Reverence and Awe

» Today's reading at Blue Letter Bible

It is refreshing that in 2 Samuel the author describes David as, "The Sweet Psalmist of God." David had lived a life full of great success and tremendous failure; He had committed sins in his life that few of us will ever equal. Even with all his dubious deeds he was still referred to as a man after God's own heart.

After all was said and done, David acknowledged his sin before God and understood the resulting pain and suffering that it caused in his life. David understood the folly of living his life separated from God; making decisions based on his own understanding.

I said to the Lord, “You are my Lord; apart from you I have no good thing.” Psalms 16:2

David recognized that the only good in him was the God in him. Great godly men are willing to step aside from their own need and humble themselves before an almighty God.

“The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart— These, O God, You will not despise.” David in Psalm 51:17

2 Samuel 15 - “Let Him (God) do to me whatever seems good to him."

2 Samuel 15:26 “You (Lord) are justified in Your sentence and faultless in Your judgment.”

David never complained about God’s severe discipline for his sins. He never said “my punishment is more than I deserve.”

Spurgeon's last exhortation in his commentary is, "As we are instructed in the same school (as David), as we grow matured in grace and in years, we increasingly appreciate David's psalms, and find them to be "green pastures." My soul let David's experience cheer and counsel thee this day."

Spurgeon is exhorting us to make David's life a source of inspiration in that we can look at his life and learn from his successes as well as mistakes knowing all the while that God considered him to be "a man after His own heart."