Note: You can watch this teaching on CrossWalk’s YouTube channel.

David: Mr. Courage.  David was no wimp.  The youngest brother learned to fight his way in life, and it showed.  It takes courage to be the youngest (I know because I am one!).  At a young age, he took on (and took down) the giant Philistine warrior, Goliath, in a winner takes all match.  He was a kid that had courage to use his sling well.  He was an accomplished musician and was forced to play for the criminally insane King Saul when he would find himself in a fit of rage and throw spears at him – courage required.  A valiant warrior, his renown outshone the king’s which drove the latter mad – Saul killed his thousands, but David killed his tens of thousands.  Outlawed by Saul, David had the opportunity to kill the king in an especially humiliating way.  He chose not to, however, which shows not only great strength, but courage to be noble. He became the second king of Israel, leading them to relative security thanks to his military wisdom and strategic marriages – every battle and every “I do” required courage.  During his reign, he wrote many psalms and songs that became a part of the national cultic practices.  It takes courage to put your stuff out there on display.  Related to worship, he loved to dance.  One time, he was leading a worship processional, dancing his best barely dressed, which his wife thought ridiculous (and let him know it).  Not every man has courage enough to dance naked in front of others.  His first-born son, Absalom, attempted a coup against David, and nearly got away with it.  He was eventually killed.  David knew what courage it takes to grieve the loss of a child.  Later in his life, he agreed to not build a Temple for worshipping God, even though he could have put his name on it as a lasting legacy to himself.  Instead, he made the choice to let someone else enjoy the moment – that takes courage.

            His most infamous chapter, without doubt, was his affair with a woman named Bathsheba, which also required courage on David’s part.  It was during the season when kings went to war, and David realized that his battle days were over – it was time for the next generation to lead the charge.  That took courage to admit.  While his forces were off to battle, he noticed a woman bathing on her rooftop not far from the palace rooftop deck while he was strolling at the same time each day.  Whether or not she was doing this to get noticed by David is the subject of debate to this day.  Regardless of her intentions, he sent his people to bring her to him.  This really didn’t require a lot of courage on his part.  In fact, it was driven out of cowardly lust – he wasn’t bringing her up to play chess…. She became pregnant, which was awkward because her husband was a warrior on the front line of war.  A cover-up was attempted to no avail, and finally David orchestrated the death of Uriah, Bathsheba’s husband, at which point he took her as his wife.  These moves were bold, but not really courageous.

            Bathsheba had the baby, but then the baby got sick and died.  She thought she was cooked.  David asked what he could do to console her, and she requested that her next son become the next king of Israel (ahead of David’s other sons).  The request was granted (which eventually led to Absalom’s coup attempt).  All was well in the kingdom of Israel.

            But Nathan, a prophet of God, got clued in about what had happened and held the king accountable with great savvy.  Very courageous on his part.  David then made some of his most courageous moves.  He stopped lying to others and himself, acknowledging his wrongdoing.  This takes an enormous amount of courage.  He made a truly heartfelt public confession via a psalm/song/poem we know as Psalm 51.  Confessing your sin is one thing, owning it is another, vulnerably sharing your story is quite another.  Courage. Courage. Courage.

So far, I wonder if you are resonating with David.  When have you faced similar life experiences as he did?  Did you know that David was known as “a man after God’s own heart”?  It’s one of the reasons why he was so beloved by people, respected for his faith, and hailed as their model king.  When have you faced times in your life that really required you to act with great courage, which probably also had you on your knees, so to speak, because you sensed you needed God to get through it?

The story of David and Bathsheba has been rightly applied to the issue of personal sin, repentance, and God’s forgiveness.  That is certainly an aspect worth noting.  For some of you today, it may be the most relevant take-away: you feel like you have really blown it, and you wonder if God can truly forgive you.  God can, will, and, in fact, has already.  This grace is yours to embrace.  It has been there all along.  Take it all in.  Embrace the salvation that knowing the forgiveness of sins affords.

Part of the Bathsheba story is David’s repentance.  The word can be translated in a number of ways.  The simplest is to turn around.  Another is a bit clearer on direction – to turn back to God.  A beautiful, nuanced way to think about it is to return to the mind of God.  Turning around, turning back to God, returning to the mind of God – all of it implies that somewhere along the line a person or society shifted so as to eventually need to return.  This brings me to a couple of final thoughts regarding David’s courage.

There were a couple of seasons when David did not evidence courage when a lot was on the line.  When he began lusting and obsessing about Bathsheba, not only did he lack courage to turn away, or go play golf or something, but more importantly, he lacked the courage required to ask himself why he would entertain the thought of being with her in the first place.  It takes great courage to take an honest look in the mirror.  What was his lust saying about his current marriage?  What had he done to contribute to the health or disease of the marriage he was already in?  What was happening with him emotionally that would make him vulnerable to temptation?  I can tell you this, in my experience, people who are connected to their partner are much less vulnerable to temptation than those who are not.  There is simply no room for another when the marriage is healthy.  Imagine how things might have been different if David had shown courage at that point instead of losing his mind, turning away from what he knew was right and best, turning away from God, choosing to not be driven by the mind of God.  Two marriages would have had a chance at greater health.  A husband would not have been killed.  A woman would not have been shamed.  And then there’s the son who became an unintended consequence: Absalom.

Another moment when David lacked courage was more subtle.  Absalom was his first son and rightful heir to the throne, until Bathsheba brokered a deal to save herself and her son from certain doom.  When it was clear that Solomon was going to be king, one could say that David and Absalom’s relationship was damaged!  David caved in that moment of losing the mind of God.  Unfortunately, he never regained it concerning his first-born son.  Many years later he finally asked a question he needed to be asking every day: how is my son Absalom?  David’s lack of attentiveness to his son caught up with him over time when Absalom tried to take the throne, eventually leading to his death.  How would things have been different if David would have had the courage to take an honest look in the mirror and wonder about his role as a father in his son’s life? 

I have no idea how all of this hits you, or which aspect of these stories inspires you, or calls you on the carpet.  I do know that we all have a choice to return to the mind of God – and stay there!  We are invited by the Spirit of God to walk deeply and closely in the Spirit of God, where we discover the Way that leads to life and the courage to follow.  

Where in your life right now do you need to be courageous?  Where in your life right now do you need to return to the mind of God?  What is holding you back? We are in an uncomfortable season just like David was, when we aren’t allowed to be ourselves.  Sometimes we don’t want to feel what we’re feeling so we distract ourselves with other things.  Sometimes these things are harmless time-wasters – Netflix binging, anyone?  Yet sometimes the pain of the emotions we feel is so strong we need something more potent to ignore and alleviate our agony.  This is when we might find ourselves tempted to self-medicate in ways that fit our personality.  For David, it was giving into the temptation of lust.  For some, it’s alcohol and drugs.  For others, it is choosing to dive into something to the neglect of more important things.

What are you feeling?  What are your feelings telling you about the state of your life?  What are your feelings calling you to examine that might take you to places of healing and wholeness?  Grab a notebook and get to it – the Spirit of God will join you in this process of becoming, of insight, and of healing.  Perhaps this unwelcome pause in our daily routines will provide a moment to help us course-correct our lives, so that we might one day look back and celebrate more famous moments of personal courage, and fewer infamous ones of cowardice.