How God can say of David a man after my own heart when he did all of those wicked things as recorded in the Bible?
God wanted King Saul to be his favored servant, but Saul disobeyed God. More than that, Saul was not penitent. Therefore, God removed Saul from being king and sought another. “But now thy kingdom shall not continue: the LORD hath sought him a man after his own heart, and the LORD hath commanded him to be captain over his people, because thou hast not kept that which the LORD commanded thee” (1 Samuel 13:14). At least initially, God found his favored servant in David (1 Samuel 16:6-13). David did the bidding of God, and yet, like all mortals, sometimes he sinned. Some of his more notable sins, of course, include adultery and murder. Yet, with penitent heart, David turned back to God. The favorable reference to David does not gloss over David’s sins and may have applied to David more before the sins that we remember against him. It is possible, though, the favorable reference to David refers as much to him after his penitence as before he committed those ignoble sins. “And when he had removed him, he raised up unto them David to be their king; to whom also he gave testimony, and said, I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after mine own heart, which shall fulfil all my will” (Acts 13:22). The Acts 13:22 reference is part of a summary of Hebrew history, which does not address many details. David was, when selected, a man after God’s own heart, and through repentance from sin later, was often thereby a man after God’s own heart. It is no different with us. Happily, God may find in us humble servants, and yet when we sin, we can penitently return to God and resume to some degree Christian service. Let’s not excuse David, but let’s not be harder on David than we hope for God to be when dealing with us.
