Question about King David

[Herald]

"Go, say to Jeroboam, 'Thus says the Lord God of Israel, "Because I exalted you from among the people and made you leader over My people Israel, and tore the kingdom away from the house of David and gave it to you - yet you have not been like My servant David, who kept My commandments and who followed Me with all his heart, to do only that which was right in My sight..." (1 Kings 14:7-8)

How can the prophet say of David that he kept the commandments of God and followed Him with all his heart in light of some of the serious sins that David committed? Adultery, conspiracy, and murder come to mind over the Bathsheba incident. David was a bad father. The census towards the end of his reign displayed a lack of faith on his part. Could it be that David's tender heart - his willingness to repent when confronted about his sin - displayed his general obedience to God? David's willingness to repent is displayed as a result of Nathan's rebuke in 2 Samuel 12.

In New Covenant parlance we would say that we are clothed with Christ's righteousness, therefore we are pleasing to God. Should this effect how we try to understand David doing "only that which was right in My sight" in 1 Kings 14?

 

[PaulMc]

I would agree that it refers to his general obedience.

Those verses can also be looked at alongside one in the very next chapter, which gives the one major exception:

'...David did that which was right in the eyes of the LORD, and turned not aside from any thing that he commanded him all the days of his life, save only in the matter of Uriah the Hittite' 1 Kings 15:5

 

[Mushroom]

Christ was David's righteousness then as He is ours now, right?

 

[A5pointer]

Christ was David's righteousness then as He is ours now, right?

While this is true. David's righteousness spoken of here is of a general summary nature. David even claims this righteousness himself in the psalms. It is a very different concept in the OT than that of the same language in the New regarding perfect meritorious righteousness found only in Christ.

 

[Bill The Baptist]

I would agree that this passage does not refer to all the commandments, but specifically refers to the first and second commandment. David's greatness was in that he never turned aside to false gods or idols, as virtually all of the later kings did.

 

[Mushroom]

Christ was David's righteousness then as He is ours now, right?

While this is true. David's righteousness spoken of here is of a general summary nature. David even claims this righteousness himself in the psalms. It is a very different concept in the OT than that of the same language in the New regarding perfect meritorious righteousness found only in Christ.

I'd probably disagree that that it is very different in reality, although obviously there is some difference in the perception by the members of the Church.

 

[Contra_Mundum]

In the Psalms, David speaks with a harmony of voices. His protests of radical purity and innocence are an idealized statement, as mediatorial head of the nation, and as one who prefigures the Christ. I don't see bona fide disconnect between OT and NT conceptions. The OT sees more dimly, but the reality is nothing less.

David is not idiotic or schizophrenic. He doesn't think he's sinful one hour, and pure the next. No one born entirely of flesh ever knew more that his righteousness before God was a forgiven status. "Blessed is the one to whom the Lord will not impute iniquity." But the bottom line is, the national king had impossibly big shoes to fill, when they were men with feet of clay.

 

[Herald]

In the Psalms, David speaks with a harmony of voices. His protests of radical purity and innocence are an idealized statement, as mediatorial head of the nation, and as one who prefigures the Christ. I don't see bona fide disconnect between OT and NT conceptions. The OT sees more dimly, but the reality is nothing less.

David is not idiotic or schizophrenic. He doesn't think he's sinful one hour, and pure the next. No one born entirely of flesh ever knew more that his righteousness before God was a forgiven status. "Blessed is the one to whom the Lord will not impute iniquity." But the bottom line is, the national king had impossibly big shoes to fill, when they were men with feet of clay.

David was a fallible man, as we all are. Thank God that, "Blessed is the one who who the Lord will not impute iniquity". David knew the spiritual reality of imputed righteousness even if the historical event that would make such imputation possible was still hundreds of years away.

How would we view a Christian today who committed the same sins as David: adultery, murder, and tempting God? Would we be quick to forgive or quick to impugn? As I indicated in the OP, I think the key to understanding David is his tender heart and ready willingness to repent when confronted about his sin. Forgiveness does not eliminate the earthly consequences of sin. Rob a bank and you are likely to go to jail. Commit adultery and you may damage lives beyond your own.

 

[a mere housewife]

Rev. Brown, I noticed a few years ago how God even uses the consequences of David's sin (which are so terrible and shatter his heart) to make his life an even more exquisite pattern of Christ's. It is while Absalom is betraying him that he goes over the brook Kidron, as Christ does later when Judas is betraying him (which is just a small detail of what I am trying to say, and which relates to themes that I don't quite have clear in my own head). His sin in the census brings such terrible devastation on the people but it also gives us one of the most intensely clear pictures of Christ, mediating in the place of sacrifice. His life is still being conformed to Christ's even though his life so clearly shows that he is not the Messiah King: both his likeness to Christ and his own inadequacy to fill those shoes, as Rev. Buchanan cites, are only etched deeper with pain and sorrow? It seems he is ultimately more bound to Christ as the outcome of those things which prove (and lead him to so contritely confess -- as you have said) that he too needed a Saviour.

 

[JimmyH]

A.W. Pink, from "The Life Of David" Vol. 2, chapter 55 ;

It is to be noted that the title affixed to Psalm 51 is "A Psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet came unto him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba." Beautifully did Spurgeon point out in his introductory remarks, "When the divine message had aroused his dormant conscience and made him see the greatness of his guilt, he wrote this Psalm. He had forgotten his psalmody while he was indulging his flesh, but he returned to his harp when his spiritual nature was awakened, and he poured out his song to the accompaniment of sighs and tears." Great as was David’s sin, yet he repented, and was restored. The depths of his anguish and the reality of his repentance are evident in every verse. In it we may behold the grief and the desires of a contrite soul pouring out his heart before God, humbly and earnestly suing for His mercy. Only the Day to come will reveal how many sin-tormented souls have from this Psalm, "all blotted with the tears in which David sobbed out his repentance," found a path for backsliders in a great and howling desert.

The Life of David, Vol. I. , Vol. II

 

[Herald]

Rev. Brown, I noticed a few years ago how God even uses the consequences of David's sin (which are so terrible and shatter his heart) to make his life an even more exquisite pattern of Christ's. It is while Absalom is betraying him that he goes over the brook Kidron, as Christ does later when Judas is betraying him (which is just a small detail of what I am trying to say, and which relates to themes that I don't quite have clear in my own head). His sin in the census brings such terrible devastation on the people but it also gives us one of the most intensely clear pictures of Christ, mediating in the place of sacrifice. His life is still being conformed to Christ's even though his life so clearly shows that he is not the Messiah King: both his likeness to Christ and his own inadequacy to fill those shoes, as Rev. Buchanan cites, are only etched deeper with pain and sorrow? It seems he is ultimately more bound to Christ as the outcome of those things which prove (and lead him to so contritely confess -- as you have said) that he too needed a Saviour.

Heidi, I do not disagree with you at all. David's sufficiency was found in the Consolation of Israel, even though that event was yet in the future. I think it is helpful to make that point because there was nothing righteous about David apart from the righteousness that comes by faith. Instead of denigrating David, I see texts such as 1 Kings 14:7-8 and Acts 13:22 as highlighting God's marvelous grace and abundant mercy. The story of David is both encouragement and warning. We should be encouraged that no one is beyond the reach of God's grace. But we should heed the warning that David's life provides; a warning against presumptuous sin, for it certainly has consequences.

 

[a mere housewife]

Thank you, Rev. Brown. Those are strong consolations and quite terrifying warnings. I was also thinking, reading what you and others have said, of how clearly David's life sets forth that repentance is a necessary part of our conformity to Christ. It seems like a strange thing to think -- but then I remember other things said about the Psalms, how He becomes a pattern of repentance for us in identifying with our sins -- something made very vivid in David's penitential Psalms.