September 4, 2016
God Is King # 7
David Anointed King
a sermon on 1 Samuel 16:1-13
by David C. Mauldin
Westminster Presbyterian Church, Mobile, Alabama
So young David was God’s choice to be the next king of Israel. Who knew? Not Jesse,
his father, who had left him at home to watch the sheep. Not Samuel, who thought the
king ought to be tall and good looking. Not anyone—in fact, not even David himself,
who probably had no idea what was going on until Samuel uncorked his horn of oil
and anointed him.
If you’ve read the Bible, you know God is master of calling the most unlikely leaders.
Sometimes God chooses the weak to shame the strong. Or, he chooses someone who
can’t do the job, so that when that person does the job, everyone will know God was
behind it. But in the case of David, we’re dealing with something different. David was
not the least likely candidate. He was the most likely candidate. The problem was, he
didn’t look like it. He didn’t measure up to the ideal of a king … but he had the heart for
it.
I love what the Lord tells Samuel at the beginning of this passage, “Fill your horn with
oil, and go; I will send you to Jesse the Bethlehemite, for I have provided for myself a king
among his sons.” When God appointed Saul to be king, God was giving the people
what they wanted. They wanted someone who looked the part. Saul fit the ideal in
every way. He was rich, tall, good-looking, a natural leader. But he failed. He did not
do the most important thing on his job description: listen to and obey God. He wasn’t
wicked. He wasn’t some immoral, idol-worshipping, widow-fleecing terror. Israel
would have kings like that later. Saul believed in the Lord and followed him with half
his heart. He did what God told him to do, more or less, kind of, sort of. Saul wasn’t
particularly good or evil, more wishy-washy. He was like a lot of people today who
believe the gospel but consistently give God second best.
David didn’t look like a king, but he had the heart. Back in chapter 13, Samuel had told
Saul that God would replace him with “a man after God’s own heart.” That man was
David. Saul was the people’s choice. David was God’s choice. “I have provided for
myself a king.”
The heart of this passage, if you will pardon the pun, is verse 7, “But the LORD said to
Samuel, ‘Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have
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rejected him [David’s oldest brother]; for the LORD sees not as man sees; man looks on
the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart.” In the Bible, heart means
more than emotion. We talk about making a decision with your head (reason) versus
your heart (feelings). God doesn’t mean anything like that here. Here the word heart
refers to a person’s inner, spiritual life—including feelings, reason, and will. When God
sees David’s heart, he sees more than how David feels. He sees David’s faith and
loyalty, his passion, and his mind.
If you think the moral of this story is, “You can’t judge a book by its cover,” you are
wrong. There is some of that going on here. But let’s be honest. We don’t need divine
revelation to tell us that appearances can be deceiving. We can learn that from Aesop’s
fables or from popular culture. I learned it from Star Wars, when Luke went looking for
the great Jedi master, Yoda, who turned out to be a tiny little green guy Luke thought
was some kind of talking rodent. We can learn it from sports. Yesterday, the
University of South Alabama Jaguars—30 point underdogs—traveled up to Starkville,
Mississippi, where they upset the Mississippi State Bulldogs 21-20. On paper, it looked
like an easy win for State. Not so. Our own experience teaches us not to judge a book
by its cover. This account about David is not one more example of that. Something
bigger is happening here.
What is this about then? The importance of heart righteousness. If God wanted a
servant who looked good, he had one in Saul. If he wanted another king who looked
like a king, David’s older brother fit the bill. But God chose David because God saw
David’s heart. David wasn’t sinless. Far from it! But he had a heart for God. A heart
of faith—passionate and totally loyal to God.
I am reading a book about men’s ministry called No Man Left Behind. A handful of us
are. The authors tell the story of a guy they call “Lou.” That’s not his real name, but
this story is true. Lou was a model church member. He was faithful in attendance. He
was a deacon. He participated in a small group Bible study. He, along with his wife
and kids, had been active in that church for 15 years. Lou dotted every religious “i.”
He crossed every Christian “t.” People admired his dedication. … Until one day, Lou
dropped out of church. He left his wife and kids for another woman. All those years
and then, seemingly out of nowhere, BAM! Lou turns his back on all of it.
He left his friends (not to mention his family!) wondering, “What just happened?” The
authors of the book have an interesting theory, and I suspect they are not far off the
mark. They suggest that men are driven to succeed. We men want to be competent. So
when a man becomes involved in a church he may work hard to do it right. And that’s
a good thing … if … if … his heart is changed by the grace of God. But it is possible to go
through the motions of church without experiencing heart transformation. When that
happens, Christianity becomes something you do rather than a relationship with Jesus
Christ.
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Of course, this can happen to women too. I don’t want to leave anyone out. This is a
classic problem and one that Jesus warned against. In his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus
preached heart righteousness rather than respectable appearances. He said the
hypocrites liked to pray on the street corner where they could be seen and praised for
their piety. But he told his followers to pray in a way that does not call attention to self
and to give in a way that does not seek reward. He said it’s not enough to avoid
adultery; you have to keep lust out of your heart. It’s not enough to refrain from
murder; you have to keep hate out of your heart. Heart righteousness. That’s what
God wants. It’s what God has always wanted. Before Jesus, the Old Testament
prophets hammered this theme. Religious festivals and sacrifices are great when you
back them up with love for God and neighbor. But when you flout God’s law and take
advantage of others and then show up for worship and think everything’s going to be
OK … it’s not OK.
Ancient Israel dealt with it. Jesus preached it. The New Testament. The Christian
church in every time and place. God sees your heart. Religious games can fool your
friends. They can make you feel better about yourself. But God knows the truth. Better
than we know ourselves! God sees our hearts.
At first that’s terrifying. The human heart is a repository for all kinds of vile filth.
Envy, pettiness, selfishness, lust, pride, greed, apathy—the gang’s all there. God would
be more than justified if he took one look and turned away in disgust. But of course,
that’s not what he does. David is important for another reason. He becomes a type or
model for God’s anointed one, God’s Messiah. From the time of David on, God’s people
wanted another king like him. They wanted God to send David’s greater son to sort out
their mess and set things right. God did that in a big way, far bigger than they dared
imagine. He sent the Savior, Jesus Christ—Christ being the Greek word for Messiah,
anointed one.
God looked at the mess in our hearts and said, “I am going to cleanse, purify,
transform.” If all Jesus did was tell us we need to have heart righteousness, he might as
well have saved himself the trip. Our problem is not that we don’t know what God
wants us to do. Our problem is, we don’t want to do it. In other words, it’s not our
“do-er” that’s broken. Our “want-er” is broken. So Jesus died to give us, not only truth,
but also forgiveness and a new heart.
Heart righteousness is both a single moment in time and a lifelong process. How can it
be both? It is the moment you repent, confess, and ask for forgiveness. You
acknowledge Jesus as Lord and commit yourself to him. That’s when he washes your
guilt away. Theologians call this “justification.” Baptism symbolizes this one-momentin-time, because you are only baptized once. Heart righteousness is also a matter of
lifelong growth, as the Holy Spirit transforms your heart and roots out your sin. Guilt
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is washed away in an instant. Because Christ died for you, the Father declares you “not
guilty.” Washing away sin requires considerable scrubbing. At least, God chooses to
complete that process on the other side of our death, so that throughout our lives we
grow in holiness. At least, we should. The Lord’s Supper symbolizes the on-going
work of God in our lives, because we repeat it often.
An encounter with Christ changes you. A relationship with Christ transforms you.
The best way to explain the difference between Saul and David is this: Saul served God
with half his heart. He obeyed God kind of, sort of. David loved God with his whole
heart. Among the psalms David wrote is Psalm 86. Verse 11 of Psalm 86 is one of my
favorite verses in the Bible and my favorite prayer: “Teach me your way, O Lord, that I
may walk in your truth; give me an undivided heart to revere your name.” If you were
here five years ago, you may remember I preached a sermon series and that was the
central theme, the undivided heart. I love that verse. “Teach me your way, O Lord; but
Lord, we both know that won’t be enough. I need more than clear directions. I need
help with my heart. So unite my heart. Give me an undivided heart. A heart
completely loyal to you.” That was David’s prayer, and God answered it. It should be
your prayer too.
Hearing that prayer on David’s lips encourages me. Why? Because he was the man
after God’s own heart. He was God’s choice for king. He became the root of hope for
the Messiah. He had that amazing heart for God … and yet … David prayed that God
would give him an undivided heart to revere God’s name. Think about that: Didn’t
David already have a heart full of loyalty to God? Yes, he did! So why this prayer?
Pay attention to this, because it is important: He prayed this prayed because he had a
heart for God. Would Saul have prayed this prayer? I doubt it. I suspect he was
content with how much of his heart he gave to God. He gave maybe half, and that was
good enough for him. But not enough for God. Saul settled for going through the
respectable motions. He dotted his religious “i’s” and crossed his “t’s” ... most of the
time—except when he didn’t. David’s heart was transformed. He was never content
with a good show. He wanted God. He wanted to please God. And the more of his
heart he gave to God, the more he wanted to give. So he prayed, “Lord, I give my heart
to you; but you are going to have to pull the pieces together and unite them in love for
you. I can’t do it. I am depending on you.”
That’s what God wants to hear. That’s the kind of heart God wants to see. God knows
you can’t clean your own heart and present it to him undivided and perfect. He knows
you cannot offer yourself before him spotless and pure. That’s why Jesus died for you.
What God wants is for you to give your heart to him with the sincere desire that he will
clean it up. That he will pull the broken pieces together and untie them in holiness and
love.
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The gospel is not a self-help program so that you can purify your own heart enough to
give it to God. The gospel is the good news that if you give your heart to God just as it
is, he will transform and purify it. As I said, it is a life-long process. That’s why we
return again and again to the Lord’s Table. We need his grace. Every time we eat and
drink, we are telling God, “My heart is yours. Change it.” And every time he says,
“You are mine. You are holy. Live in my strength.”
God sees your heart. God can change your heart. Never settle for going through the
motions. Make sure you get the peace and joy that can only come from knowing our
living Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
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