David was one exceptional king, who in his relationship with God, devoted himself to find out, what were the things close to God’s heart and what truly pleased Him. After getting to know the truth, he made himself servilely attentive and obedient to always do what God loved! More often than not, he displayed the unique trait of enquiring God before he ventured into anything for himself or the nation. This is perhaps the foremost reason, why God in spite of David’s many shortcomings overlooked them and placed him on the top of the pedestal of God-pleasers.

On the other hand, the Bible also records that Saul the first chosen king of Israel, ‘played the fool’ (1 Sam 26:21). It all started when the women of the land praised David more than him, after the former’s gallant victory over Goliath. Saul thereafter dedicated himself to go after David’s life by pursuing him day after day with such evangelistic zeal, that he virtually failed to govern Israel (1 Samuel 18:6-10).

According to 1 Samuel 16:14, the word of God records that an evil spirit eventually took over king Saul’s life to breed anger, hatred, envy, rebellion and disobedience to make him nosedive to death and obscurity. David, who had the Spirit of God in his life, was raised up to higher echelons of greatness, among all mortal kings that ever walked the earth.

David’s key to success lay in the fact that he always endeavoured to please God in all his ways, prompting God to say that he was a man after His own heart.

 Thought for the day: Paul urges us in Ephesians 5:10 ‘to try and learn what pleases the Lord’. When God is pleased – He makes us successful!