The banner above is a collage of paintings by Marc Chagall
In "David and his psalms" you can read the biblical story of David in combination with a lot of the psalms that are labelled as psalms of David, as the famous Psalm 23: "The LORD is my shepherd." Many of these psalms were written as an emotional and spiritual response to events in the life of David, the shepherd boy who became the king of Israel. His life did go through dark valleys and he really messed up his own family. And yet he was beloved by God and he felt incredibly blessed and grateful in his life.
The book of Psalms contains 150 ancient songs and poems, many of which were written by or for David, Salomon and the temple of Jerusalem.
The psalms can be rough, even hateful at times, as these songs not only testify of God, but also of the imperfect humans who composed them. But precisely therein lies their value. An intimate relationship with God is possible for a sinner like David. It is not reserved for holy humans, but for those who share their joys and sorrows, their anger and gratitude, and their complaints and shame with God.
Jesus and David
Israel expected that God would keep his promise to David, so that one his family line would be anointed to lead Israel, provided his descendent would be faithful to God. Jesus was seen as God's anointed (his Messiah in Hebrew, his Christos in Greek), and the 'Son of David.' He stood in the line of David, as heir to his (foster-)father Joseph. But perhaps more importantly: Jesus loved the psalms. The stories about David and the psalms inspired and comforted Jesus. He quoted them in debates. He sang psalms of praise with his friends on the road to Jerusalem and after the last supper. He used them in his prayers to his heavenly father when he was suffering the most: in the Garden of Gethsemane and even as he hung on the cross.
If you want to follow Jesus, I invite you to enter into the intimate relationship of David with God.
The story of David
The story is simply the Bible text from the last verse of the book of Judges, the story of Ruth and then I and II Samuel, plus I kings 1-9:9. I have added (parts of) Psalms 3, 8, 16, 18, 19, 20, 22, 23, 25, 30, 32, 5, 52, 54, 57, 60, 63, 65, 72, 103, 110, 127, 139, 142, 144 and 145. I have not done much editing, other than creating longer chapters and presenting the story in a more conventional way, to give it the look of a novel. I did add some reflections per chapter. The present text is based on my text in Dutch. Again, let me know where the DeepL translation went wrong.
Contents
2. When people want their own king
Epilogue: Building God's temple
Yeduthun
The Psalms give a surprisingly deep insight into the human soul, as distinct from our conscious reasoning, as well as therapeutic and pastoral ways to deal with depression and anxiety. For more of that, go to the section on Yeduthun, one of the temple musicians and one of the most wise people of his generation.