by God's Little Boy
© MakeshiftDarkroom.com 2014
Posted 6/28/14
When we mention David, we refer to him as, "David" or "King David." He is not generally referred to as "the prophet David" or "David the priest." David was a King, which in a sense was a secular office (though he made it sacred). It is true that David was also, in a spiritual sense, a prophet, and a priest, but this was to appear as a type of Christ who was a prophet, priest, and king. In this way David pre-shadowed Christ. But David was only a prophet and a priest in some secondary sense, if you take my meaning. His office was primarily "King." He was not a priestly Levite and therefore could not serve as one, and he was not one who regularly received the word of God directly, as his "seer" the prophet Gad did. This was why God gave him a prophet. If David were a prophet (in the formal sense) why would he have need of prophets such as Gad and Nathan? Did Gad and Nathan have prophets?
David's job description was King and ruler of Israel. In other words, when David got up in the morning and went to work, what was his occupation? What was his position and what did he do? He served continually as the King. God decided this and sent the prophet Samuel to anoint David with oil for that particular office.
From a spiritual or ministerial perspective, we tend to see the other offices of Prophet and Priest as greater in significance - but David, this central character of the Old Testament, was only a King. This should encourage us. Should God have written so much about a man who was not a prophet? We would think that David's godly character should have warranted a place of "higher" spiritual calling. With a heart like his, shouldn't he have been the man of God? But no, God had need of him elsewhere, and set him as the King instead.
The person of David rises up in the books of 1st and 2nd Samuel and eclipses all of the other characters in the account. This fact is confirmed in Acts 13:22 where God says, "I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after mine own heart." It does not say, I have found Aaron a man after my own heart, or even Samuel a man after my own heart, but David. Furthermore, it does not say, I have found David a "prophet" after mine own heart, but it says I have found David a man after mine own heart. Just a man.
Concerning David, God has said -
"He shall cry unto me, Thou art my father, my God, and the rock of my salvation. Also I will make him my firstborn, higher than the kings of the earth." (Psalm 89:26,27)
All of this begs the question, "what is a man of God?"
It wasn't really David's office or his exploits that made him great or unique in God's eyes, it was his heart. Those who stand among the laity may be encouraged to see that the Lord highly favors godly hearts regardless of where they are found or what they are doing. How valuable in heaven's eyes is the individual whose heart is deeply after God.
Have you noticed that God is sovereign; and that he does whatsoever he pleases? God sovereignly sets us in the place and role that pleases him. Do not be compelled to conform to some evangelical expectation to be something that, in reality, has not been given by God. It will not be long before you discover that you cannot be anything more or less than what sovereignty has determined. But we can be all that God intends for us to be - prophet, priest, king, or servant.
Our value and significance is not determined by our gifts or our place in the arena of life. And many times he gives the gift of insignificance for our own good. Regardless of how you are perceived or how you perceive yourself, you can be sure that you have been put in place to have the impact that God has intended, as you serve your generation. Your life will have the impact that God has intended as you walk with him. Be content with who he has made you to be, and in what place he has set you. Cultivate a heart that is continually after him and the appointed exploits, whatever they should be, will follow. 
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