The Lord's Choice

The Lord’s Choice and the Start of David’s Biography

Now, please turn your Bibles to 1 Samuel, chapter 16. This afternoon, I intend to begin a preaching series on the life of David, kind of a biography of David, if you will. It's going to be sort of an annotated biography.

I just want to let you know that, annotated because I am not going to be preaching every Sunday. We haven't determined my schedule. It will be a regular schedule of my preaching, but we haven't figured out quite what that's going to be yet.

And I chose this series for a number of reasons. First, I like preaching narrative. And second, I like preaching narrative because narrative is in the Bible. And another reason, though, in a more practical sense, is that because preaching a series like this, if I'm not preaching every week, it'll be a few weeks between my messages, it'll be pretty easy to pick up and remind you where we left off in the last message.

So for a number of reasons, I've chosen this narrative, this biography of King David. So before I read verses 1 to 13, I just want to tell you that one of the things I want to commit to you in preaching through this narrative, I'll tell you this before we read what we have before us this morning, which is 1 Samuel 16, 1 to 13.

This commitment is that we're going to take the narrative on its own terms, and we're not going to make it a moralistic series where I tell you something like, in 1 Samuel 17, when David kills Goliath, therefore, be brave against the Goliaths in your life.

And when we get later on into 2 Samuel, if we should get there, I am not going to tell you, therefore, men, keep your eyes away from the Bathshebas that may be wandering around and coming into view. We're going to take it on its own terms, which means that this narrative tells us something about the person.

But more importantly, it tells us something, tells us a lot about God. And even more importantly, it tells us something about God, and in this context, in the Old Testament, the coming of our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.

So as biblical biographies go, we actually know more about David than almost any other character in the Bibles. This afternoon, we're going to look at his selection as king, his selection as Saul's successor as king.

And that will be by the word of God, by the hand of Samuel. So with that brief introduction, please turn to 1 Samuel 16. I will read verses 1 through 13. And when you have that, please stand in honor of God's word.

The Lord said to Samuel, how long will you grieve over Saul, since I have rejected him from being king over Israel? Fill your horn with oil and go. I will send you to Jesse the Bethlehemite, for I have provided for myself a king among his sons.

And Samuel said, how can I go? If Saul hears it, he will kill me. And the Lord said, take a heifer with you and say, I have come to sacrifice to the Lord. And invite Jesse to the sacrifice, and I will show you what you shall do.

And you shall anoint for me him whom I declare to you. Samuel did what the Lord commanded and came to Bethlehem. The elders of the city came to meet him trembling and said, do you come peaceably? And he said, peaceably.

I've come to sacrifice to the Lord. Consecrate yourselves and come with me to the sacrifice. And he consecrated Jesse and his sons and invited them to the sacrifice. When they came, he looked upon Eliab and thought, surely the Lord's anointed is before him.

But the Lord said to Samuel, do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I've rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees. Man looks on the outward appearances, but the Lord looks on the heart.

Then Jesse called Abinadab and made him pass before Samuel. And he said, neither has the Lord chosen this one. Then Jesse made Shammah pass by. And he said, neither has the Lord chosen this one. And Jesse made seven of his sons pass before Samuel.

And Samuel said to Jesse, the Lord has not chosen these. Then Samuel said to Jesse, are all your sons here? And he said, there remains yet the youngest, but behold, he is keeping the sheep. And Samuel said to Jesse, send and get him, for we will not sit down till he comes.

And he sent and brought him in. Now he was ruddy and had beautiful eyes and was handsome. And the Lord said, arise, anoint him, for this is he. Then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the midst of his brothers.

And the Spirit of the Lord rushed upon David from that day forward. And Samuel rose up and went to Ramah. God bless the reading of his word. Please be seated. Let me pray. Heavenly Father, now we again come to your word.

We again seek to know you better. We again seek to find Jesus Christ in every page of scripture, through all the nooks and crannies and the face of the passages. Lord, there he is, ready to be found, ready to edify us, ready, Father, to build us up into his stature.

So Lord, accomplish this work in us. Even as we look to your word, we ask in Jesus' name. Let me begin with a quote. Persons attempting to find a motive in this narrative will be prosecuted. Persons attempting to find a moral in it will be banished.

Persons attempting to find a plot in it will be shot. Anybody recognize that? Oh, good. So wrote the author of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn in his preface. And what Mark Twain's point was is that the story that he crafted, which is considered by many to be the finest example of American literature, was to be taken on its own terms.

What he had to say, his polemic, his satire against the pre-Civil War Deep South and their racism, their bigotry, their hypocrisy and such, was to be taken on face value. In other words, he didn't hide what he meant between the lines.

He just read it for what it was meant to be, take it on its own terms, and if you do otherwise, you will be prosecuted, banished, or shot. And so we have, if an irreligious, a good caution as we approach the narrative in the Bible.

As we look at the biographies in Scripture, we take them on their own merits, which means to say, which is to say, we take them for the purpose intended by the agent of their inspiration who is none other than the Holy Spirit of God.

We know this from Peter, that the Holy Spirit is the one who moved them along. We know this from Paul. All Scripture is breathed out by God, by his Holy Spirit. And so we will take this on its own terms.

Afternoon messages tend to be a bit shorter than the morning messages by intent, so we have time to pray in the afternoon. And so we'll be more focused, so we're going to be focused upon what the Scripture has to say.

Not everything it has to say. I'm not gonna give you every detail in any one of these messages because we're not gonna go through David's life all the way from here, his anointing as king, which the anointing will actually be next week.

This is his selection today, all the way to his death at the end of the Samuel series. There's a doctrine I want us to bring out here. And I have to tell you before I say this one word that Pastor Brian and I did not coordinate.

Pastor Brian did not know what I was gonna draw out of 1 Samuel 16. He did not even know I was gonna preach 1 Samuel 16. And I did not know what he was gonna draw out of that excellent message on election this morning and the importance of election.

My subject this morning in the selection of David as king to succeed King Saul, my subject is election. None other than this grand, heartwarming, confidence-inspiring doctrine of election. Saul had been chosen as king by the people.

God had assented to their demand for a king, if not having really agreed with it. Their history would say that they really had no need of a man to be king, so long as they had God as their king and were faithful to him.

But they wanted to be like the nations around them. They wanted to be like the others. So they had Saul. We agreed about that in 1 Samuel 8, 10 through 18. Samuel, the Lord's prophet, Israel's judge, warns them what they're getting into, that he would take their sons, take their daughters into his service, that they would serve him by caring for his crops before their own parents' crops, that he would take the best of the land for himself and more.

So now, as we come to 1 Samuel 16 and this parading of Jesse's sons before Samuel, and then finally, David, as we come here, we find that the Lord's patience with Saul's impetuousness and his tendency to fear man over God was over, and so also was his patience with the people's patience of all that at an end.

He had chosen another. God had elected another. He provided for himself another. All these terms focused on David, the son of Jesse, as king instead of Saul, and that's what we have here this morning.

And we have here the very beginning of David's reign as king. Saul, or excuse me, Samuel, sent to Bethlehem to confirm him publicly by announcing the Lord's choice. We could say his election. So what has all this to do with the opening sermon on a series of King David's life?

It's simply this, that God chose David. God chose him. He elected him to be king, the king that would secede Saul. The people had elected Saul, that is to say God granted the wish, but God chose David.

I provided for myself a king instead of Saul. This is election, and what you need to take from any sermon on election is the confidence that it inspires in you, the certainty it gives you of your salvation in Christ Jesus, the absolute rock bed we have that God keeps his word, because that word, as Pastor Brian told us this morning from Ephesians chapter one, verse four, was determined before the foundation of the world.

As it says in Romans nine, before you could do good or evil, before your parents, as we say, even knew each other or you were a glimmer in their eye, God chose you. He elected you, if you will, to be in Christ Jesus.

You know, one of the dividing lines between we as Calvinistic believers and Armenians is right here in election. The Armenian says that God looks down the corridors of time and he elects those whom he knows will put their faith in Christ, as if God says, oh, I'm so pleased with Mr. Smith over there because he's gonna put his faith in me.

How wonderful for him that he would do this for me. I don't know how else to phrase it. Here's the dividing line, or at least one of the major dividing lines is in election. The Calvinist asserts that God's election of anyone is of his own free will, determined before the foundation of the world, based on no condition.

There's no condition imposed upon God that requires him to elect anyone, again, as we learned this morning. God is just as glorious, God is just as holy, just as righteous, just as just, just as everything he is if he saved no one, if he never made a single election.

And yet, for his glory, to the praise of his glorious grace, he did so. And yet, with no condition imposed upon him, it's unconditional. And with no condition seen in you, God didn't look and see how wonderful you or I or any other human would ever be and say, based upon that condition that I see, I elect them.

Well, this is what we have here this morning, election. The Lord said to Samuel, verse one, how long will you grieve over Saul since I have rejected him from being king over Israel? Fill your horn with oil and go.

An interesting change from when Saul was anointed, when he was anointed with a vial of oil. Some commentators make a big deal of this, especially some of the Puritans who see a little bit of an allegory there that Saul was anointed with a little vial and David with a horn full of oil, a horn representing strength.

He says, for I will send you to Jesse the Bethlehemite whom, for I provided for myself a king from among his sons. God provided for himself this king. Now we know that this is election. In Psalm 78, verse 70, it says that God chose David.

And that word chose is your more traditional word for election, he chose, he elected, is the same word we have in Deuteronomy chapter seven, verses six and seven, where it says, I chose Israel. I chose you from among all the nations.

I elected this nation, Psalm 78, 70. God elected David. So just a little bit of difference, but here is God providing for himself. Now this word provide comes from a Hebrew word, which means to see something.

It's raah, to see something, to perceive. It's actually the word that's used in Genesis 22, when God provided, when God saw the need that Isaac had, or Abraham had, to have a substitute for his son Isaac, who was about to be sacrificed.

God provided, God saw. Same word we have here. That God provided, God saw for himself a king from among these sons. One of the important verses here, especially in terms of election, especially in terms of the confidence that you need to have in your salvation that you have in Christ Jesus, is verse seven.

Verse seven, but the Lord said to Samuel, do not look, here's see again, do not see, do not perceive, do not look on his appearance, speaking of Eliab, the eldest son, do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I've rejected him.

For the Lord sees not as man sees, but man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart. Let's stop and camp on this for just a few moments. The Lord looks on the heart. Why did he elect David?

Because David had a good heart, right? He elected David because David had a heart that was worth electing. What does heart mean? Heart means the inner man, it means the motives, it means the emotions, it means the intellect, it means everything about the inner man, especially the spiritual sense.

And so what is God saying here? I've looked at David's heart, and David's got such a heart that I must have him as king because he deserves to be king, because he deserves to be elected by me. Isn't that what it says?

Man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart, and can we add, therefore, I've elected David? Well, I don't think that's quite what is meant here. What does it mean that the Lord looks on the heart?

Well, it means that he looks in the secret place. It means that the Lord perceives what even you yourself cannot perceive about yourself. It says in the Psalm where he says, examine me, Lord, and see if there's any wicked way within me we could say in my heart.

This is where the Lord looks, but it does not mean, brethren, it does not mean that David had a heart that was worth electing, that God didn't choose David because David was any better in his spirit than any other man.

David's the one who wrote in Psalm 51, behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, in sin my mother conceived me. This is the same person who wrote that. Israel's greatest king, their most successful warrior, their beloved poet, this is that same David.

So again, what does it mean that this David, here chosen, provided by God for himself, I provided for myself, this king, and he's looking on the heart? Well, I think what this means is that God makes his choice based upon his own free will, based upon his own motives, his own standards.

He looks upon a man in a woman, we could say man in the most general sense, in a way which cannot be second guessed for the pleasure of his own good and freely enacted will. I think all this means is not that David had a heart that was any better than anybody else's heart.

We're gonna get, Lord willing, over the series into some of the things David did which will show that he had a heart that's no better than yours or mine, that needs God's redemptive transformation as much as you or I do or did.

No, that's not what it means, that his heart was better. It means that God has elected based upon his own free will. He looks upon a man in a way that no one else can. And this is what he did with David, God looks upon the heart.

Therefore, Samuel needed to be told this is the one. Samuel can only look on the outward appearance. He almost made the same mistake with Eliab that he made with Saul. He's so handsome, he's so tall. Look at his physique.

He's smart. He's charismatic. People will want to be around him and all these other humanistic ways of looking at it. He almost made the same mistake. It's like God is telling him, Samuel, you're doing it again.

You're looking on the outward. You're looking at the flesh. You're looking with eyes of flesh. I look elsewhere. This is why God, by his spirit, speaking directly to Samuel to get him on the right track.

Who is elected? The youngest? The least likely of all? No, there's a consistency here in the scripture with these heroes of the Bible, with these heroes in redemptive history. One of my heroes, and I'm sure many of yours, is Joseph.

Now, we think of Joseph, and we often hear this, and those of you who've been under my preaching for a while will know this is one of my hobby horses, so I admit it right up front. So Joseph was a spoiled boy, a little conceited.

He liked to boast. He liked to tick off his brothers, and so God sent him into all these hardships in order to burnish him, in order to grow him, in order to mature him. When I read the story of Joseph, his father sent him to give a report on his brothers because he was the reliable one.

And everyone he worked for, whether it was the Jeller, whether it was Potiphar, whether it was Pharaoh of Egypt, turned out to be glad that they put their trust in this reliable one, for the Lord was with him.

I see a little bit of the same thing with David. Where were the brothers? They were lined up to wait to be made king in front of Samuel. They were all there in town. They were in Bethlehem. Where was David?

David was out with his father's inventory of sheep. David was out braving marauders, be they beast or be they men. David was out enduring the cold at night and the heat of the day. David had to go and be brought before Samuel because David was about his father's business.

Oh, goodness. You know where I'm gonna go with that one, don't you? Another unlikely candidate to be king. The king of kings, the Lord of all lords is Jesus Christ. Born to this poor family. Born to this young woman who probably should have been divorced according to Jewish law at the time.

Least likely of all. And what did he say to his parents when they're so frantic that time they went into Jerusalem for the festival? They left without him. They found out he was gone. They're searching all over.

He says, why were you frantic? Did you not know I must be about my father's business? Didn't you know I would be here taking care of what my father sent me for? This is when he was a young lad. There's a consistency here.

It's David who has to be drawn back from watching out for his father's goods. And brought into line in front of Samuel. This is the David who was elected because he deserved it. Oh no, God says I provided for myself.

And I look at the heart and remember that all that means, well not all that means, it means a lot. What that means is that God makes a selection based upon his own free will. In a way where he's looking at the one he elects that cannot be gainsaved by anyone.

Because you and I can't look at the heart. You and I cannot look where God looks. Election is a wonderful, heartwarming doctrine. You know, in the latter part of 1982, I joined the Pacific Gas and Electric Internal Auditing Department.

This was quite a prize. The Fortune 500 company, a well-known company with an up and coming department. And I had a real badge of honor. I was recruited. I started there December 31st, 1982. That's one of those questions for, you know, all the credit checks and everything.

So now you have some personal information on me. But I started the last day of 1982. I didn't even fill out an application. I was brought in by a recruiter. A recruiter went ahead and said, you want this guy.

And he filled out my resume for me. I never filled out an application. It was a real badge of honor. I was in that sense elected. But dear ones, that was a conditional election, was it not? It was based upon my resume.

It was based upon my previous employment. It was based upon the fact that the recruiter could go to them in that department and say, you want this guy? Because he's pretty sure that debits go on the left and credits go on the right and so forth.

But it's all conditional. Because the first time I mixed those up or made any other major mistake, what's going to happen to my election? It's forgotten. I'm gone. God's election couldn't be more different.

Did God look at your qualifications or your resume? Did he look at your heart? I don't think it meant that he looked at your heart and found a good heart and elected you because of that. How could it have been?

Again, what we heard this morning, before the foundation of the world, before time began, he elected you to be in Christ. This is unconditional election. This is something that is not just a cold, scholastic, intellectual doctrine.

This is a heartwarming doctrine of a God of love, a God who is love, a God who because he loved us first and we love him because he first loved us, this God electing a people before they even existed, before the world upon which they would exist even existed.

It's unconditional because there's no condition in you that would cause him to want you or me or anyone else. And there's no condition placed upon him that forces him to choose anybody or elect anyone.

It's not about you. It's not about me. It wasn't about David. It's all about God. Read these narratives, we have to make them about God, about God's free will, about God working his will through history, about God bringing about Jesus Christ through these histories that we see.

As a man of God's own choosing is David, not for anything good in him, not because his heart was better than anyone else's because God chose him, period, the end of that story. God chose him because he chose him.

Now I heard from Alistair Begg years ago that the soldiers in the trenches of World War I would sing Auld Lang Syne. I'm not gonna do the tune. All of you know I can't. But it was we're here because we're here because we're here because we're here.

And why we're here because we're here was that sort of thing. He chose because he chose. And he chose because he chose. He chose because he, that's all there is to it. He chose because he chose. And God does do the choosing.

And God does do much choosing. What is election? Election is God effecting in history his predetermined will. If we think of God's will as decrees from before the beginning of the world, before the beginning of time itself, then election is the way he brings that about.

And then the Holy Spirit changing your heart and bringing you to Christ is the final effectuation of that. In Matthew chapter 12 verse 18, God speaking of his son Jesus, quoting Isaiah 42, says, this is my servant whom I have chosen.

God having chosen his son to be the one who would bring salvation. Luke 9 .35, on the transfiguration, speaking to Peter, James, and John, he said, my chosen one, pointing to his son, Jesus Christ, my chosen one, listen to him.

When Jesus was on the cross, they spoke, they railed against him, they wagged their tongues at him, save him, let him save himself. If he is the Christ of God, his what? Chosen one. God does do much choosing.

And he chooses based upon his own free will. Not for anything good found in you. Because when you were chosen, you couldn't do good or evil yet. And yet, what does Ephesians 1 .4 say? He chose us in him before the foundation of the world.

God the Father chose us to be in God the Son before we existed. First Peter chapter two, verse nine, what does Peter call the church? A chosen race. An elected race. Just as in Deuteronomy, God chose Israel from among all the people.

What does the election tell us then? What does it tell us in 1 Samuel 16? Of God selecting David, the least likely of the brothers. And by the way, the great grandson of Ruth and Boaz. Remember the end of Ruth, it ends with the, and Jesse is the father of David.

It's the whole reason for that, to bring David into view. Election tells us that God is sovereign. God elects on no condition whatsoever in you or imposed upon him. That's Deuteronomy 7 .7. And this is Jesus speaking even to the disciples.

Do you remember in John chapter six, when many turned away because his teaching was so hard? Many stopped following him from that day. And he turned to the disciples, say, do you want to leave too? And Peter says, where shall we go?

We've left everything for you. And Jesus says, did I not choose you? The 12. Who chooses? Who makes elections? God. That's much of what John chapter six is about. That Jesus is God. Did I not choose you?

It shows God's sovereignty. His sovereign designs being brought about in his own way because he's sovereign. Election has purpose to it. Read Exodus chapter 19. Why did God choose Israel? Exodus 19 says that you would be a kingdom of priests.

What did we learn this morning in Ephesians chapter one? What is God's purpose in having elected you to him? Having chosen you, having elected you, having provided himself with you, if you will, before the foundation of the world?

What is that purpose? That you be holy and blameless before him. Holy and blameless before him. There's purpose to it. As little as you had to do with election, as little as I had to do with my being elected, which is nothing, zero, as little as it is, it does inherit upon us responsibility and duty.

God chose us to be holy and blameless. He declares you to be a holy people. You're blameless, how? Because you stopped being blameful? No, because Jesus Christ took your blame for you. Jesus Christ took God's wrath and the punishment due for your sins upon himself.

And by that, you are holy and blameless before God. But what does it inherit upon you? To behave, to become, to more and more be holy holy in all your ways, in the way you think, in the way you talk, in the way you act, and blameless.

As one now blameless before God, the scripture, the gospel calls you always, be what God has made you, be blameless. This is his purpose in having elected you before the foundation of the world. Now, be blameless.

Election has purpose and election has that duty. Therefore, it says, Jesus, be perfect as your father in heaven is perfect. Ephesians chapter four, Paul says, therefore, live worthy of the calling by which you've been called.

Well, the fact that we're passive recipients of salvation does not mean that we're passive in our Christian life and in moving towards the image of Christ. Colossians 3 .12, as God's chosen one, put on holiness and righteousness and blamelessness and ethical purity and moral goodness.

Those are my words there. John chapter seven, verse 70. The elect must follow with humility. The elect are humble. Election, as passive as we are in it, as much as we see God's sovereign design in it, the glorification of Jesus Christ and the salvation of sinners like you and me, it has to bring humility to us.

Circumspect thinking. What was that Pastor Brian said when we speak to your wife? How'd you say that? She's blameless, right? She's blameless. And just as much humbled as we have to be before everyone when we have a dispute with each other or a husband and a wife.

Think of your election and the humility that this must bring to us. Thinking, who am I that God has brought me to Christ? Who am I that I deserve this gift of a spouse or a child or a parent? Let this election, let this sovereignty of God make us humble.

Election has fulfillment. Exodus 19, God had purpose in bringing Israel out of Egypt and bringing them into the wilderness, bringing them to himself that they should be a kingdom of priests. And what did I read a few moments ago from Peter?

You are that royal priesthood. You are a kingdom of priests. God has made you that. Interceding for each other, going to God directly to God by your faith in Christ, pleading his merits as we always say.

Wonderful thing to be chosen, isn't it? The children don't get chosen by their parents. Setting aside technological innovations where we can customize our children, setting all that aside just gives me shivers.

Don't even wanna talk about it. We could choose to have children. But we don't choose the child exactly, do we? You know, I used to get teased in my family. I have an older brother and a younger sister.

And my mom used to say, we've got three kids, we have one of each. She'd point to my brother, the older one. So that's her son. Then she'd point to my sister, the younger one. I'd say, well, that's my daughter.

And then there's JJ, which is what they used to call me. It seemed kind of funny. I never really laughed at that. I didn't think it was that funny. I wanted to be chosen. I wanted to be part of this. We don't choose in that way.

When God elects a people, though, who does he elect? First of all, whomever he will. As we've said, he's sovereign. And on what basis does he elect them? Why did he elect David? Because he was braver?

He was brave, he was a great warrior. Because he was responsible? No, he was responsible. He was out watching his father's sheep while everybody else was lined up in front of Samuel. He chose him because he chose him because he chose him.

And this means that your election by God to be in Christ is sacrosanct. Jesus said, I will never leave you or forsake you. Jesus said, no one is able to snatch you out of the father's hand. Because God has elected you, and who's going to turn his will around?

Who's going to go to God and say, well, yeah, you're going to get most of them, but this one's going to come back. The election also flows nicely into our doctrine of the perseverance of the saints. What is the proof of your salvation?

That you persevere in the faith. How do you persevere in the faith? Well, first, by being faithful to the faith, but mainly by God's spirit working in you for his God who works for you to will and to do for his good pleasure.

Election gathers all that up together for us. Election brings that all into focus so that we can confidently go into this world, so that we can confidently rely upon Jesus Christ and his spirit who brought you to him in the first place.

How many of you have been in Sunday school? Quick, raise your hands. We're being challenged to trust our election. In a very real way, we're being challenged by Pastor Brian in our evangelism to trust our election, to trust that God is going to work his purposes in us and through us.

Did he work his purposes in you when he brought you out of the world and into his marvelous light? He did. Did he work his purposes of election in you when he brought you to Christ, when he opened your eyes to the truth of the gospel?

He did. And now we're being challenged to put ourselves to the test in that way. Are you there? Are you listening? I have to confess, I did not do my homework. I was given a pass. I was given an indulgence of sorts.

I don't know quite how that came about, but it happened, I'll take it. I'm good with that. But this is really what the challenge is. The challenge in this way, can I put it like this, is to trust your election, to trust that God, when he elected you, had purpose in you, that you should be holy and blameless before him, that you should be a kingdom of priests, that you should go forth and tell others about Jesus Christ, trusting that God, who elected you, will work through you and accomplishes his purposes in you.

It's all wrapped together. It's really, you can't have one without the other, or I should say the one that supports the other. I didn't mean this to turn it into a sales pitch for Sunday school to learn about evangelism, and we're not being taught some technique for it.

We're being taught to trust God. We're being taught to trust Christ. We're being given some biblical parameters, some biblical ways that evangelism can occur. But most of all, and you can stop me if you disagree, pastor, because it's your curriculum, we're being taught to trust Christ in whom God elected us.

I provided for myself a king from among Jesse's sons. I provided for myself, can we say, a savior, to bring my elect to myself. I've provided for myself, you, and you and me and you who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, elected from before the foundation of the world, drawn to God just as David was, as great as he was in so many ways.