David – Warlord – Warrior – Writer

We typically think of King David as the peaceful writer of the Psalms. He was the man who expressed his emotions so nobly and sincerely in his writing that most people picture him as emotional or as a “big softie”. I think this is a mistake and a result of only looking at David at the surface level. Sure, if you judge David by the Psalms alone, you will see his emotional being, but you must also look at his actions.

This brief article is dedicated to giving you an additional perspective on David so that you may think of his as the Warlord he was. David was a servant of God and a King inside his walls, but he was also a barbarian filled with bloodlust when it came time to step on the battlefield.

“And as the women danced, they sang out: “Saul has slain his thousands, and David his tens of thousands.” And Saul was furious and resented this song. “They have ascribed tens of thousands to David,” he said, “but only thousands to me. What more can he have but the kingdom?”

1 Samuel 18:7-8

What type of man has it in him to kills tens of thousands of people? Answer: A man with a barbaric will to kill. Modern soldiers today talk about traits that would be important in recruits who are looking to join the military. Jocko Willink says the two foundational characteristics of a soldier are “The will to kill and the will to die”. Without these a man cannot be a true warrior who performs to the best of his ability.

To put David’s number of kills in perspective, let’s think about not only the quantity but also the type of kills that David was accumulating.

These weren’t long distance kills with a gun from far away, these were face-to-face, hand-to-hand kills.

We would never disrespect or  downplay the importance of modern military men, but these guys are not even having to look at the men they are killing much of the time, and they still get PTSD when they come home. Now imagine having to kill men face to face and what that must do to the psyche of a human being.

If shooting a man can give you PTSD, what would decapitating a man do to your mind? How would your mind handle impaling enemies or severing arms and legs and getting covered in their blood? What would splitting the skull of an enemy do to your mental state? This was the state of the old school warfare that David was engaging in, yet we still think of him primarily as peaceful and emotional.

May I suggest to you that a man capable of killing ten thousand men is an absolute warlord.

This man was a master of compartmentalization. Nothing could phase him. Still, the mental burden David carried must have been so tremendous that it would crush many of us men who are accustomed to the soft, modern world.

David was a man of war even from his youth. There was obviously some sort of warrior spirit in him before he ever even saw the field of combat. The Bible speaks about David:

“But David said to Saul, “Your servant used to keep his father’s sheep, and when a lion or a bear came and took a lamb out of the flock,I went out after it and struck it, and delivered the lamb from its mouth; and when it arose against me, I caught it by its beard, and struck and killed it.Your servant has killed both lion and bear; and this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, seeing he has defied the armies of the living God.” Moreover David said, “The Lord, who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear, He will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine.”

1 Samuel 17:34-37

Anyone who has ever killed an animal, even a small one knows that taking life changes a man in specific ways. A man who has the fortitude to kill a bear by hand is a warrior.

The man who grabs a lion by the beard and kills it is able to channel his inner darkness into the craft of war.

David was killing animals from his youth and would eventually progress to the battlefield and take his first human life, as far as we know based on what was recorded. This is the account of David and Goliath. David would throw a stone directly into Goliath’s Forehead and then chop off his head with his own sword.

Now maybe it was somewhat of a cultural thing to chop heads and take them around, but that was still barbaric. Only a man of war could do such a thing. Even in socially acceptable animal kills like deer, men still get sick to their stomach the first time they gut the deer. Now imagine chopping off a human head, that is something that would be difficult to stomach. But it would nevertheless be fair play on the field of war.

So it was, when the Philistine arose and came and drew near to meet David, that David hurried and ran toward the army to meet the Philistine.Then David put his hand in his bag and took out a stone; and he slung it and struck the Philistine in his forehead, so that the stone sank into his forehead, and he fell on his face to the earth.So David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and a stone, and struck the Philistine and killed him. But there was no sword in the hand of David.Therefore David ran and stood over the Philistine, took his sword and drew it out of its sheath and killed him, and cut off his head with it.

1 Samuel 17:48-51

David would then go on to live his life waging wars and killing men and yet simultaneously writing some of the most heartfelt songs and prayers ever recorded. How did he do this?

Extreme Compartmentalization

There is no doubt that David had to put his warlike nature in a box. This is necessary even today, and most men cannot do it. Many men engage in warfare and are damaged in their minds. They cannot bear the great burden of war and its consequences.

It could be that David also had forms of PTSD. No doubt there were nights when he would sit straight up in bed, awoken by a vivid dream recounting some of his battlefield kills. He likely dreamed he was being chased by men he had personally killed on the battlefield. Those types of dreams would have been a common side effect of such a large number of kills. David may have slept with Bathsheba to comfort his own mind because of how it was tormented from war. Or perhaps he was perfectly fine. Perhaps the mind of David was untroubled by all of the war he had engaged in, knowing it was righteous. Or perhaps David was not bothered because he had the very nature and spirit of a warlord.

Whatever the answer may be, you must begin to look at King David in a different light. He is not simply a mild-mannered writer of psalms. He is a man with blood on his hands. So much blood that God would not allow him to build the temple (2 Chronicles 22:5-10). You must also embody a warrior spirit in your own life by attacking your own weakness with warlike ferocity. You must compartmentalize your life so you are in command of your emotions. Attack everything with aggression and crush your enemies.