I’ve really enjoyed studying the Life of David over these past few months. Perhaps you have also as you’ve followed along with this blog series. However, there have often been questions lingering for me such as: why study the life of a shepherd boy turned King who lived three thousand years ago? What relevance does David’s successes and failures have for how we live our lives today? Isn’t this all redundant history following Jesus’ life and ministry?

It occurs to me that the answers to these questions are actually relevant to how we view all of the Old Testament. If we are struggling with David, then we will surely also be struggling with Abraham, Moses, Elijah and so on. I do believe there are good answers to these questions. In order to address them, I want us to visit together three New Testament Scriptures that will help shed some light on why we really do need to study the lives of people like David.

1. To make us wise for Salvation

The classic passage on this is surely contained within Paul’s letters to Timothy:

¹⁶ All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, ¹⁷ so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

2 Timothy 3:16-17

We would have no issues whatsoever thinking about how the gospels, or letters New Testament letters help train us in righteousness and equip us for every good work. But Paul’s statement here is much broader than that, because he is speaking about “all Scripture.” In fact, given that the New Testament was in the process of being written at this point, it seems likely that first and foremost Paul has the Old Testament in mind. Paul of course had been thoroughly trained as a Pharisee by Gamaliel, but meeting Jesus on the Damascus road changed everything for him.

Some might try to downplay the force of these verses – perhaps trying to twist it into saying that only the parts that are God-breathed or are useful for equipping us. Yet I don’t think the word all does not allow us to make such a claim. It is all God-breathed and therefore all useful to us in our daily lives. We must of course apply ourselves to study it diligently, but there is huge reward for those who do so. David is an ordinary guy like us, who God chooses to use mightily in, and for, His purposes. Paul in Romans 4 makes clear that David is also a man who like Abraham and like us, was justified by faith:

⁴ Now to the one who works, wages are not credited as a gift but as an obligation. ⁵ However, to the one who does not work but trusts God who justifies the ungodly, their faith is credited as righteousness. ⁶ David says the same thing when he speaks of the blessedness of the one to whom God credits righteousness apart from works: ⁷ “Blessed are those whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. ⁸ Blessed is the one whose sin the Lord will never count against them.”

Romans 4:4-8

David had faith that God would do as He had promised: that He would establish a House for David, that He would raise up his offspring to succeed him and that his House and Kingdom would be established forever. Ultimately, these promises were to be fulfilled in and through David’s greater son, Jesus Christ. We are saved as we look back to what Jesus the Messiah achieved at the cross, but David was saved as he looked forward in faith to the Messiah God was going to send into the world.

Turning back to 2 Timothy, it is particularly interesting to look at the verses proceeding the ones quoted above. In them Paul urges Timothy to continue in what he had learned, and become convinced of, from God’s Holy Scriptures. This had been taught to him through the sincere faith which he says …first lived in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice and, I am persuaded, now lives in you also (2 Timothy 1:5).

¹⁴ But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, ¹⁵ and how from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.

2 Timothy 3:14-15 

Notice what Paul tells us that the Scriptures can do for us. He says they make us wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. When we study the life of David, or indeed any of the Kings, what we see is that none of them are the answer. Some are better than others, but all of them are messed up, and in need of a Savour. All of them look forward with anticipation to the greatest King – Jesus Christ. Their lives and our ability to identify in different ways with them, show us our need of Christ and point us to Him.

2. To give us Endurance, Encouragement and Hope

The 2nd answer to these questions takes us to Paul’s letter to the Romans. Tucked away towards the end of this magnificent letter is the following verse which we could have spent all our time unpacking:

⁴ For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through the endurance taught in the Scriptures and the encouragement they provide we might have hope.

Romans 15:4

Again, Paul is making an all encompassing statement about everything that had been written in the past. He says we the Scriptures to teach us and help us to endure. Life for every generation has been filled with both joys, and difficulties. It has never been easy to live by faith and so we need to understand and learn from examples from the past of those who have sought to do likewise.

The life of David is full of great examples of what he got both right and wrong. I love the fact that the Bible never presents people as superstars, but brings us their story, warts and all! Elsewhere in 1 Corinthians 10 Paul sets out how the mistakes made by Israel during the time of Moses occurred as: “examples to keep us from setting our hearts on evil things as they did” (1 Corinthians 10:6). The lessons learned by the Israelites are recorded for us, to help us not make the same mistakes!

Notice from Romans 15:4 that these things have been written to encourage us and to give us hope. We are not supposed to read about the life of David and conclude that it is impossible. No, the fact that God stuck with David through thick and thin should give us hope that we too can live lives that are pleasing to God. We too can be the unlikely people who get woven into the incredible promises of God to be a blessing to the entire world. God doesn’t choose David because he is the best. In actual fact, God doesn’t choose David, because of anything in Him. No, God chooses David because it was His Sovereign choice – it was on His heart to do so. Why God chooses any of us is the outworking of His grace and it is a profound mystery. But just as God chose David, took him from the sheep pens and made him the shepherd of God’s people (Psalm 78:70-71), so God wants to use each us in mighty ways also. The life of David is therefore packed full of hope for every single one of us. We will probably not be destined to be a King, but God wants to take each one of us and use us in His purposes.

3. To understand how Scripture speaks of Jesus

The third answer comes from Jesus Himself who we are told came alongside the two disciples walking the road to Emmaus. We are told they were kept from recognising Jesus, and were talking about the things that had happened over the past few days in Jerusalem regarding Jesus’ death. It is at this point that Jesus gives them a very different explanation of what had happened:

²⁵ He said to them, “How foolish you are, and how slow to believe all that the prophets have spoken! ²⁶ Did not the Messiah have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?” ²⁷ And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself…

³² They asked each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?”

Luke 24:27, 32

Jesus had of course predicted His own death and resurrection several times, but for whatever reason His disciples did not remember. However, the reason I include these verses here, is because of what it says in v27. Jesus went through the Scriptures explaining to them what was said in all the Scriptures about Himself. It must have been an incredible conversation, but just let what Jesus said sink in: the Scriptures speak about Jesus. By implication the life of David too.

Specifically, the life of David anticipates and foreshadows the life of David. Like David, Jesus was also God’s anointed King. Just as David defeated Goliath, so Jesus also triumphed over evil as he defeated the power of sin and death. Jesus is the rightful descendent of David – his greater son. Like David, Jesus was also born in humility and came to serve. David poured time and energy into preparing for God’s temple while Jesus declared His body to be the temple of the Lord. David repeatedly demonstrated his need of forgiveness because of his sin, but Jesus came to pay for his sin and ours. Jesus also quotes David from Psalm 110 regarding the lineage of the Messiah: ¹ The Lord says to my lord: “Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.” Jesus quotes David again before He breathed His last on the cross: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

So there you have it – three great reasons why we should study the Old testament and specifically the life of David. For me personally, I have always been fascinated by the life of David and how it continues to speak to us today. I am inspired by David’s relationship with the Lord with his desire to walk with, and serve Him. I can identify with some of his successes and failures and I hope you can too. Let me commend to you again the life of David – an encouragement, challenge and inspiration for us all.

Cover Photo by Jaka Škrlep on Unsplash