OUTSIDE SOURCE Book Review - "David: Man of Prayer, Man of War"

BOOK REVIEWED: "David: Man of Prayer, Man of War," by Walter Chantry
REVIEWER: Randall J. Pederson, Bookstore Staff and Westminster PhD student in church history; http://www.wtsbooks.com/
THE REVIEW: "By far, the best spiritual biography of David that I have read, Walter J. Chantry’s David: Man of Prayer, Man of War is an exemplar of biblical depth, pastoral insight, and contemporary relevance. It will no doubt find a welcome home in the hands of busy pastors looking for fresh material on the life of David (and how properly to draw parallels for modern living), for teachers weary of hollowed encyclopedic treatments too prevalent today (Chantry makes David’s life come to life, as it were), and for lay readers who want to be challenged and instructed, who want to move from prayer to praise and back again.

In thirty-five short chapters, which first appeared in The Banner of Truth magazine, Chantry unveils David’s life—from God’s description of ‘a man after his own heart’ to his anointing by Samuel to rule over Israel to his tragic affair with Bathsheba and the subsequent crimes of passion to his fleeting moments with Solomon on the edge of eternity—and instructs us in their significance for our own time. It is more than just a life of David—it is an instructive use of David’s life, one worthy of the great Puritan tradition in which Chantry firmly stands.

Chantry shows us David’s zeal for the house of the Lord; he shows us David’s frailty and sinfulness. He unravels what it means to be ‘a man after God’s own heart’ and shows how David strived to live with God’s favor. With keen pastoral insight, Chantry finds in David’s life an example of what it means to live coram Deo (‘in the presence of God’) at every juncture in life—in times of crises, in times of prayer and praise, in times of need and plentitude. He does not hide David’s faults, nor does he exalt him beyond portion; rather, he shows us the heart of a man who lived in two worlds: a man of the earth, a man of the kingdom of heaven.

David’s life illustrates the immense importance of prayer and utter reliance on God in every circumstance; it also shows the clinging fear of mortality and all its woes, the brokenness that sin brings into the world, into relationships, into our very communion with God himself. Those who know the ups and downs of Christian living will find a kindred heart in David. Those who think that Christians can do no wrong will find no place for this book on their shelves as it is a lasting testimony to the greatness of God’s work in the life of the humble, the broken, the repentant, the restored.

Few biblical characters exceed David in artistic depictions throughout the centuries. The best known and perhaps most astounding is Michelangelo’s David, unveiled outside the Palazzo della Signoria in Florence on September 8, 1504. Majestic in stature, Michelangelo’s David is a tribute to David’s greatness and lasting influence. Chantry’s remarkable book is a tribute of a different sort: it is a tribute to David’s God and to the profundity of divine grace.