In short
The same young man that killed Goliath was also one of the very best kings in Israel’s history. He is the great-grandson of Ruth (yes, that Ruth – read the end of her book) and ancestor to Jesus Christ (Matt 1:1, also v. 16). He also wrote at least 75* of the 150 psalms in Psalms. He was architect of the temple.
Why he is important
What did you not get out of that first paragraph? To be clear, many of the kings after David were described as “he did [or did not] do as his father David had done….” And yet even with the bad ones, God still blessed Judah “for the sake of David.”
Like we said in Sunday’s lesson, this is a special covenant that God had with David. (2 Samuel 7:13-17)
Stories about David
- 1 Samuel
- 2 Samuel
- 1 Chronicles
But in a nutshell:
- Was a nobody
- Worked for King Saul
- Defeated Goliath
- Ran from Saul for years (probably decades)
- Was anointed as, and eventually becomes, king of Israel
- Defeats many enemies
- Sinned with Bathsheba
- Constant uprisings against him, even from his sons
- Son was Solomon (yes, that Solomon)
- Prepared for the temple construction (to be done by Solomon)
Theology and doctrine
David was certainly not perfect, but he is one of the clearest forerunners of Jesus Christ. One of the mysteries (now revealed) about the messiah is that he would be both a king (from Judah) and a priest (typically from Levi). But David, for example, was king and yet acted like a priest: he worshiped, wore an ephod, sacrificed and directed the Ark of the Covenant.
Footnote
* 73 are attributed to David in the book of Psalms. Also Psalm 2 and Psalm 95 are credited to David in Acts 4:25 and Hebrews 4:7, respectively. No, I’m not that smart – this comes from https://www.gotquestions.org/Psalms-David.html. The 73 are Psalms 3-9, 11-32, 34-41, 51-65, 68-70, 86, 101, 103, 108-110, 122, 124, 131, 133, 138-145. To be fair, I did verify this myself.
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