:13). The Lord God revealed to us in the Recitation that He forgave him, and he has nearness to Him (The Recitation 38:25).
Did David write all the Psalms?
Many carry his name. The Lord God revealed to us in the Recitation that He gave David the Zabur, the Psalms (The Recitation 4:163, 17:55). Others in the book are by other singers.
