Inventor, author, printer, political theorist, postmaster, politician, scientist, musician, activist, statesman, and diplomat, that’s a LOT of hats for one man to wear, but Benjamin Franklin managed to don them all. Founding father of a new nation, signer of both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, Franklin managed to cram more into an eighty-four-year life span than most. The only trait that I share with this icon of American history is his reliance on lists, a rigid daily schedule allowing him to successfully parcel out his time to yield the upmost productivity. I revel in lists, but what I love most about his daily to-do list is that fact that it reveals his heart, for Franklin would ask himself the same questions at the start and close of each day: What good shall I do today? What good have I done today?
As I have been reading through the life of David, I find that he also was a man of many hats. David was a shepherd who cared for his father’s sheep outside their home in Bethlehem. He was a singer of songs, composing more than half of the Psalms, and an accomplished musician. Young David was a warrior who would stand toe-to-toe with a giant, a faithful friend to a Prince Jonathan, and sworn enemy of Jonathan’s father, Saul. He would be a crazed madman before Achish and a praise-filled dancer before the Lord. David would be the husband of Michal, Saul’s daughter, and murderer of Uriah, a loyal soldier. He would be a remorseful sinner before Nathan the prophet and a devastated father before his son Absalom. And he would be the brokenhearted, yet submissive servant to God, realizing that his dream to build a temple would not be his to fulfill, but Solomon’s.
David was far from perfect, experiencing great successes and humbling failures, but one thing was consistent in David’s life, he was a worshiper, a man thirsty for the presence of God, a man with a heart for God. “I will praise thee, O LORD, with my whole heart…I will be glad and rejoice in thee.” David’s words reveal his heart, a heart always pointed toward God, whether he was on the mountaintop of victory, or in the valley of defeat. And it was David’s heart that endeared him to God, for “the LORD looketh on the heart,” and when God saw into the depths of that heart, He proclaimed, “I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after mine own heart.”
O, that I my heart would be lost in the worship of my God! I may have worn many hats in my lifetime too, but my desire is that I may keep my “heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life.”
Proverbs 4:23 Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.
Lord, I want to be a worshiper of You, my day filled with Your praises!