Do You Have the Heart of A Shepherd King?
Good Morning Friends,
There is a lot to learn from the life of David. Perhaps the most important is that God forgives. God admired David for it is said God recognized that David was a man after His own heart. His story is worth exploring in greater detail for there is in David’s character the reality of a sinner that has the potential of becoming a saint. David has a quality that God is looking for in each of us. Do You Have the Heart of A Shepherd King?
Scripture: You have granted [the king] the desire of his heart and have not withheld the request of his lips. . . . You welcomed him with rich blessings and placed a crown of pure gold on his head.
Psalm 21:23 (NIV)
I lift up my eyes to the hills– from where will my help come? My help comes from the LORD, who made heaven and earth. He will not let your foot be moved; he who keeps you will not slumber. He who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. The LORD is your keeper; the LORD is your shade at your right hand. The sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night. The LORD will keep you from all evil; he will keep your life. The LORD will keep your going out and your coming in from this time on and forevermore.
Psalm 121:1-8 (NRSV)
In the spring of the year, the time when kings go out to battle, David sent Joab with his officers and all Israel with him; they ravaged the Ammonites, and besieged Rabbah. But David remained at Jerusalem. It happened, late one afternoon, when David rose from his couch and was walking about on the roof of the king’s house, that he saw from the roof a woman bathing; the woman was very beautiful. David sent someone to inquire about the woman. It was reported, ‘This is Bathsheba daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite.’ So David sent messengers to fetch her, and she came to him, and he lay with her. (Now she was purifying herself after her period.) Then she returned to her house. The woman conceived; and she sent and told David, ‘I am pregnant.’
2 Samuel 11:1-11:5 (NRSV)
But they were silent, for on the way they had argued with one another about who was the greatest. He sat down, called the twelve, and said to them, ‘Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all. ‘Then he took a little child and put it among them; and taking it in his arms, he said to them, ‘Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes not me but the one who sent me.’
Mark 9:34-37
Message: There is no saint without a past and no sinner without a future. That is the message of David. He is an example both good and bad of what it means to be a human seeking the Kingdom of God. He is proof that our God looks beyond appearances into our heart. Today we read a Messianic psalm against the backdrop of a traveler’s psalm… a song of ascents sung as the people of Israel made their way in mass to the feast days. Here we cannot but help think of King David being crowned King… of Jesus riding into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. We cannot help but think of Christ’s return in the clouds to be crowned King of Kings. But I also think about the list of Kings in the Bible, some good and some bad and of the disciples desire to be kings on a throne. I think about Jesus with a crown of thorns. And all these images bring both comfort and discomfort. It must have been a great source of comfort for the travelers of Jesus’ day to be reminded of God’s protection as they walked to Jerusalem. Then when we crown Jesus and King over our lives we are also comforted for here God’s power is exalted. Friends, we all need help in life and today we learn in these psalms that the best help we can get is from the One on high. Here Christ comes to us as the King of Kings if we would but crown Him. Here we celebrate in His strength…Here His salvation for us is offered and the desires of our hearts satisfied. Here as the crown is put on His head His supreme power sustains our life in the splendor of His super abundant blessings. Here we find security through a personal relationship of faith in His loving-kindness even though we have attempted and failed in our own strength. Here the enemy is exposed and defeated. Here as we collectively submit to His plan. Here He becomes the source of our strength and this is worthy of praise that is sure to take away our cares. But also disturb us as well. The disciples had been arguing about who was the greatest disciple and Jesus turns the table on them saying that the greatest will be a servant of servants. In the kingdom of God it is really simple….So simple that a child can understand. You see a child sees and remembers. It may be in one ear and out the other but it is never in one eye and out the other. A child sees that prayer comes before the meal and learns the sequence of events. So today after you have read the passages, think in your mind of the pictures of Jesus and the children. Picture yourself in the art sharing in the incarnation of God’s beauty at the crossroads of the incarnation of God’s eternal human heart in the person of Jesus. The anointing of a king who is also a good shepherd.
Pray we realize that we all have influence. Pray we demonstrate that influence by being sensitive to do what God calls us to do minute by minute in the moment. Pray we set aside the weightier tasks of the day to experience childlike faith and love. Pray for fathers who will never be perfect but can be a blessing to their children in the little things of everyday life. Pray we realize that we can be strangers, servants or friends in our relationship with the King. Pray we realize that King Jesus will test the faith of his disciples. Pray that love brings unity of our faith, unity of our fellowship, unity of our family so we might bear fruits in a Kingdom where love rules over sin. Pray in our looking, asking, seeking, making, working, thinking and checking… in our knocking, networking, talking, risking and taking…in our drinking and breaking we build relationships that honor God in each of us and so build up the His Kingdom. Pray we learn from the Kings in the Bible. Pray we realize that are to have the attributes of a king but also a good shepherd. Pray we realize that we are called as a kingdom of priests, to minister to the needs of others.
Blessings,
John Lawson
Daily Devotionals 