During the long years of struggle caused by King Saul’s madness, David had seen God’s sustaining presence in many ways. Nevertheless, he was often still figuring a lot of things out as he went along – just like the rest of us.

He had decided to bring the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem, with great fanfare and celebration (II Samuel 6:1-5). But the Ark turned out to be more dangerous than David had expected. Uzzah son of Abinadab, one of the drivers of the oxcart, saw the Ark starting to tip as the ox cart rocked on the road; he reached back with his hand to steady the ark and make sure it did not fall. This cost him his life, as no one was permitted to touch the ark directly (6:7). That convinced David that it was too dangerous to have the Ark in his keeping, so he entrusted it to Obededom the Gittite (II Samuel 6:10-11). Then, when David discovered how much God had blessed the family of Obededom for housing the ark, David decided he wanted the ark in Jerusalem after all (6:12-15).

What David was coming to recognize was that God had made a covenant with him (7:8-16): and he was able to acknowledge that the covenant love of the Almighty was far more than he deserved (7:18-29). “Because of your promise, and according to your own heart, you have wrought all this greatness, so that your servant may know it” (7:21).

So much of the time we understand so little, and get caught by surprise by God’s grace. Yet we might learn to pray along with David: “O Lord God, you are God, and your words are true, and you have promised this good thing” (7:28).

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We have indeed seen your goodness, O Lord, though we still struggle to figure things out. Yet we trust in you, for you have been far more gracious than we could ever have deserved. You are our God, and we know that your word is true. We bless your name forever and ever!