“The man after the heart of God”
We know this refers to David. What is so special about David that he is synonymous with being the man after the heart of God?

This sermon will specifically take a look at the afflictions of David, and how his afflictions epitomise why he is the man after the heart of God.

What were David’s afflictions?
Psa 132:1
“Lord, remember David and all his afflictions”
This is a song of ascents; a psalm the Israelites would sing as they went up the mountain to the temple in Jerusalem. The psalmist here asks the Lord to remember David and all his afflictions.

What were David’s afflictions? We would probably think of David running away. He ran away from Saul. He ran away from the King of Gath. He even had to run away from his own son! David spent a lot of his life running; he was like a fugitive. But are these running aways the afflictions the psalmist mentions here?

We continue to read Psa 132:2-5.
The afflictions the psalmist asks the Lord to remember weren’t external afflictions. Rather, these afflictions were inflicted by David on himself. “I will not go into the chamber of my house; or go up to the comfort of my bed; I will not give sleep to my eyes” Essentially, he makes an oath to deprive himself of sleep. For what purpose? v5 tells us “until I find a place for the Lord, a dwelling place for the Mighty One of Jacob.”

It’s obvious v5 refers to the ark of the Lord. Until he finds a resting place for the ark of the Lord.

There’re two incidents in 2 Sam that these verses likely reference. First was when David wanted to bring the ark of the Lord into his city. Second was when David wanted to build a temple for the Lord.

David afflicted himself because he wanted to do the work of the Lord. Why does the psalmist use ‘affliction’ in this way?

Is having to run away or being deprived of sleep a worse affliction? It’s hard to compare different kinds of afflictions. It’s hard to say whether running away or being deprived of sleep is more difficult. But let us not look lightly on this affliction of David.

The speaker read about the Christian persecution in Romania. The Christians would be beaten up, then thrown into cells. Rats were then put into the cells. Why? Because the rats would nibble at the wounds. When you’re just about to fall asleep, the rats would nibble at them, rendering unable to sleep. They wanted to torture and break them down by depriving them of sleep. Being deprived of sleep is torture.

Running away from his enemies is not something David volunteered to do. God put him in a situation where he has no choice but to just run. In fact if he was given a choice, he would’ve chosen not to run!

There’s an interesting incident in 2 Sam 24. David committed sin because he numbered the people. So God sends the prophet and gave him 3 options:

1. 7 years of famine
2. 3 months of running away
3. 3 days of plague
   His answer was that he rather not run away. It’s telling how much he had been afflicted in his life by running away. But this was something he had no choice over.

But in Psa 132, it was a deliberate choice of his.

In life sometimes, we’re also forced to be deprived of sleep. But that’s usually because of external circumstances. Some people lose sleep due to work. Jacob himself said he lost sheep looking after the sheep of Laban. “In the day I was in the heat and in the night it was cold.” He had no choice.

Many years ago, when the speaker first started working, he was deprived of sleep, because he had just transitioned from studying to working. A lot of his cousins lived with him and they were all still studying in the university while he was working. They would sleep late into the night. He would drag out a mattress to the living room to sleep. When it was very late into the night, all his cousins would come out and start praying. He’d be aroused from sleep and “Eh bro…I really need to sleep. Find somewhere else to pray leh.”
“I’ve no place to pray. Everyone is still studying in the room.”
“I’ve no place to sleep either.”

Furthermore, it was also at that time that he had an autoimmune problem. His body attacked him due to the lack of sleep. Only PhD

No one chooses to deprive himself of sleep. Except for external circumstances; when we have no choice.

But David is special. He made a deliberate choice to deprive himself of sleep to do the work of God. This is his heart towards God. To him, sleep cannot be compared with the work of God.

Great men in the Bible deliberately deprived themselves of sleep.

Jesus. He said, “Foxes have holes, birds of the air have nests. But the son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.” He woke up early in the morning to pray; he deprived himself of sleep to pray.

Paul. When Paul talks about his sufferings for Christ, one of them was that he was often in sleeplessness.

What about us? We work for God, and it can get stressful, causing us to lose sleep. What will we do? Sometimes we find excuses so we don’t need to do the work that causes us to lose sleep. “Don’t ask me to do this anymore! I’m already losing sleep over this!”

But here the man after the heart of God loses sleep for the work of God. The work of God was more important than his sleep.

Second, did he have to lose sleep to find a dwelling place for the ark of God? Did God instruct David to move the ark? No. Did a prophet instruct David to move the ark? No. Nobody asked David to move the ark.

If we take a look at the history of the ark, it was originally at the tabernacle set up in Shiloh. The Israelites would go up to Shiloh to worship God at the ark. It was taken captive by the Philistines. Later on it was returned and placed in Kirjath Jearim for 20 years. Later on, Saul became king.

1 Chron 13:1
The first thing we note here is that for 40 years (length of time Saul was king), no one inquired of the ark. Saul had simply left it at Kirjath Jearim. He’s after all not the man after the heart of God.

What about David? David was very very different.

If you think about it, we’re all creatures of habit. For example: many years ago when we added Sabbath morning service to Sabbath afternoon service, many of us weren’t used to it. Because we never attended Sabbath morning service in our lives.

Now put ourselves in David’s shoes. From the time he was born to the time he was king, no one around him had asked about the ark. No one had talked about going to inquire about the ark. Would we have thought to do that? It seems as if the people had forgotten where the ark was.

Psa 132:6
“Behold we found it in Ephrathah. We found it in the fields of the woods.”

In other words when David wanted to bring the ark to Jerusalem, people had to go find it. Because it had been left in that place for more than 60 years. If we’re in the shoes of David, would we have thought to go find the ark? Even if we thought about seeking God and inquiring of the ark, then we would just go to the ark. But David was different, he didn’t think about going to Kirjath Jearim, he brought it to Jerusalem.

His mind constantly thought about God. His mind was always set on God. In fact, he said this was the only thing he desired - to dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of his life. This was what the man who was after the heart of God set his mind on.

What about us? What is our mind set on?

A joke:
There was a man who missed church service. The pastor asked him, “Why did you miss service?” He answered, “My heart is at the right place.” The pastor was puzzled. The man further said, “I would rather be in bed thinking about the church than to be in the church thinking about the bed. At least my heart is in the right place.”

Is it true his heart is in the right place? A person whose heart is truly in the right place is David. His mind is constantly on God.

Thirdly, how did David go about fulfilling his vow; finding a dwelling place for the house of God?

2 Sam 6 describes David’s two attempts to bring the ark into Jerusalem. Let’s take a look at his first attempt. How does he go about doing it?

David is really a man that goes all out. He’s not a person who spares anything when doing the work of God.

2 Sam 6
v1 says he took 30,000 choice men just to bring the ark to Jerusalem. The speaker was thinking bringing a couple hundred of people was good enough but David took 30,000 people! We can see this matter was of highest priority to him.

v5
As they were transporting the ark, they weren’t just walking along. They played music before the Lord on all kinds of instruments. You can imagine how spectacular it is. 30,000 people playing instruments while transporting one ark.

And then something happened. The oxen stumbled.

v6 Uzzah put out his hand to stop it, and God struck him dead.

v8 (read)
Why was David angry? We have to understand the amount of effort that he put in. It was supposed to be such a joyful occasion with all the instruments playing. And then God struck down Uzzah for his error. It’s only natural to get angry when we put in so much effort and the outcome is awry. This isn’t to justify David’s anger, but we can understand why he got angry. If we didn’t get angry, then it’s probably because we didn’t put in too much effort. A person who isn’t vested in something doesn’t care or bother about the outcome.

He was angry because he put in so much effort and got an outcome he didn’t want. And he didn’t understand why.

Now if this happened to us, what would we do? We would probably also be angry. Many of us would say, “I’m not going to transport the ark anymore. Since God doesn’t want me to move the ark, I won’t move it!”

But what about David? He wasn’t deterred by this. v9 says he was still thinking in his mind how the ark of God could come to him. This tells us he really didn’t understand why God struck Uzzah down and he was still thinking how to transport it to Jerusalem. He wasn’t deterred. He was still thinking how to do it.

Eventually, he figures it out. He found out a reason.
1 Chron 15:12-13 (read)
Because they had not consulted God about the proper order of moving the ark. The Levites were supposed to carry the ark. Instead they used the practice of the Philistines - using a cart. Here we see David isn’t an irresponsible person. He didn’t say to the Levites, “You all should have told me!” He took some time to find out the proper order (no concordance last time) and took responsibility for the error.

This tells us that with God, it’s not just the thought that counts. The thought is good, but the proper order of doing things is important too. Because who are we trying to please? Ourselves or God?

For example, you buy a gift for your wife. You don’t bother about what she likes, you just buy some gift. Your wife says, “I don’t like this gift.” You respond, “Never mind la it’s the thought that counts.” Would your wife be happy? Of course not.

Likewise here, while doing God’s work, it’s not what YOU want to do but what God wants us to do. It shouldn’t be the way WE want to do it.

2 Sam 6
In David’s second attempt, it’s even more extravagant. Levites were appointed to sing all the way.

Whenever those who carried the ark walked 6 paces, they would sacrifice oxen and fatted sheep. You can imagine how long it would’ve taken. Kirjath Jearim is in Judah, not too far from Jerusalem but offering every 6 steps would’ve taken some time.

Furthermore David wasn’t just a spectator in this, he was dancing before the Lord with all his might. Perhaps we’d think to just leave it at Obed Edom, why take the risk?

But David was different. He does it with all his might, goes all the way and successfully brings the ark into Jerusalem. Was it the end?

For us we would probably say: I’ve done everything I can do; I’ve brought the ark into Jerusalem.

But David didn’t just stop there.
2 Sam 7:1-2 (read)
David is really a very very unique character. There’s a reason why he’s a man after the heart of God. Because he never stops thinking what he can do for God. He’s always thinking: what more can I do?

v5-7 (read)
In David’s whole life, no one inquired of the ark. David inquired. People had gotten about the ark. He went looking for the ark. But here tells us here that this desire of David (to build God a house) surpasses what he did before.

When the Israelites came out of Egypt, the ark has always been in a tent. God had never told anyone to build him a house. Others would likely think “Since God asked it to be put in a tent, just leave it there. He didn’t ask to be put in a cedar house. Maybe He wants it in a tent.” But David thought about how he lived in a splendid cedar house while God was dwelling in a tent.

We know David wasn’t allowed to build the temple but for this thought that he had, God blessed him.

v10 “Would you build a house for Me?”
v11b “The Lord tells you that He will make you a house.”
God is saying, “You’re not going to build Me a house. I am going to build you a house.”

For this thought of David, God blessed him and revealed the Messianic promise to him.

David is really really a special character. What no one had thought before was first thought of by David because he was very very concerned about God.

“Is that all? I’m not allowed to build the temple. And God has given me the greatest blessing that the Messiah would come from my lineage. Is there anything else I can do?”

David is a man who goes above and beyond.
2 Chron 22:5
David made abundant preparations before his death. How abundant were these preparations?

v14
100,000 talents of gold. 1 million talents of silver. Bronze and iron beyond measure.
And David told Solomon, “Arise and begin working, and the Lord be with you.”

David did everything except the one thing he couldn’t do - build the temple. This was the man after the heart of God. He did it to the end until his death.

He afflicted himself with the lack of sleep, and did it to the very end until his death. This is the man after the heart of God.

What about us? Are we also after the heart of God? Actually God is always after our hearts. He’s always thinking about us. But are we thinking about God?

David was always thinking about God. He’s willing to deprive himself of sleep and go beyond what he’d asked to do. He’s willing to do it to the very end unto death.

God is most pleased with such a man. In fact, David is forever synonymous as the man after the heart of God.

What would we rather go after? The world or the heart of God?