A Meditation On The Heart

by M.A. Jones, Cardiff, Wales | Category: General | Apr 1989

A healthy heart within us beats silently and efficiently about seventy times a minute, roughly 100,000 times a day, 37 million times a year. Vine's Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words informs us:

KARDIA, the heart, the chief organ of the physical life, occupies the most important place in the human system. By an easy transition the word came to stand for man's entire mental and moral activity, both the rational and emotional elements. In other words the heart is used figuratively for the hidden springs of the personal life.

Well might Solomon write, "Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life" (Prov. 4:23). Solomon's life did not match his written wisdom, for we read these sad words about him when he was old:

His wives turned away his heart after other gods: and his heart was not perfect with the LORD his God, as was the heart of David his father (1 Kin. 11:4).

We feel the intensity of David's longing to praise his Creator when in Psalm 9:1,2 he exclaims:

I will give thanks unto the LORD with my whole heart; I will shew forth all Thy marvellous works. I will be glad and exult in Thee.

David was in the best sense of the word a true leader of men, whether we view him as a warrior or as a statesman. No one can be in any doubt of this after reading Psalm 42: "how I went with the throng, and led them to the house of God, with the voice of joy and praise, a multitude keeping holyday". David not only himself led the way to the house of God in his day, but he led others, his inspiration springing from that youthful vision he had which was so infectious to others. The vision of finding a resting place for the God of heaven was the driving force behind David, the one who was a man after God's own heart (Acts 13:22). For David, no sleep or slumber until he found a place for the Lord, the mighty One of Jacob.

When young David strode down into the Vale of Elah to meet Goliath of Gath he must have been impelled by the vision which dominated his life from early days, that of providing a resting place for the God of heaven. There could be no peace unless Goliath was destroyed and the Philistines subjugated.

David was told that he would not himself build this dwelling place for God, but his son Solomon would. Did that for one moment diminish the intensity of vision and desire to bring about that which was so dear to his own heart? No! "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" (Ps. 27:4). In later life David says (1 Chron. 29:2), "I have prepared with all my might for the house of my God". No reservations with David - all for God to provide a resting place for Him.

We see an analogy between the destruction of Goliath in the Vale of Elah by David, and the Lord on Calvary securing peace for the sinner with the objective of the saved sinner becoming a worshipper within the house of God soon to be established. Caiaphas unwittingly prophesied in John 11:51,52 "that Jesus should die for the nation; and not for the nation only, but that He might also gather together into one the children of God that are scattered abroad". Our prayer today is that many children of God scattered in Christendom may see as David did in his day that same vision of providing a resting place for God.

M.A. Jones, Cardiff, Wales | Apr 1989
General