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A Paradigm of Leadership Motivated By the Beauty of God
by Stefan Miller
Great leaders have an uncompromising, narrow, overshadowing passion that drives everything they do and are about. David was that kind of leader and was dominated by one singular vision.
One thing have I asked of the LORD, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD and to inquire in his temple. (Psalm 27:4)
David truly desired just one thing. Psalm 27:4 wasn’t poetic language to him. Nor hollow lifeless words. The superior pleasure found in fellowship with God is tangible and real and was the longing that dominated the entirety of his life. He knew that the beauty of God alone is what satisfies the human soul to the uttermost (Ps. 37:4). And his unflinching resolve to pursue depth in this reality set his people aflame and ultimately reformed an entire society around this singular devotion. Literally, tens of thousands of his followers were released and funded to give themselves full time to the occupation and ministry of adoration of the beautiful God (1 Chronicles 23-25).
The reason why David’s vision succeeded in leading and impacting generations for the glory of God was that David lived it out himself. Most Christians today accept David’s “one thing” heart cry as good and valid and yet few people actually buy in and live a “one thing” lifestyle. Like the culture around us, our lives are given to a multitude of things. The one thing reality eludes us.
And yet David walked in it and spent himself on pleasure in God’s beauty, with abandonment and without compromise. That’s what made him “a man after God’s own heart” (1 Sam.13:14; Acts 13:22). It was his obsession in adolescence. It was his steady passion through trial and opposition. It was his devotion in adulthood. And at the end of his life it inherited his wealth, resources and time to pass his vision on to future generations (1 Chronicles 23-25). It consumed him constantly and unswervingly. And that is why it consumed those he led.
David was great because his passion was the one thing that matters. David was a great leader because his vision for his followers was his vision for himself.
Five Reasons to Emulate King David
Here are five reasons why I want to emulate King David in my life:
First, David’s great obsession was to have present tense intimate communion with God. The primary way David pursued this was through studying God’s emotions and attributes. No one in Scripture wrote more about God’s emotions or attributes than David. To the degree that I set my heart to see and understand what God is like and what He feels is the degree that I will live with a satisfied heart. David knew that being King could never meet the great need of his heart: the need for consummate joy. David knew that encountering God’s emotions and attributes was the fountainhead of all authentic joy.
Second, David understood the invincible power of gratitude that flowed from encountering God’s emotions and attributes. The Psalms abound with commands to “give thanks to the Lord.” In Psalm 118 the command is followed by the statement: “for He is good and His mercy/lovingkindness endures forever.” I want to live with the power of gratitude resting on my heart. With so many reasons to embrace bitterness, depression, anxiety and shame David gives me reason to believe that thankfulness is something to seek with all my might. And he tells me that it’s birthed, nurtured and sustained through encounter with God.
Third, David sought to walk in complete obedience before God in every area of his life (dozens of Psalms communicate this zeal). While he fell tragically short of that obedience on a consistent basis, it was clearly the focus of his life; yea even obsession (as many of the Psalms reveal). In an hour when compromise and perversion abounds, David is a signpost of how to live before God.
Fourth, David sought to walk in complete obedience so that he could experience greater depth of personal joy. His pursuit of obedience wasn’t religious externalism. It wasn’t just abstinence. It wasn’t merely behavioural change. David understood that purity of heart made him susceptible to the Holy Spirit which in turn maximized his joy. David’s pursuit of personal holiness was driven by a fierce determination to feel the greatest degree of personal pleasure possible. The reality of the superior pleasures of God to the inferior pleasures of sin took hold of David and consumed him; to the point where everyone from his family to the “drunkards” on the streets mocked him because of his focus and consecration. David understood that his will was no match for the powers of sin and that apart from a greater pleasure to take the place of the sin he was engaging in he’d never get free from it.
Fifth, David’s highest vision for his city and his generation was for the establishing of what he called “a dwelling place;” or, in other passages, “a resting place.” David understood that God was “great” and therefore “greatly to be praised.” And he understood that if God was praised, God would “inhabit the praises of His people” (Ps. 22:3) in great power. So, in order to establish a place where God could dwell with and rest with His people in an inhabiting way, David financially released 4,000 musicians and 288 singers to minister to the Lord incessantly. I want to give my time, my best energy and my money to see men and women established in this same ministry in the cities of the earth that God might dwell in our midst in a manifest way. David presents us with some of the most important truths concerning the historic visitation of God’s manifest presence; that is, how it’s invited, honoured, fostered and stewarded.
When David encountered God’s emotions (‘He is good and His mercy endures’) it filled him with gratitude (‘give thanks to the Lord for’). This gratitude motivated and sustained personal holiness. And the reward of personal holiness was abiding communion with God. To create the optimum context for abiding communion to take place on a corporate level, David fought to establish a dwelling place. This is why he’s one of my greatest heroes; one that I desire earnestly to emulate.