Working with the premise that no other character in the Bible is as human and vulnerable as David, the author of Living the Message uses stories from David's life to illustrate how Christians today can learn to deal with such issues as love, grief, friendship, sin, and suffering. Reprint. Of all the characters in the Bible, it is David who is most human. His life is lived on the "rough-edged actuality" of real life, and his relationship with God is an energetic one. Through the passions, the trials, and the lyrical poetry of this beloved figure, we gain powerful insights into the role of God in our own lives. In this inspirational volume, Professor Eugene H. Peterson, translator of "The Message, " uses stories from David's epic life as vivid lessons in everyday faith and spirituality. Exploring David's experiences of friendship, grief, love, sin, and suffering, as well as sanctuary, beauty, and wilderness, he reawakens us to the enduring truths behind these beloved stories. "As we tell and listen to the David story, we're at the same time being trained in the nature of story itself as the primary literary form for receiving God's revelation." --from "Leap Over a Wall" "Eugene H. Peterson skillfully uses the David story to talk not about David, but about you and about me. "Leap Over a Wall" is the human story in all its wonder and terror and pity." --Richard J. Foster, author of "Celebration of Discipline" and "Prayer: Finding the Heart's True Home" "The author brings the Old Testament world revealingly close to our own century, and he makes vivid the notion that God's purposes are worked out in the ordinariness of specific human lives." -- "Publisher's Weekly" "This Everyman analysis brings new life to the stories of David and Goliath, David and Bathsheba, David and Absalom, David and the Temple." -- "The Washington Post"