“To the faithful you show yourself faithful, to the blameless you show yourself blameless..” ( Psalm 18:25)
One of life’s sad ironies, is to find a person who begins so well in life, but has a disastrous end. From the Bible we can contrast the life of King Saul who starts out as a heroic figure, only to descent into devastating wars that ultimately lead him to suicide, along with his three sons ( I Chronicles 10:4-6).
On the contrary King David starts out heroically as the killer of Goliath ( 1 Samuel 17); then his life is on the run, but ultimately ends well, triumphantly passing on his kingdom to his son, Solomon, whom he instructs to build a temple of the Lord ( 1 Chronicles 22).
One might be interested to figure the difference between two kings. For Saul, his descent starts when he turns away from God, “I regret that I have made Saul king, because he has turned away from me and has not carried out my instructions” ( 1 Samuel 15). Eventually Saul turns to spirit mediums seeking answers for his situation (1 Samuel 28).
David was not perfect either. He, too, had moments of lapse, such as when he fell into the sin of adultery with Bathsheba and the subsequent murder of her husband, Uriah ( 2 Samuel 11). Where David rises above the rest is his humility which we see in his acknowledging his sin and repentance ( Psalm 51). In a sense even at his lowest he never left God! But Saul was consumed with pride that blinded him from being dependent on God and in the end he abandoned God.
In life there are many episodes of those who have started out so well and met a tragic end as Saul. For many, like Saul, during their low moments, they left God and sought redemption elsewhere, all to their pitfull end. King David had his own portion of life’s low moments but he never lost his faith. The Lord ultimately honoured his unyielding trust in Him. He ended well!
Prayer today: Lord Father God of Abraham, maker of heaven and earth, what a loss to start life’s journey so well only to end tragically and so today I pray that I may never lose my absolute dependency on you, through the highs and lows of life, all this I pray in Jesus’ name!
