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KING DAVID'S ABUNDANT KINDNESS
I am here, Jesus:
I have been telling you about those narratives in the Old Testament wherein God is visualized as a God of Love, if not the Father of Divine Love, then the Jehovah whose love shines forth on that human level displayed by His children. In the previous sermons I have pointed out how love between brothers, for a father, between in-laws, reflects this love between man and his fellow man indicative of the human soul created in the image of the Father.
In this sermon, and in others to follow, I wish to tell you about the development of this human love as possessed and practiced by the greatest king of the Hebrew nation. David Ha-Melech, as he is, and has been called, with deepest affection and reverence by the Jewish people throughout the centuries.
David, the youngest son of Jesse, a well-to-do land owner and cattle raiser of Bethlehem, was a strong and agile youth, both given to poetic sentiment and to deeds of the chase, and his father saw that he should be given music lessons as understood in those days. When King Saul began to suffer from moods of melancholia and distemper, it was arranged to bring David into the court as harpist, to soothe Saul in his difficult moments, but David was soon able to become Jonathan's armor-bearer, and accompanied him on some raids into the lines of the Philistines. On the other hand, David was never anointed secretly by Samuel to become the next king of the Hebrews, and this story was inserted many years later into the Scriptures when David was already on the throne in Jerusalem in order to strengthen David's claim to legitimacy by making it appear he had been chosen by God through Samuel, His prophet. Actually, David became king in a war between Saul's son, Ishbaal, after the death of Saul and Jonathan at Mt. Gilboa. It was generally accepted that victory was given to him whom God favored.
In the same way, the account of David's triumph over Goliath of Gath is simply a story and never did take place. The Philistine giant was indeed killed in battle, but by Elhanan, one of David's men. The whole narrative of David's return to his father's house, his brother's anger on his appearance at the battle front, his inability to use armor, the king's complete ignorance of David afterwards, and the taking of the giant's head to Jerusalem, when the city was still in the hands of the Jebusites and was not captured by David until many years later, all show the hand of a later writer who introduced into the scriptures this fable of David's exploit to enhance his fame for gallantry and to emphasize his trust in God.
For David had implicit trust in the Father, and sought His aid and protection at every turn, and through his prayers to Him felt that He would uphold him and deliver him out of the hands of his enemies even in the direst circumstances. David did things that were evil in the sight of the Father, and he knew that they were wrong, and he also did many evil things resulting from the prevailing circumstances of his times, which he did not realize at the time to be evil, but for which he would nevertheless have to compensate, yet David's separation from God was always temporary, and he would seek the Father for forgiveness, for safety and salvation, and abide stoically by what he felt were God's answers to him conveyed through the prophets of his time, Nathan and Gad.
And the truth is that God did through His ministers deliver David out of the hands of his enemies and their jealousies, as God always delivers His children out of the troubles of the material world, sustains them with courage in the times of woe and prepares the circumstances, at the appropriate time, and through His agents, in the flesh and in the spirit world, that surplant the evils of prevalent physical conditions and the inclinations of unredeemed human beings. And even when the material laws that govern material conditions cannot be abrogated, and death ensues, the human soul can always, in the present ages, receive the Divine Love of the Father, and the happiness, such, that the human being has no conception of, that derives from possession of the Father's Love and an abode in His Celestial Heavens, or indeed that happiness that comes from a purified soul and a high place in the Spiritual Heavens, that nullifies the unhappiness that may arise on leaving the material world and its attractions.
And when David wrote his Psalms, those that he did, he had a transcendant realization, though not possession, of God's Divine Love and His Mercy to him and to mankind, and his own love of God was in keeping with, and concommitant with, his love and generosity towards other human beings. For, with all of David's sins, he possessed a heart filled with kindness far beyond what could be expected of a refugee hunted by a jealous king and, reversely, of the most powerful Hebrew Monarch of the ages, whose every whim and wish were law.
And while David is here thanking me as I say this*, I must in all fairness state that David's life was abundant in kindness, charity and generosity, and in the lines that follow I will show how these wonderful gifts of the Father to David were used, to David's eternal credit, to help, to forgive and to refrain from retaliation. David's basic nobility of heart, as well as his valor in warfare, was thoroughly understood and appreciated by Jonathan, Saul's son, and the love and friendship between the two have become proverbial throughout the centuries. We see how Jonathan's fidelity to his friend was extremely instrumental in David's escape from Saul, and the same may be said of Michal, his wife.
Jesus of the Bible
and
Master of the Celestial Heavens
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* David was present when Jesus was writing this sermon.
