Shew thyself a man

A dying father, a son about to inherit more than he feels ready for — David’s last charge to Solomon begins like every culture’s version of the words: be strong, show yourself a man. But it is the next verse that defines the terms, and it is not what the ancient world usually meant. Keep the charge of the LORD thy God, David continues — walk in His ways, keep His commandments. That, says the old king with nothing left to prove, is what a man is.

It is worth hearing from David specifically. He had done the other kind of manhood — the giant-killing, the armies, the empire — and at the end, none of it makes the deathbed summary. What he passes to his son is not a sword but an orientation: stay facing God, whatever the throne throws at you.

Every man is somewhere in this scene — receiving the charge, or giving it, or both at once. Whatever today asks you to be strong for, the definition holds: strength is keeping the charge. The quiet daily faithfulness nobody applauds is not the boring part of manhood. According to the man who tried everything else, it is the whole inheritance.