DEVOTIONAL
Many profess Jesus Christ as their Lord, who acknowledge their struggle with sinful passions, but who also use King David’s life to justify or to make themselves feel better about their sinful struggles. It is true, as recorded in Holy scripture that David was a man after God’s own heart. As a young man, by faith, he slew the lion and the bear in his father’s field while protecting the sheep. We also see David a little later, during the battle between the Israelites and the Philistines, running to the front lines of the battlefield defeating Goliath the Philistine giant, with just a sling and a stone. But, as it is also recorded in Holy scripture, later in David’s life, the mighty warrior became complacent. In the evening after he awoke from his bed, he was walking around on the roof of his house, and he saw a woman bathing. The scriptures tell us she was very beautiful in appearance. David’s heart was lured away and enticed by his own lust. He contrived in his heart how to have her, and he fell into adultery, lying and then murder.
It is easy for Christians to compare their lives to the failure of David’s life, but do they ever compare their own heart to the heart of David’s as recorded in the book of Psalms? Do they cry out for mercy as David who was broken inwardly with tears of remorse? Though David fell captive to some of the temptations of life, his heart, through the saving power of God continually convicted him until he repented of his rebellion. In the closing verses of Psalm 139, the Holy Spirit shows us a small window into the heart of David when he cried out, “Search me, O God and know my heart; Try me and know my anxious thoughts; And see if there be any hurtful way in me And lead me in the everlasting way.” David, in the very depths of his heart, longed to see the majesty of the Lord. He knew too well of the deceitfulness of his own heart, and apart from the leading of the Lord’s Spirit, his fallen passions would utterly consume him.
May we continue to humble ourselves before the Lord like David. May we have a humble and submissive heart always seeking repentance. Oh that we may come to know the tyranny of our own heart that apart from His grace, we would rival the Lord for the crown of our own heart. May we be taken captive by the love of Christ and as the scriptures tell us, “Lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”
“Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me and know my anxious thoughts; And see if there be any hurtful way in me, And lead me in the everlasting way.”
Psalm 139:23-24 NASBS