April 15 - 1 Samuel 20:1-21:15 | Psalm 34

Good morning everyone,

You will remember from yesterday Saul is jealous of and determined to do away with, that is to say kill, a commander in his army, someone he vowed to protect and who just happens to be his son-in-law, that guy David and he has him in his cross hairs. However David found out about Saul’s plan and with the help of his wife made a hasty escape from his home to his friend Samuel’s in Ramah where Saul would send three waves of soldiers, then go himself, to capture David, but would be unsuccessful as God would, at least for the time being, change their hearts to one of prayer. This morning we pick up with David fleeing from Ramah to go find his best friend Jonathan to figure out “what’s up?” with his dad. David’s not only scared but confused and even questions Jonathan’s friendship. Jonathan reassures him and promises to find out what’s going on, if it was safe for David to go home but Jonathan want’s a promise in return; the promise being that when David became king he would not forget Jonathan, that he would show him unfailing kindness. In those days it was custom to kill off the king leaving the throne and all of his court in an effort to minimize treason, Jonathan was dealing for his life. David made the covenant with Jonathan and waited in the field to find out what Saul’s heart was.

On the second day of the New Moon feast when Saul found out that Jonathan had given David permission to not be there he went ballistic, even going so far as to throw a spear at his own son when he asked, “Why should David be put to death? What has he done?”, making it pretty clear that it would be an unhealthy decision for David to return. So it was that Jonathan, with a heavy heart, heads back out to the field to tell David the news. These boys were like brothers, they loved each other and it broke their hearts to have to say good-bye. What I do love here though, is the stone that David was to wait by was called Ezel which translates to “the rock that shows the way.” How appropriate, that David was waiting by “the rock that shows the way” for THE Rock to show him the way. Right?

David will now head on over to Nob where he will begin a series of poor choices. He will lie to the priest which he will live to regret and he will head on over to Gath a Philistine city carrying the sword of Goliath, who came from where? … that’s right, Gath. What was he thinking?? When he realizes he is in deep trouble he starts acting like a madman and the king says “get him out of here” Whew, dodged that bullet.

There’s a lot going on here. Once David had to say good-bye to his wife, his best friend, all his other friends, his job, everything that he was familiar with, basically tossed out of his life, he was in uncharted territory. Anyone who has experienced the death of a loved one or an unwanted divorce has been where David is here. It is terribly frightening, at best, and definitely an incredibly lonely road, but I believe in my heart that it is one of God’s “training fields” so to speak. We go through those times in our lives, those experiences, for many of reasons. They allow us to build our character, allow us to know how to help someone else get through the same thing, to blindly depend on God and His infinite wisdom and so much more. Ultimately, if we allow it, God will see us through the vastness of it all, leaving us relatively unscathed and much stronger for it. 

David was confused and making poor choices and even taking matters into his own hands rather than trusting in God; yet, he still maintained his love for God. We see this in Psalm 34, while David is captured and pretending to be insane he pens a poem which clearly shows his love for God, declaring he will lift God up, praise Him at all times.  I would suggest to you, and to me, that so should be our hearts be, at all times, in every situation, praising God. Amen?

I pray you have a super good day, to God be the glory!

God bless you all …