Lessons From The Life Of David

Heyyy Guyssss. How are you doing? I hope you are having a great week? I have been having a good week so far. This post is long overdue. I can’t believe I have been hoarding this content for a while.

A few weeks ago, I studied the book of 1 Samuel down to the book of 2 Kings. I won’t explicitly explain everything because it’s a lot but, I will be explaining the part that involves David and Saul. David was anointed King of Israel by Samuel while Saul was still King and that’s something. Imagine God already ordaining a replacement for someone that is already on the throne. It must have been humiliating for Saul, for people to start recognizing David as King while he was still there. So, he got jealous and tried everything to kill David. The best and most shocking part is how David was still loyal to Saul even till his(Saul) death.

I’m always very intentional about reading about the life of David. Although he was not a perfect man, he lived a very excellent life that pleased God. He was a man after God’s heart.

David lived an exemplary life. Not a perfect one, just one that was deserving to be called a one worthy of an example. I’ll be highlighting a few lessons that I have learnt from David’s life and comparing some of them to Saul’s mistakes.

1. David chose the opinion of God over that of man. One thing that distinguished Saul and David was the fact that David looked to God and cared more about God’s opinions than that of man. in 1 Samuel 13, Saul was instructed by Prophet Samuel to wait at Gilgal so that he would come offer sacrifices to God. After waiting a while, Saul’s men started to slip away so Saul got agitated and decided to perform the sacrifice by himself instead of obeying. That is where this famous “obedience is better than sacrifice” came from. David on the other hand always made sure he looked to God first before making any move. In 1 Samuel 24, Saul was relieving himself in the same cave that David was and he was unarmed, David’s men urged him to kill Saul seeing as “it was his chance”, but David knew better than to listen to the words of men, he told his men that he would not harm the anointed of God.
2. In times of distress and confusion, David turned to God. It is very clear from the book of psalms that David always turned to God in times of distress. In 1 Samuel 28, when Saul was distressed and confused, he turned to a medium for help. Whenever David felt down, or even happy, he turned to the Lord first. David understood the place of God in his life and he took God very seriously.
3. David was repentant. David did two notable bad things during his lifetime; he killed Uriah and took his wife and he also conducted a census which was something God commanded against. But, the best part? David was repentant. He repented and never did these things again. Hmm, the number of times Saul said he won’t try to kill David again and still went on to do it. Hmmm. It is well.
4. David trusted God’s timing. David was anointed king when he was a teenager, but he didn’t become King of the whole of Israel till he was 30. He had opportunities to kill Saul and take over but he didn’t. He trusted God’s timing. He trusted that the God that chose him as king will make him king at the right time.
5. David consulted God first in everything. There was never a battle that David didn’t consult God first before going. David asked God about anything first before doing anything. It is one of the reasons Saul wasn’t able to kill him. in 1 Samuel 23, David protected the town of Keilah from the Philistines, and then the news got to Saul that David was there. David immediately consulted God to know if the people of Keilah would betray him to Saul and God said yes. Imagine David just relaxed and didn’t bother thinking that the people of Keilah would do “one good turn deserves another”, it would have been a different story.

In summary, one thing that made David stand out was his relationship with God. It was loud and open. David was never ashamed to acknowledge God in anything. He took God so seriously and it paid off. He was an excellent man in everything and he was a man of integrity, never ashamed to show his emotions too. I believe David is a good example to follow in the terms of building a relationship with God. What do you think?

That’ll be all for now. I hope this was a great read?

Till next time. Remain awesome.

Love, Francess.