THE FAITH OF DAVID

King David was known as a man who fully trusted God. He declared the theme of his own life when he wrote:

“The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusted in him, and I am helped: therefore my heart greatly rejoiceth; and with my song will I praise him” (Psalm 28:7).

These weren’t just words for David. Scripture records event after event in David’s life when he showed great faith in impossible situations.

GREAT EXPLOITS

David did great things through faith in God:

• He killed a lion and a bear with his bare hands
• He killed the Philistine giant Goliath
• He escaped from Saul’s attempts to kill him
• He won great victories over all his enemies

Later, by faith and repentance, David was restored to the throne after his son Absalom attempted to kill him.

Through all these things, David boasted of the Lord:

“Oh how great is thy goodness, which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee; which thou hast wrought for them that trust in thee before the sons of men!” (Psalm 31:19).

It is no wonder Scripture calls David a man after God’s heart!

We also know from Scripture that this blessed man was overcome by temptation and he spent days, weeks, months in anguished pain over his failings and trials. David also suffered severe bouts of depression; in fact, he writes of his intense loneliness and of crying himself to sleep many nights. At times in his life he was so tormented and afflicted that he pleaded for death.

Yet, through those years of intensified afflictions, David never lost faith. Few people in Scripture were tested, tried and proven as David was. But he came out of it all with an ever-increasing faith.