The figure of David is among the finest literary portrayals in the ancient world, as I have tried to prove in the preceding weeks of our too brief look at the man. Today is no exception, as our fabulous narrator offers to us a David rather more complex than we may have imagined him to be.

What happens in this passage today demonstrates one of the Bible’s crucial truths: human power and will have decided limitations in the face of the power of YHWH.