S2Ep7 - David: Strength with a Soft Heart

Strength without tenderness is a burnt roast — but David shows how courage and a soft heart can belong in the same man. This episode traces his bold faith, his painful failure, and his real repentance, reminding us that God can still use a man who returns to Him.

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Transcript

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Welcome And Why David Matters

SPEAKER_00 0:01

You're listening to Coffee Break Theology, a King of Kings podcast.

SPEAKER_01 0:13

Welcome back to Coffee Break Theology. We're talking this season about godly masculinity. I'm Greg. And I'm Marcus.

SPEAKER_02 0:20

Today we're looking at one of the most famous men in scripture. None other than David David. That's it. Warrior, poet, shepherd, king.

SPEAKER_01 0:30

Yeah, he's one of those guys who could like win a battle in the morning, write a song in the afternoon, and then take a nap.

SPEAKER_02 0:40

Kind of like Rambo and Ed Sheeran if they were the same person.

SPEAKER_01 0:44

I I liked Rambo. Ed Sheeran, he's the redhead fellow, right? Sings a song.

SPEAKER_02 0:50

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 0:50

Yeah. I'm not I don't know anything about his songwriting, but might have better theology, I guess. Yeah, I suppose. I suppose, right? Also, kind of like you. Yeah, David, like me. Okay. Kind of like you. Okay. Yeah. Except if I knew how to hold a sword, I think I can hold a sword. Could I use it? No. A little heavy. I'm sure I can hold it up. Or play the harp or a lyre. I can play the flute. I did. I I I grew up and uh was a flautist in the marching band. I played the recorder. Oh. And I wouldn't call it playing.

SPEAKER_02 1:27

And that was it. That's it for me.

SPEAKER_01 1:29

I'm all music teachers out there. Please, for the love of all things holy, stop teaching recorders.

SPEAKER_02 1:35

I hope my kids never bring those home.

SPEAKER_01 1:36

They will. Fourth grade. It's like third or fourth grade at the Concordia schools. Yeah, it's like one of the worst. They don't that year they don't send out uh parent surveys.

SPEAKER_02 1:47

Smart. Well, we're back to David. David is just a pretty incredible, overall, awesome dude.

SPEAKER_01 1:53

Yeah, so good. Um, we hear so here's his introduction in the scriptures in first Samuel, right? Someone described him as a brave man and a warrior. He speaks well and is fine looking, and the Lord is with him. Wow. Uh, you said he's a lot like me. I I can see now why you would say that. Yeah, that makes a lot of right, and humble. He was humble, the most humble, most humble, right? So courage and skill, relationally spiritually deep. There.

SPEAKER_02 2:24

Yeah.

Strength Without Cruelty

SPEAKER_02 2:25

Yeah. Luther Luther once said a Christian is perfectly free, a perfectly free lord of all, subject to none, and a perfectly dutiful servant of all, subject to all. And that that's that describes David to a T. He's strong enough to face Goliath, but he's also humble enough to play the harp for a trembled a troubled king. That's good.

SPEAKER_01 2:45

You know, I I think honestly, in our in when we talk about biblical masculinity, it would be good to reclaim this. Yeah. Um, I think um this strength without cruelty, um, especially in our world today. Um, I think our world sees a lot of men using cruelty, whether it be with their words um or with their actions, especially in the face of of things that we think are just or unjust. And so um, you know, I I think we we tend to view tenderness as weakness. Yeah, and um, and yet in David, we we see a good combination of both. And I think I think godly men can be both.

SPEAKER_02 3:23

Absolutely. Uh another man from history that that was described in this way was Abe Lincoln. Yeah, somebody somebody called him Velvet Steel. Oh, that's that's something to think about. Never heard about that. Um, I don't know who it was, I just found it somewhere, but I find things. I like it. That's what I do. I like it. So so people who have this dual quality, this, this, this hardness and this tenderness, this, this courageousness, this, this, you know. There's two sides of the same coin. Yeah. So if you talk about masculinity, it's a coin. There's two sides to this.

SPEAKER_01 3:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 3:54

But they're hardened to take on any difficult task, but they're also humbled enough to know when to let God handle things.

SPEAKER_01 4:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 4:01

So there's a bravado, but there's also a submission.

SPEAKER_01 4:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 4:04

Uh uh, they're strong enough to stand firm against evil, right? Stand firm. There's that word again. And gentle enough to provide grace and mercy to those entrusted to their care.

SPEAKER_01 4:12

Yeah. Did you know, by the way, a little fun fact about Abraham Lincoln? Do you know the movie made $275 million in theaters? The Abraham Lincoln movie. Yeah. It was good. Like, I did you see it? I don't, I don't know. I saw it. I thought it was really good. Like it was it was really well done. But so Lincoln and David, right, both kind of carried the same thing. Um, courage, right? Lincoln took on courageness uh to face the injustice of slavery in our own country. Yep. But David, getting back to our biblical character, David, David faced the lion um and a bear. Yeah, um, not a tiger, but um, you know, no tigers in that area. No, not in that area. But he would have he would have taken them on. He could have taken them on, but he was also humble enough to receive corrections for his mistakes. Yeah and and again, I think this is a godly masculinity spot. Like, like, how do we handle as men, how do we handle rebuke? Yeah, um, because that's an important piece. Like, we all will say we're fallible. Yep. Well, it's one thing to say it, it's another thing to be called out for it, right? And and we have to be at times. And so, um, yeah, we'll talk more about that, but I think I think we're gonna see a lot in David today.

SPEAKER_02 5:24

Well, and we just got done with the uh the last sermon series with Zach. Yeah, all scriptures, God breathe, useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, training. I mean, correcting and and rebuking are two

Shepherd Years Build Real Courage

SPEAKER_02 5:35

of the four. Yeah. So we if we're gonna say we're fallible, yep, how do we make that right? Yep. And how do we receive criticism? Yeah, that's a big thing. Um, you know, people sometimes forget that David's courage in the fight against Goliath didn't come out of nowhere.

SPEAKER_01 5:50

Right.

SPEAKER_02 5:50

It's kind of like when we talked about conviction, it it's you're you're gonna resist, you're gonna decide to resist beforehand. When you're in the face of it, it's hard to be brave, it's hard to be uh resisting temptation, it's hard to do that in the moment.

SPEAKER_01 6:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 6:03

Um but he spent years as a shepherd. His his his young life, he was in the fields. His brothers were out fighting wars, his brothers were out doing the things that that that men do. And he got stuck at home taking care of the sheep. But again, like like Moses in the wilderness, God was God was with him. Yeah. And and David, who was a a man after God's own heart, spent all that time worshiping him.

SPEAKER_01 6:26

Yeah, yeah, right. That's so good. I mean, Psalm 27, one, right? The Lord is the light of my salvation, whom shall I fear? And that's not just a lyric he wrote. That that's actually David's worldview, right? Right? He looked at it and said, Who should bear be afraid? The Lord is the light of my salvation. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 6:44

Uh large catechism, uh, catechism, uh, the first commandment. We are to trust in God alone. We've said this before, we're gonna say it over and over. Trust in God alone, look to him and expect from him only good things, as from one who gives us body, life, food, drink, nourishment, health, protection, peace. The list goes on. Yeah, so God is the one giving us those things, he's out for our our our sake. Yeah, that's looking out for us. So David and his whole identity was was cemented in this. His confidence came from God, not from himself.

SPEAKER_01 7:14

Yeah, and that confidence, like when I think about it, it grows, it grows in the fields and it flows freely from David when he faces Goliath. Don't forget, like Goliath had his own confidence, absolutely, right? Um, but it was it was not in the Lord, it was in himself, right?

SPEAKER_02 7:30

And I think if I was nine feet tall, I'd probably have some confidence in my fighting ability. Yeah, I suppose. But yeah, in first Samuel 17 in the story of David and Goliath, Goliath says, after David comes to him and presents himself as the guy who's fighting him, Goliath says, Am I a am I a dog that you come at me with sticks? Come to me and I will give your flesh to the birds of the air and the beasts of the field. He's saying, I'm gonna wipe the floor with this kid.

SPEAKER_01 7:54

Yeah, yeah, he was the epitome of arrogance, yeah, right. Um, and and he was very sure of himself against David, this boy. Right. Um, and and uh honestly, like it seems reasonable. Like we could sit there and go, Yeah, I could see that. Yep. Um, but hear what David says. That I love this part.

SPEAKER_02 8:12

Yeah, I love this response. Um, there's so much in here, I'm just gonna read it. So Goliath basically says, What are you doing? Yeah, yeah. So David says to the Philistine, you come to me with a sword and with a spear and with a javelin, but I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defiled. He says, Watch out. And that's that's one of the reasons David was so incensed and offered himself as the warrior. If it would have just been this big guy and everybody was scared to fight him and he didn't say anything, David, I mean, maybe he would have, but he was more incensed at the outcry of of Goliath decrying God, yeah, and saying, I defile the the the Lord of the army of Israel.

SPEAKER_01 8:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 9:00

And David said, Who is this guy? What is he talking about? Who why are we standing here? Let me add him. And so um, who who you have defiled, he says, Goliath, you defiled and and cried out against God. So this day the Lord will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you down and cut off your head. He takes it another step further. I love that. He says, I will give the dead bodies of the host of the Philistines, not just your body, but everybody around you who's fighting with you. I'm gonna give their bodies to the uh to the birds of the air and the wild beasts of the earth. He takes his his um his threat and he turns it back on them. He says, That all the earth may know that there's a God in Israel, and that all his assembly may know that the Lord saves, not with sword and spear, for the battle is the Lord's, and he will give you into my into our hand. It's a little bit different. He takes it the next step, but that's some real confidence. That's some real confidence in someone who can deliver. It's it's ridiculous.

SPEAKER_01 10:02

Yeah, it's good. And and you know, and

The Big Fall And Real Repentance

SPEAKER_01 10:05

and so you think, oh gosh, here's David. He's so great, he's perfect in all the way, but he's not. Oh, and he messes up big. Yeah, I mean, really big. And I I wouldn't even call it's not a mess up. He he like he fully falls. Yep. Um, and it's Bathsheba, Uriah. He wasn't where he was supposed to be. He saw someone uh that he shouldn't have seen, and he schemed to do something um that he should he knew better than to do. Yeah, and um he abused his power. Absolutely. Um, and uh he took he took something that wasn't his and then he uh committed adultery and then and then murdered followed because he needed to hide it and cover it up.

SPEAKER_02 10:48

One of the one of the overlook things in the in the passage there is is it says in the springtime when kings go off to war, yeah, David Sadness Palace. Yeah, he wasn't even supposed to be there. No, right, but like you you start there and then you see the snowball and where it got him. Uh but yeah, strength alone doesn't make a man godly. Right. It just doesn't. It can't. It has to be paired with a heart after God.

unknown 11:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 11:15

And it's funny to to say this about David because he had these big time mistakes, this big time fall. But he's the only one in scripture that's known as a man after God's own heart. Right. That there's two sides there. And for for as bad as the sins are that he committed, he's the only one who gets that moniker. Yeah. Um's a bit some to to ponder. Um, but yeah, so his repentance in Psalm 51, it's called the penitent psalms. He is truly remorseful. And that is just just as much a model for masculinity as it as his victory over Goliath was.

SPEAKER_01 11:49

Yeah. This actually is a comfort to me because you know, we all have sin and we all have things that we fall towards. And um, when I fall, this, this, this, and I have that that guilt that I should, that I have not lived up to the way of God. Yeah. Um, I'm reminded of this that David also carried this, right? A broken and contrite heart, oh God, you will not despise. Yeah. And so when I come to the Lord broken and contrite, in whatever my sin is, God doesn't say, Greg, I can't believe that you're back again. Yeah. Um, He doesn't despise me for what I've done, and He doesn't identify me with what I've done.

SPEAKER_02 12:31

Right. I think the the whole rebuke and correct kind of maybe fits in there a little bit. Where somebody who is contrite and who is sorry, they they get correction. Yep, yep, yep. Somebody who's not sorry, somebody who's not remorseful, that's where the rebuke comes in. For sure. And but there's truth to both of those. Yes. And I think that that kind of fits. But David, David knows he can't fix his sin. Right. Um contrite means that you know what you did and you can't fix it. David knows that. He also knows, though, that God can and and he does. Yes. So what does he do? He runs to God and says, Man, woe is me. I did something wrong. Save me, save me. Um even the worst of sins, God fixes adultery, murder, like they're blotted out by Jesus' sacrifice. They're they're no more. The worst of the worst that we can think of are gone. And then God still uses David. After his sincere repentance, after his big fall, David says, fix me. God fixes him and then says, You're going back out there, kid.

SPEAKER_01 13:37

I love that. And T. Wright says it uh a little bit this way. He says, He says, God's plan isn't to abandon the world, but to rescue it. Yeah, and he does so through people who are themselves rescued. Yeah, um, so David's failure didn't disqualify him in any way. Right. His repentance restored him, and he still dealt with his sin and consequences of that sin.

SPEAKER_00 13:57

Right.

SPEAKER_01 13:57

But he was able to continue to serve the Lord who God who forgave him. Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 14:04

David being one of the most famous characters, like everybody knows these stories. Everybody kind of understands, like, yeah, he sinned, yeah, he did something wrong. But I think when you when you unpack it a little bit, it's like, oh man, yeah. I am I am like David and I am unlike David. Yeah. What's what's the application here? What what does strength with a soft heart mean? What is what does

Practising Strength And Compassion

SPEAKER_02 14:25

that look like for a man to act that way?

SPEAKER_01 14:27

Yeah, that's a good I mean, that's a good question. I think, I think as we've unpacked all of this, right? Like it's it's maybe like defending your family's faith, but also being gentle and present with your kids uh when they're hurting. It might be being decisive in where we're leadership, but also being willing to say, I'm sorry. Yeah. And um, and knowing when you've blown it and like it admitting that, like, yeah, I didn't get that right. Right. And um, and I think I think when we have that vulnerability, that's when we see the character of David.

SPEAKER_02 15:01

Well, and and as men, as as we're interested with people around us, we expect them to say sorry when they do things wrong.

SPEAKER_01 15:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 15:08

We're we're told that that's part of our job as fathers and as husbands. You you did something wrong, you need to to apologize, you need to be repentful of it.

SPEAKER_01 15:15

Right.

SPEAKER_02 15:16

But if you can model that, oh man, man, that it teaches them better than me telling you what to do all the time. Um, but yeah, that's that's John 1.14. Right. That's walking while you're full of grace and truth. Yeah, there's two sides of that that coin.

SPEAKER_01 15:30

Yeah, so this week I would challenge all of our listeners, um, show strength in an area and compassion in another, right? Or do both on purpose, right?

SPEAKER_02 15:39

Yeah, that's that's that's godly masculinity. Yeah, it's it's taking ownership of of those two sides of the coin. You're not just winning the fight, you're not just winning the battle, but you're winning the heart. Yeah, and harp solos. And liar solos. Oh, come on. Here we go. Amen to that. Yeah, come back next week as as we look into Daniel. That's our next guy. What a guy. And then you're probably gonna find out what a lion's favorite snack is.

SPEAKER_01 16:05

Yeah, probably cheese it.

SPEAKER_02 16:07

Uh might be something else, maybe.

SPEAKER_00 16:10

Thanks for listening to Coffee Break Theology. Be sure to tune in next time and remember to check out our other podcast series available on every major podcast listening service.