David a man after Gods own heart   part 2

In the last blog I ended by saying that I believe that there are at least seven qualities that David possessed that qualified him to be called a man after Gods own heart, and that put him in a position to be entrusted with so much.
God is no respecter of persons what he gave to David he will work in our lives if will discern what those qualities are and seek Gods face for those qualities to be given us also in a greater measure.
The first of the seven is that David had an extraordinary grasp upon the mercy of God.
For David every aspect of his relationship with the Lord was rooted in the awareness of the present powerful reality of the hand of Gods mercy towards him.
Psalm 5 vs 7 says
"But as for me I will come into your house in the multitude of your mercy,
In fear of you I will worship towards your Holy temple."
David understood I believe that his freedom to approach Gods awesome presence, His ability to freely worship before God, his confidence to hear Gods voice; his victory in battle his exaltation among men, his kingship and his prosperity all derived from the weight and abundance of Gods mercy towards him.
How easy it is to lose sight of this.
In the parable of the tax collector and the Pharisee you will recall how it says,
"Two men went up to the temple to pray,one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.
The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself God I thank you that I am not like other men,extortioners,unjust adulterers or even as this tax collector.
I fast twice a week;I give tithes of all that I possess."
And the tax collector standing afar off would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven,but beat his breast saying God be merciful to me a sinner.
I tell you this man went down to his house justified rather than the other,for everyone who exalts himself will be abased and he who humbles himself will be exalted.2 Luke 18 9-14

Notice that it says that the Pharisee stood and prayed with himself.God certainly was not listening to his boastful self proclamations.
The Pharisee was truly called by God to walk with a life of greater separation however he had long ago begun to place his confidence in his consecration rather than in the Mercy of God as the only justifiable grounds of approach to God.
Consider in the parable of the prodigal son the response of the older brother to his returning wayward brother,the bible says that "He was angry and would not go in"
Rather than rejoice in the giving of mercy to his brother who was lost and on a road to destruction he simply ran of a list of all the loyal and obedient acts of service that he had rendered to his father in service of him.
I am sure that the older brother wanted his younger brother to pay somewhat of a penalty for his wasting the families goods. He probably thought along the lines of,
"He should be made to see the grievousness of his actions and if we simply pass over the seriousness of his debt what message does that convey to him.?Why he will probably take advantage of us again."
What the older brother failed to see is how remarkably like the Pharisee and the tax collector he had become.
All he could do was to rattle off his good deeds of loyal service to his father.
The tradegy of the older brother was that he had no conception of Gods mercy he did not feel the need for any from his own father so why should his younger brother receive it so abundantly.
It probably even seemed to him like a form of weakness;in contrast letting his brother know how serious his crime was that was considered to be strength in his eyes.
Today within the church there are scores of Christians who manifest this same attitude of "The older brother"
I know of a minister whom God has used to restore many in the ministry who have fallen and help to get them back on their feet
For his efforts he has received an enormous amount of hate mail and even the loss of some of his friendships.
Why we may ask is this?
For the same same reason that the older brother could not rejoice in his younger brothers restoration, because those who manifest this spirit are driven not by a love of Gods mercy towards them but by a motivation of service and duty before God.
Therefore they cannot take great delight in Gods mercy when it is poured out on those who are undeserving.
Which of us we may ask is deserving?
David understood just how much of Gods mercy was extended towards him and he lent with all of his weight upon it because he knew that it would stand good.
When David said "I have trusted in your mercy" the word trusted says more than we think.
The Hebrew word for Trust speaks of our placing all of our  desire confidence and future hope in the object in which we have place our trust.
For David that was the abundence of the mercy of God.
This is also why Jesus commended David for understanding the nature of Gods mercy when he went in the tent of meeting and took the shewbread to eat which was unlawful.
To another person it would have got them killed on the spot had they been acting presumptiously however David was not.
 Rather he had grasped that the mercy of God was bigger than all the sacrifices of men.
He had seen that God delighted in giving mercy more than in receiving sacrifice.
We would do well to remember likewise.
We can learn much in our day by emaulting David heart after God the first glimpse of which is a heart of unbridled mercy.