David is the only person whom the Bible describes as sweet. This does not mean that David was soft. He charged a giant as a teenaged boy, and he may have only retired from giant killing because his soldiers said, “Please don’t do it again. Someone is going to get you.” David was a man’s man, yet he kept a sweet spirit.

David knew disappointment, but he never let bitterness destroy his spirit. Many Christians begin sweet and end sour, but in 2 Samuel 23, David tells us of God’s goodness with his last words. In verse 5 David says, “Although my house be not so with God; yet he hath made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things, and sure: for this is all my salvation, and all my desire, although he make it not to grow.” David did not blame God for his own failures, but he praised God for the promises He kept.

I was a pastor in Arkansas in 1995 when I contracted aseptic meningitis. Because of some unusual circumstances, I lost all my memory. I didn’t know my wife and children. I didn’t even know what it meant to be married.

I was so discouraged. I was in constant pain, and I felt like a burden to everybody. God has helped me to recover much, but I still have some ongoing issues from the meningitis—seizures, back pain, and severe cluster headaches. My speech is impaired, and I began to go blind two years ago.

There have been times I have begged God to heal me, and there have been times I have begged God to take me home. I prayed so hard to die, but because of God’s goodness I now want to live. God turned my life around, and He can do it for you.

What events could have caused bitterness in David, and how did he keep a sweet spirit in spite of everything? How can we come to the end of our lives and praise God for His blessings?

MISTREATMENT BY AUTHORITY
No one was more mistreated by God-given authority than David. Through no fault of his own, David was attacked by Saul in envy and jealousy. David was so sensitive to honoring God’s authority that he felt ashamed for even cutting the hem of Saul’s garment. He kept a sweet spirit toward authority, even when the authority was wrong.

I was pastoring in Arkansas when Bill Clinton was the president. Sometimes I would tell Clinton jokes that were very demeaning and disrespectful—until God convicted me. I remember the Holy Spirit’s voice saying, “John, if I want you to preach against that man’s sin, you preach against the principles he has violated. But you speak respectfully of the office.” I stopped telling those jokes because God wanted me to have a good spirit toward His authority.

PERSONAL CHASTISEMENT
David committed adultery. He lied, he schemed, and he murdered. He was hardened in his sin until Nathan said, “Thou art the man….” David did not become angry at Nathan or God for the rebuke. David repented of his sin and begged God to give him a right spirit. He was thankful for Nathan’s faithful preaching, and he even named one of his own sons after the prophet.

While I was a pastor in Arkansas, there was a lady in our church who stopped coming because of a message I preached on dress. I didn’t want the lady to leave, so my Donna and I went to visit her.
I told her about a dear saint in the church, Elda, who smoked for many years. After I would preach against smoking she would always tell me, “Thank you for saying what you did. Keep warning these kids. I started when I was twelve years old, and I wish I could quit.” Finally, a two-week stay in the hospital convinced her to quit. The first month after she quit, she sent me a check for fifty dollars—the money she used to spend on cigarettes. During all those years I preached against smoking, she kept a sweet spirit.
 God worked through that visit, and the lady who was upset came back to the church. She told me, “I would rather be in a church where the man of God will preach what he believes God says, even if it upsets me.”

A LOST SON
Although David was repentant for his sin, it still brought consequences—he lost his little baby. Nathan delivered the message to David, “Now therefore the sword shall never depart from thine house; because thou hast despised me, and hast taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be thy wife” (2 Samuel 12:10). David lost his son because of his own sin.

David begged God to spare the child. I do not think God minded him asking, but David could not demand God. David asked, but he accepted God’s answer.

People get mad at God when He says, “no,” but every good parent has told his child “no.” We can trust God’s answers because we can trust God’s goodness. David had a sweet spirit because he thought about God’s goodness. He wrote more about God’s goodness than any other biblical writer. We can trust God when He says, “no.”

The Bible says that the Lord is good, and He is right. He is good when we understand Him, and He is still good when we don’t understand Him. If we could figure out God, He would be too small. I am thankful I have a big God.

A DEFERRED DREAM
One day, David told Nathan that he would like to build God a house. At first they were both excited, but God had to say “no” again to David. David had shed too much blood. His son, Solomon, could build the temple after David passed away.

David could have had a sour attitude about it. He could have thought, “Well if that’s the way God feels, see if I do anything to build the temple.” No, not David. If he couldn’t build it, he would save the materials for his son. He had a generous heart toward God.

I sat across the table from a man who told me the story of a Christian he knew who had been imprisoned in Communist Russia for his faith. The prisons were harsh, and he was fed just enough to keep him alive. Food was a precious commodity.

In spite of all his hardships, what concerned the man the most was that he could not give. He was sorry that he could not tithe! Then it came to him one day—he could tithe from his food.

Each time the guards brought him a cup of soup and a piece of bread, he would give part of it to a lost prisoner and say, “This is my tithe to you.” He would pour a little soup into the prisoner’s cup and hand him a piece of his bread. He did this at every meal for the rest of his imprisonment.

God blessed that man’s tithe, and every prisoner that received that bit of bread and soup was saved. He kept a sweet spirit in prison by focusing on what he could give.

A CONTINUED SONG
The most common finch in western Europe is the Chaffinch. It sings a beautiful song, but those who take one home for a pet will soon discover something odd about the bird—it can forget its song. A few times a year you can take it back to the woods to relearn how to sing, but it only lives as long as it sings. If it never sings, it will die. David kept a sweet spirit because he never stopped singing the praises of God.

When you are hurting, you can come to Jesus. He knows how you are feeling. You do not have to wonder if He will care. David kept a sweet spirit because he knew God was good and God was right. Never stop believing that.