David's Heart

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A Survey of Our Hearts

But the LORD said to Samuel, Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the LORD sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart. (1 Sam. 16:7)

Some people say we are a narcissistic generation. The word narcissistic is derived, of course, from the Greek mythological figure Narcissus, who became so obsessed with the reflection of himself that he saw in a mountain pool that he could think of nothing else. To be narcissistic then is to be absorbed with one’s self. Indeed, some feel that this attitude is so widespread in today’s Western society, they’ve dubbed certain generations with names like the Me Generation (Baby Boomers) and Generation Me (the term for those born from 1970-1990).

This preoccupation with self—being exclusively attached to me—is one of the great problems in our society today. To be self-absorbed and, at the same time, to exist as a part of a society is to live in a mutually contradictory situation. A society can never survive if it is simply a collection of intrinsically self-oriented people.

In order for a society to function and be productive, those who are intrinsically selfish must discover that another heart attitude is necessary. A change of direction from self to servitude, from inward to outward, is necessary. And if this need for change is true for society at large, it is doubly true for the church of Jesus Christ. I’m afraid the same spirit that pervades our society has spread to the people of God.

Preoccupation with self-esteem, or self-love, which the church consistently resists as a vice, is now suddenly a virtue. It is coupled with an individualism in which we say the Lord is speaking to me, but rarely to us. It is my ministry, my gifts, my vision.

Beloved, we have jumped the track.

Christians must concern themselves again with a basic commitment to develop a heart for God. And I use the word develop advisedly. We need to develop a godly servant heart because servant attitudes don’t come naturally to fallen human beings. We have to learn how to have a heart for God. We don’t have to learn how to be selfish; that seems to be a natural instinct. Looking out for number one is something that is, because of sin, built into us.

King David, the monarch of ancient Israel, was one who learned to develop a heart for God. He became God’s servant. He served God’s purpose in his own generation, and it was a generation not at all unlike our own.

Be encouraged. David was a realist. He learned to expect no more than what God had promised; but, he did not dare settle for anything less.

In order to retune our hearts to be attentive to the will of God, and to reignite a genuine love for Him instead of continuing to develop an enamoredness with ourselves, we will take a detailed, in-depth look into the life of David.

What was it that made this man—who easily had as many personal struggles as any of us—turn from himself to pursue a heart for God? Were there discernible stepping-stones to his victories? How did he succeed in overcoming his own sins and weaknesses so that he not only glorified the Lord, but also effected a change in the people of his own generation?

THE MAN AFTER GOD’S HEART

Israel wanted to be like all the other nations. She wanted a monarchy—the rule of a king. God had warned her against it, but she was adamant. In the end, God said yes, and Israel coronated Saul as her first king.

Saul was at first a humble man—so humble, in fact, that when he heard he was going to be appointed to reign over Israel, he literally went out and hid behind a pile of refuse. His family actually had to go out and get him.

But something changed. Early into his reign, it was obvious there were problems. Many serious flaws marked his character. He would need to be replaced. But thirty-two years elapsed before it happened—thirty-two years of opportunity for Saul to repent and come to the point of being what God wanted him to be. He never did. In the end, God spoke to him through the prophet Samuel and told him his kingdom was going to be given to another.

The book of Samuel tells us what happened: Then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the midst of his brothers. And the Spirit of the LORD rushed upon David from that day forward (1 Sam. 16:13).

At first Samuel had looked at Eliab, the eldest son of Jesse, to be king. He was, after all, the oldest and the biggest. He looked the part. But the LORD said to Samuel, ‘Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the LORD sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart.’ (16:7). David would be God’s choice.

At the very beginning of David’s experiences as the king of Israel, we see a powerful statement concerning the human heart. Samuel, finding the man of God’s choosing, is told to not look on the outside as man does, but to recognize that God looks on the heart.

THE HUMAN HEART

How often the human heart figures into what God has to say!

In First Samuel 12:20, Samuel said, Do not be afraid; you have done all this evil. Yet do not turn aside from following the LORD, but serve the LORD with all your heart. In Scripture, you will find that the heart symbolizes the part of us that is designed to discern the truth. Serving the Lord with all our hearts means, first of all, that the part of us designed to discern the truth must learn to discern the truth concerning the Lord. Our hearts must be prepared to be open to discover all that God has revealed of Himself.

The heart, that innermost part of our being, is designed by God to be thoroughly involved in all that He has in mind for us.

But it can also lead us in the opposite direction.

In today’s thought and language, while we view the heart in a literal sense in terms of ventricles, valves and veins, we also use the word figuratively. For example, we say somebody is good at heart. We learn things by heart and we get into things heart and soul. If someone is courageous, we say he has a heart of steel. If we want someone to show us a little compassion, we say, Aw, come on, have a heart! If we feel deeply attached to something, we might even hum a few bars of I Left My Heart in San Francisco.

If a friend is unnerved about something, we encourage him to set his heart at rest. If we have a tremendous desire to achieve a certain goal, we set our hearts on it. If we take something very seriously, we take it to heart. A lady who is very open and transparent wears her heart on her sleeve. And if people are thoroughly committed to a task, they get into it with all their hearts.

The case rests. It is obvious that the modern usage of the word heart to symbolically describe inner attitudes, closely aligns with that of the Bible. Beyond being a mere physical organ, the heart symbolizes the very center of our being—the spiritual epicenter of our life. God specifically and uniquely designed that innermost part of us to discern, desire, decide and dedicate; and He wants all these actions of the heart done rightly, in accordance with His will.

GOD DEALS WITH OUR HEARTS

If God has designed the heart as the action-central of our lives, how does He deal with our hearts? For the answer, we turn again to the writings of Samuel. We read in First Samuel 9:18-19:

Then Saul approached Samuel in the gate and said, Tell me where is the house of the seer? Samuel answered Saul, I am the seer. Go up before me to the high place, for today you shall eat with me, and in the morning I will let you go and will tell you all that is on your mind.

Notice: I will tell you all that is on your mind [heart].

We have already seen that God examines the heart. First, He reads it, as it were. Then, He makes an evaluation of what He finds.

This truth is amplified very powerfully by our Lord Jesus as recorded for us in Mark 7. There, Jesus was talking to the Pharisees, who were particularly concerned with externals, but not at all with internals—with the heart attitude. Jesus wanted to remind them that their concern, their strange concern with all that goes into a person and its potential for defiling them, was totally misplaced. What goes in from outside doesn’t defile us; it is what comes out from inside that is corrupting. The problem is the heart. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride and foolishness (see Mark 7:21-23).

First, then, God examines our hearts. This is something I’m afraid we very often carefully avoid thinking about. Like the Pharisees, most of us are so wrapped up with externals, that the thought of God examining what’s really going on inside us is something we give no concern.

A second way in which God deals with our hearts is by touching them. According to First Samuel 10:26, earlier in his reign, Saul gathered together valiant men whose hearts God had touched.

What a delightful expression! It means that God, having examined their hearts, found that they were receptive to Him. Our hearts are touched when we say, God, go ahead and do in my heart what needs to be done. Take what is wrong there and rectify it. Cleanse it. Straighten me out, Lord. Touch my heart.

A parallel to this in the New Testament is Ephesians 3 where we are reminded by Paul that Christ will dwell in our hearts by faith. In other words, God will so touch our hearts that He will do nothing less than send the crucified, risen Christ by His Spirit into our hearts to put the imprimatur of God upon them.

Third, God changes our hearts. When God first dealt with Saul, He changed his heart. At the outset, Saul began to go the way the Lord wanted him to go; he desired to serve the Lord.

He had, at first, discerned the truth of God. We all greatly need to always stay open to the work of God in our hearts. Saul started well, but he failed. Christian, be warned. Guard your heart or it will grow immune to the work of God. Let Him know that you desperately want His touch upon your heart. Don’t grow weary of allowing Christ to continually bring to you that needed change of attitude, intent, ambition or aspiration. Permit the changes to occur that come as Christ dwells in your heart and transforms you from within.

When we discuss the matter of the heart, then, we are referring to the inner part of ourselves that God has designed specifically and with which He deals very, very seriously indeed. Our major concern must be with what we allow Him to do there.

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The Heart of the King

And Samuel said to Saul, You have done foolishly. You have not kept the command of the LORD your God, with which he commanded you. For then the LORD would have established your kingdom over Israel forever. But now your kingdom shall not continue. The LORD has sought out a man after his own heart, and the LORD has commanded him to be prince over his people, because you have not kept what the LORD commanded you. (1 Sam. 13:13-14)

Why is David’s life our model as we seek to develop a heart for God?

The Lord said certain things about the heart of this king, this servant, this man who was going to be so wonderfully used of Him. God’s desire was for a man after his own heart (1 Sam. 13:14). We never have a description of what exactly that means, but we can arrive at it