David

Dad’s sent me to the front with grain and bread for my brothers. And ten cheeses for their commander.

Who does this Philistine think he is, taunting the armies of the living God?

Replying to @david

What have I done now? It was just a question.

Saul says I’m just a boy. When a lion or a bear takes one of my lambs, I go after it. The LORD who saved me from the lion and the bear will save me from this Philistine.

Tried on Saul’s armour. Couldn’t even walk in it. Took five smooth stones from the stream instead.

You’ve got a sword and a spear. I’ve come in the name of the LORD of armies. This battle is the LORD’s.

Playing the harp for the king. He threw his spear at me. Twice.

We kissed each other and cried. I cried more.

Honestly, I was terrified of him. So I played mad. Got out of there.

Achish@achishofgath · GathMy servants have brought me David. He is scratching marks on the gate and drooling into his beard. Am I short of madmen? Kindly do not bring him into my house.

Replying to @booksofsamuel

We made a promise before the LORD, the two of us. Then he went home.

Replying to @davidsmen

Even that hit my conscience. He’s the king. The LORD chose him. I’ll never raise a hand against him.

Replying to @davidsmen

Went out after him and called out to the king. Bowed to the ground and held up the corner of his robe. Told him: the LORD put you in my hands in that cave. I was told to kill you. I didn’t. Let the LORD judge between us.

Replying to @booksofsamuel

I had sworn not one male of his would live till morning. Then she turned up. Thank the LORD for sending her, and thank God for her good sense. She stopped me killing people today.

Replying to @abishai

Who can raise a hand against the king the LORD chose and still be innocent?

Took Saul’s spear and water jug and walked out. Nobody woke up.

Shouted across from the hilltop to Abner, Saul’s commander: aren’t you the best man in Israel? Why weren’t you guarding your king? Where’s his spear? And his water jug?

One of these days Saul is going to get me. So we’ve gone over to the Philistines.

Replying to @nosharing

No, brothers. Not with what the LORD has given us. The one who stays with the supplies gets the same as the one who goes into battle. Everyone shares alike.

Replying to @amalekite.gilboa

Asked him how he wasn’t afraid to raise his hand against the king the LORD chose.

How the mighty have fallen.

Saul and Jonathan. So loved, so good to be around, and together even in death. Faster than eagles. Stronger than lions.

I grieve for you, Jonathan, my brother. You were so dear to me.

David@davidHow the mighty have fallen.

Replying to @booksofsamuel

Before the LORD: my kingdom and I had nothing to do with Abner’s death. Ever.

Walked behind Abner’s body and wept at his tomb. A great man died today in Israel. I’m king, God chose me, and today I feel weak. Zeruiah’s sons are too much for me.

Replying to @booksofsamuel

I was angry. And I was afraid of the LORD. How can the ark of the LORD ever come to me?

Danced before the LORD today with everything I’ve got.

Replying to @michal

I was dancing before the LORD, who chose me over your father and all his family. I’ll celebrate before the LORD, and I’ll get even more undignified than this.

I’m living in a house of cedar, and the ark of God is in a tent.

Who am I, Lord GOD? What’s my family? And you’ve brought me this far.

Nathan@nathan.prophetThat night the LORD sent me back to David. He isn’t the one to build a house for the LORD. The LORD will build David a house: a son after him, and a throne that will last for ever.

Is anyone left from Saul’s family I can show kindness to, for Jonathan’s sake?

Replying to @envoy.ammon

Stay in Jericho till your beards grow back. Then come home.

Replying to @messenger.rabbah

Tell Joab not to let it get to him. In war, anyone can die.

I have sinned against the LORD.

Replying to @palace.servant

While he was alive, I thought: who knows, the LORD might be kind and let him live. Now he’s dead. Can I bring him back? I’ll go to him one day. He won’t come back to me.

Get up. We have to run, or none of us will escape from Absalom.

Told Zadok to take the ark of God back into the city. If the LORD is pleased with me, he’ll bring me back to see it. If not, fine. He can do whatever he thinks best with me.

Replying to @booksofsamuel

LORD, turn Ahithophel’s advice into foolishness.

Replying to @shimei.son.of.gera

Leave him. My own son is trying to kill me. Maybe the LORD told him to curse me. Maybe the LORD will see how miserable I am and do me some good in return for this.

Be gentle with the young man Absalom, for my sake.

My son Absalom. My son, my son Absalom. I wish I’d died instead of you. Absalom, my son, my son.

Replying to @abishai

Sons of Zeruiah, what is it with you? Nobody dies in Israel today. Shimei, you won’t die.

The LORD is my rock, my fortress and my rescuer.

You are my lamp, LORD. You light up my darkness. With my God I can scale a wall.

The God of Israel spoke to me: someone who rules fairly, and respects God, is like morning light when the sun comes up on a cloudless day.

I said once how much I’d love a drink from the well by the gate at Bethlehem. Three of my men broke through the Philistine camp and brought it back. I couldn’t drink it. It was their blood. I poured it out to the LORD.

I have sinned greatly in what I’ve done. LORD, take away my guilt. I’ve been such a fool.

Joab@joabThe king wants every fighting man in Israel counted. Asked him why he’d want that. He insisted. So we’re counting.

Replying to @gad.prophet

Let me fall into the LORD’s hands. His mercy is huge. Not into human hands.

Replying to @booksofsamuel

I’m the shepherd. I’m the one who sinned. These sheep, what have they done? Punish me and my family instead.

Replying to @araunah

No. I’m paying you for it: fifty shekels of silver. I won’t offer the LORD my God something that costs me nothing.

I swear by the LORD, who has got me out of every trouble I’ve ever been in: Solomon will be king after me, and I’m doing it today. Put him on my own mule and take him down to the Gihon spring. Zadok and Nathan will anoint him there. Blow the ram’s horn and shout: long live King Solomon!

Praise the LORD, the God of Israel. Today he’s put one of my own sons on my throne, and I’ve lived to see it.

The Israelites@theisraelites · Gihon spring, JerusalemSolomon’s just been anointed at Gihon! Zadok poured the oil, the ram’s horn went, and everyone shouted: long live King Solomon! We followed him back up playing flutes. So loud the ground literally shook.

Solomon, I’m about to go the way everyone goes. So be strong. Be a man. Do what the LORD your God asks. Live his way, keep what’s written in the Law of Moses, and you’ll do well in everything, wherever you go.

More men from Benjamin and Judah at the stronghold today. Went out and told them straight: if you’ve come as friends to help me, I’m with you, heart and soul. If you’ve come to hand me over to my enemies when I’ve done nothing wrong, may the God of our ancestors see it and judge you.

Replying to @amasai

Took them in. They’re officers now.

If you all think it’s a good idea, and if it’s from the LORD our God: let’s send word to our people all over Israel, and to the priests and Levites, and bring the ark of our God back here. The whole time Saul was king, we never went to it.

Last time went wrong because we didn’t do it the way the LORD said. Nobody carries the ark this time except the Levites. On their shoulders, with the poles, the way Moses was told.

The books of Chronicles@booksofchroniclesAll Israel went up to Kiriath-jearim to fetch the ark, celebrating before God with everything they had: songs, harps, lyres, tambourines, cymbals, trumpets. Then they reached the threshing floor of Chidon, and this happened.

I looked up and saw the angel of the LORD standing between earth and sky, sword drawn, held out over Jerusalem. The elders and I, dressed in sackcloth, the rough cloth you wear to mourn, fell face down. It was me who gave the order to count them. I’m the one who did wrong. These people are sheep. What have they done? Let it fall on me and my family, not on your people.

The books of Samuel@booksofsamuelThe plague kills seventy thousand people. As the angel reaches out over Jerusalem, the LORD says: “Enough.”

This is it. The house of the LORD God goes here. And the altar for Israel.

My son Solomon is young and hasn’t got the experience, and the house we build for the LORD has to be magnificent. Famous all over the world. So I’m getting everything ready for it before I die.

Called Solomon in and told him why it isn’t me who builds it. The LORD said I’ve shed a lot of blood and fought great wars. But I’d have a son who’d be a man of rest, and his name would be Solomon, which sounds like the word for peace. He’s the one who’ll build it.

Put aside for it: a hundred thousand talents of gold, a million talents of silver, bronze and iron past weighing, timber and stone. And there’s room to add to it.

Solomon, my son: know your father’s God, and serve him with your whole heart and a willing mind. The LORD searches every heart and knows every thought. Look for him and you’ll find him. Leave him and he’ll reject you for ever.

Be strong and brave, and do it. The LORD God, my God, is with you. He won’t fail you or leave you until the work is finished.

I’ve given everything I could for the house of my God. Now I’m giving my own gold and silver on top, because I love the house of my God. So: who else wants to give themselves to the LORD today?

LORD, the greatness and the power and the glory and the splendour and the majesty are yours. Everything in heaven and on earth is yours. The kingdom is yours.

Replying to @david

But who am I, and who are my people, that we could give like this? Everything comes from you. We’ve only given you back what came from your own hand. We’re strangers here, like our ancestors were. Our days on earth are like a shadow. No hope in them.

Running from my own son, Absalom. More and more of them against me every day, and they're all saying it: God won't get him out of this one.

Replying to @david

Still lay down. Still slept. Woke up, because the LORD was holding me.

Lying down tonight and sleeping in peace. You alone keep me safe, LORD.

Worn out from groaning. Every night my bed's soaked with tears.

Looked up at the night sky. The moon, the stars, the work of your fingers. Who are we, that you'd even think about us?

Replying to @david

And yet you made us only a little lower than the angels.

How long, LORD? Are you going to forget me for ever? How long are you going to hide your face? How long do I carry this, sad every single day?

Replying to @david

Still trusting your love, though. Still going to sing.

Only a fool tells himself there's no God.

The boundary lines of my life have fallen in lovely places. What I've been given is a delight.

You won't abandon me to the grave. You won't let your holy one see decay. You've shown me the path of life.

The day the LORD got me out from all my enemies, and from Saul. Years of running, over. I love you, LORD. You're my rock, my fortress. You reached down from up there and pulled me out of deep water.

With my God I can jump a wall.

The skies are telling everyone how glorious God is. No speech, no words, not a sound. And their voice still goes out to the whole earth.

I hope the words of my mouth and the thoughts of my heart please you, LORD, my Rock, the one who rescues me.

Some trust in chariots and some in horses. We trust in the name of the LORD our God.

My God, my God, why have you abandoned me? I cry out all day and you don't answer. All night too.

Replying to @david

They look at me and laugh. If he trusts the LORD so much, they say, let the LORD rescue him. They've pierced my hands and my feet. They're throwing dice for my clothes.

Replying to @david

And then it turns. He didn't look away from the one who was suffering. When he cried out, God heard.

The LORD is my shepherd. I have everything I need. Green fields. Quiet water. He brings me back to life. Even when I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I won't be afraid, because you're with me. My cup's overflowing.

The earth is the LORD's, and everything in it.

Open up, you gates. Who is this King of glory? The LORD, strong and mighty. The LORD, mighty in battle.

The LORD is my light and my rescue. So who exactly am I meant to be scared of?

One thing I've asked the LORD. Just one. To live in his house every day of my life and look at how beautiful he is.

Wait for the LORD. Be strong. Be brave. Wait for the LORD.

Every crack of thunder is the voice of the LORD. It's snapping the cedars of Lebanon. And in his temple everyone's shouting, “Glory!”

Crying might last the night, but joy comes in the morning.

Replying to @david

You turned my mourning into dancing.

When I kept quiet about what I'd done, I wasted away. Groaning all day. Your hand heavy on me day and night. Then I owned up. Stopped hiding it. And you forgave me. All of it.

Wrote this one after pretending to be mad in front of the king in Gath. Scratching at the gate, spit running down my beard. He threw me out. Taste and see that the LORD is good.

Replying to @achishofgath

It worked, to be fair. I got out of Gath.

The LORD is close to the broken-hearted.

Make the LORD your delight, and he'll give you what your heart wants.

I was young, and now I'm old, and I've never seen a good person abandoned, or their children begging for bread.

LORD, show me how short my life is. Even at our strongest, every one of us is just a breath.

Waited and waited for the LORD. He leaned down and heard me. Pulled me out of the mud, put my feet on a rock, and gave me a new song.

Even my close friend, the one I trusted, who ate at my table, has turned on me.

Nathan the prophet came to see me. After Bathsheba. I'm not going to dress this one up. God, have mercy on me. I know what I've done. I can't stop seeing it. It's you I've sinned against. You, most of all.

Replying to @david

Create a clean heart in me, God. What you want isn't a sacrifice. It's a broken spirit. You won't turn away a heart that's broken and sorry.

Still true. Writing it again.

David@davidOnly a fool tells himself there's no God.

If only I had wings like a dove. I'd fly away and rest.

Replying to @david

If an enemy had said it, I could take it. But it was you. My friend. We used to walk to God's house together.

Throw what's weighing on you on to the LORD. He'll hold you up.

Same trip to Gath, before the madman act. The Philistines had grabbed me. What I kept saying: when I'm afraid, I trust you. What can a human being actually do to me?

David@davidWrote this one after pretending to be mad in front of the king in Gath. Scratching at the gate, spit running down my beard. He threw me out. Taste and see that the LORD is good.

Put my tears in your bottle, God. Aren't they in your book?

In a cave, hiding from Saul. I'll shelter in the shadow of your wings until this storm has passed.

Out in the Judean desert. Dry, worn-out land, no water, and I'm thirstier for you, God. Your love is better than life.

Where I was when I wrote some of these: 1. Running from my son Absalom. 2. Pretending to be mad in Gath. 3. After Nathan came. 4. After Doeg told Saul I'd been at Ahimelech's house. 5. After the people of Ziph told Saul where I was. 6. When the Philistines grabbed me in Gath. 7. In the cave, running from Saul. 8. When Saul had men watching my house to kill me. 9. In the desert of Judah.

Replying to @david

Number five still stings. The people of Ziph went all the way to Saul to tell him I was hiding out in their hills.

A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows. God puts lonely people in families.

Short version. Hurry, God. Come quickly and help me.

David@davidWaited and waited for the LORD. He leaned down and heard me. Pulled me out of the mud, put my feet on a rock, and gave me a new song.

Praise the LORD, my soul, and don't forget a single good thing he's done.

Replying to @david

As far as the east is from the west, that's how far he's taken our wrongs away from us.

Replying to @david

He knows how we're made. He remembers we're dust.

The LORD tells my Lord to sit at his right hand until he makes his enemies a footstool for his feet.

Songs for the walk up to Jerusalem for the festivals. This one's mine: I was so glad when they said, “Let's go to the house of the LORD.”

I've calmed myself down and gone quiet, like a weaned child with its mother.

How good and pleasant it is when brothers get along. Like precious oil poured on the head, running down the beard. Aaron's beard. Down on to the collar of his robes.

LORD, you've looked right through me, and you know me. Before a word's even on my tongue, you know it.

Where could I go from your Spirit? If I go up to heaven, you're there. If I lie down in the depths, you're there. If I fly off on the wings of the dawn to the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me.

You knitted me together in my mother's womb. I'm fearfully and wonderfully made.

Replying to @david

Search me, God, and know my heart. Test me and know my anxious thoughts.

Set a guard over my mouth, LORD. Keep watch over the door of my lips.

Back in the cave. I look to my right, and nobody's there. Nobody cares whether I live.

Let the morning bring me word of your love. I'm trusting you.

The LORD is kind and caring, slow to get angry and full of love.

Playing the harp for the king. Apparently I’m also his armour-bearer now.

Made it. The army’s just marching out. Left the food with the man looking after the supplies and ran up to the front line to find my brothers. Asking how they’re doing.

Question for everyone here. What does the man who kills this Philistine get? The man who takes this shame off Israel? Who does he think he is, insulting the armies of the living God?

Replying to @david

What have I done now? It was just a question.

Replying to @david

Asked someone else. Same answer.

Told the king: nobody needs to lose heart over this Philistine. I’ll go and fight him. He says I can’t. I’m just a boy, and that man’s been a soldier since he was a boy.

Replying to @david

So I told him. When a lion or a bear comes and takes a lamb from my dad’s flock, I go after it and get the lamb out of its mouth. If it turns on me, I grab it by the fur and kill it. This Philistine will be the same, because he’s insulted the armies of the living God. The LORD saved me from the lion and the bear. He’ll save me from him.

The king’s put his own tunic on me. Bronze helmet, a coat of armour, and his sword strapped over the top. Tried walking. I can’t. I’m not used to any of it. Taking it all off.

Staff. Sling. Five smooth stones from the stream, in my shepherd’s bag. Going down.

Liked by Saul

The battle is the LORD’s.

Replying to @abner

The king asked me whose son I am. I told him: Jesse’s. Your servant Jesse, from Bethlehem.

The king’s keeping me with him from now on. I’m not going back to my dad’s.

Good to hear how Joab and the men are doing. Told Uriah: go home, wash your feet.

I swear by the living LORD, the man who did this deserves to die. He’ll pay for that lamb four times over. He had no pity.

Nathan@nathan.prophetHere’s a story. Two men in one town, one rich, one poor. The rich man has loads of sheep and cattle. The poor man has one little ewe lamb he’d bought. It grew up with his children. It ate off his plate, drank from his cup, and slept in his arms. It was like a daughter to him.

I have sinned against the LORD.

God, have mercy on me. You love me and you don’t let go, so be kind to me now. Wipe out what I’ve done. Wash me clean of it.

I know what I did. It’s in front of me all the time.

Replying to @david

It’s you I’ve sinned against. You, only you. I did what you call evil, right in front of you. Whatever you say about me, you’re right.

Wash me, and I’ll be whiter than snow.

God, make a clean heart in me. Make my spirit right again, and steady.

Replying to @david

Don’t send me away from you. Don’t take your Holy Spirit from me. Give me back the joy of being saved by you.

Rescue me from the guilt of blood, God, the God who saves me. Open my lips, Lord, and I’ll sing how good you are.

You don’t want a sacrifice. I’d bring one if you did. What you want is a broken spirit. God, you won’t turn away a heart that’s broken and sorry.

That’s the song. It started here.

David@davidI have sinned against the LORD.

Replying to @palace.servant

While he was alive, I didn’t eat and I cried. I thought, who knows? The LORD might be kind to me and let him live. But now he’s dead. Why would I go without food? Can I bring him back? I’ll go to him one day. He won’t come back to me.