Galen Call's Sermon Library
"David's Final Days" - June 9, 1985 (PM Service)
Over the last several months we have traced the course of David's life. We saw him introduced at that little meeting in Bethlehem when Samuel called Jesse and asked him to bring his sons together for one of them was the Lord's anointed to be the next king and you recall that it was the most unlikely of them all the runt of the family. This little redheaded kid apparently David that was God's man and it was there that he was secretly anointed to be king after Saul and then God sovereignly saw that he had the opportunity to minister to Saul as a court musician. Saul was plagued by depression which was it would seem the result of demonic oppression in his life. When David played his harp it allowed his soul spirits to be lifted. It was sometime during that ministry apparently that he went to visit his brothers who were battling the Philistines and David had his run in with Goliath the giant and with the stones that he picked up as he walked out into the valley he won the victory in the name of God and with one stone and his little sling he was able to conquer this giant that had threatened the armies of the living God and as the Lord's servant he won a great victory by faith. We have traced his friendship with Jonathan a friendship which was very precious to both men and we looked at Saul's jealousy as he came to understand that David was in fact God's choice to replace him. We saw how again and again God protected this young man in Saul's presence. We saw how he gathered his mighty men to the cave of Adolom and how he spent time in Philistia even at one point feigning madness in order to escape the king of gas. We watched him at least twice spare the life of Saul when he could have killed him because he would not touch the Lord's anointed. We saw David weep when he heard of the death of Saul and of his son Jonathan. We watched him be publicly anointed over Judah and then over all of Israel in his reign from Jerusalem a little bit later. We walked with him as he brought the ark of God to Jerusalem. We shared with him his heart's desire to build a temple for the Lord and God's refusal the time when God said no to David and yet God graciously established a covenant with him and God said to him in essence you desire to build me a house David no thank you but I will build your house and God promised him a seed that is a descendant who would reign on a throne and that was fulfilled immediately in Solomon but in the long distance vision is fulfilled in the person of the son of David the Lord Jesus Christ the one who is greater than Solomon. Then we went with David through his darker years. We studied about his sin with Bathsheba the deceit that accompanied that and the ultimate murder of Uriah followed by God's judgment upon him. We saw his house begin to crumble as Amnon sinned against his stepsister and we saw Absalom's rebellion against his father and David's flight then to Mayan Am to escape Absalom and those who followed him in the rebellion. Then more recently we studied about his return to Jerusalem and some of the victories and skirmishes that he had in his latter years of his reign. Last week we studied about his numbering of the people and the judgment of God that came upon him as a result of that. Now as we move into the book of First Kings we move into the fading part of his reign. His time as king has about ended here. He is near that time when he will go to be with his son whom he lost under the judgment of God. He recalled that that little baby died and David remarked he will not return to me but I will go to him. David is about to that point. A transition is about to be made in the kingdom from David to his successor his son Solomon. As we come to the second chapter of First Kings we stand at his deathbed and as we stand here at David's deathbed there are some final observations I would like to make regarding his life. Let's read though the first four verses of First Kings 2. As David's time to die drew near he charged Solomon his son saying "I am going the way of all the earth. Be strong therefore and show yourself a man and keep the charge of the Lord your God to walk in his ways to keep his statutes, his commandments, his ordinances and his testimonies. According to what is written in the law of Moses that you may succeed in all that you do and wherever you turn so that the Lord may carry out his promise which he spoke concerning me saying "If your sons are careful of their way to walk before me in truth with all their heart and with all their soul you shall not lack a man on the throne of Israel." The first observation I'd like to make regarding the life of David as we stand here at his deathbed is this that he was a Godly man though not a perfect man. It is the kind of man who is a hero to many of us because of the godly character that was his and yet even the most godly have feet of clay the greatest of men do. Men at their best will still disappoint you. Don't ever forget that. In a day when there are some evangelical superstars and those who are in their fan clubs remember that your superstar has feet of clay. Expect of no man the perfection that is found in Jesus Christ alone. That is a good lesson for us to learn as we look at David. David's life had his failures. We could think of the impatience that he displayed as he responded to "NABLE." You recall the advice from dear Abby saved him from making a terrible mistake. Abby being the wife of Nabel Abigail. And then we have already suggested the immorality of David's life a terrible failure in sin with Bathsheba. The sin of murder when he killed Uriah or had him killed. The pride that was revealed when he took a census of the nation and then his failure with his children was a mark on David's life of sadness. In fact even here in First Kings we see that in First Kings 1-6 it says this regarding Ad and I. J. And I really think it's probably true regarding all of his sons. It says and his father had never crossed him at any time by asking why have you done so? It says he was also a very handsome man and he was born after Absalom. The point that the writer is making is that David had not properly disciplined this young man and probably not his other sons either. So he had his failures. He had his faults and his sins. And yet these weaknesses and sins were not the dominant forces in his life. Thank God for that. They were the exception, not the rule. They were the occasions, not the pattern that was set. And when God weighs David's life he lays aside the weaknesses. He does not ignore them. They are recorded for us in the eternal word of God. God is not wink at them. He does not call them unimportant. But yet God graciously in weighing the life of David finds him a man after his own heart who will do all my will. That's what God said. Not before David's life but a thousand years later when the Apostle Paul spoke in Antioch of Pisidia to the Jews there he recounted some of the history of Israel. And as Luke records it by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit one of Paul's points was that David was a man after God's own heart and he continues on with this phrase that I don't think is found in the Old Testament. But this was God's evaluation after David lived. He is a man who will do all my will. Isn't that great that God graciously evaluated his servant in such terms. In another place in the Psalms he speaks about the integrity of David's heart. We know there were failures. God knows there were failures. But because of the nature of David's heart because that was the bent of his life to follow after the Lord to know him, to hunger for him. God says he led my people in the integrity of his heart. And then I think in what is the greatest honor that David could have God gives the title to his son, the Lord Jesus Christ, the son of David. The Lord Jesus Christ was unashamed to be called the son of David and to be identified in his humanity with this man of God that we have studied these months. And so look to his strengths, to his godly traits. Imitate those. Learn as well from his failures. And may I say by application, do the same with your heroes today. Copy their strengths, but don't demand of them perfection or you'll be disillusioned. Copy their good. Avoid their sins. May I just throw in another two cents worth here regarding the superstar syndrome. I think that we need to do all we can to destroy that so that we don't create evangelical celebrities. I don't believe that honors God. Certainly there are people who because of their ministries are going to be better known than others. But let's not promote the idea that somehow these are the great ones and others are less than that. I believe that the pastor who tonight is preaching to five people down in the middle of the hills of Kentucky, if he's serving the Lord with all of his heart, is as great a servant of God as the man who may be preaching to thousands tonight. That's how God evaluates is the heart. And so let's try to do the same thing and not make judgments on the basis of outward things. There are some times when those kinds of superficial judgments lead us to make some very wrong conclusions. Well, there's a second observation I want to make about David and that is that he had learned in his life the true meaning of success. I notice in the text that we've read here in First Kings that he gives basically two commands to Solomon. You will find another record of these commands in 1 Chronicles 28, but right here in this more brief version, you will notice that he says to him, first of all, be strong. In other words, be courageous. Be a man. The idea is don't be compromising. Don't be weak. Be a man of God. That is a need today, isn't it? We do not need apologetic Christians, but we need Christians who are courageous and who are willing to take a stand for God in what they're doing. And the second command that he gives to Solomon is a partner with it. He says, in essence, be obedient. He says, keep the charge of the Lord your God. Do what God tells you to do. Now, David isn't saying to his son, be sinless. David himself couldn't pass on that legacy, of course. He was a sinner too. But he was saying Solomon be obedient to what God has said. And of course, part of that obedience is acknowledging our transgressions when we send to confess them. That is obedience. Obey what God tells you to do. Why? Because God honors those who obey his word. I believe that those two ingredients bring a person to success. To be courageous for God and to honor his word by obeying it. That will bring a person to true success. Turn back with me to a comment in the book of Joshua where I think we learn the same thing. Joshua chapter 1 is a striking parallel indeed to what David says. The Lord is speaking to Joshua who is taking up now the reigns of leadership after the death of Moses. And he says in verse 8, "This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous and then you will have success." In other words, he says be obedient. Do what God has said for you to do in his word, meditate upon his word, allow it to fill your mind, to filter down into your heart, to impact your lifestyle, the way that you live, the decisions that you make, be obedient and you will have success. And then he goes on to say to him in verse 9, "Have not I commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not tremble or be dismayed for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go." And so again he says to Joshua, "Be courageous. Be a man. I've commanded you and I'm with you wherever you go. Do not tremble. Do not be dismayed. Be strong." I believe obedience to those two commands will bring us to the point of success. Now going back to 1 Kings chapter 2, it seems to me that in the rest of these verses that we read earlier, we can understand what David means by success, how he defined it. He speaks in verse 4 about the Lord carrying out his promise, which he spoke. I believe success can be simply defined in terms like these. It is allowing God to accomplish his purpose in my life. That is success. It's not having the largest church. It's not being the highest paid person in the corporation. It's not having the fanciest home or car or the things that go along with those things. Success is not having power in the political party. Success is very simply found in allowing God to accomplish his purpose in my life. That means that whatever vocation I am in, I can be a success there in God's eyes. I simply allowing him to fulfill his purpose in my being there. Am I an accountant? Am I an advertising executive? Am I a plumber? Am I a policeman? Am I an army officer? Am I a teacher? Am I a repairman? Whatever I am doing, if I am allowing God to have his way in my life, that I am successful as far as God is concerned. To be successful means to be courageous and obedient to the Word of God, allowing him to have his way in our lives. I believe David had learned the true meaning of success. A third observation I want to make is also suggested here in First Kings 2, and it is this that his life ended well. But I'd like to go to First Chronicles 29 to get a little more clear picture of this. First Chronicles 29 and verse 28. It recounts his reign in verses 26 and 27, and then in verse 28 it says, "Then David died in a ripe old age, full of days, riches and honor." That is a marvelous statement of a man's life ending well. It ended quietly in a dignified way. We see a great warrior for God. We see a man who sought the heart of God quietly falling asleep. That isn't quite a contrast, isn't it, to Saul, the first king of Israel, who in a fear and a frenzy and out of God's will committed suicide on the mountains of Gilboa. A man whose life missed its target, a tragedy. But we see such a wonderful and sweet contrast in the life of David because he had learned the meaning of true success, because he focused on that in his life, being strong and being obedient. His life ended well. When he closed his eyes on his deathbed and his spirit left his body, he came to realize what he had written about years earlier when he said, "Goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever." What a great way to die. I can hear someone almost say to me, "Oh, that's the way I want to die." And I feel the same way. My friend, if we would die as the godly die, then we must live as the godly live. One does not die this way by getting right with God in the last six hours or even six months of one's life. When one's life has been lived, as David's life was lived, then one can die as David died. We see another illustration, do we not in Paul? A man whose life was lived fully for the Lord Jesus Christ? So much so that when he came to the point of facing his own execution, he was able to say by the grace of God, "I have finished my course." He did not come to the end of his life in a frenzy. He was not pacing his cell saying, "I wish I could be out there. There's so much more to do." And of course there was, but he could honestly say, "I have done what God wanted me to do. I have finished my course." That is a life ended well. A man by the name of Macquokerson has written a poem that I did not bring with me tonight, but the title of it is "Striking." It is a prayer and the poem is entitled, "Lord, get me home before dark." And the point of his poem is, "Lord, I want to get home to heaven before I should blow it in my life." I have known that perhaps you have too, men who have had years of successful ministry and who in a moment of carelessness toward the closing days of their life have blown it all up. Have you not known believers, men and women who have made the same mistake? "Lord, get me home before dark." I have prayed, and I trust this is not a careless prayer, but that before God would allow me to blow it in my life, that he would call me home. I want my life to end well, however God chooses to end it. So when that moment comes that I slip out of my body into the presence of the Lord, my life will have been lived to the glory of God. I believe that's your desire too. David's life ended well. And then there is a final observation that I want to make based upon a New Testament text. Turn over to the book of Acts 13th chapter. His epitaph speaks volumes. This is what is written on his tombstone. These words are penned by the Holy Spirit a thousand years after David had died. And in the context here, Paul is talking about the resurrection. He is saying that the resurrection of Jesus Christ was prophesied in the Old Testament and one of the prophecies is found in Psalm 16 when the writer says, "Thou will not allow thy holy one to undergo decay." See that in verse 35? He quotes from the Psalm. Now for those who said, "Well that's referring to David." He wrote those words and he did. And so Paul goes on to say, "For David after he had served the purpose of God in his own generation, fell asleep and was laid with among his fathers and underwent decay." In other words, it couldn't have been David himself he was speaking of. But he says, "He whom God raised did not undergo decay." And so he's pointing out here that David was speaking prophetically of his own son, the Lord Jesus Christ. But the epitaph I see here is in verse 36 when it says, "David after he had served the purpose of God in his own generation, fell asleep." David served his own generation. Really that's all any of us can do. We can't serve the generation that's passed. They're dead and gone. Their lives have already been written upon the stone of history. It cannot be changed. And we can only indirectly have an impact upon future generations by whatever works we may leave or the impact we may leave upon our children. But only indirectly can we affect the future generation. Folks, we can impact this generation. This is our generation as David lived in his day in his generation. Now it says here that David served the purpose of God in his generation. The purpose of God. Remember we said accomplishing the purpose of God in our lives. That's success. That's what David did. He did the will of God in his life. He did what God wanted him to do in his generation. But notice how he did it. He did it by serving. It doesn't say that David fought, although he was the most successful warrior king Israel ever had. It doesn't say that he reigned, although he reigned for 40 years. But rather says that David served. The word for serve here is not the typical word. It's the lowest kind of service. It's the kind of service that an under roar would give. You say what is an under roar? Well that was, as best as we understand it, the title given to the bottom rank of roars on one of the large Greek ships. Perhaps you have seen drawings or depictions of these large vessels of war that they had in those ancient days. And there would be two or three ranks of roars. Slaves down there in the belly of the ship. And they would work those long, long poles and oars. And they would roll the ship. That was their job. That's all they did. And they would have drums that would beat out the pace for the slaves to keep. And those slaves who were the lowest, those who had the worst job were the ones who were down below. Because all of the filth from up above came down on them. And all of the heat and the smell and the horrible situation was upon them down there in the under roar section of slaves. That is the word that David is characterized by here. David served in a position of humility. He served. David learned what it was to be a servant leader. I think it takes three things to be a servant leader. I believe we see these in the life of David. I believe that's what God calls us to. I listened to Dr. Bob Smith last night on conference pulpit. Maybe some of the others of you did as well. It was a message from Founders Week at Bethel this year. And he spoke in part about leadership and the fact that the word leadership is used only one time in the New Testament. God hasn't called us to be leaders. God has called us to be servants. Now in our serving, we sometimes lead. But the emphasis is upon service, not leadership. That's the kind of attitude David had. What does it take to be a servant leader? I think number one, it takes the ability to identify with those who are under you. A servant leader is able to do that. David was very successful in identifying with his men. You talk about a loyal bunch of people. When he was fleeing from Jerusalem, there were all of those hundreds of soldiers who surrounded him and went with him across the Jordan to man Am. Now why did they do that? Because they felt a loyalty to this man. He had identified with them. You recall he was down there in the cave and there were these hundreds of people that started arriving, all the discontents, all those who were unhappy and all those who were in debt and had problems. They were the ones that went to David down the wilderness. David was able to capture the loyalty of that kind of a crew. Why was he able to do that? Because he could identify with them. I don't know what you're doing in your service for Jesus Christ, but if there are those who serve under you in some capacity or who look up to you as their teacher, one of the keys to your success is going to be your ability to identify with them. Because that will lead them to identify with you. Then a second thing that is necessary for a servant leader, he must convey credibility by his own transparency. David was that kind of a guy. When he got happy, when the ark was coming Jerusalem, what did he do? He took off his kingly robes, stripped himself down to his linen garments, and he danced before the ark of God. It was brought into Jerusalem. And you recall that Michael, soul's daughter, David's wife, despised him for that. How unkingly can you get her father would never have done something like that. But David was transparent. His heart was happy in the Lord, and he showed it. There were times when he was just the opposite. He was in the pits. He was transparent enough to write about it, and we have the record of many of those occasions in the book of Psalms. Times may be cry out and say, "Oh Lord, how long will you forget me?" If a person is going to be successful as a servant leader, he must be able to convey credibility in his own life by being transparent to those who follow him. And third, he must be willing to take risks to obey God. A servant leader must be willing to do that. David did. We see it as early as his battle with Goliath. I mean, in a way it was very risky, wasn't it, for him to go out there in that valley of Elah, without any armor on against this fellow who is towering above him, who is like a well-armored tank standing there with his weapons. And they had a fellow rend before him with a shield. They're pretty imposing. David took a risk going out there with just his sling and five stones, but he did it, an obedience to the Lord. And I want to tell you, that captured the attention of the people of Israel. And they said, "Now there's the man we want to follow." He's willing to take risks to obey God. And you remember the song that came up as David continued his successes? Saul has slain his thousands, but David has slain his ten thousand. In essence, they were saying David is ten times the leader that Saul is. Of course, Saul got the picture when he heard that song too. David was an effective servant leader because he was willing to take risks to obey God. I believe the people are looking for that kind of leadership, not foolishness, but those who are willing to take risks and obedience to what God has said in his word. Well, David served. What greater epitaph could a person have than that? It speaks volumes about this man of God. I hope that the study of the life of David has been a profitable one for you. I have enjoyed going through this material, preparing the messages, and a number of you have said that you've appreciated learning after David's life. I think it will be fitting for us to close by saying some words that are based upon one of David's writings. It's him number 366. I'm speaking of course about Psalm 23, probably the best known and most beloved of all of David's words. It is set here to the tune of Crimmond. All of you Scots who are present tonight will especially appreciate this. The Lord's My Shepherd, I'll not want. Let's stand together and sing David's words from Psalm 23, number 366. As we sing the words, remember the life of the man we're singing about. The Lord's My Shepherd, I'll not want. He makes me down to lie in pastor's green. He leadeth me, a quiet water's by. My soul, he does restore again, and me to walk, of death made within the paths of righteousness, in for his own name's sake. Ye though I walk through death's dark veil, yet will I fill no will for the Lord with me and I run, and staff we come for still. My table thou has furnishing in presence of my false, my head thou dust with oil and mine, and my cup of overfose. Goodness in my sea, all my life shall surely fall. Allow me and in God's house, forevermore my dwelling place shall be. Maybe it was just my imagination, but I thought I heard a voice from up above somewhere singing those words with us. Lord, we thank you for David, this man who is after your own heart, this man of God. Thank you for the example left to us in your holy word of his life. It's failures from which we learn, but it's many successes. Lord, again we pray that we might be men and women after your own heart, who would do all of your will. And Lord, when it comes to that time that we too go the way of all the earth and enter into the house of the Lord, may it be said of us that we served our own generation according to the purpose and the will of God. In Jesus' name we pray, Amen.