In Bethlehem in the tribe of Judah lived a man named Isaiah or Jesse.  He had eight sons and was descendant of Ruth the Moabite who had been given refuge and had been adopted by the people of Israel on account of her faithful devotion to her mother-in-law Naomi.  Samuel, the last judge, came to Isaiah after he had reluctantly given up the first king, Saul.  Because Saul’s son Jonathan had not sought to obtain the royal crown (the spell of divine power lay upon him and he became David’s closest friend), Samuel organised a sacrificial celebration at his home for the elders of the town.  There God was to appoint one of the host’s sons to be future King of Israel.  None of the splendid older sons present were to be chosen, but the youngest, who had to be called in from the fields where he had been tending his herds, David,   “peerless darling of Israel”.  Samuel anointed him, the future king, amongst his brothers. 

Although David was able to prove his energy and heroism on the battlefield (his battle against Goliath the Giant and several battles against the Philistines) this did not convince King Saul to appoint David as his successor.  On the contrary, he pursued him and David was forced to flee the country.  Not until Saul’s fate was sealed  - he died in the battle against the Philistines – was David able to stake his claim to the king's throne.  On Mount Hebron the elders of the tribe of Judah anointed him king. 
David's life and character are as colourful as could be imagined.   The smallest member of his family, yet he became the greatest in all of Israel.  Although the place of his birth and the place of his death lie so close together, they are as distant from each other as manger and palace.  As a boy David bore shepherd’s crook and sling, as a man sword and sceptre.  Secretly he was anointed king; in the bright dawn of history he led the monarchy to its summit.  The king was his enemy and the monarch’s son his closest friend…. And so God guided him throughout a life filled with danger and strokes of fate, many years' battles and short-lived  peace to become the founder of a dynasty.  This rare soul had wonderful characteristics, sensitivity towards nature along with a noble artistic sense, musical-poetic talent, deep devoutness and brave, while below the surface there slumbered deep sensuality  strong desire, which caused him to succumb to unprincipled passion.  He loved many women.  Many children provided him not only with great comfort but also his greatest worries.  Yet it was the happiest hours of his busy life that let him reach for his harp and write psalms, when he would be sunk in prayer and in praise of God and thus foresaw and experienced the sufferings of the redeemer in the holy spirit. That is what made him, that great man of the Old Covenant, the physical and mental progenitor of the redeemer.
David died in his seventieth year. His grave lies in Sion, the city of David, on the eastern slope south of the temple in Jerusalem.  Today the tomb of David beneath the Communion hall is one of the holy places of the Muslim world.