Redemption City Church
David: Poet, Warrior, King Part 8 (Ken Wiest) 07/28/24
Good morning. A significant part of our life consists of the things that happen to us and the responses that we give to those things. Chuck Swendall has said this, that the longer I live, the more I am convinced that life is 10% of what happens to us and 90% on how we respond. Our responses are things that build our character as well as reveal our character and our values, but there's something that helps us in our responses. There's a way we can ground our responses properly, and that's what we want to look at today. Let's pray. Father, I thank You for the privilege and joy we have of looking into Your Word today. I ask, Father, that You would be with us, that Your Spirit would speak through us, Father. I'm sure there are a lot of people that come here with lots of burdens and pain and struggles and difficulties, maybe some come with boredom, probably some come with anticipation for what's coming up this week, and I would simply ask, Lord, that You would use this time in all of our lives to ground us further, to center us further upon You. Help us to be focused, help us to be blessed and encouraged by what the Word says to us. We pray these things in Jesus' name, amen. So we're in the middle of a series on David, David being a poet, a warrior, and a king, and we've been looking at first Samuel, and so I want to give a couple reminders of what is important as we look at narrative literature. You've heard this said several times throughout these weeks, but it's good and important for us to remind ourselves over and over these things. Number one, the hero of Old Testament narrative literature is not the characters that we look at. So as much as we will look at David today and see the comparison with Saul, he's not the hero. The hero is God. And we have to constantly elevate our thinking with regard to that, to not necessarily think, so whatever David did, I do, whatever Saul did, I shouldn't do. What is God doing? And by the basis of that, build our faith on that. Secondly, we are to recognize that all of this material is selected and arranged for a certain purpose. So it's important for us to understand what that purpose is and see what the contribution of the various passages that we're looking at does to add to that purpose. And that's what I hope to share with you shortly. The three important thing for me is I think we need to protect revelation, the kind of progressive revelation we have in the Scriptures, which means we want to give due credit to the Old Testament. We want to give due credit to this text in 1 Samuel 23 today. We want to reside in this passage before we look ahead to further things, not that we can't do that, but we want to make sure that this text carries its own weight for us. So that as we seek to interpret the passage in front of us, we're not jumping ahead and jumping ahead to say, oh, I know what that means because of something in the New Testament. And then lastly, when you look at Old Testament narrative, any type of narrative, the key things that we think about are characters and setting and dialogue and narrator perspective, character setting, dialogue and narrator perspective. You can probably guess, since I put them at the end, that the last two, the dialogue and the narrator perspective are the keys for us to understand any narrative at all. So when we come to 1 Samuel, 1 Samuel's purpose, I said already, we need to know what that purpose is. He has two primary purposes, one we're not covering really, which is all about the temple and the establishment of the temple. But the other one is about the establishment of the monarchy, of the covenant king. As you see at the end of Judges, in Judges 17, 6, and 21, 25, the narrator of Judges said there was no king in Israel at this time and everybody did what was pleasing in their sight. Those passages point us to 1 Samuel and it's in Samuel, the books of Samuel, that God himself is establishing for us what is it that a covenant king looks like? How is it that a covenant king reacts and acts? We saw already in 1 Samuel 8, or we can't see in 1 Samuel 8, the people wanted a king, they wanted a king just like the nations who will go out and fight for them and God himself says, you want a king, you reject my kingship, the type of king you will get is a king who is entirely oriented to himself. He takes everything that is yours and he gives it to himself. As you read through that passage, you can see just how much the word your, he's taking your, your, your, your, and he's giving it to himself. And that's the example of the king that we have in Saul. And then God basically from chapters 16 on, all the way to the end, God is in the process of convincing the people as it were. This is the king, David is the type of king. He's the example of a covenant king and he's contrasting that with Saul so they can constantly pull away from and turn away from a charismatic king, a king that they look at in terms of his abilities and his looks and all the other things that we're all awed by and instead look at a covenant king who is obedient to the word of God. So when we come to 1 Samuel 23, we are in the midst of a long series of events in David's life. It's easy for us to read this. We read that David has begun this fleeing and then he returned and now he's back to fleeing again and we think as we read through this, oh, I'm just reading this. It's only just a few days, maybe a few weeks. Maybe a few months. Almost all scholars talk about this entire period of time where Saul is, excuse me, Saul is pursuing David as between 10 and 12 years that David is out there alone in the wilderness with God. He has the men around him obviously, but 10 to 12 years. That's an important thing for us to think about as we come to this passage today. It'll be another example of David responding, David responding, and Saul responding and the contrast will be taking place. I'd like to read through the passage 1 Samuel 23, so if you have your Bibles or you have your devices, if you'd like to open up that, I want to read the whole passage and then we want to come back and talk about the main idea and talk about how I can put this passage together and organize it so we see truly God as the hero. So 1 Samuel 23 verse 1. Then they told David saying who the day is, we don't know. It's kind of an interesting thing that we have this group out there helping David as it were. "Behold, look, the Philistines are fighting. They're bringing war against Kaela and are plundering the threshing floors, those floors that are outside the walls that can't be protected and taking away the grain of Kaela." So David inquired, he asked. He sought the Lord saying, "Should I go and attack these Philistines?" And the Lord said to David, "Go and attack the Philistines and you will deliver them. You will deliver them." But David's men said to him, "Look, we're here in Judah, right here in Judah and we're afraid right here in Judah. How much more will it be if we go to Kaela against the ranks, the armies of the Philistines? Here alone in this wilderness, worried about Saul, and now we're going to go up against the Philistines and all of their arranged armies? Oh, that's going to be even worse for us." Notice David's response. David inquires of the Lord again. He goes back to the Lord and asks again. And the Lord answered him and said, "Arise, go down to Kaela. Notice, please, for I am about to give the Philistines into your hand. A promise about to happen, pointing them to what God will do." So David and his men went to Kaela. How did David convince them to go? How did David get rid of their fear? Did he simply say, "God has said it again? Don't know." He went down to Kaela. He fought with the Philistines. He led away their livestock, so they were plundering the threshing floors. Now David gets a chance to plunder the Philistines. He struck them with a great slaughter. He attacked them. He brought about a huge victory. Remember though, it was God who did that. He was the one who gave them into the hand of David, thus David delivered the inhabitants of Kaela. He's doing exactly what the king was supposed to be doing. The king is supposed to be delivering these villages of Judah. David is doing that. Notice verse 6, "A break in the narrative," as it were, because we got a new character. We want to talk about this because this is a significant part for this passage. Now it came about when Abiyyathar, the son of Akhimelek, fled to David at Kaela. He brought the Ephid with him. When it was told Saul that David had come to Kaela, Saul said, "God has delivered him into my hand." Interesting how he uses that. We'll come back and talk about that in a minute. Somehow he sees this as a favor. Somehow he sees this as a blessing. God has brought this about. He's delivered him into my hand. Where David has shut himself up by entering into a city with double gates and bars, there is no way he can escape from me. I've got him. Finally, I'm going to deal with this guy that I've been chasing. So Saul calls all the people for war, all of the people to come and do a battle. And they want to go down to Kaela to besiege David and his men. Meaning verb, that word besiege is often used for besieging an entire city, an entire land. Saul is thinking, "We're going to throw such shock and awe. We're going to capture him. We're going to destroy him. This is going to be great." Notice, please, verse 9, "David knew that Saul was plotting evil against him." So David recognizes something. This is something that's happening to him. That's going to be David's response. He calls to Abayth, Abiyathar the priest. Bring the effort here. David said, "O Lord God of Israel, O Lord God of Israel, thy servant has heard for certain that Saul is seeking to come to Kaela to destroy the city, the city, because of me. Will the men of Kaela surrender me into his hand? Will Saul come down just as thy servant has heard? O Lord God of Israel, I pray, tell thy servant. It is an interesting factor. I'm not going to talk anything about it other than mention it now. This is the first time David has used this term, "I am your servant." It's a rare term used in the Old Testament primarily for big name people. Moses is the most significant one. Lots and lots of examples of this. David sets himself, as it were, in the line of Moses, right here in this prayer for the first time historically, "I am your servant, O Lord. Answer my prayer, O Lord, is Saul going to come down and do all this?" Notice the answers that he gets. The Lord said, "He will come down," one word in Hebrew. He answers all this long prayer, and God says, "One word." David says, "Will the men of Kaela surrender me in my men into the hands of Saul?" The Lord said, "They will surrender you," one word. David doesn't fight it. David doesn't respond and say, "My men are stronger." David doesn't respond and say, "Why?" Notice the next phrase. David and his men, about 600, so they've increased during this time, from 400 initially, all the way up to 600 now. They arose and they departed from Kaela, and they went wherever they could go. The phrase is as if they're just walking back and forth, walking back and forth, wherever they're going, back and forth, back and forth, not stopping, not stopping, not stopping, not setting themselves up, so it will be easy for Saul to find them, constantly, constantly on the move. When it was told Saul that David had escaped from Kaela, he gave up the pursuit, but not for long, because you see, this is on Saul's mind. He can't get rid of this. He thought he had him blocked into this city, no escape for the city, double gates and bars and walls. He's now gone, "I'm going to have to change my plan." Notice verse 14, "David stayed in the wilderness, so he's gone deeper and deeper and deeper into the wilderness of Judea, into the strongholds, into the places where their caves and rocks remained in the hill country in the wilderness of Ziph, and Saul sought him every day, every day, the whole day, nothing but thinking about David, consumed about thinking of David all the time, but please notice the next phrase, "Who is the hero?" God did not deliver him into his hand. So despite all of the seeking, despite all of the work, despite all of the armies with him, despite all of the information that he's getting from people, it's God who's protecting David. As much as David is running and running and running, doing what he feels like he needs to do, it is God who's protecting him. Now David became aware, he now sees that Saul has come out to seek his life. He's already known that up above, now he sees it again. Now David was in the wilderness of Ziph at Horesh. Notice how God responds now, not with a direct answer, with an answer through an individual. And Jonathan, Saul's son arose and went to David at Horesh, and he strengthened him in God. What a great phrase. What a great phrase. He didn't give him military advice, he didn't say, "You're all right, David. Things are going to turn out okay." He strengthened him in God, and he said to him, "Do not be afraid. Stop being afraid, because the hand of Saul, my father, will not find you." And you will be king over Israel. God's already said that. God has already anointed you, reminding him of the truths that he knows, reminding him of the Word of God that God has said to him. That's how he's encouraging him in God. And I will be next to you, and Saul, my father, knows that also. How does Jonathan know that? As Saul actually said that, he's given some hints about that, but I think Jonathan even recognizes the insanity that Saul has shown, the differences in character that is so manifest in the contrast that God himself is showing us in this book, Jonathan sees it. That's why Saul is so much hooked upon finding David. The two of them made a covenant before the Lord, the first time they do this together in the book, David stays at Chores, Jonathan returns to his home. Notice next, the Ziphites came up to Saul at Gibeah. So he was concerned about the people of Ka'elah, God said they'll surrender you. Now the Ziphites come to Saul, and this is what they say, "Isn't David hiding in the strongholds of Chores on the hill of Chahelah, which is on the south of Yeshimon? We know exactly where he is. All of the geography lined up as if GPS just pointed right to him. That's where he's at. We know. That's where he's hiding. Now, if it's still on your heart, O King, still a desire of your soul to do so, please come down, and we will surrender him into your hands." The same verb that Saul himself had used about what David had shut himself up. We're going to be the ones to hand him up. We're going to shut this right up, bound him up, and hand him over to you, Saul. Please notice Saul's response. I want you to see Saul's insecurities here, verse 21. First of all, the obligatory response, "May you be blessed of Yahweh, for you have had pity upon me." That's the position he's in. That's the position. He is looking for people to pity him. And when he sees them, he says, "May God bless you. May Yahweh bless you." So please notice, "Go now, make more sure, investigate, see his place where he is, and who has seen him there, for I have heard that he's very cunning as if he doesn't know that himself. Go look, learn about all the hiding places where he's hiding himself. Return to me with certainty, and then all of these things lined up, all of these things that he needs to do. And then I will go with you." And it shall come about, "If he is in this land, that I will search him out among all the thousands of Judah, then they arose and went to Ziph before Saul." Now David and his men were in the wilderness of Mahon in the arabah to the south of Yeshimon. When Saul and his men went to seek him, they told David, "Who's the they? We don't know." There's a lot of unknown "they"s out there in the world. Information is somehow getting to David, information is somehow getting to Saul. It's all part of the story as we read this. Who is going to win? Which information is going to finally win out? Saul and his men went to seek him, they told David, "He came down to the rock." So he's going further and further out into the wilderness. He stayed in the wilderness of Mahon. When Saul heard that, who told him that? We don't know. When Saul heard that, he pursued David in the wilderness of Mahon. Now you get the picture. David's going further and further away. He's going further and further around to Mahon. Saul is getting closer and closer. And it's as if the writer is building up the tension here. Notice verse 26, "Saul is going on one side of a mountain, and David and his men are on the other side of the mountain, and you're starting to feel the fear in your heart." Uh-oh. This is going to be the end of all of this. They're going to meet. And David was hurrying to get away from Saul, and Saul and his men were about to surround David and about to seize him and right then. Right then. At that time, notice it says, "A messenger came to Saul, saying, 'Hurry and come for the Philistines that made a raid on the land.'" Now up to this point in the story of Saul, in dealing with the Philistines, has Saul responded to anything like this and gone out to the Philistines one time? And it was a really bad time for him. All these other times it's been Jonathan and David. God gives us any type of thinking that Saul himself would say, "Well, of course, I'm the king. I've got to go fight the Philistines." The natural response I would think that we would think that he would think is, "David is right here. Forget about the Philistines. I've got David." But notice what it says. So Saul returned from pursuing David, went to meet the Philistines, therefore they called that place the rock of escape. David went up from there and stayed in the strongholds of Ingetti. That's the story. Those are the details of the story. So what would be a big idea that we could come up with for this? To think about, for you to remember is this, a God-centered life, a God-centered life recognizes and experiences God's hand. A God-centered life recognizes and experiences God's hand, or we could flip it, flip it and think about it this way. God is active with all of his attributes in the life of a God-centered person. I like the second one better because it makes God the hero. Instead of focusing on the God-centered life, we're focusing on God being active. But the key thing for us is figuring out what does it mean to have a God-centered life? Point number one that I would like to point out, number one of God-centered life is this person seeks God's counsel and direction. Remember we talk about the situations that come upon us. He seeks God's counsel and direction. We saw that in verse two. He inquired of the Lord. We saw that in verse four. He inquired of the Lord again, and we saw it way down in verses nine to twelve when he asked for the effort to come, and he spent time praying to God. He is the one who is looking to God. He's not relying on his own wisdom. He's not relying on his own experience. He has been a great warrior. He is the one that did the 10,000s. Remember Saul only in the 1000s, he did the 10,000s? It would be very easy for him to just say, "I got this. I got this. I can deal with this, but he doesn't." In the midst of this situation, a God-centered person automatically thinks, "I need to seek God's direction. I need to seek God's counsel." What did Saul do? What did Saul do? Verse seven, when it was told Saul that David, when it was told him, it's as if Saul is sitting and waiting for somebody to come and help him. God is not involved in his life. God is completely out of the picture for him. In fact, I actually went back and counted the number of times in a 40-year period of a kingship of Saul, 40 years. How many times does he actually use the name of God, either Elohim or Yahweh? It is less than that. In 40 years. And many of them are just the Jesus' answer. Many of them are just mechanical things that you would expect. Lord bless you. Because it's even pointing out, as he did to Samuel in chapter 15, it is your God that I'm obeying. Saul has no center in God at all. He is relying entirely on men. He's relying entirely on his own ingenuity. For David, this is a characteristic, a default setting. For Saul, it's mechanical, it's an exception. It's even an afterthought that he throws God in. David is different. David is solely different from Saul. When we read Psalm 54, when Sarah read through that, "Did you pay attention to how many times God's name appears?" Or the suffix "you" appears in seven verses 11 times. David points to God, to you, to what you will do, to what Yahweh will do. Even in the end with a militant faith, the translation had it in the past tense, but it could just as easily be a future tense with a past tense basis, a past tense verb in Hebrew, but looking to the future that he will deliver me from my enemies. He will protect me from my enemies. That's what David was. Centered on God, seeking his counsel and direction, a characteristic default setting for him. Saul on the other hand, completely out of the picture, mechanical response, even an afterthought. Oh, I wonder if God is involved in this in some specific way. Point number two, this is one who sees God's answer. A God-centered individual is the one who sees God's answer, and sometimes he doesn't even see it. Notice way back up in verse four, "I am about to give the Philistines into your hand." Verse five, "It is David who does this great slaughter, but we know from verse four, it was God himself that did that for David." We see it down in verses 12 to 13. God's answer, the one word answer, answer to prayer, "Will Saul come? He will come. Will they deliver me over? They will deliver you over." God is responding properly to David's request. David is seeking counsel. God gives an answer. He is centered on him, God delights, delights in involving himself in the life of someone who gives himself holy to the Lord, and then notice verse 16 to 18. All of the things that are going on in there, David is responding. He says, "Do not be afraid of all these things." That's God himself answering to him. Saul knows, you are going to be king. It's an encouragement of the very word that he has heard already. And then even one time, David doesn't see it. God was not giving him into the hand of Saul. God is behind all of this. This God-centered individual who can seek God's counsel and see God's answer is God is active in his protection, in his justice, in his holiness, in protecting his servant. What is Saul doing? All of these help from people. He is as if waiting for the "they" out there. They will give him some response. And when they come and give response, notice Saul in, all of his insecurity doesn't just jump out there. He says, "Go do this. Check this out. Go see these things. I've heard he's cunning. Make sure you know exactly what it is. Be certain. And when he comes back, when I finally have it all set up perfectly, I've got it all organized. I know exactly what the right answer will be, then I will go. He is man-centered, self-centered, looking out for everything around him to figure it all out. David simply looks to the Lord, gets an answer. And then thirdly, a very basic thing, a God-centered man obeys God. A God-centered man obeys God. Stay back up in verse 5, God has said, "I will give the Philistines into your hand." So David and his men arose and went to Ka'elah and delivered Ka'elah. They did what God said to do. After the long prayer and the one-word answers that God gives, notice verse 13, David and his men arose and they departed from Ka'elah. They're going to turn you in. Probably just as afraid of what Saul did to the priest at Knob, no one wants to support David. Everybody wants to support Saul and yet God is the one who's involved. And David is obeying. He follows the counsel that God gives. Saul on the other hand, Saul on the other hand is looking for help and every single time he gets some help from people and lines itself up so that he thinks he's got it all set up in the end, God refuses to deliver him. All of those counsels fail. As much as he tries to line it up and set it up to arrange it so I can figure it out perfectly even in the very end where we have no direct revelation from God. And David is, as it were on his own, hurrying to get away from Saul, having been encouraged by Jonathan, you are going to be king right at the point where they're just about to meet God sends a messenger, who knows at that point in time Saul could have said, "I got him. I'm going to get him. I'll go get the Philistines later." No. God lays it on the heart somehow that Saul responds and he goes out and attacks the Philistines. Saul is battling God and he doesn't even realize it. So a God-centered individual is the one who actively sees and recognizes God's hand. For us as believers in Christ, we have it even greater privilege than David has. Stop and think about this. David probably didn't have the Torah on his hand. He had no sense of people around him that were always encouraging him, the people that had gathered around him. We don't know what their spiritual life was like. He was on the run for 10 years out in the desert and yet still could be a God-centered person. Now think about us who are believers in Christ. Christ who is common is our prophet and our priest and our king. And the gospel has been revealed to us and our hearts have been opened up and we have trusted in him and we have been placed in a position as adult sons, adopted sons. We have been freed from our shame and our guilt and our pollution of a sin. And we have this relationship with a prophet and priest and king. How much better is our position? Is our position? As New Testament, there is no excuse for us to not be Christ-centered in our response. Gospel-centered in our response. In fact, it would be an act of treachery on our part to take all of the blessings and all of the gifts that we have been given and said, "Yeah, I'll just do it on my own now. I'll figure it out on my own. I'll figure out how I'm supposed to respond to these situations on my own. I don't need to look to you after all. I'm saved." Gospel is all about who Jesus is and what he has done. So trusting in Christ gets us further and deeper in our walk than David ever could. So what would be the pastoral goal today? What would be my hope after hearing this for all of you is that you would take steps. You would all take steps to further sharpen our focus upon God and less upon man, less upon the world when we respond to situations. Remember, we talked about that at the beginning. The situations are going to come. The difficulties, the hardships, the good things, all of them. The things that bring grief and pain and suffering and hardship, as well as the things that bring joy and peace, they all come. Are we going to respond based on and grounded in the centrality of God, the centrality of Christ? Or are we going to be looking to the world and looking to man to see what it is that I am supposed to do? We need to recognize. Recognize God is always acting in your life. John Piper is famous for saying, "God is doing thousands and thousands of things around you and you only see three." He is active, actively at work, all of his attributes being manifested in our lives. So we need to do what it takes, whatever it takes, to center and allow God's weight to become what he wants it to be, what he rightfully deserves to be in our lives, to allow his weight to rest, to take time, something we all have, take time to daily see. There's a verb that David saw, David knew, take time to see and to know what his hand is doing in our lives. Take time to sit at the end of the day and say, "How did I see the hand of God today?" I want to get past the three, I want to go see six and I want to go see nine and I want to go see fifteen so that I can recognize just how active he is in my life, to be able to focus and to seek him. We need to ask God to help us do that. Because see, that's right now for many of us, that's not our default setting. Our default setting is in our phone, it's in contact with people, it's in all the jobs that we do and all the other things that we do and family and other things to take time to be like David was in the wilderness alone and look up to God and say, the activity of him in our lives. We have the means of grace, we have the Bible, we have God's Word that we can read, that we can hear, that we can study, that we can meditate on, we have the church that we can come to and be equipped and be encouraged by others, to know God and to make him known. Help us to know, Lord, help us to know, Lord, that God himself acts through us. We are the actors in the Theodrama that he is working out in this world of redemption and we are playing our part and he is playing his part and we need to see, we need to have our eyes opened and lift up and to see just how active he is. Secondly, we need to do exactly what David did, we need to learn how to pray, folks. We need to learn how to pray at all times. We are supposed to do that according to 1 Thessalonians 5, we are supposed to give thanks, we are supposed to rejoice, we are supposed to pray, always at every time when the Spirit of God prompts us to pray, we need to lift our eyes and to see things and instead of seeing, responding with our first response which is always a thing related to the news or our default setting with the things that are going on in the world, oh my God, isn't that horrible, oh my gosh, isn't that bad, to say, Lord, these fires in California, Lord, deal with and help those people that are there, the things that are going on in Israel and Palestine, Lord, help instead of looking to see the interpretation that is on the news. We need to pray and when God gives us the answers, we need to obey. David, in the midst of all of these situations he faced, he prayed, he sought God's face, he looked for help, he wanted to know what God was going to do and he wanted to know what he should do. Saul never did that. In this passage Saul never did that, ever. As I said, in 40 years, less than a handful of times did Saul even bring the name of Yahweh, bring the name of God onto his tongue and many times the senses, it's just mechanical, it's just the Jesus' answer, it's what I'm supposed to say. For David, this was his life, this was his life. Saul was all about himself, Saul was all about to himself, about his self and for himself. Saul would have fitted in perfectly in this world as an expressive individual, doing everything that he wants to do. David would have been very unique and radical. So God, folks, wants to weigh heavier on our lives. He wants to be centered in our lives so that our responses are based on that centrality. We saw a great example of that yesterday in the Olympics, a young lady named Chloe Digert. Several years ago in the Olympics had a horrible crash, she's a bike rider, horrible crash where she went over a guardrail, went over the guardrail, injured her leg when she was in the hospital for three years, excuse me, three months, and almost thought she was going to lose her leg. Yesterday in the time trials on a rainy course, as Chloe started out on her thing, she rounded a corner on the rainy course and guess what happened? She fell again on the same injured leg. She got up, she finished the course, she got the bronze. Now many of us responding that, this is really great, she was being interviewed by a person and I counted specifically five times, five times, she mentioned either little Jesus her Savior or what God himself has done, through tears, through tears, not self-centered, not talking about her metal, not talking about all the work that I did to come back, not talking about the pain she was obviously in, God did this, God did this. We're going to have a great opportunity, folks. I love watching the Olympics, not because I like to see medals given out, not because I like to see great athletic accomplishments. I watch for the interviews. I want to see just how many people are God-centered. May the same thing be true of us. Let's pray. Please take time to pray silently. Think about how the Lord would use this passage in your life. Father, we thank You for reminding us today by just how important it is to have God being centered in our lives, to have His weight felt and understood and be the ground of our responses to the situations we face. May we be truly God-centered that we might actively see your hand at work in us, through us, and around us. We pray these things in Jesus' name, amen. and 1st Corinthians 11.