It's true King David was the aesthetic type. He was the kind of guy who enjoyed beauty and to talk about things others were not interested in. In fact, David was quite a good songwriter and singer. When he was a shepherd boy, alone in the fields at night, he loved nothing more then to sit by the fire and compose and sing songs that only he and his father’s sheep could hear.

But, it was a big mistake to take David for a wimp. When a lion threatened his sheep, he killed it with his own hands. And, of course, we all know the famous Bible story about how David killed a giant named Goliath and rose to become a great king over all of Israel.

I would love to have heard David sing. Fortunately, although we can’t hear him sing for us, many of the words from his songs have survived to this day. We can find them recorded in the Bible in the book of Psalms.

And we can learn a lot about David by the words that he wrote. Did you know that David frequently talked to himself? Evidently, during the long nights he spent alone as a shepherd, he developed the habit of not only talking to God, but to himself as well.

In a Psalm believed to have been composed by David we find this example of how David talked to himself: “Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless His holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget none of His benefits; who pardons all your iniquities, who heals all your diseases; who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with lovingkindness and compassion; who satisfies your years with good things, so that your youth is renewed like the eagle” (Psalm 103:1-5 New American Standard Bible).

What got me thinking about these two sides to David – his intense desire for a relationship with God and, at the same time, his above-average natural abilities – were his words from another Psalm. David says, “O Lord, my heart is not proud, nor my eyes haughty; nor do I involve myself in great matters, or in things too difficult for me. Surely I have composed and quieted my soul; like a weaned child rests against his mother, my soul is like a weaned child within me. O Israel, hope in the Lord from this time forth and forever” (Psalm 131).

It was where he said he had “composed and quieted” his soul like a “weaned child.” At first I couldn’t understand why David said “like a weaned child.” This just didn’t make any sense to me. A child that is not weaned needs its mother more then a child that is weaned. So why did David liken his faith in God to a weaned child’s faith in its mother and not to a child that is not weaned? 

Then it came to me. In fact, these few words opened for me a whole new way to appreciate this great man of the Bible named David. He had grown up to learn that he had natural ability and he was tempted to go his own way and forget his need for faith in God. 

In other words, David understood that to be a great warrior without he had to first be victorious within. He had to first take control of his own soul and make it trust in God.

You see, David was no wimp.