Sermon Tone Analysis

February 28, 2012

By John Barnett

Read, print, and listen to this resource on our website www.DiscovertheBook.org

There are almost three thousand biographical portraits in the Bible.

In fact, the Bible is the single greatest source of biographical information from antiquity.

There are more different individual from a wider scope of history recorded in God's Word than any other single source in the world.

Most of the lives recorded in the Bible are only mentioned by name, but some are very clearly examined and analyzed by God.

Those deeply explained lives give us great reasons to pause and listen to what God may have to say about them.

After all He took the time and went to all the effort to capture these portraits for us and then delivered them to us in a forever settled in Heaven book—the Bible.

*The Life Most Noticed by God*

So, whose life is considered important to God? Well, who did God chose to write more about than any other single person in the whole history of the world?

The answer is the young man we are going to meet this morning.

Please open to Acts 13:22

/"And when He had removed him, He raised up for them David as king, to whom also *He gave testimony* and said, ‘I have found David the son of Jesse, *a man after My own heart, who will do all My will.*’"/

NKJV

There are more chapters (141) devoted to the life of David than any other person next to God Himself—in all of His Word.

That is a profound truth.

We know more about David’s words, thoughts, fears, strengths and weaknesses—than anyone else who has ever lived.

And we know about all that from God Himself, and from His perspective.

But that’s not all.

We also know one very important thing for sure—it is God Himself who tells us about David.

David was God’s man--His heart was after God, and for God.

David was serving God as a servant of the Lord for life.

David is the most described man in the Bible for a reason—God has made him our prime Old Testament example of the life of God’s servants.

David had a simple life when we see the world of three thousand years ago; and he had a small world by our modern view; but it was also a very hard and lonely world.

*The Big Events of David’s Life*

David’s life was carved into the bedrock of God’s Word for a wonderful purpose.

Through his godly responses in trials, the Lord was giving Divine Truth to help us learn how to overcome our own loneliness.

In fact, the Holy Spirit inspired David to write over thirty psalms that captured how the Lord was his refuge during his greatest struggles.

Here’s a chronological list of those events and the songs he is believed to have penned in each.

One common denominator can be traced through each era, and most events, of David’s life: David often suffered from intense loneliness.

Whether from being the youngest of the boys in a family with all the normal rivalries, jealousies, and troubles as we’ll see in I Samuel 16, or from his long work hours far away from anyone else: David spent an immense amount of time alone in the wilderness.

Then from his army days fighting for Saul, David was often on the battlefield, again, a lonely place.

Then, the years of running from Saul, hiding for his own safety from so many dangers, and the constant threat of traitors, spies, and enemies produced another long era of loneliness.

Most of this period alternates between deserts, wildernesses, and caves, all are lonely places.

Then from his years as King there are many more lonely days.

Leadership in itself is often a lonely position.

But add to that the pressures of a multi-wife family, struggles with strong-willed children, the constant drumbeat of wars, and then the searing pain of his adultery and all that followed made for even more loneliness.

But the habits of David’s youth never left him.

They were simple habits.

When he was afraid he trusted in God.

When he was at the end of himself he turned to God.

When he felt alone he confessed that he could escape the Spirit of God.

David was a life-long seeker and finder of the Lord he loved.

And all of that is what we find captured in the Scriptures and vividly portrayed in the Psalms.

Join me in this look at the Life of David in I Samuel 16.

You may even want to jot a note on paper or in your Bible as we see the setting for each of these Psalms.

When the pages of the Scriptures open to his life, the first scene is sad at best, and bordering on abusive by modern standards.

David was overlooked, ignored, and disliked by his family (1 Samuel 16:1-13).

But from that lonely time when he could have gotten embittered, David chose to seek the One who never ignored, overlooked, or disliked him.

David used a simple instrument, a harp as a tool to offer his praises and worship to God.

Instead of wasting his hours of monotonous work, he used them to seek the Lord.

He so sharpened the skills God had given him, others learned and heard of his skills in singing (I Samuel 16:14-23).

PERIOD 1:

*FROM THE LONELY DAYS OF HIS YOUTH PSALMS 8, 19, 23, 101, 132*

From his hours out in the wilderness watching sheep and the long nights guarding them under the stars as a young shepherd boy, David was inspired (after the Spirit came upon him in I Samuel 16:13), to write the Spirit prompted lessons of his life we have now in the book of Psalms.

*Psalm 19: Pleasing God, not pleasing myself.*

The bottom line of life is measured by the answer to the question, “Whom do you want to please?”

There are only two possible choices at the deepest level.

Either we please God or we in one way or another are seeking to please ourselves.

David wanted God to be pleased.

It started way back in his youth as we can see in Psalm 19.

Psalm 19

*To the Chief Musician.

A Psalm of David.*

1 The heavens declare the glory of God;

And the firmament shows His handiwork.

2 Day unto day utters speech,

And night unto night reveals knowledge.

3 There is no speech nor language

Where their voice is not heard.

4 Their line[a] has gone out through all the earth,

And their words to the end of the world.

In them He has set a tabernacle for the sun,

5 Which is like a bridegroom coming out of his chamber,

And rejoices like a strong man to run its race.

6 Its rising is from one end of heaven,

And its circuit to the other end;

And there is nothing hidden from its heat.

7 The law of the LORD is perfect, converting the soul;

The testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple;

8 The statutes of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart;

The commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes;

9 The fear of the LORD is clean, enduring forever;

The judgments of the LORD are true and righteous altogether.

10 More to be desired are they than gold,

Yea, than much fine gold;

Sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb.

11 Moreover by them Your servant is warned,

And in keeping them there is great reward.

12 Who can understand his errors?

Cleanse me from secret faults.

13 Keep back Your servant also from presumptuous sins;

Let them not have dominion over me.

Then I shall be blameless,

And I shall be innocent of great transgression.

14 Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart

Be acceptable in Your sight,

O LORD, my strength and my Redeemer.

David broke with the crowd, stopped getting and seeking approval from his peers and went straight to the top.