David's heart

King David has been called a man after God’s own heart. As a young Christian I’ve always wondered what that means.

I’m not sure I completely grasp that even now. But I got a glimpse into the heart that David had; a heart for God.

He wanted to build a temple for the ark of God but God said no because he was a warrior and he shed much blood and so he was not to the one to build a holy temple for the Lord.

In the Old Testament, David was the only one who longed and yearned so much to build a glorious resting place for the God of his heart. The rest of the kings who built or rebuilt the temple, though they had a willing heart, were mostly following orders (from father or from prophets, or even foreign kings who were instruments of God).

So David could not build a home for the Lord. But you know what? He gathered all the gold and silver and he stored them up for Solomon to build the temple with.

David would never see even the foundations of that temple but he knew it by heart. Every door, every portico, every partition, even the height of the lamps.

And he as if saved up all his “life savings” in modern day parlance, for a dream he would never see but is sure will be realized as promised by the Almighty God.

Reading and thinking about this made me feel the same awe I had for Joseph, who believed and saw in his heart that day in which God will bring the Israelites out of Egypt into the Promised Land. And so he left instructions that his bones be brought with them when that should happen. That was to happen many hundred years down the road.

After Solomon, who built the temple, there were many kings and then there were the divided kingdom of the north and the south; and then there was the exile into Babylon during the time of Nebuchadnezzar; and then the Persians toppled the Babylonians. God had to use Persian kings in the forms of Cyrus and Darius to complete the rebuilding of His temple that was destroyed by the Babylonians.

That happened in the time of the prophet Haggai.

Haggai 2:8. God said: “The silver is mine and the gold is mine,” when He asked the Israelites to consider their ways- they lived in paneled houses while His temple lay in ruins. They offered defiled sacrifice. Consider then why was it that they worked hard but it never amounted to much.

I was then reminded of David’s gold and silver, which he saved and kept for God’s house. The contrast in the heart for God gave me a pang in mine. And begets the question: Where is my heart?

If I had to give all the money I have now to fulfill my faith promise, I would have a hard time doing that – not that I have much, even. Giving all that I have would not even meet my faith promise, not by half. Yet when I made that promise I knew it was meant to be. I had wanted God to do only what He can do in my life. It cannot be an amount that I could earn with my own two hands.

But as the deadline draws near I began to be unsure (there is no penalty for not fulfilling it in church but do we cheat God of the promises we make??). I had always thought the amount would come in one lump sum, in one fell swoop for God to demonstrate His omnipotence. What if that is not the case and I have to give up everything I have?

King David in 1 Chronicles: “But who am I, and who are my people that we should be able to give as generously as this? Everything comes from you, and we have given you only what comes from your hands…O Lord our God, as for all this abundance that we have provided for the building of your temple for your Holy Name, it comes from your hand, and all of it belongs to you. I know, my God, that you test the heart and are pleased with integrity.”

Give up everything I have? I have nothing that is not His. But there is disconnect here between what the head understands and what the heart can truly accept.

Unlike David and Joseph, I cannot see that day when the promise of the unfulfilled will be fulfilled. Therein lies the shameful truth, which answers the question: Where is my heart?

At the end of his life, David prayed for his son Solomon, that he might follow God WHOLEHEARTEDLY. Wholeheartedness- was what David had for God.

Wanted in this temple: Wholeheartedness.