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In the course of David's eventful and instructive life, we see him presented in three remarkable attitudes. We also hear his utterances in these attitudes. The seeing and hearing are full of deep moral instruction for our souls. May the Holy Spirit enable us to profit by it! May He guide our thoughts as we look at and listen to King David as a penitent, a worshiper and a servant!

Lying as a Penitent

“And David fasted, and went in and lay all night upon the earth” (2 Sam. 12:16). Here we have David lying on the earth in the attitude of a true penitent. The arrow of conviction had entered his conscience. Nathan's pointed word, “Thou art the man,” had fallen with divine power on his heart. Before God, he takes his place in the dust—conscience-smitten and heart-broken.

Such is David’s attitude. Now listen to his utterance in Psalm 51. “Have mercy upon me, O God, according to Thy loving-kindness; according to the multitude of Thy tender mercies, blot out my transgressions.” The penitent person places his sins along side the loving-kindness and tender mercy of God. The best place for a convicted conscience is the presence of divine mercy. When a convicted sinner and divine love meet, the question of sin is quickly settled. It is the joy of God to pardon sin. He delights in mercy, not judgment. He wants us to feel the sinfulness of sin—to judge it, to hate it. He never works with untempered mortar or cries peace when there is no peace. God’s arrow is always followed by His love. The wound inflicted by His arrow will be healed by the precious balm His love always applies. Here is the order: ”Thou art the man,” ”I have sinned against the Lord,” ”The Lord hath put away thy sin.”

Yes, sin must be judged, and the more thoroughly it’s judged the better. Keep in mind that Satan transforms himself into an angel of light, endeavoring to lead souls into a kind of false peace and happiness not founded on the cross—God’s provision for the sinner's deepest need. We should ponder those weighty words in the parable of the sower.

But he that received the seed into stony places, the same is he that heareth the Word and immediately with joy receiveth it: yet hath he no root in himself, but endureth for a while; for when tribulation or persecution ariseth because of the Word, by and by he is offended (Matt. 13:20-21).

We cannot ponder too carefully the connection between the expressions, “Immediately, with joy,” ”No root,” ”Withered away.” Why? Because there is great danger of receiving the plan of salvation merely intellectually. Such is frequently followed with joyous emotions, which touch our natural feelings, but God’s truth—His Word—has not penetrated the heart. Therefore, when trials come, there is no power to sustain us, and too late we learn that mere surface work which cannot stand the sun's scorching rays. It is the divinely-effective sacrifice of the Son of God that purges the conscience and imparts peace to the convicted soul. It is the assurance on God's authority, received by the grace of the Holy Spirit, that the momentous question of sin was settled once and forever on the cross, liberating the soul and giving a peace which nothing can disturb.

The ground of the true believer's peace is not that he was converted in such and such a manner—that he felt so deeply and wept so much, or struggled so hard or prayed so fervently. All these things have their place and value. Do doubt, Paul never forgot his journey between Jerusalem and Damascus , but did he build his peace on the remarkable circumstances of his conversion?

No doubt, Paul’s experiences on the road to Damascus exerted an important influence on his future course and character, but the ground of his peace was not based on anything he had felt or passed through, but simply what Christ had done for him on the cross. Christ is all and in all. It is not Christ and a process, but Christ alone.

David found relief not on the fact that the arrow entered his heart in the words, “Thou art the man” drawing out his penitential cry, “I have sinned against the Lord”, but on the precious truth conveyed to him in the words, “The Lord hath put away thy sin.”

It is impossible for the “glad tidings” of salvation to do anything else except gladden the believing soul. There was great joy in Samaria when Philip preached Christ to them, and the eunuch went on his way rejoicing when he learned that Jesus had died for his sins. How could it be otherwise? How could anyone believe in the forgiveness of sins and not be made happy by the belief? “Glad tidings of great joy” always makes the heart glad.

But today we observe a fearful amount of flippant, easy-going, airy so-called Christianity. Many have attained a kind of false peace and frothy happiness without any real application of the power of the cross. These are stony-ground hearers—no root, no depth, no power, no permanency. Not only are such people self-deceived, but the tone and aspect of their faith are forming the channel through which the tide of infidelity can roll its poisonous and desolating waters. Cold, powerless orthodoxy and flippant, formal, airy faith are paving the way for infidelity to cast its mantle over the world.

We see in David a noble illustration of personal devotedness, as we contemplate him in the second of his remarkable attitudes:

Sitting as a Worshiper

In the opening of 2 Samuel 7 we find David sitting in his house of cedar and surveying the many and varied mercies of Jehovah.

And it came to pass, when the king sat in his house and the Lord had given him rest round about from all his enemies, that the king said unto Nathan the prophet, See now, I dwell in an house of cedar, but the ark of God dwelleth within curtains. And Nathan said to the king, Go, do all that is in thine heart: for the Lord is with thee.

David wanted to build a house for God. But he was not the man, nor was it the time for that. Nathan is dispatched to correct the mistake. The service was well-meant, but that was not sufficient. It must be well-timed as well as well-meant. David had shed much blood, and there were enemies and evil at hand. He needed instruction in the deeper lessons of grace. God had done much for David in the past, but nothing compared with what was coming. If a house of cedar was a great thing, how much greater was an everlasting house and kingdom. The Lord telleth thee, that “He will make thee an house.” This was reversing the matter altogether. The doings of the past were full of grace; the future would be full of glory. God’s hand of love had lifted David from the sheepfold to the throne of Israel . “And this was yet a small thing in Thy sight, O Lord God; but Thou hast also spoken of Thy servant's house for a great while to come.” The past and the future are both brought in brilliant array before the vision of King David and all he needs to do is bow his head and worship.

“Then went King David in and sat before the Lord, and he said, who am I, O Lord God?” Here we have David's second attitude. Instead of going out to build for the Lord, he went in and sat before the Lord. There is great moral beauty and power in this. To an unintelligent eye, this might seem to be in a useless attitude, but no one can ever stand as a servant who has not sat as a worshiper. We must be close to God before we can act for Him. Only when we occupy the place of a worshiper, can we prove an effective servant.

It is one thing to sit before the Lord and another to sit before our work, our service, our preaching, and our circumstances or experiences. Mankind is often tempted to sit down and gaze at or think about his various exploits, but that is sure to bring weakness. Nothing can be more miserable than self-occupation. Surveying the various things in which we are engaged, our different interests, our varied spheres of action tends to puff up nature, while leaving the soul barren and impoverished.

Note the difference! “Then went king David in and sat before the Lord, and said, who am I?” “I” is sure to fall into obscurity and oblivion when sitting before the Lord. We hardly know which to admire most, the attitude or the utterance. “He sat” and then said, “Who am I.” Both are in exquisite moral order. May each of us come to know more of their deep meaning and immense practical power! May we prove what it is to sit in God’s divine presence and there lose sight of self!

This is not meant to be an exposition of David's utterance as a penitent in Psalm 51, or his utterance as a worshiper in 2 Samuel 7. We merely introduce these precious Scriptures as we now look at David's third attitude:

Standing as a Servant

“Then David the king stood up upon his feet” (1 Chr. 28:2). This concludes the preamble. We have seen him lying on the earth with the arrow of conviction piercing his conscience and the chastening rod of God held over him. We have seen him seated in the sanctuary, surveying the actions of grace in the past and anticipating the bright beams of glory in the future. Now we see him rising into the attitude of a truehearted servant, laying himself and his resources at Jehovah's feet. The penitential cry, the aspirations of the worshiper, the words of devotedness and consecration—all is deep, fervent and genuine. “I have prepared with all my might for the house of my God.” “Moreover, because I have set my affection to the house of God.” What a picture of self-forgetting devotedness! David was not to have the honor of building the house of God, but what was that to one who had found his place in the Sanctuary, having learned to say, “Who am I?” The strength of his hand, the love of his heart and the resources of his treasury were all willingly devoted to God.

As we begin a study of the Life and Times of David (The Life of Faith), we pray the Holy Spirit will apply these things to our hearts by His mighty power. Do you long for whole-hearted devotedness? Do you desire a more lofty consecration of yourself and all you have to Christ and His cause in the earth? Then seek to be more in His presence; rise up from the attitude of a penitent—sit, gaze and worship. Then, like David, when the proper occasion arises, you, too, will be ready to occupy the position of an effective servant.