David the King

Martyn Payne

Introduction:

David's epic story spans three long Bible books and is the longest narrative about anybody in the Old Testament. The story takes us from his work as a shepherd in the family fields around Bethlehem to the heady heights of his role as king over the whole of Israel, when he united the twelve tribes and established a new capital in Jerusalem. In addition to the Old Testament books about his life (1 and 2 Samuel and 1 Kings), there also many poems attributed to him in the Book of Psalms. These songs express David's own faith in God and are full of exuberant praise as well as honest doubt and even despair. They have long been loved by people of faith (Jews, Christians and Muslims alike) as vehicles to express their own response to God in worship.

David is one of the best known and best loved of all the Old Testament heroes. He captures readers' hearts with his plucky victory over the Philistine champion Goliath, with his days on the run from King Saul, and with the eventual triumph of his kingship, which nevertheless included family troubles with his sons and his own personal failure when he stole Bathsheba for his wife. It is just because he is such a real character with failings as well as many fine points that he is such an attractive Bible character with lessons for all who want to know what it means to be a person of faith.

The following ideas are suggestions for a focus on the life of David that could be used in the classroom.

N.B. There is also a series of excellent ideas for collective worship on David's life in Year-Round Assemblies from Barnabas, including suggestions for storytelling, drama and music that could be presented by your class. The book also contains extension material for use in the classroom.

Preparation:

Make use of the story of David as it is retold in helpful, short sections in The Barnabas Schools' Bible, pages 108 to132, stories 117 to 145, in particular:

Story 117 Jesse's youngest son

Story 119 The shepherd's song (Psalm 23)

Story 120 The giant's challenge

Story 123 David the outlaw

Story 128 David, King of Judah

Story 133 David dances

Story 135 The God who knows everything (Psalm 139)

You may also need material to make an Ark (see section 6 of this idea).

Development:

1. The first time we come across David (1 Samuel 16) is as the youngest of eight sons. Can you imagine how he either was spoilt or, as seems more likely from the story, given a raw deal by his older brothers, who grabbed the limelight? In the story he ends up with the dead-end job of looking after the sheep, while the others get to go to the big town celebration to welcome the prophet Samuel.

Start the session by setting the scene from this chapter and exploring David's mood that day up on the hillside. Ask the class for suggestions for how he might be feeling. What would he have said about his situation? Would he be angry? Grumpy? Jealous? Or just not care?

To his and everyone's surprise, it is David that the prophet Samuel had come to see, so that he could anoint him as the next king. What a turnaround!

Now ask the class to step into the feelings and reactions of the elder brothers.

What might they have said? What were they thinking? What was their dad's reaction? (Clearly he did not expect God to choose his youngest son!)

Why do they think it is that Christians take comfort from this story? What does it say about God and God's choices?

Look up 1 Samuel 16:7 in the Bible. What do they think God means by saying this? Can they put it into their own words?

2. David had a talent for music. Later in the story he was sent to calm the moody King Saul with his harp-playing. He also composed many songs about his faith in God. Perhaps the most famous of these is Psalm 23.

Read Psalm 23 together in various versions from the Bible (see Biblegateway) and also read the retelling in The Barnabas Schools' Bible, story 119.

Can the children hear the influence of David's day-to-day life in the words he uses in this Psalm?

I wonder what sort of a song about God David might have written had he had a different job - perhaps as a baker in Bethlehem, or as a soldier in the army, or as a teacher in the local synagogue school? What images for God and faith in God would he have used instead?

Ask the class to write a Psalm of their own about God, using images from today's world. Think through the following first:

What might God be likened to in today's world?

What 'resting places' might God lead people to in today's language?

What dangers are there today that God promises to walk through with people?

What weapons would there be for people's protection today?

And what sort of celebration would people be invited to in today's terms, as a picture of experiencing God?

In the Barnabas book Bible Make and Do Book 1, there is an idea for making David's harp, which you could use as a creative response to this part of the lesson.

3. There are number of ideas for working with the Psalms (from the Barnabas in churches website) that offer some ways to handle these poems:

Psalms - a prayerful Psalm

Psalms - games with the Psalms

Psalms - sculpting the Shepherd Psalm

4. The story of David's courage in challenging the Philistine champion Goliath is ripe for some class drama, of course! Goliath is the classic bully, using his size to keep everyone else under his thumb. Even King Saul was terrified. But David wasn't prepared to cower like that.

1 Samuel 17 has the story - see also story 120 in The Barnabas Schools' Bible.

Imagine how this famous conflict looked from different angles: from the point of view of David's brothers in Saul's army; from where King Saul was standing; from the Philistine side; from Goliath's perspective!

David dared to fight because he trusted that God was on his side and he also had a few skills that he had learnt as a shepherd, which came in handy - in particular his mastery of the slingshot, which he used to use against wild animals threatening the sheep.

Create a series of freeze-frames of this story with the two opposing forces facing each other across an open space, and Goliath and then David marching out into the no-man's land in between. The scenes could be:

Goliath taunting the Israelites

David asking King Saul if he can go and fight (no doubt greeted by much laughter)

David trying on Saul's armour unsuccessfully

David walking out towards Goliath

David standing triumphantly over the dead Goliath and the reaction of the two armies

Take some digital photographs of each scene and put them together as a storyboard of the action, adding either speech bubbles or a simple narrative beneath the pictures.

David's amazing victory made him the talk of the whole country. They even wrote songs about him.

5. David's popularity was too much for King Saul and he decided to have him killed. For Davie, so began years of being on the run in the wild country of Judea, avoiding Saul's troops sent to get him. These were lonely times for David. The memory of how God had chosen him that day in Bethlehem must have seemed very faint and unreal.

Imagine what sort of letters home David would have written (until, in fact, his parents did come to join him.) Or else what diary entries would he make day-by-day?

On one occasion he had the opportunity to kill King Saul but David refused to murder a man that God had once chosen. There is a drama idea linked to this incident and to the Psalm which David wrote following what happened (Psalm 57):

Psalms - drama from the Psalms=1757

6. David did finally become king after Saul's death in battle, and he set about uniting the country's warring tribes. He was a great leader and never forgot that it was God who had looked after him and brought him to this high position. One of the first things he did was to bring the Ark into Jerusalem. This was a gold box that Moses that had had made in the desert many years ago. David brought it into the heart of his new capital as a way of saying that it was God who was truly king. He even danced in front of it as it came into the city (see stories 128 and 133 in The Barnabas Schools' Bible).

Ask the class what symbols or signs usually proclaim the power and authority of a king (for example, sword, crown, throne, sceptre, robes, strong bodyguard and so on).

David chose an ark as his symbol. There are details about how the Ark was made and what was in it in Exodus 25:10 - 22.

Make some model arks in groups. Each group will need:

a gold box

two long sticks (possibly bamboo) for the poles used to carry it like a litter, both of which should also be gold-coloured

two angels (cherubim) figures to go on top of the box, hiding beneath their wings and each facing inwards

Inside the box were the Ten Commandments written on stones (use perhaps flat stones and chalk or oval card and felts)

Also in the box there was a piece of the unusual bread (manna) that the people ate on their journey with Moses in the desert and another rod, like a branch, which belonged to Aaron, Moses' brother.

7. Many more things happened to David, some good and some bad. He became perhaps the greatest king that ever sat on a throne in Jerusalem, and God promised that his family would produce kings and also that one day, from his family would come an even greater king, who would rule the world. Christians call Jesus 'great David's greater Son'.

But there were bad times, too. You can read how he let his heart rule his head once when he stole another man's wife and then had that man killed in battle. He also had a lot of problems with his sons. One son even snatched the throne from him for a while.

Yet throughout all this, David knew that it was to God that he owed everything.

Read Psalm 139 and the retelling of this in The Barnabas Schools' Bible, story 135. David knew that God was everywhere, had given him everything and that every time he turned to God, God was there.

There's an easy-to-learn simple version of this Psalm which younger classes might enjoy, from our Barnabas in churches website:

Psalms - an easy-to-learn Psalm

Use the retelling of Psalm 139 to reflect on David's life. Ask the children:

Which part of David's life did you like the best?

Which part of David's life did you think was the most important?

Which parts of David's life are like things that happen to you today?

Is there any part David's life you would like to leave out?

Finally, what symbols or objects would you choose to tell the life of David to someone who did not know about it?

Sheep? Harp? Slingshot? Stones? Crown? Ark? 

With these pictures create your own class mosaic of the life of David the King.