God likes to spring stuff on me when I'm not expecting it. For example, I was walking through a bookstore not long ago, minding my own business and admiring the breathtaking stained glass ceiling, when I had random thought... "Even the King had to wait." 

 

If your reaction is similar to chirping crickets, I can relate, because that was mine as well. I spent the next several minutes sitting down behind one of the tables in the coffee shop of said bookstore, trying to capture what that phrase meant. Soaking in the silence of the quaint little shop, suddenly, it hit me: David. The King was David. 

 

In an instant, I had one of those breakdown, no way, "Really, God? Here and NOW?" moments where I had to choke back tears and swallow my skeptical, stubborn and unbelieving pride. 

 

There are major moments of David's we focus on because they teach us so much about his character--some remarkable and some shameful--and those are all great, but I think we ignore a major season in his life that he walked through. The Bible just doesn't put a big, red circle around it like most of the others. That's the season where David served. 

 

Saul was King over Israel. He started off a relatively great guy, but over the course of his reign, things deteriorated. Better said, his relationship with God deteriorated. The crown got to his head (no pun intended), and before long, he was making his own decisions. He was blatantly defying what God was telling him to do over what was more profitable in his own sight. God regretted making Saul the King of Israel. You've gotta be doing pretty bad for God to regret using you. 

 

Not wanting a man like this to rule over His people, God sent His servant Samuel on a journey to find and anoint a new King, a King who would do right in His sight and obey His commandments. So Samuel gets to Bethlehem and finds a guy named Jesse who has four sons. Jesse introduces his three eldest boys to Samuel first. All three of them are mighty, rugged, Kingly looking guys who seemed like they'd do an excellent job representing the throne. Then again, at this point, anyone was looking better than Saul.

 

God denied the three men, and told Samuel that He wasn't interested in a man who looked like a King, He wanted someone who had the heart of a King...His heart. 

 

Samuel is then led to Jesse's youngest son, a shepherd named David. Taking one look at David, Samuel was probably unimpressed. Unlike his older, masculine, war-torn brothers, David was a teenage pretty boy who played the harp and sang to sheep. What made him different than his brothers, however, was that unlike them, he was relentlessly pursing God. He was hungry to become more like Him, and reckless in following His commandments. 

 

Taking a flask of oil, Samuel anointed David as King over all Israel. The Spirit of God that had once rested upon Saul, was transferred to the shepherd boy from Bethlehem. Here is where the story gets me: Although David was technically in command, it would be another few decades before he ever sat on a throne, wore a crown or was acknowledged by the Israelites as their King. In-between herding the sheep and heralding the monarchy, there was a silent season of servitude. 

 

David played several roles in Saul's kingdom shortly after this happened. He became the private musician to a restless Saul after the Spirit of God left him (for David, ironically), and after he bravely went up and killed Goliath, he spent the next several years as the general in Saul's military. Everyone loved David. Saul's kingdom, Saul's army, Saul's kids, everyone that is, except Saul himself. 

 

Numerous times, Saul tried to have him killed and make it look like an accident. Attempts that were, not surprisingly, unsuccessful. Still, David honored his King, and most importantly, honored his God. David was aware of who he was. There was no mistaking the Spirit of God was upon him and that one day, he'd rule over Israel, but until that day, he selflessly served King Saul at whatever capacity he could, even if the King he served wasn't really the King at all. 

 

David's story mirrors that of another King who faced a lagging delay between His anointing and His throne. This King however, was the King of Kings. 

 

Jesus was born to be King over all the world, replacing a realm of darkness thousands of years in the making. Just hours after being born, shepherds worshiped Him, and at 30, after being baptized, the same Spirit of God that rested upon his ancestor David, rested upon Him as well. You'd think, after all his, He would have taken His rightful place at the right hand of God. You'd be wrong. 

 

Although He was King, the throne tarried. For three years, He spent His life serving others. Healing the sick, hanging with the misfits and preaching to the masses. He was loved, and He was hated. He washed the feet of those He called brothers, and was stabbed in the back by the very ones who called Him 'Lord.' You can't help but wonder as He hung upon that broken and bloody cross, if He thought He might have missed something. The belly of hell screamed His name, mocking His crown, saying His efforts had been in vain. 

 

"You are no King", I can imagine the demons laughed. Hope for humanity, and the throne, seemed lost. 

 

Yet the battle wasn't over. Just as God finally removed Saul from the picture, He removed death from that of Jesus'. By rising again three days later, Jesus took his rightful place as King. The kingdom of darkness trembled as it collapsed to the ground in reverence of its new Authority. Death had lost and redemption had been found. Once more, the rightful King ruled over all the earth. As He still does. 

 

If I've learned anything about how God works, it's that His timing hardly ever makes sense. Just like the time between the anointing and the throne, there is often a waiting period. A period that can be both beautiful and uncomfortable, a period where it hurts, a period where we sometimes have to serve people who are far from noble towards us, and we wonder if God still knows what He's doing?

 

In our patience, those voices try to tell us the same thing they told Jesus. We begin to doubt God and question His faithfulness. We argue with ourselves and wonder if the hope we cling to is even worth it?

 

No good thing comes overnight. When a promise is made, there is almost always a prerequisite, especially with God. Habakkuk 2:3 says, "For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it will speak, and it will not lie. Though it tarries, wait for it, because it will surely come." 

 

God hasn't forgotten us. No matter how painful our situation might be, and no matter how much we want out, He hasn't left us alone. It's like Love & The Outcome's latest song says, "He knows what He's doing, though it might hurt now, we won't be ruined." 

 

It might feel like there is an ocean between where you are now and where you want to be, but our hopes lies in the promise God gives us, that He'll never leave us nor forsake us. David later went on to write in Psalm 37:25, that through his whole life, young and old, never once did He see God forsake His children. The mountaintop may not have always been right away, but He always came through for His people. I think David knows what He's talking about.

 

Though your hope lags, and you find yourself in a season smack dab between your past and your future, do not let go of the promise God has given you. In the end, it will speak so much louder than any whispering voice or unruly predecessor. God will do what He says He'll do. Though you wait, He moves, and the throne awaits.