1 Chronicles 18:1-17

David was a great king and leader who was blessed by God in many ways.  He had great military power, he possessed great wealth and he had a tremendous amount of influence over his own nation as well as the nations surrounding him.  David did not allow all this fame and power to make him proud but constantly praise God for the steady flow of blessings that came his way.  There are many men who are able to remain faithful to the Lord in the face of difficulties and distress, but David was one of the rare men who was able to remain faithful to the Lord in the face of great success.  David had his difficult times, but overcame them with trust in the Lord and almost always came out victorious.  We have a tendency to allow our pride to grow when we experience blessing.  The key to avoiding that is to fill our hearts with gratitude and praise to the Lord.

DAVID DEFEATED THE ENEMIES OF THE LORD: There were many nations that had been allowed to survive and thrive in and around the territory that had been given to Israel by God.  These nations were a constant source of conflict and negative spiritual influence on the nation of Israel.  God used David to defeat many of these nations.  David was a great warrior and was also able to command the respect of the other great warriors of the nation.  His army was powerful and united, but most of all it was directed and empowered by the Lord.  It was God who gave David so many great victories.  We need to be confident and courageous in our service before the Lord, but must also be faithful to thank and praise the Lord as we recognize Him as the true source of anything that we might be able to do or accomplish.

DAVID DEDICATED THE PLUNDER TO THE LORD: The battles that David fought resulted in a great amount of wealth being available to Him through the plunder that he would collect from the armies and the nations they represented.  David was careful to dedicate all of these items to the Lord and he set them aside to be used in the eventual construction of the temple or equip the army in a more adequate fashion.  The nations that David subdued paid tribute to Israel and the nations that heard of David’s fame and power came bringing gifts as a sign of their willing submission to his power.  All of this wealth was used to prepare the way for the construction of a glorious temple.  We must recognize that every blessing in our life comes from the Lord and, as such, it should be dedicated to the Lord and His work in the world.  We have a sinful tendency to view our possessions as our own instead of recognizing that they are stewardships entrusted to us by the Lord.  We are responsible to dedicate all that we possess to the accomplishment of the work of the Lord.

DAVID DELIVERED THE JUSTICE FROM THE LORD: Besides being a great warrior who had an extremely successful “foreign policy” as king; David was also a very good leader on the domestic front.  He has described as having administered justice and equity to all his people.  No nation can ask anything more from its leader.  Too often leaders are self-serving and corrupt, using their position and influence to exploit the people for their own benefit.  David was not like that; he was just before the people.  David was also good at delegating responsibilities to other men who, in turn, were also very effective leaders.  Every successful leader is also good at delegating authority and empowering them to accomplish great things.  Saul was always threatened by David’s effectiveness and his insecurity as a leader caused him to be ineffective and eventually drove him insane.  David was not threatened by the successes of others, instead he helped them to be more effective which only made him more successful.  We need to recognize importance of working as a body in cooperation with one another instead of viewing each other as competition.