David's "BUT"

January 15, 2023

David is heralded as one of the Bible’s great heroes, a man after God’s own heart. His heroic acts as well as his shortcomings have been widely studied. We often see his story as one that signals that God is a redemptive God who can use anyone. In that, David was the youngest of eight sons – a small shepherd boy who would eventually become king and champion of Israel. Our Messiah came from David’s line; this is the prominence David has – no small feat.

What has made David one of my personal Bible heroes is his honest conversations with God. His “how long oh Lord” is something I can surely relate to. David wrote about half the Psalms and his deep cries of lament and perseverance has made his the most popular of them all. It’s where many people run when they are on the cusp of despair and can’t find the words; they use David’s, “keep me lord, don’t let me fall” or the ever favourite “save me from my enemies” Psalms.

We see from the account of David’s life in the books of Samuel as well as through his Psalms that he fell in love with God, he had a deep and personal relationship with Him. Even as a young man he had immense faith to believe he could kill a giant with stones! And before that, fighting and winning against lions and bears. Let that sink in, lions and bears, David fought lions and bears. Goliath is one thing but lions and bears?! Have you seen a lion or bear lately? Ok I think I made my point, we can all agree he had immense faith and courage.

I come to David’s story trying to understand how he was able to have such great faith and fall in love with God despite all the challenges he faced. We know he had great faith because almost every time after his lament he would say “BUT… you oh Lord are such and such”. What gave David his “But”? What made him always go back to “but you are my God, my faithful God, the everlasting that knit me in my mother’s womb”. I am intrigued to find out the essence of David’s critical pivot.

It’s a compelling story for me because David was given a promise by the anointing of God’s own servant to be King. Yet he endured so much between the time he was anointed and actually becoming King of Israel. During this sort of in-between period, David ran for his life from Saul for years as well as fighting other enemies. I repeat for emphasis that from all accounts of David’s life, we glean that this period was often spiritually difficult for him; he was not always on the mountain top of faith. But we know he was always honest with God and the punchline is that he always got back to the place of establishing who God is and kept holding on to his promise.

I want to know what made him fall in love through those years when the promise seemed to be a fleeting dream? I’m examining this because there have been times where it has been hard to feel loved by God during my own difficult times, when I am holding on to promises not yet met. I have struggled with “well if you love me, wouldn’t you save me sooner? Or “why have me face this if you truly love me, what happened to my promises God?” But David got a promise from God and held on to it despite having to hide in caves not knowing what would happen next. There must have been times when it seemed this promise would never manifest.

Can you hold on to a promise when it seems like it will never happen? Can you fall in love with the promise keeper when it seems like it was all a hoax? When it seems you would more likely lose your life over a promise rather than walk in it?

David always had a “But” GOD, I want to dive deeper into what that “but” meant for David, I want to learn from him to improve my own walk with God. So, I’ll be back when I’m done reading this story again.