Friday, Dec 18: God's Covenant with David

Psalm 89:1-4, 19-26

1 I will sing of your steadfast love, O Lord,

    forever;
    with my mouth I will proclaim your

    faithfulness to all generations.
2 I declare that your steadfast love is

    established forever;  your faithfulness

    is as firm as the heavens.

3 You said, “I have made a covenant with

    my chosen one, I have sworn to my

    servant David:
4 ‘I will establish your descendants

    forever, and build your throne for all

    generations.’”

19 Then you spoke in a vision to your    faithful one, and said:

    “I have set the crown on one who is

     mighty,
    I have exalted one chosen from the

    people.

20 I have found my servant David;
    with my holy oil I have anointed him;
21 my hand shall always remain with him;
    my arm also shall strengthen him.
22 The enemy shall not outwit him,
    the wicked shall not humble him.
23 I will crush his foes before him
    and strike down those who hate him.
24 My faithfulness and steadfast love shall be

      with him;
    and in my name his horn shall be exalted.
25 I will set his hand on the sea
    and his right hand on the rivers.
26 He shall cry to me, ‘You are my Father,
    my God, and the Rock of my salvation!’

King David, of “David and Goliath” fame, was the small underdog.  The chosen one of God.  The boy who would be king.  The king who would be both renowned for his wisdom and reviled for the mistakes of his human nature.  Both the #50, and the #10.  Yet, from the lineage of this perfectly imperfect human being, would come the simple carpenter – the human father of our Lord and Savior.

And in each of us, those same tendencies to be both the #10 and #50 exist.  In this Advent season, I pray the better angels of our nature, our #50s, get the ball more often than our #10s.