King David, Romantic Hero

King David, Romantic Hero by Rachelle Ayala

If you’re looking for the perfect romantic hero, look no further than King David, the greatest king of Israel. A handsome charmer and yet, inherently good, a man after God’s own heart, David was a man of contradictions, a lover, a criminal, a poet, a warrior.

Why was David, whose name means “beloved”, adored by swooning women everywhere? Let’s examine David’s character from a romantic point of view.

David the Rock Star

It’s 1000 B.C. A handsome young musician tours the King’s Palace with his harp and soon, the entire capitol city is in love with him.

Physical beauty is the hallmark of every romantic hero. Make it a basic requirement. But David wasn’t just looks. He was also the first rock star in history. A cunning player of the harp, his music wooed a princess, and calmed a mad king. He had a large following among the village women as well as the king’s own servants.

But all Israel and Judah loved David, because he went out and came in before them.

As if being a rock star wasn’t enough, David was also a real hero. When danger threatened the nation, and men of war cowered in their sandals, David defeated the giant Goliath and won the princess’s hand. The people accorded him a hero’s welcome and upstaged their king. “Saul has killed a thousand, David ten thousands.”

David the Rogue

Ah... but every romantic hero needs a flaw, something to further endear him to the reader. After all, who wants to read about Mr. Perfect Dudley Do-Right? And thankfully, David was also a bad boy. Oh yes!

Forced from hero to outlaw by the king’s jealousy, David survived by his wit, grit, and appeal to women. His wife, the princess Michal, loses everything to aid his escape by lying to her father. Another woman, Abigail, literally falls at his feet, defying her husband and giving him food. Not surprisingly, David immediately offers marriage when Abigail’s husband conveniently passes away.

Who doesn’t like their romantic hero with a few rough edges? David, the rogue, swindles the Philistine king out of a city by pretending to kill Israelites. After collecting women like seashells on a tropical beach, David becomes king and tears his first wife, Princess Michal, away from her second husband.

A consummate alpha, David would not take the back seat to anyone. And herein again, is a trait for romantic heroes. Power, lust, and dominance.

David the Romantic

But, deep inside our hearts, we want our romantic heroes to be lovers, to have a soft side, and to become vulnerable to that one special woman. Is this possible with a man like David? A warlord with a burgeoning harem, a king who killed a man to take his wife?

We turn to David’s psalms, the poetry he wrote to God. David was a romantic. He believed in the ultimate triumph of good over evil, and the love of God for a repentant sinner. He writes of his yearning for God in flowery language.

As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God.

I stretch forth my hands unto thee: my soul thirsteth after thee, as a thirsty land.

David had that winsome spirit, emotional and repentant. He swam in his bed of tears and cried out to God, sorry for his sins. Unable to forget his first love, he brought his princess back even after she had been a wife to another. He comforted his wife when her baby died, and at the end of his life, he told his son, Solomon, to love the wife of his youth.

Let thy fountain be blessed: and rejoice with the wife of thy youth. Let her be as the loving hind and pleasant roe; let her breasts satisfy thee at all times; and be thou ravished always with her love.

David in Michal’s Window

David is the only man in the Bible that is recorded as being loved by a woman. This excerpt from Michal’s Window captures the kindling of that love:

  “So you’re a man of peace. Very good. What about love? Do you wish for love?”
He took my hand and traced my palm with his thumb.
   Oh, my soul. A thrill shot straight to my heart. A lone hawk screeched, banked and crested toward the tip of the disappearing light.
   “Tell me, Michal, have you ever been in love?” He raised my hand to his lips but dropped it without kissing it.
   Crickets serenaded the darkening sky with scratchy chirps, accompanied by the throaty croak of a persistent toad. I trembled, and David wrapped his arms around me. His scent pulsed hot with sandalwood, raking me with a newborn sense of longing. And his hands, oh, so firm, tightened around my waist, and his prayer shawl entangled my fingers, and his body, oh, the press of his body… made me want…

Michal ended up sacrificing her comfortable life as princess, her relationship with her parents, and ultimately David, as she saves him from her father’s wrath and he escapes into the wilderness.

Is David Your Romantic Hero?

Can you resist the magnetism of a man like David? Valiant, yet humble, comely, yet prudent in his manners, a mighty king, but inside, a boy who dreamed great things and loved the LORD God above all. How can any woman resist the sweet psalmist of Israel, the charismatic seducer, the powerful warrior-king? Rock star, Rogue, Romantic. There is a part of David that endears him to any woman’s heart.
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Michal's Window, a novel, imaginatively recreates the love life of this fascinating king.


"RIVETING... a heartwrenching romance deftly evoking challenges between the sexes in Bible times."
- Terry Long, Author of The Notorious Proposal


"Never has a story drew me in and took me to the past, but in a present kind of way, as this one has. We get to walk, run, fear, and most importantly, love as Michal does."
- Melisa Hamling, Author of Twenty Weeks


"The heroine of Michal's Window embodies the heated determination of Outlander's Claire. Coupled with the equally intense hero, David, the sparks fly."
- Taylor West, Reader