In ancient times pagan children grew up hearing myths about the panoply of gods and the heroes who engrossed gods and men. Today children grow up with their minds teased by fantasies about aliens from outer space and comic super heroes. David was a shepherd in Israel in an ancient age, when as a young boy he would have heard stories about God who created the universe and chose Israel to be his people. These stories were about real men and women of Israel who did heroic deeds in the name of Yahweh their God. David himself became one of the greatest heroes in Israel, when by his trust in the God of Israel he brought down the notorious giant warrior Goliath with his sling shot (1 Samuel 17).
Often David sat under the clear, starry heavens watching his father’s flock of sheep. He thought about those stories, and wrote poetry and songs telling of his God, his people and his escapades as a believer. The Psalms were not all written by David, but the tradition is that many were; and David directed and inspired others to uphold worship of the Lord. The Psalms are rich in doctrine, worship and national and personal expressions of faith in God. The creation, covenant, presence, provision, judgment, deliverance and rule of God are some of the great themes based upon the stories David knew and upon his own personal experience with the God he came to know through the stories. The Psalms provide us with a practical example of how a worshipper of God like David internalized the stories and words of the faith as nourishment for knowing and experiencing God’s reality and presence in Israel and in his personal life.
David was an Israelite, so a favorite story must have been God’s deliverance of Israel from Egyptian bondage by powerful signs and wonders. For forty years God prepared and provided for his chosen people in the wilderness. David learned of Israel’s grumblings against God and Moses. How David must have contemplated and taken to heart the example of Moses. Moses demonstrated heroism with great humility as Israel’s selfless leader, pleading with God to continue his presence in Israel’s midst (Exodus 33). Certainly David was emboldened by the story of Joshua, who would linger at the tent of meeting after Moses would meet and speak with the Lord face to face as a man does with a friend. God’s relationship and presence captivated David and meant everything to him (Psalm 23 and 51).
Meditating on the reality and applications of God’s presence would have kept David occupied for many nights while watching his flock of sheep. On the nights when a lion and a bear attack his father’s flock, David recalled that the Lord’s presence was with him. Perhaps David composed Psalm 105 in which he encouraged the people of God to “Seek the Lord and his strength; seek his presence continually!” (Psalms 105:4, ESV). David learned to seek and trust the Lord was always right before him and at his right hand (Psalm 16). The Lord gave His Spirit to David, a man after His own heart, so that David might lead Israel with God’s help, direction, and blessing (1 Samuel 13:14; 16:6-15). David was prepared because he had already learned to trust the name and presence of the Lord (1 Samuel 17:31-37). Like his forefather Enoch David sought to walk with the Lord for he knew the fellowship of his Spirit (Genesis 5:21-24; Hebrews 11:5-6). David grew to know and be confident of the Lord’s presence in life and death, in righteousness and weakness, in comfort and in distress, in the universe and in his heart, and before time and in eternity.
Most everyone’s introduction to David’s spirituality comes from the 23rd Psalm. God’s fellowship and presence fulfills David for now and forever. David poetically expressed his fulfillment with a familiar metaphor, the Shepherd who leads and cares for his flock. Thus, we understand how David sought and came to know his Lord. Psalm 143 reveals yet another pathway in David’s spirituality. David always called upon God in trouble, but mediating upon and calling upon the Lord was the habit of his life in good and bad times, in youth and maturity, in song and battle, in shepherding sheep and ruling Israel. David pondered God’s works in the past and in his own experience. Thus, he never doubted the willingness of his Lord to lead him with His good Spirit. God’s presence through His Spirit was the source of David’s joy, understanding and strength. In Psalm 51 we observe David in the aftermath of sin, repenting before the Lord with a humble spirit, and pleading that the Lord not cast him away from His presence or to take His Holy Spirit from David.
Psalm 16 (a Messianic Psalm) reveals the depth of David’s faith by which he personally sought and experienced the presence and counsel of the Lord. David testified: “I bless the Lord who gives me counsel; in the night also my heart instructs me. I have set the Lord always before me; because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken.” (Psalm 16:7-8). The metaphors of “heart” (literally, “kidneys” in Hebrew) and “at my right hand” strongly express David’s trust and reliance on the companionship and leadership of the Lord within him and with him. David always kept God in his thoughts and his innermost meditations. God was not distant, but beside him, revealing something needed or desired of His thoughts to David’s thoughts, His wisdom to David’s understanding, His will to David’s desire, and His attitudes to David’s feelings. My intent is not to set forth either a psychological or systematic theology of God’s presence here; but only to hint at the great blessing David enjoyed because he pursued a real relationship with the living God. See also Psalm 21, 31, 34, 37, 41, 56, 69, 86, 104, 139, and 145.
I suggest to you that the path for increasing Christian understanding of the gift and blessing of the Holy Spirit under the new covenant is similar to David’s path of learning and practice. David learned how to know and live in the presence of God by meditating on the stories of God’s presence and works. He also took to heart the examples of his forefathers who found help and blessing from God as they lived by faith. David pondered his fellowship with God through meaningful metaphors which helped him to grasp hold of the realty of God’s presence, leadership and help. In the New Testament, teaching on the Holy Spirit is often through metaphors, such as an earnest, water, wind, seal, and fire. Such metaphors should enlighten your understanding, and can enrich your experience. Finally, David took seriously the promise of the nearness of God and discovered that his own spirit was made to know fellowship with and be influenced by the Spirit of God. Knowing this, David intentionally pursued this. He first found his motivation while watching his sheep under the stars. What about you; will you find your motivation?
