But she did not rear him, for in her prayer to the Lord she made a vow, “O LORD Almighty, if you will only look upon your servant's misery and remember me, and not forget your servant but give her a son, then I will give him to the LORD for all the days of his life…”[i]

And Hannah sang….

The Song of David
I stood in front of the group of women who had listened to me speak during the sessions of their weekend retreat. “What song,” I asked, “would you like played at your funeral? What song would most express your life?”

An older woman named Joy, sweet of face and with gentle eyes, answered, “The Potter’s Hands.”

Joy was a potter. It was her hobby, her profession, and her ministry.

I could write an entire book just on the song[ii]  David sang over his life, but there is no room to do that here. What I would like to do is share with you something I read once (and recorded in my notes) about him. I believe it adequately summarizes a life well lived.

There is no other character in the OT to be compared to David  in the complexity of its elements, passion, tenderness, generosity, and fierceness; David was a soldier, shepherd, poet, statesman, priest, prophet, and king…He founded a dynasty. He was patriotic, generous, and kind, a man of strong impulses, and firm faith, brave and forgiving; yet a child of his time. He placed religion above everything. Of him alone has it been said that he was a man after the heart of God. He fostered a simple trust in God; he was a heinous sinner, but a correspondingly sincere penitent. He was the “sweet psalmist of Israel.”[iii]