Rabbi Chaim David Amar was born in Belgrade to Rabbi Shmuel Amar. At the age of fourteen he moved to Jerusalem with his father.

He later studied in Livorno in the yeshiva of Rabbi Chaim ben Attar, the Ohr HaChaim. When the Ohr HaChaim reached Acre, he sent his student to Jerusalem to establish a yeshiva for him there. Rabbi Chaim David was later counted among the sages of the Beit El kabbalists' yeshiva in Jerusalem in the days of the Rashash (Rabbi Shalom Sharabi). He was the brother-in-law of the Rishon LeZion, Rabbi Moshe Yosef Mordechai Meyuchas.

A kabbalist and halachic authority, he is best known for his book Tefillah LeDavid on the laws of blessings, particularly the hundred blessings one is obligated to recite each day, printed in Salonica in 5537 (1777).

He passed away in Jerusalem on 14 Sivan 5538 (1778) and was buried on the Mount of Olives.