King David and “biblical masculinity.”

When I was a kid, my pastor preached a sermon series on the life of King David. This’d be David ben Jesse of Bethlehem, third king of Israel, who reigned about 40 years during the 10th century before Christ. Many consider David the greatest king of ancient Israel; yep, even greater than his outrageously rich and legendarily wise son Solomon. His story’s found in Samuel, the very first part of Kings, and a few chapters of Chronicles.

In my teenage years—same church, same pastor—he decided to preach another series on the life of King David. Nope, not from a different point of view; same one. Very same one. “Guess I’m old enough to notice when Pastor’s doing reruns,” I joked at the time.

But seriously: Two sermon series on David in less than a decade? It’s not like the bible is short on material, nor important bible figures to expound upon. Jesus himself has so much material in the New Testament, it’d make sense to cover him multiple times, if not constantly. But David? What’s this fascination with David?

My pastor was a fan. As are lots of Christian men. David is a “man after God’s own heart,” and men presume this means David’s thoughts… were just like God’s thoughts! David pursued God so hard, he knew God better than anyone else. So this’d make David a role model, right? The best example ever of a God-minded man. It’d do well for us to look at David’s life in great detail, and learn how to likewise be men after God’s own heart.

Plus David’s not just any man. He’s a warrior. He’s a fighter. He killed hundreds of Philistines. Sometimes in war… and sometimes as part of the world’s most disgusting dowry. 1Sa 18.27 David also had multiple wives and at least 10 concubines, and while that’s wholly inappropriate behavior for Christians no matter what era you live in, you’ll notice plenty of Christian men will openly admire, even envy, David’s promiscuous success with the ladies.

David also write music and poetry, including many biblical psalms. He wept where appropriate (and sometimes where not 2Sa 18.33 - 19.8), danced himself silly before the LORD, 2Sa 6.14 and expressed manly emotion in ways most of these Christian men heartily approve of.

David’s a role model to these men in lots of heroic, masculine ways. And I won’t even touch upon the “masculine” ideas they project upon him which have no basis in scripture, ancient Hebrew culture, or common sense—ideas which are entirely based on conservative, usually sexist, Christian culture.

So yeah, the Christian fandom consists of a lot of that. David was a real man, they figure; a real man like they wanna be, and they use him to justify themselves and their “manly” behavior. If David was this way, they get to be this way. David’s after God’s own heart, right?—well so are they, ’cause they’re trying to be just like David.

Thing is, as Christians… aren’t we called to be like, oh I dunno, Jesus? Isn’t he the real man we’re actually instructed by the scriptures, instructed by Jesus’s apostles, instructed by Jesus himself, to follow, to be like?

Davidic “principles.” Not Davidic teachings.

Over my five decades of being Christian, I’ve attended many men’s bible studies, many men’s conferences, and read many a book by preachers who wanna specifically encourage Christian men to become better Christian men. Lots of times they do it right: They encourage us to be men of good character. To produce good fruit. To step up as leaders in our home, church, and community—and as Christians should know once we’ve read the gospels, the proper way for Christians to lead is to serve.

I’ve also heard many a sermon, and read many a book, which took its cues from the life of David ben Jesse. Whole lot of David fans among the leaders of men’s ministries. They’ll discuss something David did, then pull out of that—sometimes appropriately, sometimes not—some character trait which they think every man oughta have. ’Cause David had it. And again, “man after God’s own heart” and all.

In all the times I’ve heard men’s groups talk about David, I’ve heard ’em speak a lot about David’s actions. But I have never—no, not once—heard ’em emphasize David’s teachings.

Wait, David has teachings? Yes of course he does. David wrote 68 psalms. Two aren’t in the book of Psalms, 2Sa 22, 1Ch 16.8-36 but the rest are; Ps 3-9, 11-32, 34-41, 51-65, 68-70, 86, 101, 103, 108-110, 122, 124, 131, 133, 138-145 he wrote a mighty big chunk of the psalter. And because David’s a prophet, Ac 2.30 and wrote inspired, infallible scripture, he’s got valid teachings we can learn from. Valid revelations about God, which we can apply to our own lives.

Do men’s groups teach that? Sometimes! I’ve been in a men’s bible study where we actually went through Psalms. Didn’t finish, but we discussed an awful lot of the psalms and teachings of David, ’cause of the first 70 psalms in the book, David didn’t write 16. We mostly read David.

But whenever the leader of a men’s group wants to get up and talk about David… again, it’s not about David’s teachings. It’s his life. His doings, good and bad. Wanting to build the temple; cuckolding and murdering his loyal soldier Uriah. Fighting and winning battles; being a profoundly awful father. And of course all the “principles” we can extract from these doings.

Okay. Biblical principles are themes and concepts we find in the bible. Most of the time they’re the underlying cultural beliefs of the Hebrew and Judean people: They’re part of the ancient middle eastern worldview. They’re not always unique to Israel either; Job was written by and about Edomites.

Fr’instance the belief that one ought never, ever go into debt if we can help it, because debt leads to slavery. Nowadays we think of being a slave to our employers and wages, but in the ancient middle east they meant literal slavery—your creditors might demand you sell family members, or yourself, to pay your debts. As a result, slavery is also a biblical principle—one which generations of slaveholding Americans used to cause untold suffering, resulting in a bloody civil war. Even today, the descendants of the slaveholders still try to downplay the monstrous evil of their forebears, and still insist they owe no reparations for the generations of wealth stolen from enslaved people.

See, many a Christian never bothers to ask whether a biblical principle is actually a God principle. Slavery was part of the culture of bible times, but did God want it to be?—and there’s plenty of evidence no, he did not. He wanted debts forgiven and captives freed. He wanted Christians to recognize their Christian slaves were family, not property. It’s kinda obvious to everybody nowadays, but the reason American slaveholders didn’t see it, and insisted upon their “God-given” rights to exploit other human beings as a biblical principle, is because they clearly didn’t give a rip about God’s will. They wanted to exercise power over others, and they wanted the bible to back ’em up and silence any critics. That’s all.

That’s why we gotta be wary of biblical principles. Including when men examine the life of King David to discover Davidic principles. Let’s presume these preachers aren’t pulling ’em out of context and they’re legitimately in the bible. But are they legitimately what God wants of us? Do his commands in the Law of Moses support them, or limit and even undermine them? Are they what Jesus teaches? Do they produce good fruit? Or are they just the further pursuit of wicked human desires, disguised as devout behavior?

As usual, I’m gonna recommend we look at their fruit. Is the result of men’s quest for Davidic principles a more Christlike life? Are they more loving, kind, gracious, generous, patient, faithful, compassionate, and gentle with the women in their lives? Or less? Do they love their enemies like Jesus tells them to, or smite ’em with impunity like David did with the Philistines… until he needed to hide out among them, but lie to them and tell them he wasn’t secretly raiding their allies and wiping out any witnesses, 1Sa 27.5-12 and get ’em to believe he was honest and honorable with them when he was no such thing. 1Sa 29.6 Are their women treated like our sisters in Christ, or as playthings, pawns, servants, or slaves who should be silent and suffer quietly?

What we want is a man who’s more like Jesus, and less like a despotic sexist who wants nothing more than to be feared and obeyed. Fewer fleshly Christians who consider themselves David followers, and far more Christ followers.