The story of David stretches all the way from 1 Samuel Ch 16, through all of 2 Samuel and into 1 Kings Ch 2. The David story, like most other Bible stories, presents us not with a polished ideal to which we aspire but with a rough edged actuality in which we see humanity being formed – the God presence in the earth / human conditions. The David story immerses us in a reality that embraces the entire range of humanness, stretching from the deep interior of our souls to the farthest reach of our imaginations. No other biblical story has this range to it, showing the many dimensions of height, depth, breadth, and length of human experience as a person comes alive before God, aware of God, responsive to God. We’re never more alive than when we’re dealing with God. And there’s a sense in which we aren’t alive at all (in the uniquely human sense of “alive”) until we’re dealing with God. David deals with God. As an instance of humanity in himself, he isn’t much. He had little wisdom to pass on to us on how to live successfully. He was an unfortunate parent and an unfaithful husband. From a purely historical point of view he was a barbaric chieftain with a talent for poetry. But David’s importance isn’t in his morality or his military prowess but in his experience of and witness to God.

Every event in his life was a confrontation with God. We can’t be human without God. That’s what Christians believe. We believe that this human life is a great gift, that every part of it is designed by God and therefore means something, that every part of it is blessed by God and therefore to be enjoyed, that every part is accompanied by God and therefore workable.