Verse of the day: The evil Psalmist of Israel. (2 Samuel 23. 1)
Of all the saints whose lives are recorded in the scriptures, David has the most admirable, varied, and instructive character. In the history of David, we find trials and temptations that we will not find, as a whole, in the history of the other saints of God, of times past. Furthermore, David is a very suggestive figure of the person of our Lord. David went through all kinds of tests. Kings have their problems; and David wore a crown. The peasants have their concerns; and David brandished his shepherd’s staff. The travelers had many difficulties; and David dwelt in the caves of En-Gedi. The captain has his difficulties and the sons of Zeruia were stronger than David. The psalmist was also tested on his friends. His advisor, Ahithophel, abandoned him. “Even my close friend, whom I trusted, who ate my bread, raised his heels against me?” (Psalm 41: 9). David’s worst enemies came from his own home; and the children were his greatest affliction. The temptations of wealth and poverty, of honor and humiliation, of health and weakness, demonstrated their power in David. He had external temptations that disturbed his peace and internal temptations that ruined his joy. As soon as David escaped one trial, he fell into another; nor did he come out of a time of despair and dread, and was carried to the deepest depths, and all the waves of God engulfed him. Perhaps, for this reason, the Psalms of David are the delight of mature believers around the world. Whatever our inner condition, joy or discouragement, David accurately described our feelings. He was a skilled teacher of the human heart, for he had been taught in the best of all schools – the school of sincere personal experience. As we learn in this same school, as we mature in grace and age, we appreciate the Psalms of David and see them as “green pastures. ” (Psalm 23. 2). O my soul, allow David’s experience to advise and strengthen you on this day.