Faith of David

He had the chance to end his enemy with one quick move, and he chose restraint. That moment with Saul’s robe isn’t a footnote; it’s a window into why David gets named in Hebrews 11 as a man of faith, even though his life includes messy sin and painful consequences. We’re not polishing David into a saint. We’re looking for the kind of faith that holds steady when the easiest option is right there in front of you.

We walk back through 1 Samuel and the Psalms to trace David’s patience, his refusal to grab the crown early, and his deep belief that God’s timing is neither late nor random. Along the way we talk about holiness and grace in plain terms: God cannot look on sin, yet we can come boldly because Jesus stands in the gap as the final sacrifice. That truth changes how we understand repentance, identity, and what it means to be “after God’s own heart”.

You’ll also hear why David’s courage against Goliath is not self-confidence dressed up as spirituality, and how Psalm 59 and Psalm 18 capture faith under stress, fear, and pursuit. If you’re waiting on an answer to prayer, facing pressure, or trying to rebuild after failure, this conversation aims to give you language and hope for real Christian living.

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Good morning, good afternoon, wherever you are in the world - Welcome to Grapevine Ministries.

Transcript

Welcome And Setting The Theme

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Oh, we're back again. I think I'm going to have to start doing a word count. I kind of get carried away when I'm uh researching and uh looking at a subject in the Bible. We're we're still talking on faith, and I hope uh last week's message wasn't too harsh for you. Um I I'm I sometimes my wife says this that I I don't really explain myself uh appropriately. I I try, but uh sometimes uh uh what I'm trying to get across, I don't get across as well as I'd like. So only you, my listeners, can let me know if I need to improve in that area. Now, we're gonna continue to creep along in the uh 32nd verse of Hebrews, chapter 11, and this is the faith of David. Now we're seeing specifically different names mentioned in this, which are people of faith. We've looked at three of them at the moment, and uh we're now moving on to David, and then hopefully we will get on to Samson. Oh not Samson, no, uh Samuel, sorry, Samuel. Okay, all right, so this podcast, and we are looking at David to see what caused the writer of Hebrews to include him as a man of faith, just like the others in this verse before him. David does not have any information attached to his name in the Hebrews text. So we'll go back into the Old Testament to the original story to see what great faith David had throughout his life. As we approach this study on David, we will look at

Why David Counts As Faithful

SPEAKER_01 2:10

his life a little different than we have with some of the others, simply because so much that we could talk about David. Uh, I mean, we could I I could probably turn this into a three or four-part sermon, but I'm not gonna do that, I'm not gonna go that deep. But the first thing everybody's saying, hang on a minute, wasn't David a bit of a um, you know, bit of a how should we say, uh a disappointment to God? Okay, but the thing to remember is not David's failures as a husband, king, and a person through acts of sinful desires that led to adultery, lies, evil plans for murder. But we're not going to focus on that because that's all the sins. David is known by rather by his faith in God, and the main thing to remember here is it says that David was a man after God's own heart. There, straight away, see, he says we all sin and fall short of the glory of God, every one of us. But the thing is that God doesn't look at sin. That's why we have Jesus who stands in the gap for us. God, I mean, you can't see me, but I'm sort of illustrating like three points, you know, like um one end of the dining room table, the other end of the dining table, and in the middle. Uh, okay. So at one end

Jesus Stands Between God And Sin

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of the dining room table, we have God the Father, who cannot look on sin. That's why he even turned his back on his son when he was on the cross, because Jesus took all of our sin. Right? He was the ultimate sacrificial lamb. So in the middle we've got Jesus, okay, who was the the final blood sacrifice that was needed for all of mankind. And the other end of the table is me or you, all right. Now it says that we can boldly come into the throne room of grace and stand before the Father, and the desires of our hearts shall be met. Why can we say that? He says, Because if you listen to um, you know, like Paul, for instance, um Paul uh was one of the disciples, and as we know, um he uh was on the road to Damascus, okay, and he got thrown off of his horse, and God was saying, you know, why why are you persecuting me? Because he was out for blood. He was had a a letter from Caesar, and he could do anything he wanted to to Christians, he could beat them up, he could throw them in jail, or he could kill them. That was his job. But you know, we know that, right? Okay, but later on, okay, this is what I'm the point I'm trying to make. Later on in his journey, okay, after he was no longer Sol of Tarsus, he was renamed, and he went out to speak to the congregation, so to speak, okay, and he said, I who have done no wrong, okay, and everybody's saying, What do you mean you haven't done any wrong? You you tried killing us all, you know? And he goes, Yeah, but once he actually asked Jesus to come into his heart, old things have passed away, behold, everything has come new. So it doesn't matter who you are, where you're from, what you've done, it's never too late for Christ. You know, you'll see things like uh a lot of celebrities that were, you know, in comparison to David, probably worse. But they come to know Christ and their whole life is turned around. So we're gonna look at David about his patience. He had faith in his patience, right? 1 Samuel 24, 4 to 7 says this. Then the men of David said to him, Behold, this is the day of which

David Spares Saul In The Cave

SPEAKER_01 7:05

Yahweh said to you, Behold, I am about to give you your enemy into your hand, and you shall do to him as it seems good in your eyes. Then David arose and cut off the edge of Saul's robe, and this is King Soul now, not Saul of Tarsus, King Soul secretly. And it happened afterwards that David's heart struck him because he had cut off the edge of Saul's robe. So he said to his men, Far be it from me because of Yahweh that I should do this thing to my Lord, the anointed of Yahweh, to send forth my hand against him, since he is the anointed of Yahweh. And David tore his men to pieces with these words, and did not allow them to rise up against Saul. And Saul arose, left the cave, and went on his way. Now, let me sort of like break that down a little bit differently, right? Now, this is why I'm talking about patience, okay? I I will go into this in a little bit more detail. I I just want to clarify this a little bit here. See, David had the opportunity, because everybody knew at this stage of his life that he was going to be the new king of Israel. David had the opportunity to kill Saul. Not once, but on many occasions, right? And but the thing is, he said he would not touch God's anointed. Now, irrespective, and now I know what you're gonna say, okay, um, the anointing was lifted off of um Saul because he thought it was all about him. Me, myself, and I. We're going back there again. But David knew that as far as he was concerned, he was the king, he was appointed by God, okay, for the Israeli people, and so it wasn't his job, okay, to take his life or to harm him, even to the extent where just cutting off a piece of his his his gown, he thought was betraying him.

SPEAKER_00 9:44

So I want to start with the patience, okay, to show how he had faith in God because of that true character.

SPEAKER_01 9:57

There are times in David's life that we could definitely see bad decisions, impatience, and lack of concern for others, but overall, David had extreme patience to not take the throne when he had the opportunity to build to a point that I want to make that we will take a journey backwards in the life of David at a time and when he was aged between 10 and 15. Now, hopefully you all know the story, you've read it, gone through there. The first king of Israel was Saul, and he had been disobedient in the battle with the Amaleks, and you can read that in uh 1 Samuel 15, right? It was this act of disobedience that brought about the rejection of Saul being king over Israel spiritually, all right. Even though God had rejected him as a king, the people were still committed to Saul for many more years. He would not give up his throne, but stubbornly pushed against what Samuel had spoken to him concerning his rejection of God. You know, this is the prophet Samuel, all right. This led God to anoint another king who we know as David. We see this anointing of David in 1 Samuel 16, 1 to 13. But it would not be until 15 or 20 years later before David would actually ascend to the throne as kings. Through those years, many different things happen, and we can look at some of them in detail, but his patience is what I want to focus on. Sometimes it's you waiting for God to do something in your life, God to answer a prayer, for a loved one to come to know Christ

Waiting Years For God’s Timing

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for financial um blessing, or to be give you the gift of being able to speak to someone who you know doesn't know the Lord, and you're looking for the right opportunity to do this. There are many, many things that we have prayed about in our lives, me, myself included, okay, that you're still waiting on God to answer them. But there's a reason, you know. It God's timing, he's never late, he's never early, he's always on time. So when he answers the prayer that you have before the throne room, you will know why it happened at that particular time and not when you actually originally asked for it. So, but the frustrating thing is you've got to realize that um when Saul uh anointed, oh sorry, not not Saul, hang on, I'm getting on get mixed up where I am. When Samuel anointed David as a boy, it was basically saying, uh, you're gonna be the king of Israel, but basically, be patient, it's not now, and you can't go telling the whole world that you're the next king of Israel, all right? You can't do that. Just be patient. And patient he was. See, first we see that David becomes Saul's Saul's armor bearer and personal musician to soothe Saul's temper, and also he was being um, you know, his mind was was going because you know Satan was getting in there and churning him all up because the anointing of him had been lost. But you see, it was almost like uh David had to create a um a foundation for him to walk into the role of king of Israel. So he started off as the armor bearer, then he started playing the music for him, and this led him to becoming a mighty warrior after his defeat of Goliath. So we look at him a little bit deeper into another point, though, later on. David prospered as a great warrior, which led to Saul's jealousy. This jealousy was started to fuel Saul's anger and submission towards David concerning the throne. Saul made David a commander when he was hoping that he would be away a lot of the time, and you know, when he came back, everybody would have forgotten about him, but that didn't happen. You know, he was very prosperous in his battles as the commander and his achievements, and this led to the people loving him even more and more. For this reason, we look at David to see what caused the writer of Hebrews to include him as a man of faith. Just like the others listed in this verse, before him, David does not have any information attached to his name whatsoever. So we literally have to actually look at his life in one and two soul, and one and two Samuel. Man, I get Samuel Soul, or you wait till I get me shack, my shack, and the bendigo all mixed up, or is it my shack, your shack, and someone else's shack? Um, no matter, okay. There are many attempts to make David look bad, okay, and the king wanted him dead, simple as that. But David started writing, okay. David wrote many of the psalms that we

Hunted Yet Steady In The Psalms

SPEAKER_01 16:55

could use to show his faith in God in such difficult circumstances. For in this, I want to look at just parts of some of these psalms. Psalm 59, David clearly is crying out to God to del for deliverance from the men of Saul that are actively chasing him to kill him. Psalm 59, it just starts like this. I'll just just give you little nippets, okay? It says this, verse one and two, deliver me from my enemies, O my God, set me securely on high, away from those who rise up against me. Deliver me from workers of iniquity, and save me from men of bloodshed. Now David speaks of the ongoing day after day hunt for his life from these men, yet in spite of these constant turmoil, David continues to have faith in God. He goes on further. I mean, uh you can read Psalm fifty-nine nine through eleven that says this because of his strength I will watch you, for God is my stronghold. My God in his loving kindness will approach me. God will let me look triumphantly upon my foes. See, he's he's constantly speaking to God, right? And uh I mean I could uh go on, but look, read Psalm 59, okay? Because it gives you a glimpse of not only what was coming against uh David and what he was praying to God for through the Psalms, but it also lets you know that he was being so patient and he had faith and belief in what God was doing and in his timing. He talks about for God is my stronghold, the God who shows me loving kindness. During this time, we see back in the verses in 1 Samuel 24, 4 and 7, that David had the opportunity to kill his enemy many times and he chose not to. But by faith David prospered. 1 Samuel 18, 14 says this, and David was prospering in all his ways, and Yahweh was with him. Wow, irrespective of what he was going through, and everybody was chasing him to kill him, okay, except Timothy. Was it Timothy?

SPEAKER_00 20:13

Yeah, um soul's son, one of them. Um Jonathan, sorry, my mistake. Not Timothy, Jonathan, okay?

SPEAKER_01 20:29

Look, there was nothing David did that can be attributed to his own goodness or power. When David faced the giant Goliath, he did not go in his own ability, but rather in the power of God. David's strength did not rest in his own abilities, but rested in the source of his abilities, who is God. When David heard Goliath taunting the men of war from Israel, he was

Goliath And Strength From God

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offended that someone would think that they could come up against the people of God. That was his reasoning behind that. And David said this in one Samuel seventeen twenty-six, for who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should reproach the battle lines of the living God? See, David again, when he is being questioned before Saul after his abilities to go against such a great warrior as Goliath, said this your servant has struck down both the lion and the bear, and this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them since. He has reproached the battle lines of the living God. And David said, Yahweh who delivered me from the hand of the lion and from the hand of the bear, he will deliver me from the hand of the Philistines. That's pretty gutsy. But he knew who he was in Christ. Okay?

SPEAKER_00 22:26

He knew that he had a close personal relationship with God.

SPEAKER_01 22:34

And David goes on about how he tortured the Philistine and did that. And we know that David killed Goliath with just one stone, struck Goliath in the forehead. David did not claim power in his own strength. He did not look to be applauded because of something he was able to do on his own, but placed his trust in God. See, that's very important to actually understand, right? It looked like David was acting in his own strength and ability, and he was like very brave, and he was going to do what no one else could do because he'd fought a bear and a lion. Okay, but to go up against Goliath, a giant, Philistine, with just a stone and a slingshot, David knew that he had to give honor and glory to God for this thing. And many times we see that David had prospered because of his trust in God and because of his patience. And 1 Samuel 185, that he was prospering in all his ways, 1814, that he was prospering greatly, 1850, that his name was highly esteemed, and 1 Samuel 1830, where he says, but this was always because of God working in David. So and this is what was happening. This was the difference between David and Saul. Okay, King Soul talking about, not Saul of Tarsus, King Soul. He's saying, Yo, I did this, I did that, I am great, I am, I am worthy of everybody bowing down and praising me because I am so good at what I'm doing for my people.

SPEAKER_00 24:53

That was King Saul. But David was saying the opposite.

SPEAKER_01 25:03

And then we see in 1 Samuel 1828, it says this then Saul saw and knew that Yahweh was with David. The fact is that David knew that it was God that

Saul’s Ego Versus David’s Humility

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had given him his power. Even when confronted by Nathan, the prophet about his sin with Bathsheba, he did not make excuses but owned his sin. David said in 2 Samuel 12 13, I have sinned against Yahweh. I've sinned against God. He knew his power come from Yahweh or God, but his weakness was his own. David prospered not in his own strength, but only in God. These words can be seen in either Psalm 18, 1 to 50, or 2 Samuel 22, 1 to 51. The 2 Samuel account says this in verse 1, and David spoke to Yahweh the words of this song in the day that Yahweh delivered him from the hand of all of his enemies and from the hand of Saul, right? It's only listed as a heading in Psalm 18, but this really gives us an insight into it. David's view of the victories over his enemies, you know, and I'll just convert this to God, Yahweh, Yahweh, Yahweh. Um it's I I prefer to do this way in case someone is a new Christian or doesn't understand that Yahweh is God. Okay. In Psalm 18, 1 to 6, he said, I love you, O God, my strength. God is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer. My God, my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield and my horn and my salvation, my stronghold. I call upon God who is worthy to be praised. And it goes on and on and on about David making sure that he acknowledged that everything that he was achieving in his life was because of God, and he was a man whose heart was after the heart of God. Because we know in all essence, when we get back to the nitty-gritty, God is love. See, this shows that David knew who it was that gave him these victories, and he goes right through these Psalms. You can look at Psalm 18, uh, read through the whole lot. Okay, the life of David reflects for us a person that even though sinful, selfishness, and trouble, that he continued to know that the ultimate source of his strength only rested in God. Once again, we look at David as some extraordinary person, but just like me, just like you, we all sin and we are selfish and we face trouble. It is as though times and time again that prove the reality of whether or not we are a man or woman of faith as David was. If we can actually do that, then

Repentance And Closing Challenge

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I'm not saying go out there and sin like crazy and then come back and it says grace through faith and ask for forgiveness. No. The thing is, now that we understand the word of God, and now that we understand his role in our life, when we do sin, because we all sin and fall short of the glory of God, we have to repent. Go back and and say, Lord, okay, I messed up. Sorry, forgive me, and move on. But don't just do sinful things just because you can, knowing that God will forgive you. What happens if you intentionally sin and before you get the opportunity to ask for forgiveness, something happens and you die. Well, you'll still go to heaven, but we all have to answer for what we've done here on earth. Right? But David acknowledged what he had done wrong, but he I don't know, just couldn't help himself, perhaps. He just still did what he did.

SPEAKER_00 30:46

But then he went back to God time and time again, not repenting. David patience. David had patience and he had the ultimate reward. Alright. More on this next week. God bless. Talk to you soon. Bye for now.