This is an awesome book. Peterson explores the David story, from his first introduction to his death, and relates it to a modern day life. He focuses on one element at a time; for instance, when David is in the wilderness as a result of Saul's persecution. Then he paraphrases the story, weaves in psalms where appropriate, talks about the deeper meaning in each of these encounters, gets back to the story, back to our lives, and so forth, before ending with a summation that wraps up the big life lesson that David learned in this passage, and what we can take from it for our lives. He does hit on the big David moments, like Goliath and Bathsheba, but he also narrates a lot of the lesser known events, like Abigail's wisdom and beauty in the desert, and the generosity at Besor. I learned so much about the David story that I didn't know, simply because my attention had always been focused on the blockbuster stories before.

Also, the wisdom that Peterson imparts is really powerful. A major focus of this book is that God works in us and around us through the conditions of our life. We don't live in a vacuum. So even though David lived in a violent Canaanite land, where war and sex were a huge part of existence, David was still able to become God's beloved. God didn't make David wait until he was safely away from all the madness of the world around him - he worked in his life in every moment, every situation. How applicable that is to our society today. The point is that humanity, being truly human, all that we can be, is through God alone, and it happens right now, no matter what our context is. God can work through and with anything, and in doing so, can transcend it. Spirituality is true humanity.

A lot of the insight and Bible references in this book really helped me, especially as I was going through a rough period of depression as I read it. Plus, it pushed me into a thorough re-reading of I Samuel and II Samuel, and more reading of the Bible is always good. I love trying to understand how faith is lived out in daily life, and this book is right on the mark for that subject. ( )

What I loved about this book was the theme: the Bible is conspicuously lacking models, but repleat with stories. The idea of story is not new, but Gene's perspective was fresh and challenged me. God has begun to weave this theme in my life now, and becuase this book was used as the impetus, it has a special place in my heart. ( )