In the late 1930s, Carl Sandburg finished a four-volume masterpiece, Abraham Lincoln: The Prairie Years and The War Years. As Sandberg sought for an appropriate title of the seventy-fifth chapter, covering the events immediately following Lincoln’s assassination, he settled on a quaint line from an old woodsman’s proverb, “A tree is best measured when it’s down.” Sandberg felt that you cannot adequately measure the significance of a person’s life until he is “down.”
I have found that old woodsman’s proverb also describes with some precision the life of King David of Israel. As such his life teaches us many valuable lessons on how to live and how we should lead the church.
David is the only person in all of scripture to be called “a man after God’s own heart.” He demonstrated great strength of character by depending on God, but he also demonstrated great weakness when he fell to temptation and sinned against God. He wrote about it all in the Psalms. He could write about both because he always found his way back to God; he got his heart back in the right place.
David was born and raised in a world in which, as one writer put it, “the people were on a long drift from God.” That is certainly true today, so perhaps there are some things we can learn from David about keeping our hearts and the heart of our churches right with God.
Samuel had been the prophet and judge for a long time when the people of Israel asked God for a king. Saul was chosen as the first king, but he would disobey God, so Samuel told him that God would replace him as king with “a man after his own heart.” 1 Samuel 16:1-13 tells the story of the selection and anointing of David as the king who would replace Saul. That story gives us three reasons, as stated by Charles Swindoll, why we need to let the Lord look at our hearts and at the heart of our churches.
(1) Man Panics; God Provides. After God rejected Saul as king, he sent Samuel to Bethlehem to anoint a new king. He asked God, “How can I go? If Saul hears about it, he will kill me.” Have you or your church ever felt panic like that? Perhaps you have lost your job or faced a serious illness. Perhaps your church has lost a significant leader or is facing a pastoral change at a critical time in the church’s life.
God sent Samuel to Bethlehem and showed him that he had already selected the next king. He has nothing to fear. God provides the next job, the food and support we need to survive, the strength to make it through our health struggles, the next pastor or leader for our churches. We need a heart for God because he provides.
(2) – Man Looks; God Sees. Samuel began his consideration of the next king by examining Jesse’s oldest son, Eliab. Eliab looked like a man you would choose to be king. On that day, Samuel looked at seven of Jesse’s eight sons, but none of them were God’s choice, because God sees something we do not see: God looks into our hearts. Literally the text says, “Man looks at the face, but the Lord looks at the heart.” We still need to learn this lesson. If there is one thing we should learn about how to look at people it is to look at them not by face or stature or any feature of their outward appearance, but to look at their heart. Only God can really do that, so we have to learn to listen to God to give us that kind of discernment.
(3) – Man Forgets; God Remembers. While Samuel was looking at Jesse’s seven other sons, Jesse had forgotten about his eighth son, the youngest. Samuel had to ask Jesse if he had any other sons. Can’t you hear Jesse’s response: He is just the youngest. He is only a boy. He is only a shepherd. What could you want with him? Forgotten, shoved aside. Worthless. How often do we do that with people? God, though, remembered that David was out watching the sheep. He was chosen and anointed as king because of his character. I have often been surprised at the people God can use, because he remembers when we forget.
So, how is your heart? How is the heart of your church? Do you work at letting God develop within you and your church a heart that trusts in him?
