DAVID THE SWEET PSALMIST OF ISRAEL

 

                                          

In 1977 at the height of cold war, Anatoly Shcharansky , a brilliant young mathematician and chess player was arrested by the KGB for his repeated attempts to emigrate to Israel. He spent thirteen years inside the soviet Gulag. From morning to evening Sccharansky read and studied all 150 psalms in Hebrew. 

“What does this give me?” He asked in a letter, “Gradually my feelings of great loss and sorrow changes to one of bright hopes”. Shcharansky so cherished his book of psalms that when guards took it away from him, he lay in the snow, refusing to move until they returned it.

During those thirteen years, his wife traveled around the world campaigning for his release. In one visit she told a university audience “in a lonely cell in Chistopol prison, locked alone with psalms of David, Anatoly found expression for his innermost feelings, in the outpouring of the king of Israel thousands of years ago (Philip Yancey-The Bible  Jesus Read)

David’s was the last born in a family of eight. He was handsome, strong and well built (1 Sam 16:11, 12). His career began during the pastoral solitude when as a boy he tended his father’s flock. David took all his assignment seriously, he did his job wholeheartedly. As a shepherd he went through the hills and valleys in remote and often rugged regions.

During those lonely hours David composed psalms and sang them with a  harp and a lyre. The fame of David great skills and the beautiful music reached King Saul’s palace (1 Sam 16:18, 23). David’s experiences found their way into his poetry, providing rich imagery for many of his most beloved psalms.

The early shepherd life deeply influenced his character and left its traces on many of his psalms. The meditative quiet and humble duties of those first years were followed by the many challenges of the turbulent course through which he reached his throne. In his elevation, David kept the gracious sweetness of his lowlier and perhaps happier days.

None of the great men of Scripture pass through a course of so many changes; none of them touches human life at so many points like David. He learnt in experience what he later taught in psalms. The shepherd's staff and sling, the sword, the scepter, and the lyre were equally familiar to his hands

 He credited God for all his victories. He wrote “praise be to the Lord my rock, who trains my hands for war, my fingers for battle (psalm 144:1). He teaches my hands to war so they can bend a bow of bronze. He arms me with strength for the battle and lifts me above my enemies” (Ps 18).

David had a passion of personal love to his God, such as had never before been expressed in Israel. He wrote “(I love you O lord (Ps. 18:1), you have filled my heart with great joy (Ps 4:7). I will praise you, O Lord with all my heart, I will tell of all your wonders (Ps. 9:1).  I will sing and make music; I will awaken the dawn, to sing to the nations (Psalm 36:5-6, 57:7-10). I will give thanks to you, and sing praises to your name (Ps 18).

Psalms express the emotions of the poet to God or about God. They communicate different feelings and thoughts regarding a psalmist situation. Psalms present a clear picture of God lovingly guiding his people. They offer us glimpse of hearts devoted to God. Psalms illuminate the greatness of God and affirm his faithfulness in times of trouble. They encourage their readers to praise God for who he is and what he has done.

There had been traces of hymns before David. We have the prayer of Moses (Ps 90) and the song of Moses (Deut 32). But, practically the Psalm began with David; He wrote 73 of the 150 Psalms. Though many hands struck the harp after him, he remains emphatically "the sweet psalmist of Israel."

The psalms which are attributed to him have a marked similarity. They have intensity of devotion and the passion of Divine love glows in them all. They correspond, too, with the circumstances of his life as given in the historical books. Several (Psalms 19, 8) echo his thoughts in the first days. They have no trace of pressing cares. They are full of tranquil beauty of a young heart far from men and very near God.

His later psalms express fear, worries and varied experience of human life.  Psalm 39 was written in his last years. The psalm ends with the words “before I go away and I am no more”. David was a great leader, a celebrity, a skilled poet, a musical genius and a king. If anyone might have thought more highly of himself David had the right to do, yet he wrote here “certainly every man at his best is but a vapor.”

David’s transitions of fortune and his wide experience were the many-colored threads from which the rich web of his psalms is woven. That blending of the soldier, king and  poet gave his life a peculiar charm and is very strikingly brought out in the book of  2 Samuel "These be the last words of David,... the man who was raised up on high, the anointed of the God of Jacob , And the sweet psalmist of Israel” (2 Sam 23:1).

In 2 Samuel 22, David is nearing the end of his earthly race. He begins to reflect back on the life he has lived. He takes a moment to look back, to look around and to look ahead. He has achieved true greatness; he is a mighty king, ruling a great kingdom. As David remembers where the Lord found him and all that the Lord has done for him and through him, he takes his pen and writes 2 Samuel 22 which is almost identical to Psalm 18. 

It’s believed that this was his last song. If so, it is a song of joy, victory and praise written at the close of a race well run. David sings of a very personal relationship that he has with God. He uses the possessive personal pronouns “my” and “me”. He does not just know about God; he knows God!  He does not live on what others tell him; he knows God personally.

David gives credit to God for all his successes and declares Gods way perfect. The Lord is his strength and his source of power (V.33; Ps 18:1). He recalls in great details when he had lifted his cry to God in times of trouble, and how God moved in power to protect him (vv.7-20).  God had guarded him and enabled him to flee from danger like a deer (v.34). God has been a rock, a shield, a fortress, a high tower and a refuge (v.2-3). God did this for David “because he delights” in David (v.20).

David sings of the God turns his darkness into light and keeps his lamp burning (vv.27-28). He had sinned in a terrible fashion, yet he had discovered that a broken and a contrite heart always move God to forgive (Ps 51:17). There were many times when David did not know which way to turn in life. In those times, God had been his guiding light. God had revealed the next step in the path time and time again (Ps. 119:105).

As David‘s life nears the end, he sings of the God who secures! David examines the landscape of all the years that have passed in his life.  As he does, he sees the clear hand of God in everything- his past has been a time of absolute security! As David looks around he sees the hand of God still working in his life, God still has the king safely in His hand.

David looks ahead to the future, and feels certain that God would secure his future just as surely as He had secured his past and his present. No wonder David burst into a joyful song!  His whole life has been blessed and graced by the Almighty God.  The least David could do was praise the Lord in return. It is a fitting song designed to thank God for His wonderful blessings. David enjoyed what we all long for: absolute victory!  The God of David is our God today.