“Incline your ear and come unto Me: hear, and your soul shall live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David.” Isaiah 55:3
Why is it that at what seems the middle point of history, we find a man called David. This man is in the lineage of Christ. He is set by God to be a pillar of truth, and blessing through the Scriptures, so that mankind should know something of God, come to love and serve Christ. God said, through the prophet Isaiah, concerning David: “Behold, I have given him for a witness to the people, a leader and commander to the people.” (55:4) David was called, set apart, and equipped in a most distinct and complete fashion, to testify by his words, life, and deeds, that there is a God, and He has revealed Himself to men, so that by His saving grace, and the giving forth of His power, men should come to know Him. The witness that David became, first as a shepherd boy, learning the ways of God out in the field keeping is father’s sheep, and later during his slow ascension to the throne of Israel and Judah, would first and foremost declare to the nation of Israel that God was present, working, moving, saving, and bringing about His perfect will and purposes. The ultimate reason for this was to provide a knowledge of God to the people of Israel so that they could truly and profoundly worship God in Spirit and in truth, knowing the blessing of God in and through their lives. This witness was first to Israel, but then it would expand to the entire world. The renown, or the testimony of David, by words and deeds, by His songs which ring out through churches today, are possessed of a power and strength that only God could give. Nations have been moved, and enemies conquered, and the reigns of kings have risen and fallen, but the testimony to the truth of who God was in David’s day, continues into our very own. There are in David’s writings and testimony mentioned in Scripture, the revelation of the “old paths,” those ways of God which have been established from the foundation of the world, that men might know Him in truth. David’s words, teaching, songs, and proclamation of the truth to his generation, and now to our own, have been proven the be correct, and true. What then was the key to David’s life, that though he be dead, yet He speaks still? And does the testimony of this man move men today, inspiring them in their pursuit of God, to know Him in some measure like this anointed king of Israel?
The preparation for the coming of David began generations before him being born. We discover in Scripture God’s original, and totally quiet, slow preparation for David’s birth when we read in the book of Ruth that, by her marriage to Boaz, during the days of the judges, they would have a son. His name would be Obed, the father of Jesse, who would be the father of David. Nobody ever suspected, or anticipated, God’s working at this time, and in this way, but quietly, and certainly God would specifically call out from among the sons of men, an individual like all others, and yet different. Though born a sinner like all men, he would be distinguished by God’s powerful blessing, to awaken the then known world to the presence and power of God, and His will to bring all men to faith in the true, living God. David would be that centerpiece, that example, and that sign along history’s way, that men can know God, love and serve Him.
The Key to David’s life was the Christ of David, that One who anointed him to be king over His people. God said of David, “I have found David, the son of Jesse, a man after Mine own heart, which shall fulfill all my will.” (Acts 13:22) David’s thirst for God moved him primarily to pursue Christ.
Dear Father, Strengthen us to pursue. In Jesus’ name, Amen.