4th July 2021

In a recent BBC documentary on the UK’s Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, his sister revealed that as a child, whenever Boris was asked what he wanted to be, he replied “World King.” The documentary suggests this wasn’t a childish whim; with Churchill as model, Boris Johnson did seek greatness.

Shakespeare in his comedy “Twelfth Night” has this thought: “Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them.” Boris Johnson wasn’t born great; greatness wasn’t thrust upon him; but he wants to achieve greatness. Whether he does – history will tell.

David, who we heard about in our Old Testament reading, was not born great either. He had kingship thrust upon him, but greatness? That he achieved.

We heard how the people of Israel plead with David to be King, not just of Judah, but of all Israel. David reunites the riven and divided Tribes of Israel into a United Kingdom of Israel. Our reading concludes with the words: “David became greater and greater.” Why? “For the Lord, the God of hosts, was with him!”

In the past few years, the UKs political landscape has been convulsed. Borders and leaders have moved. There have been three Prime Ministers, and successive waves of new ministers in government; this summer we saw three successive leaders of the DUP, and two first ministers – we are awaiting a third.

I sometimes wonder whether our leaders are there to serve, or seeking power and greatness. David wasn’t seeking it – if you read further, you find that David recognises that this greatness wasn’t his. It was God who established him King over Israel and it was God who made Israel a great Kingdom – for the sake of God’s people Israel.”

David’s life was by no means perfect. He was merely human, like us. What is distinctive is his unquenchable passion for God and his desire to please him. The Psalms of David are full of deep emotion – love and longing for God, joy, celebration, gut-wrenching honesty, anger, despair, pain, and anguish. The gamut of human emotion. Through everything that happens in his life, David has an unshakeable trust in God. Maybe take time to read David’s Psalms this summer – rediscover his and your intimacy with God!

David is described by God as a “man after my own heart.”

Walk with me in your imagination through 1 and 2 Samuel to meet David.

There he is minding his sheep. He has no dreams of greatness. He plays his lyre, composes songs, and guards his sheep. He’s just a boy, Jesse’s youngest son. His family don’t think he’s important. The prophet Samuel doesn’t either. But God’s does, and Samuel anoints him as the future King. David returns, unfazed, to minding his sheep.

Here is King Saul in torment, needing a musician to soothe him. Hear the recommendation for David: “a son of Jesse, skilful in playing, a man of valour, a warrior, prudent in speech, and a man of good presence – and… the Lord is with him.” People are recognising God’s presence in David’s life. The young David goes back and forth between caring for his sheep and playing music for Saul in his court. You can take the boy out of shepherding, but you cannot take the shepherding from the boy. He has a heart of a Shepherd. A heart that is visible when he is Shepherd King of his people. 

See David’s anger at Goliath: “Who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God.” To David, the armies are not Saul’s but God’s. As the Giant towers over him, hear David fiercely declaring that he comes “in the name of the Lord… so everyone will know that God reigns in Israel”.

Years pass. See David now hunted by a jealous King Saul, hiding in caves, despairing for his life. He refuses to take revenge on Saul – honouring him always, repeatedly sparing him, forgiving him again and again. Watch him weep when Saul and his son Jonathan are killed.

Continue through 2 Samuel, you find an exuberant David dancing “with all his might,” as the Ark of the Covenant – God’s dwelling place – is carried into the City. He is wild with joy but scantily clad. His scandalised wife is furious at his lack of dignity, but David declares he was dancing before the Lord.

Hear David’s discomfort at living in a palace, while God’s Ark of the Covenant is in a tent. He desires a temple for the Lord. See David’s humility when he later prays, “who am I Lord God… that you have brought me thus far?” Watch him search for relatives of King Saul, to show them kindness – dealing gently and lovingly with Jonathan’s crippled son, restoring the family lands and inviting him to be a part of David’s own household.

He is a wonderful Shepherd King – But perfect and faultless? He wasn’t.

See him now exploiting his position as King. Although he had many wives, over 18 and counting, and many more concubines – in his lust and greed he takes Bathsheba, another man’s wife. See how deviously and treacherously David machinates the murder of Uriah, Bathsheba’s husband. A shocking turn in David’s life. A Biblical Soap opera.

Yet, when confronted with his deeds by Nathan the Prophet, David cares desperately for his sin against God. In Psalm 51 you hear his repentant cry:

“Have mercy, wash me, purge me with hyssop; do not cast me away from your presence, do not take your holy spirit from me,” he pleads. “Restore me.”

Sometimes our repentance is half hearted compared to David’s deep desire to have a “new and right spirit.”

David’s life is not a continuous upward trajectory. He faces desperate times. See his household now in turmoil… there is incest and murder among his children, bitterness and anger. Absalom, his son, attempts to usurp the throne. This intensely human drama is hardly a story of unvarnished success.

Yet David is remembered as a man after God’s own heart – a wonderful King. So much so that in the gospels Jesus is not only seen as David’s descendent, but as a soon-to-be King in David’s image. Jesus is called “the Son of David.” A title of honour. 

David soul had wings but his feet were of clay. Like us. It is so true, isn’t it – however much we long to love and follow God’s ways, our lives are never unqualified successes. We fail. Like David. But, in God’s love, we get up and walk again.

The greatness of David is not in his perfection – he wasn’t perfect! It was his heart for God, his desire to have God’s Spirit upon him, his zeal for God’s Kingdom of Israel.

Our reading from Mark’s Gospel gives us a glimpse of the new Kingdom of God that Jesus brought on Earth. We are people of that Kingdom – as we sang in our opening hymn. And we have something more. In Old Testament times, God’s Spirit was upon His prophets, priests, Kings, and Judges – on the leaders. But today – after Pentecost – the Holy Spirit of God is upon all believers: young or old, rich or poor, male or female, black or white.

So, though we have feet of clay, we are called to build the Kingdom of God wherever we are. As St Paul describes it, “whatever you do, do all to the glory of God”. Like David, we are to love God passionately, and to seek his glory where we are. As carers, clergy, musicians, politicians, doctors, nurses, poets, cleaners, writers, business people, parents, children, brothers, sisters, friends.

God’s Holy Spirit can work in us, as he did in David. The question is – as the deer pants for the water, do our souls long after God? Do we have that all-consuming passion for God that David had – to know God, and despite our failures, to follow him and build his Kingdom?

“Dear Lord and Father ….re-clothe us in our rightful mind, in purer lives thy service find”