Some passages of Scripture hit deep. Others open my eyes to God’s heart and how we can relate to Him. For me, Psalm 51 does all of that. It didn't lead me to repentance, but it helped me understand what had happened when I was born again.

The morning that I gave my life to Christ, I was convicted by the Holy Spirit for the first time. I knew I had sinned against the Lord. But even in that knowing, I felt God's love, the hope of His mercy, and a second chance, not guilt or condemnation. That evening, my mentor told me to go home and read Psalm 51. Over and over again.

And so I did.

When I think about David, I not only imagine the heroic highlights—Goliath, the Psalms, the throne of Israel. I also picture the man who failed in devastating ways and made some of the worst decisions a person could make.

Yet God still called him “a man after His own heart” (1 Samuel 13:14). That phrase always stops me because David’s story holds both real failure and a genuine return to God.

I often think about young David, the boy who came before the warrior, the king, or even the psalmist. I picture him around my own son's age, maybe a little younger, maybe a little older. He was the youngest son of Jesse, sent out alone to watch the sheep. No brothers watching his back. No father checking in. Just a boy doing his work in the fields with only God and the sheep for company.