דוד המלך

The youngest of Yishai's sons in Bethlehem was a shepherd, a ruddy boy with beautiful eyes, the last anyone would think of. When the prophet Samuel came to anoint a king, God told him not to judge by appearances: 'man looks at the eyes, but God looks at the heart' (I Samuel 16). That boy, playing his harp and herding sheep in the wilderness, was God's choice.

Facing Goliath the Philistine, an armored giant who taunted the ranks of Israel for forty days, David went out without armor, with a sling and a stone, 'in the name of the Lord of Hosts' (I Samuel 17). The fall of the giant at the hands of a boy made him the nation's hero overnight, and a symbol that victory lies not in strength but in faith.

Here a path of suffering began. Saul's jealousy pursued him for years through the Judean deserts, and twice the king fell into his hands, and twice David spared his life, cutting only the corner of his robe: 'far be it from me before God to raise my hand against the Lord's anointed' (I Samuel 24). From this grew a king who knew both how to rule and how to forgive.

Once king, he united the tribes, captured Jerusalem and made it the holy city, and brought the Ark of God up into it with great joy (II Samuel 5). From a shepherd of sheep he became the shepherd of a whole people.

He longed to build a house for God, but was told that he had shed much blood in his wars, and that his son would build it. In the same breath an eternal covenant was made with him: 'your house and your kingdom shall be secure forever' (II Samuel 7), the dynasty of David from which the Messiah will spring.

And he also fell. The episode of Batsheva is among the most painful in Scripture, yet David's greatness is measured precisely by his repentance: when the prophet Natan came, he did not evade but said at once, 'I have sinned before God' (II Samuel 11-12). Out of that broken heart the great psalm of repentance was born, 'create in me a pure heart, O God' (Psalms 51). Later he bore the rebellion of his son Avshalom and his flight from Jerusalem, and accepted it all with love.

'The sweet singer of Israel,' author of the Book of Psalms that the lips of every Jew still whisper in trouble and in joy. From him comes the eternal monarchy of the House of David, and from him the Messiah will spring. When we pray, we are in fact praying in his words.