If the testimony of Samuel concerning the one whom Jehovah had chosen to be " Captain over His people," had been a prophecy concerning Him who was to be " born King of the Jews," our minds could readily enough conceive how the heart of God would find in such an one that which could call forth His affections; as an object worthy of Himself, and as such, fitted to be the channel of His goodness to the people of His choice.
With Jesus, the Son of God's love, before our minds, we have no difficulty in picturing to ourselves the moral excellencies that would entitle Him to be pointed out as " a man after God's own heart." We are quite prepared to see the heavens opened to Him, and to hear the voice of God proclaiming to Him, " Thou art my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased." But are we not somewhat at a loss to understand how such a marvelous and touching title could be bestowed upon David the son of Jesse? Yet such was really the case, and the way in which the Spirit of God, by the apostle Paul, in the 13th of Acts, quotes this testimony 'of Samuel concerning David, makes it the more striking.
That Samuel, ignorant personally at that moment, of the object of God's choice, and thinking of him only anticipatively, according to the direct thoughts of God, should thus describe him, we can easily understand, but that the apostle Paul, with full knowledge of -the actual life and character of David, as Jewish history describes him, should bring him forward, and while contrasting him with Saul, and 'proving the Savior's descent from him, put Samuel's words into the mouth of God, as saying Him. self of him, " have found David the son of Jesse, s man after Mine own heart," may well astonish us, and lea C us to inquire what was that quality in David, which, sin. ner and " man of blood," as he was, could lead God Him self thus to speak of him.
Such an inquiry, if correctly answered, will not only give us a true conception of what David was to God, but will enable us to understand that which as to ourselves, may call out similar thoughts and feelings from God. For those who believe in God and love Him, nothing can be nearer their own hearts, than that they should be " after God's own heart." The more we enter into God's love, the more we must seek to answer to that love, and to supply to the heart that does thus love us, that which shall be according to itself. As we said, this is perfectly easy as we think of Christ, everything in Him answered completely to the heart of the Father that loved Him. But how could this be as to David? How can it be as to ourselves?
As to David we may be quite sure, that He who looked not as man upon the " outward appearance," did not find in the " beautiful countenance and goodly to look to," that which called out this wonderful expression of divine complacency,-" a man after Mine own heart." The future walk of David could not have been in question at this moment; and present to the eye of God, as that sin-stained history certainly must have been, it could have supplied no motive to the heart of Him that looked upon him, thus to speak of him. We may be quite sure, too, it was no fair child of Adam, with " beautiful countenance," and heart all innocent within, that moved divine affections thus to express themselves. We have David's own testimony in the 5th verse of the 51st Psalm, that he had no native innocence to boast of, when as the ruddy " son of Jesse," he was singled out from others, to be " the Lord's anointed."
No, David was but a sinner in common with those that surrounded him. Like ourselves he stood before God upon a platform where " none are righteous, no not one."' What was it then that marked him off from those that stood with him, and made him a "man after God's own heart " in contrast with them all? What did " the Lord, that looketh on the heart," see in that youthful heart that he found not in Saul the king, or in any other of the sons of Jesse, which thus made him the object of His favor in so marked a way? And what can we bring forward in our day to enlist a similar divine approval, and gain the assurance that we have the same place in God's affections as David had?
We shall find the key to our difficulty as to David, as well as the ground of our own assurance for similar blessing, in the 11th of Hebrews. " He that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him," and '' without faith it is impossible to please Him." The one solitary principle that God can own in man, is faith; and it is alone through faith that any with Him have " obtained a good report." It is the pivot, as on man's side, that all blessing from God turns upon. " He that believeth shall be saved," and " he that believeth not shall be damned." God's approval, and with it His righteousness, falls upon the believing soul;—He is the "Just, and the Justifier of him that believeth;" and " to him that worketh not, but believeth on Him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness;" and the just shall live by faith."
Apart from other qualities that doubtless accompanied ' it, what characterized David was faith,-simple trust and confidence in God. What God did not find in the heart of Saul and his courtly surroundings, He " found " in the heart of the youthful shepherd, who kept " those few sheep in the wilderness." And never, in his whole history, does 1 David more beautifully stand before the eye, that is opened to see what God finds pleasure in, than when before the craven-hearted Saul, king of God's Israel though for the time he be, he simply relates the ground of his confidence in entering the lists with Goliath, and adds, " the Lord thi t delivered me out of the paw of the lion, and out of the paw of the bear, He will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine." God delighted in David because he trusted in Him-not because of his goodness, for he had none. " O Lord, my God, in Thee do I trust," is David's watchword through the Psalms. David had a heart that satisfied God's heart. It was " after His own heart," as a heart that gave Him pleasure by trusting in Him. It was a "good heart," and a good heart is a heart that trusts in God at all times, for " Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord and whose hope the Lord is." Saul had "an evil heart of unbelief," that departed from the living God, and " cursed is the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the Lord."
A self confident moralist and religionist is God's abhorrence. Such was Saul. Such are all that are like him. A poor, weak, believing sinner is God's delight. Such was David. Such are all that are like him. A man after God's own heart, is then one who trusts God as He has revealed. Himself in His grace, and thus every believer in Jesus is a " man after God's own heart."
No one can. be in the presence of God without holy fear. And he who cannot reconcile this with confidence and joy, does not know the presence of God.