GIVING THANKS in the middle of trouble is difficult, even contrary to our nature. But David did it again and again, even when he was surrounded by enemies—not all of which were human.Continue Reading
THIS WEEK’S STUDY is a song of deliverance that follows the account of David’s final victory over the Philistine “sons of the Rapha.”Continue Reading
THE POLITICS of David’s day was just brutal and bloody as it is today.Continue Reading
ONE OF THE hardest things you can do is give thanks to God in the middle of trouble.Continue Reading
DAVID WAS NOT a good father. That’s obvious from the way his own children treated each other—and him.Continue Reading
TALK ABOUT ingratitude: David’s son Absalom, who’d fled to his grandfather’s kingdom of Geshur, returned to Jerusalem after a two-year exile and apparently began scheming to remove David from the throne as soon as he came home.Continue Reading
THE PSALMS this week follow our chronological reading order, meaning they were written by David after he was confronted by the prophet Nathan for conspiring to kill Uriah the Hittite so that David could take his wife, Bathsheba.Continue Reading
DAVID’S PLOY to take the wife of Uriah the Hittite is another story that shows that the Bible has not been cleaned up to make the humans used by God look more, well, saintly.Continue Reading
DAVID’S KINGDOM faced a strong test from his neighbors to the east and north as a coalition of Ammonites and Arameans tried to take down the new Israelite kingdom.Continue Reading
DAVID WAS not a perfect man by any measure, but if we draw anything from this week’s study it should be his example of humility when he realized that he’d become a little too full of himself.Continue Reading