Play

These past couple of months, we’ve been going through the Life of David as recorded in 1 & 2 Samuel. David is an amazing man - a king, a great warrior, the giant-slayer, the man after God’s own heart. Today, I want to look at another side of him - David the poet, the musician, the songwriter. You may remember that David was first introduced to King Saul’s court as a young man skilled on the harp. There are 150 Psalms in the Old Testament, and David is responsible for at least 73 of the Psalms, which is incredible. Many of those Psalms have become songs we sing today:

Give us clean hands - Psalm 24:3-6 - Who may ascend the hill of the LORD? Who may stand in his holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to an idol or swear by what is false. ⁵ He will receive blessing from the LORD and vindication from God his Savior. ⁶ Such is the generation of those who seek him, who seek your face, O God of Jacob.

Your love oh Lord - Psalm 36:5-6 - Your love, O LORD, reaches to the heavens, your faithfulness to the skies. ⁶ Your righteousness is like the mighty mountains, your justice like the great deep.

Create in me a clean heart - Psalm 51:10-12 - Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. ¹¹ Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me. ¹² Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.

Psalm 63 - Psalm 63:1-5 - O God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you, my body longs for you, in a dry and weary land where there is no water. ² I have seen you in the sanctuary and beheld your power and your glory. ³ Because your love is better than life, my lips will glorify you. ⁴ I will praise you as long as I live, and in your name I will lift up my hands. ⁵ My soul will be satisfied as with the richest of foods; with singing lips my mouth will praise you.

How long, O Lord? - Psalm 13:1-6 - How long, O LORD? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? ² How long must I wrestle with my thoughts and every day have sorrow in my heart? How long will my enemy triumph over me? ³ Look on me and answer, O LORD my God. Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep in death; ⁴ my enemy will say, "I have overcome him," and my foes will rejoice when I fall. ⁵ But I trust in your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation. ⁶ I will sing to the LORD, for he has been good to me.

This man was a serious top-40 songwriter. And the great thing is that so many of those Psalms come out of real experiences in David’s life, as noted in the beginning of some of the Psalms. See if you hear a common theme:

Psalm 3 – When he fled from his son Absalom

Psalm 34 – When he pretended to be insane before Abimelech, who drove him away, and he left

Psalm 51 – When the prophet Nathan came to David after he committed adultery with Bathsheba

Psalm 52 - When Doeg the Edomite had gone to Saul and told him: "David has gone to the house of Ahimelech."

Psalm 54 - When the Ziphites had gone to Saul and said, "Is not David hiding among us?"

Psalm 56 - When the Philistines had seized him in Gath.

Psalm 57 - When he had fled from Saul into the cave.

Psalm 59 - When Saul had sent men to watch David's house in order to kill him.

Psalm 60 - When he fought Aram Naharaim and Aram Zobah, and when Joab returned and struck down twelve thousand Edomites in the Valley of Salt.

Psalm 63:1-5 A psalm of David. When he was in the Desert of Judah.

I find it so interesting how many of these Psalms were written during times of suffering. See how often David suffered, and how often in his suffering he turned to God, pouring out his heart to the Lord. David’s life was so full of suffering, more than most of us have experienced. He ran for his life from King Saul, he had an infant son die, he ran for his life from his son Absalom, he had family tragedy, and he had enemies bent on destroying him. But David’s Psalms have so much to teach us about how to do deal with intense suffering, pain, and disappointment.