David KNEW God.

David lived some 800 years before Jesus was born. If you’re unfamiliar with Bible history, that is solid Old Testament times. In fact, David was Jesus’s great-great-great-something grandfather. David did not know Jesus. He knew of the coming Messiah. He knew some of the prophesies, and God told him that the Messiah would come through his family line. But David did not know Jesus, not in the way that we can, that is.

Yet, David knew the LORD (YHWH- Yahweh, Jehovah, the great I AM). He saw God as Father, Protector, and Friend.

In those days of temple/tabernacle worship, the people went to the LORD through the Levitical priests. They brought their sacrifices and trusted in the process of this type of worship and in the priests of Aaron’s line. But David is proof that- even then, so long ago- God was real. He was present in everyday life. He wasn’t only available on the Sabbath or only when He was pleased with the “aroma of the offerings.” He walked beside His people every day, even as He does today. David prayed to God in the morning, outside of the daily sacrifices and temple worship. He talked to God in the middle of the night when he was afraid. He cried to God for help from a cave when he hid from King Saul. He danced and sang praises to God whenever and wherever he could.

Do you struggle to understand God? Is He Father and Friend to you or is He too big to understand? Too complicated? Too “out there?” Do you feel like He is only accessible to people more “holy” than you?

Is your “awe” of God drowned out by your fear of Him?

My friend, you would not be the only one.

Over two thousand years ago, Jesus came to earth. His life, death, and resurrection are the complete gift of God’s grace and love to His children. God wants us to see Him as a loving Father AND a mighty Creator. As Savior, Friend, Protector, Fortress, Rock, Strength . . .

A healthy dose of “fearing” God is good. But what He really wants is your heart, and your heart isn’t given over in fear.

Do you struggle to understand Him? Here are some beautiful golden nuggets from David’s psalms- a gift from God, through the heart of David, to you and me only a few thousand years later . . .

When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is mankind that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them?
Psalm 8:3-4

But I trust in your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation. I will sing the LORD's praise, for he has been good to me.
Psalm 13:5-6

LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!
Psalm 8:1a

The LORD is my light and my salvation- whom shall I fear? The LORD is the stronghold of my life- of whom shall I be afraid?
Psalm 27:1

One thing I ask from the LORD, this only do I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze on the beauty of the LORD and to seek him in his temple.
Psalm 27:4

I remain confident of this: I will see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living. Wait for the LORD; be strong and take heart and wait for the LORD.
Psalm 27:13-14

Taste and see that the LORD is good, blessed is the one who takes refuge in him.
Psalm 34:8

You, God, are my God, earnestly I seek you; I thirst for you, my whole being longs for you, in a dry and parched land where there is no water.
Psalms 63:1

You have searched me, LORD, and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue you, LORD, know it completely. You hem me in behind and before, and you lay your hand upon me.
Psalm 139:1-5

Heidi xoxo