David, a Man After God’s HeartSample

There is none who does good...

“Why have you despised the word of the Lord, to do what is evil in His sight? You have struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and have taken his wife to be your wife and have killed him with the sword of the Ammonites.” (2 Samuel 12:9)

David was a man after God’s heart, as we read before. He obeyed God’s commandments. And then we suddenly read the story summarized in today’s verse: David took a married woman, got her pregnant, and then tried to cover it up by calling her husband home from the battlefield. But this husband refused to go home and sleep with his wife while his fellow soldiers were camping in the open field — so it was clear to everybody that he could not be the father of the unborn baby. Then David arranged his death and took the woman as his own wife.

Adultery, murder and deceit – not exactly what we would expect of “a man after God’s heart”. Apparently, David was a sinner just like us. Although his desire was to serve the Lord, he was not immune to wickedness and corruption. And God did not condone his sins.

David himself was aware that in the end, no single human meets God’s standards. In Psalm 14 and 53, he writes: “God looks down from heaven on the children of man (…) There is none who does good, not even one.” Do you agree with this conclusion, or do you think it is too pessimistic? How does the disturbing reality of human sinfulness affect you?