If you’re trying to cut down on sugar but you have a hard time turning down chocolate cake, you need a good friend to watch out for you at birthday parties.

If you desire to be a peacemaker, but find it hard to keep your cool in political discussions, you may need to recuse yourself from these conversations for a while.

If you struggle to control yourself physically in romantic relationships, you probably need to keep yourself from being alone with the one you’re interested in.

What’s the common denominator in these examples? Who makes it hardest for us to make good choices? What is the biggest threat to us giving in?

Ourselves.

Our final message in our series The Life and Lyrics of David, we examine the truth about who we need to be rescued from most, and how we can position ourselves to stay out of trouble in the first place.

Bricks. Glass. Wood. Concrete. Mortar. Drywall. Carpet. Metal.

These things couldn’t be more different. But something incredible and beautiful is created when they’re unified: a house.

This week in our series The Life and Lyrics of David, we explore a psalm that celebrates the beauty of God’s people living in unity. Then, we allow the Bible to tell us how unity is possible.

If you’re trying to get on the freeway and you see a sign that says WRONG WAY, you’ve got to turn back immediately. If your labs come back saying your blood pressure is too high, you have to make changes to your daily habits right away. If your bank notifies you that you’ve overdrafted on your account, you’ve got to reconfigure your budget, pronto!

WRONG WAY signs, labs, and overdraft alerts are all forms of feedback. Many of us are good at listening to these kinds of feedback and altering our life accordingly. But when the people around us offer feedback, we often stop listening and start digging in our heals.

This week in The Life and Lyrics of David, we listen as the narrator recounts a story from the end of David’s life where all Israel suffers because David stops listening to those closest to him.

If you want to run a marathon, you probably read a bunch of articles where others share their story of becoming long-distance runners. Chances are, you start filling more of your free time with videos and podcasts about running marathons. Eventually, if feels natural to join a running group.

Then, one day, you roll out of bed, eat a good breakfast, do your stretching routine, find yourself at a starting line, and before you know it, you run and finish a marathon.

A lot goes into running a marathon. But it all starts with telling yourself and immersing yourself in a story: I can run a marathon because others have run marathons.

This week in The Life and Lyrics of David, we explore the story of the book of Psalms and how this story shaped how David behaved because it shaped the story he believed.

What do babbling brooks and paintings have in common? When we stop and sit with them we find something strange: they talk to us. Brooks babble, and their babbling soothes our souls. Paintings speak to us and move our souls.

This week in The Life and Lyrics of David, we find other things that are surprisingly talkative. And if we’re open to it, we’ll find someone who is surprisingly talkative, too.

If you’ve got the flu, chickenpox, or COVID, you stay home. You keep to yourself for as long as necessary. The last thing you’d ever want to do is spread what you have.

But what if you’ve got overwhelming joy? Or an unexplainable peace? What if love comes pouring out of you every time you open your mouth?

We don’t want you to stay home. We don’t want you to keep what you’ve got to yourself. We’re begging to be around you so we can catch what you’ve got.

This week in The Life and Lyrics of David, we’re journeying through a song of David that shows the power of spreading to others what we’ve received from God.

Sure, you can wrap your headlight in duct tape to keep it in place. You can absolutely use a few metal coat hangers to keep your muffler from falling off your car. No one’s going to pull you over for replacing your rear passenger-side window with cardboard and a trash bag.

But does that make it right?

When your car is broken, there’s a right way to fix it and a wrong way to fix it.

They pass you the ball, you take the shot at the buzzer, and the ball bounces off the rim.

They pass you the ball, you take the shot at the buzzer, and the ball bounces off the rim.

If a restaurant offers to comp your meal for no apparent reason, you’re going to let them, right?

If the airline offers to upgrade you to first class just because they have an extra seat, you’re going to take it, right?

If your boss says to take tomorrow off to be with your family, you’re going to take advantage of the opportunity, right?

In each of these cases, you’re being offered something you don’t deserve. But you still have to be willing to receive whatever it is you don’t deserve.

This week in The Life and Lyrics of David, we’re looking at several characters that are tempted to behave according to what they think they deserve, asking ourselves if we’re pushing away what’s being offered because we think we don’t deserve it.