Recently I’ve been struck with a particular view of God that David pretty consistently spoke of in the bible, regarding God being for him. The fact that David is referred to by God as “a man after His own heart” (Acts 13:22, 1 Sam 13:14) makes me all the more eager to discover what David believed about God, in hopes that I too might be a man after God’s own heart.

I recently wrote about this particular view of God that David possessed in a post titled “David And Two Little Words“. As I’ve been studying David and what he believed about God I was again struck by another scene from his life in 2 Samuel 16:5-14.

The backdrop for this scene is a conspiracy by David’s son Absalom to take the throne. David catches wind of it and flees Jerusalem to the wilderness. While David is on his way, “a man of the family of the house of Saul, whose name was Shimei” came out and cursed David continually, throwing stones at David and his mighty men saying, “Get out, get out, you man of blood, you worthless man! The Lord has avenged on you all the blood of the house of Saul, in whose place you have reigned, and the Lord has given the kingdom into the hand of your son Absalom. See, your evil is on you, for you are a man of blood.”

One of David’s mighty men offers to take off Shimei’s head.

David’s response is pretty fascinating:

“If he is cursing because the Lord has said to him, ‘Curse David,’ who then shall say, ‘Why have you done so?’ Behold, my own son seeks my life; how much more now may this Benjaminite! Leave him alone, and let him curse, for the Lord has told him to. It may be that the Lord will look on the wrong done to me, and that the Lord will repay me with good for his cursing today.”

What?!?

“It may be that the Lord will look on the wrong done to me, and that the Lord will repay me with good for his cursing today.”

So in other words, David basically is saying, “Could it be that perhaps this cursing is the means by which God will bless me?”

Who thinks like that?!?

David. A man after God’s own heart.

What a liberating way to live.

Do we focus on the pain and weariness that being cursed and wronged is causing or the possible good that God might be bringing?

David believed what Paul would later write: “we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.” (Rom 8:28)

David had a firm belief in the goodness of God being directed toward him, even in the worst of circumstances, even in the midst of cursing. And he believed it at a time of great loss and personal pain. He believed it when the kingdom he had waited for so long to receive was being taken from him from his very own son. Insult being added to injury didn’t cause him to waiver in believing that God was for him and that surely, goodness and mercy would follow him all the days of his life (Ps 23:6).

“So David and his men went on the road, while Shimei went along on the hillside opposite him and cursed as he went and threw stones at him and flung dust. And the king, and all the people who were with him, arrived weary at the Jordan. And there he refreshed himself.”

I want a heart like David.

(Image adapted from: Patrick – cc)