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David Learns Through Hardship, November 16
And David reigned over all Israel; and David executed judgment and
justice unto all his people.
2 Samuel 8:15
.
A few miles south of Jerusalem, “the city of the great King,” is Bethlehem,
where David, the son of Jesse, was born more than a thousand years before the
infant Jesus was cradled in the manger and worshiped by the Wise Men from
the East. Centuries before the advent of the Saviour, David, in the freshness
of boyhood, kept watch of his flocks as they grazed on the hills surrounding
Bethlehem. The simple shepherd boy sang the songs of his own composing,
and the music of his harp made a sweet accompaniment to the melody of his
fresh young voice. The Lord had chosen David, and was preparing him, in his
solitary life with his flocks, for the work He designed to commit to his trust in
afteryears.—
Patriarchs and Prophets, 637
.
David in his youth was intimately associated with Saul, and his stay at court
and his connection with the king’s household gave him an insight into the cares
and sorrows and perplexities concealed by the glitter and pomp of royalty. He saw
of how little worth is human glory to bring peace to the soul. And it was with
relief and gladness that he returned from the king’s court to the sheepfolds and the
flocks.
When by the jealousy of Saul driven a fugitive into the wilderness, David,
cut off from human support, leaned more heavily upon God. The uncertainty
and unrest of the wilderness life, its unceasing peril, its necessity for frequent
flight, the character of the men who gathered to him there—“every one that was
in distress, and every one that was in debt, and everyone that was discontented” (
1
Samuel 22:2
)—all rendered the more essential a stern self-discipline.
These experiences aroused and developed power to deal with men, sympathy
for the oppressed, and hatred of injustice. Through years of waiting and peril,
David learned to find in God his comfort, his support, his life. He learned that only
by God’s power could he come to the throne; only in His wisdom could he rule
wisely. It was through the training in the school of hardship and sorrow that David
was able to make the record—though afterward marred with his great sin—that he
“executed judgment and justice unto all his people.”—
Education, 152
.
The love that moved him, the sorrows that beset him, the triumphs that attended
him, were all themes for his active thought; and as he beheld the love of God in
all the providences of his life, his heart throbbed with more fervent adoration and
gratitude, his voice rang out in a richer melody, his harp was swept with more
exultant joy; and the shepherd boy proceeded from strength to strength, from
knowledge to knowledge; for the Spirit of the Lord was upon him.—
Patriarchs
and Prophets, 642
.
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