David – A Church after God’s Own Heart

by Michael Miller

About 3 weeks ago the Lord began speaking to me some words that have now come together to be a revelation that is reshaping my life! Of these words, the last word is the one that I want to share with you today. I hope and pray that the Holy Spirit uses the same word to launch all of us into a spiritual habitation likened unto David, which I believe few New Testament believers have enjoyed.

What I share today has taken me about two weeks to digest to finally culminate its understanding.

Have you ever been asked or asked yourself “What made David a man after God’s own heart?” I have and I’ve always thought that it was because he returned to God after each fall or sin. In other words, it was because he continued to keep himself “before” God.

I’ve been asked how could David have committed adultery and murder, and still be called a man after God’s own heart. To which my answer was always the same, it was because he always returned to God after each fall or sin.

It was about two weeks ago that the Lord asked me what it meant when the Bible states that “David was a man after God’s own heart…” Honestly, I didn’t know. I knew the answer that I had communicated above, but that was just an answer…almost lip service. In fact, I hadn’t really answered it in some time because I realized that I really didn’t know. I went to Acts 13:22 “After He had removed him, He raised up David to be their king, concerning whom He also testified and said, ‘I HAVE FOUND DAVID the son of Jesse, A MAN AFTER MY HEART, who will do all My will.‘” NASU

This is where the fun for me began…Since it was the meaning of the text that I was wrestling with, I had to go back to the text to reconcile the question the Lord had asked me.

Before we delve into that, let me pose a question to you…what if we have read the statement wrong all these years? Or, what if we have misunderstood its meaning? What if, “A MAN AFTER MY HEART”, speaking of David, is not positional, but directional?

In other words, the meaning has to either be that

1. David was created to have/possess a heart after God, making it an (Godly) attribute

or

2. David was running in motion with a heart after God, making him a pursuer of God.

Let’s look at one of the Old Testament Scriptures that really sets the stage for Acts 13:22 which is noted above.  Samuel 15:11 states, “I regret that I have made Saul king, for he has turned back from following Me and has not carried out My commands.” And Samuel was distressed and cried out to the Lord all night.” NASU

Is there anyone who could deny that with Saul, it was an issue of the heart? So, with his replacement, it must also be an issue of the heart…
Samuel 13:14 states, “…The LORD has sought out for Himself a man after His own heart, and the LORD has appointed him as ruler over His people, because you have not kept what the LORD commanded you.” NASU

Now, beyond what I have shown here, I performed some exegesis to look at the original Hebrew and Greek to determine some of the nuances of the word “after” used when describing David as a man after God’s own heart.

There are no nuances or undertones that can be found for Samuel 13:14, after His own heart. In other words, the Hebrew didn’t offer any insight as to grammatical use of “after” in this verse.

However, when I went to Acts 13:22 and looked at A MAN AFTER MY HEART in the Greek, the answer to the question “what it meant when the Bible states that ‘David was a man after God’s own heart’” not only unfolded, but permeated revelation and truth.

In Acts 13:22, the word for after is kata in the Greek. While it does mean after, its characteristic is clearly from the perspective of motion and/or direction.

So, put on your seat belt…we’re about to take off! Remember when I posed in my opening:

What if we have read the statement wrong all these years? Or, what if we have misunderstood its meaning? What if, “A MAN AFTER MY HEART”, speaking of David, is not positional, but directional?

In other words, the meaning has to either be that

1. David was created to have/possess a heart after God, making it an (Godly) attribute of David

or

2. David was running in motion with a heart after God, making him a pursuer of God.

According to the Greek rendering in Acts 13:22, David was a man “in motion” after God’s own heart. David was a pursuer of God!!! He lived in the “direction” of God.

Think about it…The entire reason that Saul was rejected by God was because Saul “…turned back from following Me and has not carried out My commands” (1 Samuel 15:11). Saul did not allow his heart to be after God. He was not interested in pursuing God. Saul was only interested in fulfilling his own desires. In contrast, however, we see that David was only interested in following after God. Sure David sinned, but the Bible never declares that David was perfect or that he was expected to be. Maybe that’s where I got it wrong all these years. David was in motion after God’s heart to please God, not uniquely created by God to please Him. Saul was in motion to please himself, not God. So who are WE in motion to please?

To really understand David’s heart, the one in motion after God, we need to look at Psalms. It’s here that we see the portrait painted of a heart yearning for the relationship with God. Now don’t misunderstand me, I’m not glorifying him nor exalting him. I am merely walking a path to find out what made him a man after God’s own heart. Beyond that, he was just a man…sins and all. Maybe that’s why we should all identify with him more…because there’s a “flesh” aspect that makes him a little more like us…or perhaps, makes us a little more like him.

Before we look at some specific Psalms, it would behoove us to grasp an understanding of David’s overall contribution to the entire Book of Psalms. The Book of Psalms contains 150 Psalms, broken into chapters. Of these 150 Psalms, 73 are ascribed to David. That means that 49% of the Book of Psalms was written by David. The Book of Psalms actually translates as the “Book of Praises”. If I’m correct, I believe that the Spirit of God is about to demonstrate to us what being a “man after God’s own heart” is really about.

Let’s look at David’s heart…

David wrote in Psalms 19:14,
14 “Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart
Be acceptable in Your sight,
O LORD , my rock and my Redeemer.”
NASU

Time will not permit me to expound on this verse right now, but in the context of what we’ve learned thus far, WOW! David sounds like a man really, dare I say it, AFTER the heart of God. He is in full pursuit. David was even concerned about what God found him meditating on…David was consumed with pleasing God.

David states in Psalms 51:10-11,
10 “Create in me a clean heart, O God,
And renew a steadfast spirit within me.
11 Do not cast me away from Your presence
And do not take Your Holy Spirit from me.”
NASU

After the fall with Bathsheba, David is confronted by Nathan the prophet. David is found guilty of both murder and adultery. Yet, the Bible calls him a man after God’s own heart. It makes sense now. The above Psalm was written after Nathan confronts David. Look at David’s heart! He immediately pursues God again. He goes after God’s heart. Furthermore, look at the revelation that David had as an Old Testament man of God, “And do not take Your Holy Spirit from me.” WOW. What did an Old Testament man know about the Spirit of God? Isn’t that supposed to be in Acts? Wasn’t that what got me started chasing after this in the first place, Acts 13:22? David understood the anointing AND the fellowship of the Holy Spirit. Hear his cry. Oh God, do not remove me from your presence. Don’t cast me aside. Remember that David, since a youth, had known his God. Even before Goliath, David knew God and was profoundly confident in his relationship with Him. Now we see that David had grown into a man who was just as profoundly confident in his relationship with God’s Holy Spirit. Losing the Holy Spirit would have been just as crushing to David as being expelled from God’s presence.

Let’s look at one more Psalm. In Psalms 139:2-7, David penned,
2 “You know when I sit down and when I rise up;
You understand my thought from afar.
3 You scrutinize my path and my lying down,
And are intimately acquainted with all my ways.
4 Even before there is a word on my tongue,
Behold, O Lord, You know it all.
5 You have enclosed me behind and before,
And laid Your hand upon me.
6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;
It is too high, I cannot attain to it.
7 Where can I go from Your Spirit?
Or where can I flee from Your presence?”
NASU

By the time we get from Psalm 51 to Psalm 139, we see that David literally resides in God’s presence. Please don’t think that this is some super-spiritual person or fairy tale. This is the exact opposite. This is a man…a person afflicted with the human condition, just as we are. But David sought to pursue God, not because of his sin, but because of his need for the presence of God in his life.

This is what God has been revealing to me and wants to reveal to us. The only way to break free from the mediocrity that entraps us in our spiritual lives is to become pursuers of God. We must not see David as a prodigy, but a prototype…not an enigma, but a typology. What will happen when the “church” becomes pursuers of God?

Let’s find out!!!

Tags: church, love, relationships