Saul was head and shoulders above the rest, yet he turned out to be a flop as king. David was the youngest of eight boys, merely an afterthought to his own dad when the prophet came to anoint one of the boys as the next king. Yet God didn’t look at his birth order, his size, or his position in the family; He looked at his heart. There God saw not only his faith in the one true God, but his great character that combined with the faith would make him a great leader of His chosen people.
What God sees in the heart flows out through actions and attitudes. Notice what one of Saul’s advisors said about David in verse 18. David is “…skillful in playing, a man of valor, a man of war, prudent in speech, and a man of good presence, and the LORD is with him.” That’s the thing about character, good or bad, it cannot be hidden. Others will see it in us through everything we do.
Yet like so many other things, character without faith, is worthless. It was the faith of David, the trust he had in the LORD, that made his character usable to the LORD. May our character be as David’s, strong and united with faith.