As many have expressed their gratitude to the saints for receiving us here, I can only echo those words. So thank you very much.
And actually, I count it as a privilege to be here much more than many people can. Oh, thank you. And I said, “For what?” It’s truly a privilege to be among the Lord’s people.
So, as Ray just said, his responsibility was more on the early years of David, and mine, after David became king. I’m supposed to kind of recap a little bit of what we did for context, and I would like to do that and add an additional thought as a conclusion.
So let’s read again our theme verse, just the later part of it, in Acts 13.
He raised up David to be their king; concerning whom He also testified and said, “I have found David, the son of Jesse, a man after My heart, who will do all My will.”
And as we mentioned several times in the course of this conference, I think most believers would agree that this is a very unique and special testimony that we find in the Word of God. It stands out that God Himself would say such a word about someone.
The impression that we get is almost as if God has been looking for a long, long time, and finally He says, “I have found this man.” There is something in his heart that corresponds to Mine.
And because of that, speaking on my side of the responsibility of what David discovered about the Lord, there seems to be something in David’s heart that corresponded to God’s heart. That seems to be a key that allowed David to receive all the revelation that he received.
Because it’s actually amazing: when we see David after he becomes king over all Israel, he takes step after step, action after action, that somehow shows what kind of revelation he had from the Lord.
So the first thing he does when he becomes king over all Israel, he takes Jerusalem. Then he brings the ark into Jerusalem. Then he has the desire to build the house of the Lord. And when he is not allowed to do that, he gathers the materials and receives the revelation of the blueprint—revelation after revelation.
Something in the heart of this man that corresponded to the heart of God opened the way for the Lord to give him all that revelation.
We saw that in the sessions that I took. I concentrated just on Jerusalem as something that somehow is inclusive of all the other things that he did.
Actually, we mentioned that when we look at the New Jerusalem at the end of the Bible, it seems that everything converges there. The presence—if you think of the ark as representing the presence of God—that presence is there in the New Jerusalem.
If you think of God’s house, the temple, in the New Jerusalem there is not even a temple. The city became a temple. There is no need for a temple because God can dwell in that city.
So Jerusalem seems to be that inclusive thought, not just in the New Jerusalem but throughout the whole Bible. When we read it, if we study carefully, we will see that that city represents something in the heart of God. And this man, amazingly, was able to see.
The key is something in his heart that corresponded to God’s heart and allowed him to see that.
I would like to ask a question, however. And this is—I’m kind of overstepping my brother’s territory yet again. I apologize in advance.
Where does that come from? Where does that heart that corresponds to the Lord’s heart, and that allowed David to see all that he saw, come from?
And there is where I have to, unfortunately, overstep my brother’s territory. Because we may think, when we read the account of the Bible, “Well, when he became king is when he did all those things: taking Jerusalem, bringing in the ark, et cetera, et cetera.”
However, is that the beginning of it?
I would like to read a psalm that seems to indicate something very different. It is a psalm we read during the conference in my time: Psalm 132. Let’s read some verses from this psalm and try to see if we can find something of the answer to that question—where can we trace back the source of that heart after God’s heart, that opened the door for all the revelation that David had?
Remember, O Lord, on David’s behalf,
All his affliction;
How he swore to the Lord
And vowed to the Mighty One of Jacob,
“Surely I will not enter my house,
Nor lie on my bed;
I will not give sleep to my eyes,
Or slumber to my eyelids,
Until I find a place for the Lord,
A dwelling place for the Mighty One of Jacob.”Behold, we heard of it in Ephrathah;
We found it in the field of Jaar.
Let us go into His dwelling place;
Let us worship at His footstool.
Arise, O Lord, to Your resting place,
You and the ark of Your strength.
It’s interesting to me that our theme verse, as our brother mentioned, has that clause at the end: David is one that God testifies on his behalf as someone who would do all His will.
And I feel that this psalm presents a picture of that heart that David had. Here you have the picture of someone who is committed to doing all the will of God.
And you see the intensity of this commitment. He is saying, “Lord, I don’t care even about my rest.” And we know that that’s tricky territory, at least for me. I’m putting whatever is Your interest above that most basic need that we have.
But I want more what You want, even more than my rest, even more than my comfort. “I will not give sleep to my eyes or slumber to my eyelids until I find Your rest.”
You see what kind of heart this man had: putting God’s interest above even his most basic interest.
And still the question remains: but where does that come from? Is it just when he became officially a king? Or would it be even when, you know, after he was anointed by Samuel? As our brother mentioned, he was probably fifteen or sixteen. Is that the moment where this began?
I think there is a little sentence in this psalm that should kind of arrest our attention, which is in Psalm 132:6.
Behold, we heard of it in Ephrathah;
We found it in the field of Jaar.
He is making a reference here to the ark of the Lord. You remember that the ark, in the days of Saul, had been captured into the land of the Philistines some years before, and then came back to Israel during the reign of Saul, or even before it.
However, it was put in a sort of corner there in Israel, in Kiriath-jearim. But nobody inquired about the ark in the days of Saul.
That ark represents God’s presence. We know that the ark was placed in the most interior part of the tent, in the Holy of Holies, and that represents the presence of God.
And strangely, during the days of Saul, even when the ark came back from the land of the Philistines, nobody cared about that.
But here David says something different. He says, “We heard it. We heard about it.” He is talking about the ark. “We heard about that ark in Ephrathah.”
You know where Ephrathah is? It’s Bethlehem, essentially where David grew up. That is the place where that young boy, who was fifteen or sixteen when he was anointed, grew up.
And somehow this should give us a glimpse of when this desire after God’s heart began. It’s so touching that even before he was fifteen or sixteen, there was something in the heart of that boy that desired after the presence of God.
There was a hunger, a thirst, after the Lord Himself. Because the ark is not like furniture that is just appreciated for its beauty, or as decoration. No, the value of that ark is because the Lord is there. It is the footstool of the Lord, His presence.
Something in the heart of that young boy desired after the Lord Himself.
Something we said a couple of times in our time together is that, yes, David saw the city as the city of the great King. That is the value of the city of Jerusalem. What makes Jerusalem Jerusalem—an expression of God’s purpose—is because that city is supposed to express the great King. And David saw that.
At the same time, however, it’s a city. It’s something corporate. It’s not that you have the great King by Himself being expressed in an empty place. That’s not the idea, of course. You have people in the city.
And that expression of the great King, which makes Jerusalem Jerusalem, is through the people in that city. It’s the great King dwelling in the city. That is what David saw.
Yes, it is a corporate matter. But isn’t it wonderful to remember, to know, that at the root of it all there is a desire in this man’s heart for the Lord Himself, for His presence?
And out of that desire for His presence, for Himself, out of his love for the person of the Lord, there comes a desire to do whatever He wants.
I think love is very clear to us. It is expressed when we really have an interest in whatever that beloved person wants. It would be very strange if we said to our spouses, “You know, I love you so much, and I have no interest whatsoever in whatever you want.” What kind of love is that?
And yet we know that that love can easily degenerate into an interest in things apart from the person. And that never happened with this man, David.
There is something that we mentioned yesterday: some spiritual principles that we can see in David’s life, something that would spell out what it means, after all, to be a man after God’s heart. We mentioned several things. I’m not going to go over them.
But there was one thing, and I’m so grateful for the time of fellowship with my lovely, gracious host, my dear brother who was staying with me. Through our fellowship, I truly got a taste of this Jerusalem, of being one body. I was refreshed, and my eyes were opened multiple times. Maybe you don’t even know, but they were.
One of the things that I was sharing was that a great omission in what I shared about spiritual principles in this man after God’s heart is something that our brother just mentioned.
In David, there is a secret life with the Lord—something that no one sees except God, and something that is so precious in the heart of God.
We know that David’s life is lived under the pattern of someone else’s life—of his Descendant, of his Son, who is much greater than him. Somehow, we see that in so many points in his life.
He is one in the old covenant who, when he is before his enemy, lets him go. He forgives him. Yes, there is that whole thing of, “He is the anointed of the Lord.” But somehow you see a glimpse of His Descendant, who is greater than him.
And something that I feel is part of that pattern is that secret life that only the Lord knows. It’s just between him and the Lord.
Isn’t that the case with that greatest Descendant?
Isn’t it when He first appears publicly at His baptism—it’s the beginning of His ministry—how much do we know of what happened in those thirty years? A thing or two, something about His birth, something at His bar mitzvah—just so little.
And yet, remember the voice from heaven:
This is My beloved Son,
In whom I am well pleased.
Only heaven knows how precious, how rich, how much love to His Father was there in those thirty unknown, silent years. But heaven knows. God was paying attention, and God could say that about His Son: “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”
God was stamping His approval on the life of His Son. We don’t know—we don’t know almost anything—but heaven knows. The Lord appreciates.
I feel that David’s life is lived according to that pattern. Even before he was anointed, when he was just fifteen or sixteen, there was a desire in his heart.
He heard of it. He inquired in his heart about the Lord’s presence. He knew, in Ephrathah, in Bethlehem, growing up: “Where is that ark? Where is the presence of the Lord?”
Brothers and sisters, we mentioned that Jerusalem is this representation throughout the Bible of what the Lord is after, of His purpose. And in Ephesians, we have the explanation. We have the unveiling. We have the whole thing spelled out in New Testament language. The type of Jerusalem, of God’s purpose, is unveiled and opened to us in Ephesians.
And there is one verse that seems to sum it up. I want to read it together, if you would turn to Ephesians 1.
With a view to an administration suitable to the fullness of the times, that is, the summing up of all things in Christ.
I didn’t read Ephesians 1:9, but this is the mystery of God’s will. This is the secret of the ages. Somehow, in type, we see David as the man to whom that secret was revealed.
So God had said to Moses in Deuteronomy, as soon as the children of Israel were about to enter into the land, “I have a place, and I’m going to put My name on that place. I have a place where I want to dwell among My people, and you’re going to bring your sacrifices there. That’s the place.”
Now, for many, many centuries, nobody had a clue in Israel of what that place was. It remained a secret. But to that man David, there was something in his heart that corresponded to God’s heart, and that secret was opened to him.
Somehow he saw, in type of course, the mystery of God’s will. He wants to dwell among His people, and that place is Jerusalem. It was revealed to him.
If you put that in New Testament language, here we have the antitype. What is the mystery of God’s will according to Ephesians? To put it in one sentence, in Ephesians 1:10: to sum up all things in Christ.
All things converging to Him. All things deriving their meaning from the Lord Jesus. The Lord Jesus one day becoming the center of the whole universe, and the universe being understood in Him. That is the mystery of His will.
Somehow David saw that Jerusalem was related to something in the heart of God that is aligned with that.
Now, we shared something on Ephesians. It’s such an amazing epistle, of course. It is such an unveiling, an explanation of what is in God’s heart.
And we are not surprised, I think—you are not, I hope you’re not—to see so many things in Ephesians, the first three chapters. It’s like explanation after explanation: what is the church, metaphor after metaphor.
His body: a vessel that expresses the mind of the Lord Jesus. What is your body for? What is my body for? My hands are here, hopefully, to express what is in my head. That’s it. My feet are to go wherever my head decides to go. That’s what the body is: a vessel that expresses a head, a personality. That’s the church.
And that’s part of this mystery. We read that verse in Ephesians 1, but Ephesians 3 speaks of how that expression of Christ, that gathering of all things in Christ, is going to happen in a very specific way through a very specific vessel: the church.
His manifold wisdom is going to be manifested through the church. We understand all that. And those are the first three chapters of Ephesians.
And when we get to the end of the epistle, we probably also understand there is warfare there. And I hope it is not a surprise to us. If that is God’s purpose, don’t you think the enemy is going to contest it? To do anything in his power to stop, to delay, that expression?
It shouldn’t be surprising to us that there is such opposition—sometimes in our lives, such opposition; sometimes in our fellowship, what an opposition. And it shouldn’t surprise us. I hope not.
If such is our calling, if such is God’s purpose—to have this vessel to express His Son—we shouldn’t be surprised, brothers and sisters, that the enemy is going to try to stop it.
Now, the part that is sometimes intriguing to me in Ephesians, I have to confess to you, is that middle section, chapters 4 and 5. Sometimes I got the wrong impression that Paul just switches gears somehow after all that wonderful revelation and starts talking about some random kind of ethical Christian precept, something about our conduct in the Lord. You find all those things there.
But I hope we can see more than that. See, if the purpose of the Lord—if something that that man saw, which is expressed here in Ephesians—is to gather all things in Christ, and all things means all things, shouldn’t that include our personal walk with the Lord?
Shouldn’t that include our family relationships? Ephesians 5. Shouldn’t that include what goes on in our workplaces, in our schools?
Sadly, we part ways today. I go back where my tent is pitched. Some of you go back to other places where your tent is pitched. And some of you stay here, where your tent is pitched.
And yet, when we part ways, most of the time we end up finding ourselves alone, in a sense—in our workplaces, or in our schools, or whatever it is.
But my question to all of us is this: shouldn’t there continue to be, when we find ourselves alone—and I hope this doesn’t hit you against the grain, because it’s not my emphasis of being alone or something like that, but I think it’s a fact of life—we find ourselves an awful part of our days by ourselves.
And the thought in my heart is the following: shouldn’t that time that is unseen, even by other saints, when we are by ourselves, whatever it is, shouldn’t there be, brothers and sisters, that secret life with the Lord?
Our corporate calling—how glorious that is—to be a corporate vessel that expresses the most glorious Person in this universe. Not just glorious in the human sense of some sort of powerful exterior glory.
The glory of this Person, of course, we don’t see anywhere clearer than when we are around this table and are reminded that He died for me, to redeem us, to include us in this wonderful purpose.
So my question to all of us, as we part ways and find ourselves an awful lot of time by ourselves, is: shouldn’t there be that secret relationship of love, appreciation for such a King?
See, Psalm 23, essentially, strikes me like that. David sees in the beginning—and he saw that very, very early, maybe in the fields of Ephrathah:
The Lord is my shepherd;
I shall not want.
Am I going to want anything? Is anything going to be missing in my life? No.
And that psalm is so deeply personal, so deeply individual. Again, I hope this doesn’t hit you against the grain, because we are talking about something corporate. But you see that verse after verse after verse is “me, me, me.” He does this for me. He does that for me.
Such grace, such love of our Shepherd even for me. And at the end of that psalm, yes, it seems to move and culminate into a desire after what He wants:
I will dwell in the house of the Lord
Forever.
But you see that it doesn’t begin out of the blue sky. There is a secret, personal, deep relationship—a deep appreciation for the Shepherd.
As we part ways, perhaps we find ourselves alone an awful chunk of our days, of our weeks. The question is: shouldn’t there be the same pattern in our lives? A secret, personal appreciation for our Lord, for our Savior?
And out of that, oh, that the Lord may awaken our hearts such a desire after whatever He wants.
He wants His bride above all. He wants that city at the end. But we can never hide in the thought that city is precious. We know it so well. What are the materials there? Only things that express the beauty of Christ, only materials that are related to Him.
In us, you know, it’s wood, hay—worthless stuff. That’s what we are in ourselves. I don’t care how smart, how many titles—it doesn’t matter. We are worthless in ourselves.
Our Lord Jesus—how precious is He?
May the Lord be merciful, because that corporate expression is not something corporate that is somehow separated from the individuals. That expression has somehow to be manifested individually in us.
That work of being conformed to His image has to be done by the Holy Spirit. And out of many children that are like our older Brother, there is that wonderful expression that the Lord is after.
When you find yourself by yourself, alone, is that your deepest desire? Are you, on a daily basis, appreciating your Lord?
May the Lord be merciful to us. His coming draws so near, and we know that. We don’t know how much time we have left.
May the Lord be gracious to us. May we be found as those who secretly love our Lord, our Master, and who corporately also love our Lord and Master and are seeking to satisfy His heart.
May the Lord help us.