John Calvin Commentary Acts 13:22

"And when he had removed him, he raised up David to be their king; to whom also he bare witness and said, I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after My heart, who shall do all My will." — Acts 13:22 (ASV)

I have found David, my servant. This title was not cited so much in praise of the person, as to make the Jews more attentive to receive Christ. For the Lord testifies that His mind was thoroughly set upon David for no insignificant reason; rather, He commends something unique in him. By extolling him so highly, His intent is to lift up the minds of the faithful to Christ in David's person.

The passage is taken from the eighty-ninth Psalm (Psalms 89:20). Paul, however, adds something not found there: that David was the son of Jesse, which magnifies the grace of God. For since Jesse was a breeder of cattle, it was a wonderful work of God to take the least of his sons from the sheepfolds and place him on the throne of the kingdom.

By the word found, God means that He had obtained such a man as He desired. This does not mean that David, through his own labor and diligence, caused himself to be the kind of person God would find; rather, the phrase is taken from common human custom.

But the question is, since David fell so grievously, how does God give testimony of his continual obedience? We may answer in two ways:

1. God regarded the continual course of his life rather than each of his particular actions.
2. He thus presented him, not so much for his own merit as for Christ's sake.

Assuredly, by one wicked act, he had deserved eternal destruction for himself and his family, and, as much as was in his power, the way of God's blessing was shut up, so that nothing but vipers’ seed might come from Bathsheba. But that so filthy an act, the death of Uriah (2 Samuel 11:27), turns to a contrary end by the wonderful counsel of God, because Solomon is born and comes from that unlooked-for wedlock, which was full of treachery and, finally, polluted with many stains.

And though David sinned grievously, yet because he followed God throughout the course of his life, he is praised without exception as one who showed himself obedient to God in all things. Though (as I have said before) the Spirit carries us to a further matter; indeed, the common calling of all the faithful in Christ, the Head, is here depicted for us.