If you are looking for a summer book to read and are interested in a book to go along with our study of the Psalms and 2 Samuel, consider Leap Over A Wall by Eugene Peterson.
Jim and I both appreciated Peterson’s look at the life of David. When we considered including a review of the book on the blog, Jim said that Josh Mateer, Calvary’s Pastor of Pastoral Care, was the person who had recommended the book. So, we asked Josh to write a review of the book, which follows:
A number of years ago I was working on a study of the life of David and I came across Max Lucado’s book Facing Your Giants. When I pick up a new book I enjoy starting by skimming through the acknowledgements section. A bit of an odd habit to be sure but it is always intriguing to see who authors thank. In this book about the life of David Max Lucado took the time to highlight one book in particular that impacted him greatly. It was by Eugene Peterson and this is what Lucado said about Peterson, “Each reading of your books touches me. Leap Over a Wall changed me. Where my words sound too much like yours, forgive me—you get the credit.”
If Eugene Peterson’s book on David changed the life of an author as influential as Max Lucado, I wanted to read that book as well. Once I secured a copy for myself I now found myself staring at the cover contemplating the title. Leap Over a Wall sounded more like a zoo attendee’s worst nightmare of having a lion or bear leap over the retaining wall into the unsuspecting onlookers who moments earlier were disappointed the animals were not moving, rather being a book about David. But as I quickly discovered, Peterson based this title from David’s own words in Psalm 18:29, “For by you I can run against a troop, and by my God I can leap over a wall” (ESV).
In this book Peterson succeeds in getting across the truth of this unique verse. It is not David who accomplishes great things for God, but rather God who accomplishes great things through David. When David acknowledges, “For by you I can …” he is really acknowledging two things. First, David had the humility to recognize that apart from God he could not accomplish anything. And second, he had the confidence to believe that with God he could accomplish even the most profound tasks.
In a world enamored by fame, power and prestige we are constantly clamoring for the next great model to follow. And in Christian circles what better model could we follow than “a man after God’s own heart”? But when looked at as a model for Christian living David’s life falls woefully short. Rather than shy away from this, Peterson makes this the point of his book. David becomes an example of God working in and through man’s frailty. The subtitle of this book captures that focus, Leap Over a Wall: Earthy Spirituality for Everyday Christians. The goal of this book is for the everyday, ordinary, earthy Christian to experience God’s presence and power like David did, no matter what they face.
Peterson puts it this way, “As an instance of humanity in himself, he [David] isn’t much. He has little wisdom to pass on to us on how to live successfully, He was an unfortunate parent and an unfaithful husband… But David’s importance isn’t in his morality or his military prowess but in his experience of and witness to God. Every event in his life was a confrontation with God” (p. 5). Peterson then spends the rest of the book showing how God intersected with the life of David and explains the profound truths to be learned about God through his victories and shortcomings. God is at center stage in this book because God was at center stage in David’s life.
This God-focus started early for David. “In the Bethlehem hills and meadows, tending his father’s sheep, David was immersed in the largeness and immediacy of God. He had experienced God’s strength in protecting the sheep in his fights with lions and bears. He had practiced the presence of God so thoroughly that God’s word, which he couldn’t literally hear was far more real to him than the lion’s roar, which he could hear” (p. 40). When David was at his best it was because his thinking was thoroughly God-dominated.
Peterson works his way through David’s life bringing the stories to light in a way that makes you feel you are right there living it out with David. As a reader you begin to identify with David so much so that you actually start to believe that God could work that way through you… right now… where you are. As Peterson unfolds David’s relative obscurity and insignificance before his call you start to sense God could call anybody. As the book continues through the stories of the narrative describing David’s friendships, wanderings in the wilderness, grief, love, suffering, sin and last days, rather than seeing a superhero larger than life, the reader sees a God who is large enough for every aspect of life … even if your zoo experience someday does involve a lion or a bear.