Android: ListView select item and highlight the selected item programmatically

Question

I would like to select an item from a ListView by default (when the view is created). And I want to do it grammatically. I tried the answer from this Question, but it does not work for me.

I have the followings...

MainActivity.java

    @Override
protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
    super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
    setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);

    arrayList = new ArrayList<String>();
    arrayList.add("1");
    arrayList.add("2");
    arrayList.add("3");
    arrayList.add("4");
    arrayList.add("5");
    arrayList.add("6");
    arrayList.add("7");

    adapter = new ArrayAdapter<String>(this, android.R.layout.simple_list_item_1, arrayList);

    listView = (ListView) findViewById(R.id.listView);      
    listView.setAdapter(adapter);       
    listView.setChoiceMode(ListView.CHOICE_MODE_SINGLE);

    //listView.setSelection(3);
    listView.setItemChecked(3, true);
}

activity_main.xml

<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent"
android:orientation="vertical" >

<ListView
    android:id="@+id/listView"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent"
    android:listSelector="@drawable/list_item_selector"
    android:drawSelectorOnTop="true" />

</LinearLayout>

list_item_selector.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<selector xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">

<item
    android:state_activated="true"
    android:state_pressed="true"
    android:state_selected="true"        
    android:drawable="@color/red" />

<item
    android:state_activated="false"
    android:state_pressed="false"
    android:state_selected="false"        
    android:drawable="@color/black" />

</selector>

I tried many combinations of the following methods in .java

listView.setSelection(i);
listView.setItemChecked(i, true);
lv_stakeoutPoints.performClick();
listViewAdapter.notifyDataSetChanged();

But none of the combinations works properly. Does anyone solve this issue?

(By the way, why is it so difficult to do this?)

FYI, I am developing with Android 4.1.2