About David Israel’s most important king. David’s kingdom represented the epitome of Israel’s power and influence during the nation’s OT history. The two books in the OT devoted to David’s reign are 2 Samuel and 1 Chronicles. His earlier years are recorded in 1 Samuel, beginning at chapter 16. Almost half of the biblical psalms are ascribed to David. His importance extends into the NT, where he is identified as an ancestor of Jesus Christ and forerunner of the messianic king. The Bible nowhere glosses over the sins or character defects of the children of God. The sin of David in the matter of Uriah the Hittite is a cardinal instance of this. Let this blot be seen for what it is: a stain on a character otherwise fair and lived to the glory of God. His accomplishments were many and varied; a man of action, poet, tender lover, generous foe, stern dispenser of justice, loyal friend. He was all that men find wholesome and admirable in man, and this by the will of God, who made him and shaped him for his destiny. It is to David, not to Saul, that the Jews look back with pride and affection as the establisher of their kingdom, and it is in David that the more farsighted of them saw the kingly ideal beyond which their minds could not reach, in the image of which they looked for a coming Messiah, who should deliver his people and sit upon the throne of David for ever. Family background Great-grandson of Ruth and Boaz, David was the youngest of eight brothers (1 Sa. 17:12) and was brought up to be a shepherd. In this occupation he learnt the courage which was later to be evidenced in battle (1 Sa. 17:34–35) and the tenderness and care for his flock which he was later to sing of, as the attributes of his God. Like Joseph, he suffered from the ill-will and jealousy of his older brothers, perhaps because of the talents with which God had endowed him (1 Sa. 18:28). Modest about his ancestry (1 Sa. 18:18), David was to father a line of notable descendants, as the genealogy of our Lord in Matthew’s Gospel shows (Mt. 1:1–17). Role Commander, General, King, Musician, Psalmist, Servant, Shepherd Excerpts taken from New Bible Dictionary and Tyndale Bible Dictionary