What would you think if I introduced you to a man of whom I said the following: “He has been married to at least eight women. He has several children, including one who is a murderer, one a rapist, one a seditionist, and one a womanizer. He has a history filled with tragedy. On one occasion he had an affair with a married neighbor, then tried to cover it up by having her husband killed when he learned that a child was due to be born as a result of their tryst.”
Sounds pretty sordid doesn’t it? What if I were to add: “This man is a man after God’s own heart!”
You’d probably think I had flipped! How absurd to think that a polygamist adulterer who had committed murder could ever be called a man after God’s own heart! Though most of us are not from Missouri, we’re maybe mule-headed enough that we’d have to see it to believe it on this one.
Well, here is a New Testament commentary on the life of the man I just described: “And when he had removed him, he raised up unto them David to be their king; to whom he gave testimony and said, ‘I have found David, the son of Jesse, a man after mine own heart, which shall fulfill my will.’” (Acts 13:22)
What Paul said in his sermon in a synagogue in Antioch of Pisidia was just a verse from I Samuel 13:14, when the prophet/judge Samuel said to Saul, in announcing that God would set Saul aside from being king because of his disobedience: “But now thy kingdom shall not continue: the Lord hath sought him a man after his own heart, and the Lord hath commanded him to be captain over his people because thou hast not kept that which the Lord commanded thee.”
Do not think, however, that David got a pass for all of his gross transgressions of the law. He paid an awful price as a husband, father, and leader/king, a price that was crushing to his heart and soul. But, God saw in David, flawed as he was, a man who had a heart for God—for many reasons, I think, including the following:
- David was a man of courage: “What time I am afraid, I will trust in thee.” (Ps.56:3) He had squared off with the Devil face to face in the person of Goliath. But he would testify that “He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty…Thou shalt not be afraid of the terror by night, nor for the arrow that flieth by day, nor for the pestilence that walketh In darkness…A thousand shall fall at thy side and 10,000 at thy right hand…for He shall give His angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways.” (Ps.91:1ff.)
- David was a man of compliance to the Word of God. When God’s prophet rebuked the king for his sin, David’s immediate response was “I have sinned against the Lord.” (II Sam. 12:1,2) He would later testify, “I delight to do thy will, O my God,” and “I have chosen the way of truth,” and “I have refrained my feet from every evil way,” praying “Order my steps in Thy word.” (Ps.40:8; Ps.119:30; Ps.119:101; Ps.119:133)
- David was a man of compassion. His worthy watchfulness over the surviving descendent of Jonathan, Mephibosheth, to fulfill a promise, put his compassionate heart on display. (2 Sam.9:1ff)
- David was a man of contrition, as evidence by his broken heart, soul and spirit—seen in his anguish in Ps.51. He acknowledged that his sin was against God, v. 4; that he himself had a sin nature, v. 5; that he had grieved God’s Holy Spirit, v.11; and that his sin had caused his worship of God to be hindered, v. 19.
David was the second king over Israel. He was anything but perfect, and his administration was full of tragedies. In many respects, he failed God. But of him it was said, “He was a man after God’s own heart.”
If you are saved, you too are a “king.” (Rev.5:10) God calls you that. Yet, since your salvation, you too have failed God many times. Tragedy may have blotted your record and marred your testimony. Like David, though, it can be said of you: “There is a person after God’s own heart.”
Do you have courage in God’s power? Are your compliant to His Word? Do you have a compassionate heart? When confronted by God with your sin, are you contrite and penitent?
“Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile…I acknowledged my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord; and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin. Selah.” (David, Psalm 32:2,5)
YOU and GOD 