To suggest David was gay, misrepresents both his culture and his covenant.

In his lament for his friend, David wrote, “I grieve for you, Jonathan my brother; you were very dear to me. Your love for me was wonderful, more wonderful than that of women” (2 Samuel 1:26). Many have inferred David had a physical relationship with Jonathan.

Culture

Homosexuality was an inherent part of Canaanite idolatry, with male shrine prostitutes on “every high place and under every spreading tree.” There were even male shrine prostitutes in the land; the people engaged in all the detestable practices of the nations the LORD had driven out before the Israelites (1 Kings 14:24).

It was for these “detestable” practices the Lord destroyed the Canaanite nations. Israel was meant to be different. (In the Torah, homosexual practice was punishable by death—see Leviticus 20:13). So when Israel succumbed to their lifestyle, they were decimated and exiled.

David was a man after God’s own heart. Was the Lord gay? He made us male and female, to reflect his nature and glory.

Covenant

Covenants are a key principle in Scripture. They are an irrevocable joining of two parties for mutual provision and protection. Marriage is a covenant. Jesus died and rose again to establish the New Covenant in his blood between us and the Lord.

David had made a covenant with Jonathan: So Jonathan made a covenant with the house of David, saying, “May the LORD call David’s enemies to account” (1 Samuel 20:16). As a result, he became one in spirit with David and he loved [Hebrew ahava] him as himself (see 1 Samuel 20:1). Like agape in Greek, ahava is sacrificial love. They were willing to die for each other. This was a spiritual connection, not a physical one.

More than this, David’s covenant with Jonathan is a shadow or foretaste of the New Covenant. Jesus said, “Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13) and went to the cross. God’s love for us is far greater than physical love.

How typical of the devil to want to corrupt the highest form of love—agape love—to attempt to diminish what the Lord has done for us. To call David gay is more a reflection of our own culture, obsessed with sex. May the Lord forgive us.