David

December 30, 2011
The Sixth Day of Christmas

The Lord be with you

Yesterday (and today as far as that goes) I have been absorbed in a writing project for the D.Min. degree I’m working on. It is my project proposal. What this means is that I utterly forgot to post something yesterday, which was the Commemoration of David on the LC-MS calendar. This is another day added with the adoption of the Lutheran Service Book. I thought I’d put something up today under the general rubric “better late than never.”

David, the greatest of Israel’s kings, ruled from about 1010 to 970 BC. The events of his life are found in 1 Samuel 16 through 1 Kings 2 and in 1 Chronicles 10-29. David was also gifted musically. He was skilled in playing the lyre and the author of no fewer than seventy-three psalms, including the beloved Psalm 23. His public and private character displayed a mixture of good (for example, his defeat of the giant Goliath [1 Samuel 17]) and evil (as in his adultery with Uriah’s wife, followed by his murder of Uriah [2 Samuel 11]) David’s greatness lay in his fierce loyalty to God as Israel’s military and political leader, coupled with his willingness to acknowledge his sins and ask for God’s forgiveness (2 Samuel 12; see Psalm 51). It was under David’s leadership that the people of Israel were united into a single nation with Jerusalem as its capital city.

Appropriate prayers include a repentant heart, for loyalty to the Lord, for our political leaders and the political leaders of the world, for peace in the Middle East.

Blessings in Christ,
Pastor John Rickert