David, The Worshipper
King David. The worshipping warrior. The man God calls His friend. The very picture of the Warrior who is intimate with the one for whom he is at war. Of course, every example we are given in Scripture are of human people living for a perfect God. It is debatable though, whether we are given another such example as the life of David. His emotional highs and lows speak to our emotions today. His commitment to being true to his heart, for good or for bad, speaks to those of us who have given our honest efforts in spite of our humanity and weakness.
Many aspects of the life of David can be translated into our everyday situations to encourage and uplift us, allowing us into that same friendship relationship with our God. King David is one of the finest examples in Scripture that encompasses the full description of the Warrior Bride. The intimacy and warfare that define David’s life from beginning to end is what should hallmark our existence.
Graciously, we are shown this man’s personal communication with his Commander/Bridegroom. His confidences, his fear, his anger, his peace – all are shown in their transparency to help us know that that level of communication we seek is attainable. Even the times of ignoring that voice, David is quick to re-establish the communication necessary to set things right. To quote from an earlier passage, it is not the perfection of our trying, but in the trying itself which pleases our Commander/Bridegroom.
One of the remarkable aspects of David’s life, from our earliest pictures would be the sense of abandon and freedom we see written across every encounter David has with God. God seems to make it a point to show us that David’s responses are with his total heart and with no thought for what may be the expectation of others. As God’s friend, it was imperative that God allowed us into the areas where David ignored the communication that was so imperative to them both.
We would lose a valuable example of what we are aspiring to attain in our lives, if we could not look past David’s weaknesses, and look onto what He was in the eyes of God. Again, we have done this at times on a surface level, which meets our needs up to this point. It behooves us to diligently take note of the heart response of this particular example, in order to search our own heart for the abandon and freedom we need to carry on.
The place of freedom is a powerful place to live. It is a place of truth, a place of joy, a place of anger and sometimes a place of pain. Most of all, however, it is a place of honesty. Our heartfelt response to every situation that comes across our path, this is the place of freedom. What makes this place a place with such power, is that it is precisely our heartfelt reactions that gives us our truest indication of where we are in our journey. Most of us find it necessary to temper or moderate what we are truly feeling, probably for the benefit of those around us. Total abandon and true freedom make it impossible to live a life that does not make extreme choices. This life is not a people pleasing life. It takes us out of the place where we feel most comfortable, watching over sheep in the pasture, and into the place of power, meeting and destroying our Goliaths.
In the past we have had to be so careful, so wary. Our examples of freedom and abandon have been less than solid. We have our tradition, our propriety, and our godly order that helps us maintain control. I would suggest that these are vital for the life of any of us who wants the stability and strength that comes from order. In looking at David’s life, however, I do not see someone who has gone off any deep ends to expose what was in his heart. There is no indication that he lost any of his understanding of the holiness of God. If anything, David’s understanding of the reverence of God was enhanced by his freedom. There is much to suggest that his heart dictated his actions, and his heart was that of one who understood who he was to God.
Looking for a moment at the more self-seeking areas of David’s heart, we find that he is just as honest in his responses. His issues and weaknesses have been displayed publicly for generations and generations to see, judge, and learn from. What if the self-seeking areas in our hearts were to come to light? It doesn’t matter where our walk finds us – from minister to homemaker, from judge to convict; our heart is the issue and has been from the beginning. David’s heart was free. It was free to worship and express that worship in the truest sense possible. It was free to listen and follow all the instructions needed to destroy a giant. His heart was repentant and he was quick to fall on his face in repentance, as his weakness became clear.
Would that we all could have our honest responses so close to the heart of our Commander/Bridegroom. It takes us a series of checks and balances, a list of right and wrong responses, before we can find the truth inside. Am I suggesting that order and checks for balance are done away with, all in the name of freedom and abandon? Absolutely not! May it never be that we lose our ability to be checked in our spirit. May we stop giving place in our hearts for secret sin. The self-serving and self-seeking kind that must be tempered before it can be brought out.
I am, however, suggesting that the more our heart response comes in line with our Bridegroom’s, the more often we can find ourselves responding, not out of checks and balances, but out of freedom and abandon. As a King, as a Warrior, as a Worshipper, as a Friend of God, David’s heart is one of freedom. It is one of truth. And it is one of abandon.
Shall we all then dance in the street in a loincloth? Shall we start carrying our slingshots for our respective giants? Physically , no, but spiritually yes. Freedom does not do away with propriety, but it should enhance the God-given direction and order of our lives.
It would be a thing of wonder in our lives if we could dance freely without shame before our Commander/Bridegroom. It would be a thing of complete power if we could, at His bidding, take our small slingshot and little stones and completely defeat our giants. It would be a thing of complete humility when, as our true heart condition is exposed, we literally fall on our face in abandon and repentance.
We make the mistake of thinking that freedom is only reserved for the victorious Jericho marches, or the giants that tumble down. I would suggest that freedom find itself in our everyday responses. Our response to sin, our response to pain, our response to hope, and our response to love.
So much of our attitude is determined by our conditioned response that we have lost our ability to relate to our Bridegroom honestly. We would like to think that sin no longer has a place in our hearts. We would like to try and convince God and those around us that we no longer have any particular areas of weakness. What ends up happening at that point is that our honesty then has to be clouded by what we want to be, instead of what we truly are. It is my opinion that David was fortunate to have his weaknesses so exposed that it was impossible not to see his self-serving nature. In most of us, these issues are heart issues that are only known by our Bridegroom and us. What is important for us to know, truly know, is that it only matters to our Bridegroom and us. He is the only one to whom our heart issues are an offense. As we start to temper our heart issues with our heart responses, we create a prison for ourselves.
Freedom is truth, joy, anger, pain, peace, but most of all power. As we abandon ourselves to our Bridegroom, and perpetuate the honesty of our hearts, we unlock the prison doors we have created for ourselves.
David was a worshipper. True worship comes from true freedom. It is likely that the more we truly worship from our heart the more we can discover the freedom that exists and our hearts can change.
“…And the truth shall set you free…”
No comments:
Post a Comment