1 Samuel  23:1 begins: “Now these are the last words of David: The oracle of David who was raised on high. The anointed of the God of Jacob, the sweet psalmist of Israel.”

That does not necessarily mean that these were the last words he spoke, but the last oracle he pronounced. An “oracle” is intended to be an authoritative utterance. So these words are David’s last official testimony of his life and faith: “The Spirit of the Lord speaks by me, his word is upon my tongue. The God of Israel has spoken…”

The wisdom is from God, but the words that express that wisdom are human and therefore, not infallible.

The psalm that precedes these last words illustrates our human inability to precisely capture the being and actions of our God in our human languages. For example, 23:5b: “For will he not cause to prosper all my help and my desire?” David comes to the end of his life with the conviction that, all in all, God has prospered him.

That does not mean that the security he now knows is the result of a perfect life. David’s adultery with Bathsheba and the successful plot to kill Uriah, her husband, are certainly stains that only the grace of God can erase. On the other hand, the record also tells of his faithful service to God, perseverance in the face of Saul’s jealous rage and his justice and equity.

Scholar John William Wevers says, “Both as a singer and as anointed he is the vehicle of divine inspiration.”

So, when he recounts God’s many blessings, we can’t help wondering how he can claim: “The Lord rewarded me according to my righteousness; according to the cleanness of my hands he recompensed me. For I have kept the ways of the Lord and have not wickedly departed from my God … I was blameless before him, and I kept myself from guilt” (22:21-25).

How can he claim “righteousness,” “the cleanness of my hands,” “blameless” and freedom from “guilt” when the darkness of the tragic episode with Bathsheba and Uriah still hangs over his life?

Perhaps David is not ignoring his sins, but is grateful to God for His goodness and mercy that has been given despite them. Yes, God prospers the righteous and redeems sinners who repent.

Despite his failures, David’s rule was still known to his subjects for his justice and equity. Despite his imperfections, he was still to his people the one to which all other kings of Israel were compared and whose family tree was a foretaste of the Messiah to come.

In most Bibles the last line of 2 Samuel 23:1 is rendered as “the sweet psalmist of Israel” (23:1). Some scholars argue that a better translation is “the favorite person of the songs of Israel.” It doesn’t matter, because it is obvious that David’s reign was the one that set the standard for all his successors.

David’s last testament is also an acknowledgement of the source of his security. Ganse Little sums up David’s life: “Now David has had a strange and chequered life. He had been hunted like a partridge on the hills. He had suffered disloyalty at home, and sorrowed in the death of Absalom.

“But now, as he looked back upon it all, what stood out in transcendent clearness was the unfailing gentleness of God.” That “gentleness,” like the bright sunlight that follows a dark storm, is the “Amazing Grace” of which we love to sing. We experience that “gentleness” not because we are blameless, but because we confess our sins and are forgiven. If David can come back, so can we.

David’s testimony is an affirmation of God’s grace and a reminder to all of us: God makes possible a new life for sinners.

Daniel Day Williams, one of my professors at Union Theological Seminary in New York, says, “We are not doomed forever to walk on this knife edge of eternity with the threat of utter loss on one side and some tentative human good on the other … The way to the new life is forgiveness. This means that the same God who has given us this life, and who stands in judgment over our sin, accepts us as we are, offering us a new life within his love.”

This was David’s experience, and it can also be ours.

It appears that there is one powerful reality of which David was unaware: “For will he not cause to prosper all my help and my desire” (23:5b). Like most Israelites, David believed that being faithful to God is a guarantee of rescue from the dangers of life.

Even up until the time of Jesus, most if not all Jews believed this. If you prospered, God must be with you; if you did not prosper, God must not be with you. This was the argument of the so-called friends of Job.

Yet, if this is so, that faithfulness guarantees God’s intervention, then it would seem that Jesus was not pleasing to God. The faithfulness of our Lord took him to a cross. If we were to judge Jesus by the standards of our times, we would conclude that, as Helen Kromer has expressed it in a satirical song, “He Was A Flop At Thirty-three!”

Jesus’ mission ended on a cross between two thieves. This was not a sign of God’s displeasure, but of His love that endures the cross and is victorious over it. Those are the last words upon which we can place our trust.

The views and opinions expressed in this column are those of the author and not necessarily those of Farm World. Readers with questions or comments for Rev. Althouse may write to him in care of this publication.