Seeking for the help of the Lord,
I direct your prayerful attention to the first book of Chronicles,
and chapter 18. 1 Chronicles chapter 18, and
we read for our text the last part of verse 13, where we read,
Thus the Lord preserved David withersoever He went. 1 Chronicles chapter 18 and the
last part of verse 13. Thus the Lord preserved David
with us forever. He went. In this chapter we have a list
of those countries that were surrounding Israel that David
and his men fought with. They subdued the Philistines,
that is mentioned there in the first verse. They made the Moabites
to pay tribute to them, to pay money for the support of Israel. They smote Hadariza and the Assyrians. They also put garrisons in Edom. and they became his servants,
and Amalek as well paid tribute to David and to Israel. David didn't travel, you might
say, very far, but it is mentioned here, wherever he went, and yet
the places where he went, in each place, there was warfare,
there was battle, there was conflict, And really there couldn't have
been a more dangerous situation that he was called to go into,
to go into battle and to fight in battle. And yet we have in
the inspired, infallible word just this line, this sentence
at the end of all of this, naming of the places that he went and
the victories that he obtained, the people that he subdued, that
thus, or in this way, the Lord preserved David whithersoever
he went. And what an emphasis there is
in this, whatever the means were used, it was the Lord that preserved
David. And we need to really remember
this, that the Lord is our preserver as well as David's, and to be
able to look above the means and to see the Lord's hand and
the Lord's protection. I want to then look at four points
this morning. We'll mention them as we come
to them. And the first is this, a sovereign
protector of God's people, the Lord. Thus the Lord, Jehovah,
preserved David with us wherever he went. Naturally speaking, if we were
to see someone and they came to our help, And certainly in
David's life, we may look at this a little later, there were
those that were the means of helping him. We'd have no difficulty
in saying that we were helped by this person or that person. But when God uses means, and
when God is invisible and in heaven, then it needs faith to
believe that he is, that he is a rewarder of them that diligently
seek him, and that he is the protector and keeper of his people. And sometimes we need to lift
our eyes like Peter needed to, above the waves and the billows,
above that which was threatening to swamp him and destroy him,
to the Lord and how he cried to the Lord as he came to the
Lord walking on the water, Lord save me and the Lord put forth
his hand and saved him. But we have to remember that
the Lord is in heaven, he does care for his people, he is the
good shepherd, the good shepherd that careth for his sheep and
his sheep are perfectly safe in his hand. The Lord says that
that they are in his hand and no man shall take them out of
his hand, and that they are in his father's hand and no man
shall take them out of his father's hand. The security and care of
God's people is an essential part of their salvation. If we rightly believe in what
the Lord has done at Calvary, that He has come, sent His beloved
Son, and Lord Jesus Christ has come, and suffered, bled, and
died, and redeemed His people, sinful as they were, deserving
as eternal death as they were, but plucked them as branch from
the burning, paid the debt owed to them, and then in their life
called them and quickened them, brought them out of nature's
darkness into His marvellous light, and to prepare them to
be with Him forever, how vital it is that right from the time
that they are brought into this world, that His protecting, care
and keeping is over them, and that it is His power. Nothing
is left to chance, nothing is left in a man's hand, but He
is in complete control. While they are in the womb, we
read of that, with David, how he is able to trace that while
he is being formed in the womb, that the Lord knew him then,
protected him then. And we think of how John Baptist,
he leapt in the womb as he heard the salutation of Mary, the mother
of the Lord that came to Elizabeth. And that protection is a vital
part of the salvation of God. We might be able to rehearse
many doctrines and truths of salvation and the expectation
of heaven and all that the Lord has done for His people, but
if we were to pluck out of that the Lord's care and the Lord's
protection and the Lord's ability to overrule men in all their
designs, to overrule Satan, to overrule even our own hearts,
then all would fall to the ground, all would be useless if it could
be said that this does not come into the jurisdiction of the
Lord. And not only are we saying here
the Lord protector of his people, but over those that are not. If he were to say, well, God
has power over his people, those whom he has redeemed, but he
doesn't have power over others, then how can the Lord be the
protector of his people if others can just do what they like with
no regard to the Lord at all? Have in the Scriptures, not only
the Lord speaking through his prophets concerning Israel, but
the prophets speak concerning the nations that are around about
Israel. And when the Lord used Nebuchadnezzar
and Babylon to punish and to chasten Israel, his people, then
he also said that he would punish them later on, which he did through
the Medes and the Persians. And right through the scriptures,
we have that not only is God over his people, he's over his
people in a very special way, but he has also power over all
nations. Who is he that saith, and it
cometh to pass, when the Lord commandeth it not? And so, when
we read, Thus the Lord preserved David with us wherever he went,
we are to lift up our thoughts to our eternal God, the God that
made heaven and the earth, and made it just with a word of his
power. and who sustains all things,
and by whom in whom we live and move and have our being. And that his power, his hand
is not shortened, that he cannot save, his hand is not shortened,
that any earthly king or people can go contrary to that word
and to his power. It is the Lord that preserves
his people. He is the shepherd of Israel. He is their Redeemer. He is the
captain of their salvation. He is their elder brother born
for adversity. He is the head of the church
of God. He is the only begotten of the
Father, full of grace and of truth. How often we need to, and these
things go right to Calvary, and see the wonderful preservation
and the overruling hand of God in our Lord Jesus Christ. Peter,
he sums it up, at Pentecost, God who delivered him up by the
determinate counsel and full knowledge of God, ye have taken
and by wicked hands crucified and slain. On one hand, you get
the deeds, the wickedness, the men, all that was seen and really
summarized by the two on the way to Emmaus, what had happened
at Jerusalem. And yet our Lord comes and he
draws near to them and he tells them that these things were all
in the plan and purpose of God. And Peter is able to do this
as well, charging the wickedness upon men, but the overruling
power and keeping and blessing to be in the hand of God. And we then are to look to that
same God and to that same protector. Our Lord said in the Garden of
Gethsemane that, thinkest thou not that I could
pray my Father and he presently Give me twelve legion of angels. But how then should the Scriptures
be fulfilled? The Lord then is that sovereign
protector. He doesn't consult with man what
he is to do, how he is to do it. He sovereignly preserves
his people. Thus the Lord preserved David
with us forever. He went with heaven and earth
at His command. He waits to answer prayer and
He works according to His will. But then secondly, what is preserved
for God's people? If we read here, thus the Lord
preserved David with her soever He went. What is preserved? He preserved David. a man after
God's own heart, one of God's children. But David, like you
and I, had a body and a soul. And if the Lord is going to preserve
his people, then he will preserve them not just half, but both,
body and soul. We must always remember that.
Now the Lord said, fear not them which kill the body, and after
that there's nothing more that they can do. But fear him who
hath power after he hath killed to cast both body and soul into
hell. Yea, fear him. And if we know
the worth and value of a soul, we know that it is much more
worth a great thing that our soul be preserved. And yet we
really, we cannot separate the two in the context here, It's
very clear that what is meant is that David was not slain,
he was not killed in battle, the Lord preserved him and watched
over him in every place that he went. So we are to think then,
what is preserved? Body and soul. But then we would realize that
for every one of us there must come a time, a time of death. A time when we might say we are
not preserved. I remember hearing a count once
and a person was relating what had happened in their lives and
that they'd been preserved. And they were one of the Lord's
people. They had a good hope, a hope beyond the grave. The
person they were relating it to said, preserved from what? And it's a good thought, isn't
it? Because when death comes, God's children, immediately with
the Lord, they're in heaven, out of reach of every adversary,
they're in the inheritance that was given them, and they are forever with the Lord,
forever blessed and ever favoured. And so in one sense, preserved
to stay here below, is kept from entering into glory. But the Lord has made it so that
while we are here below, He's given, and sadly there is some,
it's taken away from, but the desire of self-preservation,
the desire that in everything we might be kept alive, that
we be remain here, but we know that there will come a time that
however much the Lord has preserved and kept us through life, there
shall come a time when we shall die and this body shall die.
With Josiah, he was so blessed and humbled himself before God
and in finding the book of the Lord in the temple, And God said
that he would visit Israel for their sins, but he would not
see that. He would be gathered unto his
fathers in peace. And yet Josiah, he died in battle. And you might say, well, how
is that to be gathered in peace? He died in battle. But he did
not live to see all the Lord's judgment and all that came. upon
Israel because of their sin. And we should remember that.
You think of John the Baptist, so greatly used and blessed,
and yet he died at the request of a wicked woman, and immediately,
you may say into glory, but through being beheaded. There will come
a time, however much, whether it is through illness, we read
of Elisha, he fell sick, of the sickness whereof he died. God
chose that he should die through sickness. And yet he was the
means of healing others of their sicknesses. And so with even
our Lord, there was those times that they sought to take him
and to throw him down from the brow of a hill. But he went through
the midst of them. They could not touch him. His
hour was not yet come. But when it came to that hour,
when it came, to the time He said, this is your hour, and
the hour of darkness. Then it was given to men, it
was given to the Jews and the Romans, that they should take
Him, and kill Him, and crucify Him, that He should rise at the
last day. And we are to remember that.
However much the Lord preserves us through our lives, there will
come a time that the Lord will say that this is the time that
we are to be taken from this time state and into glory, and
he has chosen the means and way that that should be the case. And even though we know that,
yes, yet we should clearly rest in the Lord's preserving care
and keeping, committing ourselves unto him, not all the time thinking,
well, maybe, maybe it shall be today or tomorrow that we'll
be taken, and it takes away the comfort, the security of the
Lord's care. Now it should be the knowledge
of us day by day that our care should be cast upon the Lord,
his preserving to be trusted in body and in soul, and yet
knowing at the same time that God sovereignly will ordain that
time, that he will take us from this time stain. that beautiful hymn, hymn 64
in our hymn books. And plagues and deaths around
me fly till he bids I cannot die, not a single shaft can head
till the God of love sees fit. And the appointment, He that
formed me in the womb, he shall guide me to the tomb. All my
time shall ever be ordered by his wise decree. Beautiful hymn. Parents, native place and time,
all appointed were by him. So with David, David preserved
and kept. There's really two sides of that. It's preserved from and it is
preserved to. In the context here, David was
preserved from men, the men that he was fighting against, the
men that came against him, their sword, their spear, the Lord
preserved him from them. And we need to be preserved in
the same way from men. The fear of man, it bringeth
a snare. But when we know the Lord is
able to deliver us from man, whose breath is in his nostrils. What is man? What is man? And then there is self. We need to be preserved from
self, from doing ourselves harm. Sadly, there are those that have
no hope here, no hope beyond the grave, and they take their
own life. It's not another's hand, it's
their own hand that is used. We need to be preserved from
that, from harming ourselves. We think of David's fall as well
in a natural and spiritual way, falling into sin. That time when
he didn't go to Babylon, when he stayed at home. That one time
is marked out in David's godly life as when he was left to fall. The marks of it then felt right
through. his life, but we need to be kept
from ourselves, from our sin, from that spreeing out, working
out, how many of us feel ourselves to be our worst enemy, one that
we need to be preserved from, because wherever we go we will
bring our own self, we won't be able to escape from ourselves. then it's the world, the spirit
of the world, that life in sin and wickedness that we are in,
we are part of. Yet the Lord has said, know ye
not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? And all that is in the world,
the lust of the flesh, the desire of the eye, and the pride of
life, that is not of the Lord, not of God, but is of this world,
and answers to exactly that of which Eve, our first parent,
fell by in seeing those things that were pleasing to the eye
and the lust of the flesh and to be desired and the pride in
the heart to think that she was above God and would make a better
decision to take sides with Satan than to believe in God. Do we
need to be preserved from the world and the spirit of it, preserved
from Satan who goeth about as a roaring lion seeking whom he
may devour, from all his wiles and all his traps and all his
snares for the people of God. There's many things we need to
be preserved from, preserved from error, spiritual error,
doctrinal error, influence that turns us away from the Word of
God, away from the people of God, away from the truth as it
is in Jesus. What it is that God's people
are preserved, what they are preserved from, but they are
preserved too. Preserved body and soul, to heaven,
that the Lord will redeem them and bring them at last to be
with him. Father, I will that they whom
thou hast given me be with me where I am, that they may behold
my glory. And we have to remember those
two signs in the preservation of the Lord, preserved from and
preserved to. Preserved to glory. And this
is the Lord's doing. The third thing I notice is the
Lord's preservation is not limited to one place. Our text says,
the Lord preserved David whithersoever he went. Now certainly in a natural point
of view, there are some places that we might be more safe than
others. And if we are especially under
the protection of a man or a king, then while we are in his domain,
then we have his protection. If we go out of that domain,
then we would not have that protection. In a natural way, it is limited
to jurisdiction or to where we are. But it's a wonderful realization
The Lord's dominion, Lord's domain, is throughout all of the earth. This is what David, when he wrote
Psalm 139, realized. He says that even if I ascend
up into heaven, he says, whither shall I go from thy spirit, or
whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend up into
heaven, thou art there. If I make my bed in hell, behold,
there up there, if I take the wings of the morning and dwell
in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there shall thy hand
lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me. And he has a very clear
view that wherever he went, that the Lord would be seeing him,
he'd know him, his hand would hold him, and he would preserve
him. stated in our text, thus the
Lord preserved David whithersoever he went. And what a picture we
have in the word of God's children. With Abraham, the Lord called
him out of the Ur of Chaldees and he brought him into Canaan. And then in his sojourns up and
down Canaan, into Egypt, and then out of Egypt and in the
time of famine, but the Lord watched over Abraham. Isaac likewise,
when there was famine in Canaan, he went down to the Philistines. The Lord watched over him there.
With Jacob, Jacob, he fled from his brother Esau and he left
his home. He went to Syria to Laban, his
uncle, And then after 20 or so years there, then he leaves with
his family. They go to Shechem. At Shechem,
his sons, Simeon and Levi, kill all the inhabitants there. Jacob,
he says, that they'd made his name to stink. He goes away from
there. And the Lord's hand was on the
nations. They didn't pursue after Jacob. But he goes then to Canaan. And
then later on, of course, after Joseph's gone, before he goes
into Egypt, they were a nomadic people. And one reason for that
is because the Lord has said regarding Canaan, that though
they were in it, yet that land was given them by promise. And
until they came out as a nation from Egypt to Canaan, The Lord
would not give them a foot in it at all. And we have to remember
here below that we also are pilgrims. We may call our houses by our
names, we may say that we dwell in one place or another, but
the place that knows us now shall one day know us no more forever. The Lord has said, this is not
your rest, it is polluted. And wherever we go in the world,
that will be the case. We can go back the time we went
to visit again where we first lived over in Australia and saw
the house just as rubble. They just reduced it to rubble
to build something else on the spot. And we can visit places
where we've lived for many, many years. And others have it, and
they do what they like with it. They may pull it down. But we
are not known there at all. It doesn't know us there at all.
and God's children are reminded that this is not their rest and
however much they might stay for a seasonal time in one place,
that at last the Lord will bring them to heaven. And yet as we
move around here below to prove like those saints of old did,
Joseph did, Naomi did, Daniel did, brought from Israel to Babylon and all that
he had there. When we think of Paul and the
missionary journeys and the countries that he went to, the places that
he went, we go back to Moses and the time that he had in Pharaoh's
household and then the time in the backside of the desert with
Jethro, 40 years each time. And then to lead the children
of Israel 40 years through the desert. The people of God had
the Lord's protection in every place that they went. It was
not limited to one place. And that is a good thing for
us to remember as well. Wherever we go, the Lord's people
are what is precious to Him. It is the people. You might say,
not the place, or not where they go. He's watching over His people. They are His redeemed people.
They are what is precious to Him. And He is watching over
them. and their dwelling places. It's
always a precious thing in going there. I believe we have proved
it many times. The first time you go to another
place or a new house, the first time the Lord blesses us there,
it's like a seal of His presence, His blessing that we know this
truth Yet to have those first blessings, first visits, first
sacred sense of his presence is a lovely thing to have. And those tokens that the Lord
is in each place. And is mindful of each place. I always remember the time that
I went to preach at Luton, Ebenezer, that's when Dad was unwell, and
I'd been very unwilling to go. I was very, very low, very disheartened
and not knowing how to preach. But at last I went, and as I
pulled up at Ebenezer Luton and turned the car engine off, then
the phone rang. And my dear one had rung, and
to tell that my sister had phoned, Dad had gone into hospital over
in Australia and she'd felt very reluctant to let me know because
I was already very low and disheartened and what effect it would have
on me. The effect it had was to really lift me up and encourage
me because the timing of that phone call was not when I was
on the road when I couldn't have answered it, no hands free then,
but it was exactly when I'd stopped and It was as if the Lord showed
me, He knew where my father was, He knew where I was, He was with
him over in Australia, and He was with me there in Ebenezer
Luton, and just the realisation that He knew where we were in
those two places, knew where I was and where my ministry was,
and where it was, it lifted me up. I had a really good day that
day, really encouraged and really strengthened. And the Lord knows
how He will use various things, sometimes things we never would
think to pick us up and to encourage us. And yet it surrounds this
realisation wherever we go that the Lord is with His people.
That doesn't mean that we should be careless, prayerless, indifferent,
and going to places where we cannot expect the Lord's blessing
or care. But when we think of Jonah, who
thinks he's going to run away from the Lord, and yet the Lord
still is gracious and merciful. He still watches over him, provides
him the fish, swallows him up, vomits him out on the dry land,
and uses the experience to make him willing again to go and preach
to the Ninevites. The Lord is good to his people. He remembers that we are but
dust, and when we wander from him, he does bring us back again. But may we remember then, as
from our text here, that the Lord's preservation is not limited
to one place. And lastly, the manner or way
of preservation. The outtake says, thus the Lord
preserved David with us wherever he went. And a bit similar to
what we have in Psalm 107, so he bringeth them unto their desired
haven or in this manner and in this way. and really in every
one of the lives, the experiences of God's children, their story
of their life, we would say in this manner, the Lord has brought
them through life. All the things that they've gone
through, how he's blessed them, how he's brought them into church
membership, how he has provided for them. Each one will have
a different story, a different account, a different way that
the Lord has done that. And so here it is thus, the Lord,
or in this way, the Lord preserved David with us wherever he went. We know from the accounts of
David, especially when he was fleeing from King Saul, there
were some very remarkable times that the Lord did preserve him.
Of course, he preserved him from the lion and from the bear. He
preserved him from Goliath delivered him out of his hand through the
stone and the sling and Goliath's own sword. But there was those
times that Saul seemed to be so close to David. When they
were in the wilderness of Mahon, there was a mountain there, Saul
was on one side and David and his men the other side. And we
read that David and his men were hasting, they were running away
from Saul, they were very fearful. But then there came a messenger
to Saul, the Philistines have invaded the land. And so Saul,
he leaves off following David and he goes to fight the Philistines. And the Lord used that way to
preserve David from Saul's sword. There was a time that one of
the sons of the giant was fighting with David and David was very
weary and the giant thought to kill David and the Lord used
Abishai to come and deliver him out of the giant's hand. So close
sometimes it seemed that he almost was to be slain and then the
Lord used some means of delivering him and saving him And we are
to look and watch and notice those means that the Lord uses,
how easy it is to pass over them, to not give the Lord the praise
and honour and glory, and often it is good to go back when we
have been fearful and afraid, and then that fear has gone away,
to bring ourselves back in our minds to when we are fearful
and crying and praying to the Lord, and think, What if this
thing hadn't have happened? What if it was still the same?
What situation would I be in then? Sometimes it's simple things.
Maybe we've lost something. Lost a key or something like
that. And we cry to the Lord and ask
that He'd find it for us. And then we found it. And so easy it is to just go
on our way and not think, well, what happens if we hadn't have
found it? What if we never had that again? Many things like
that, and it's good for us to go back. Maybe we feared that
we'd be ill over a certain time, and the Lord's given us health
and strength, and we just take that for granted, not preserved
in health. But if we were to think, well,
what if I was sick? What if I was ill over this time? How would that be then? And then
in the light of that, to be able to see more clearly the blessing
of the Lord. We take many things for granted
and pass by the Lord's preserving and keeping. We mentioned about
Jacob with Shechem and he really feared that what they'd done
in destroying that town, that city, that all the nations round
about would come and fight against him and he was just a company
of relatively young children and the flocks, but we read that
the Lord put the fear of God in those nations. They didn't
pursue after Jacob and the Holy Inspired Word of God records
why they didn't do that. We think later when Esau was
coming and Jacob heard of it, 400 men, And he feared. He went before the Lord in prayer.
He told the Lord that he feared Esau. He feared for the mother,
the children. And he wrestled. He pleaded with
the Lord. They wrestled a man with him
till the breaking of the day. And Jacob said, I will not let
thee go except thou bless me. The Lord appeared for him. And
when Esau, he embraced him. The Lord took away the anger,
the enmity, and he said, I saw thy face as the face of an angel. How many times have we maybe
feared a meeting, or feared someone's face, or feared the worst, and
it has turned out completely opposite. And we realize the
Lord has appeared. He has answered prayer. He has
delivered us from our fears. The Lord did that for him. Joseph,
when he went to his brothers, some of them they advised to
kill him. And indeed they did make that
out to Jacob, but instead there comes by the Israelites and so
the idea is thought that they'll sell him instead. And you think
how much harm upon that change of plan and change of thought.
Now the whole of the preserving of their own lives, of Joseph
into Egypt, and everything hung upon him. The Lord preserved
Joseph, and then later on, when he was tempted with Botipha's
wife, he preserved him in a spiritual way. He did not fall. How can
I sin and do this evil against the Lord? And how did the Lord
preserve him, put his fear in his heart, and so he fled, and
he left his garment in her hand, But he ran away from that temptation. The different ways the Lord watched
over Joseph, and again and again we read the Lord was with Joseph. We think with Daniel, when he
came into Babylon, one great temptation was all of the king's
food and everything that was of worldly nature there. He could
have completely left his own faith and his own people, but
he didn't. And he wanted just to eat plain
food, and he served the Lord. And the Lord reserved his spirit.
And he read, an excellent spirit was found in David. And the Lord
reserved that spirit. It wasn't marred by where he
was in Babylon. Now, Daniel had no choices to
going to Babylon at all. He is taken as a captive and
into a very hostile environment, but in that environment he was
kept pure and in the fear of the Lord. And you think then
later on in a physical way, when he is persecuted for continuing
to pray to the Lord instead of making supplication to the King,
thrown into the lion's den, and in the morning to rise he cries
is thy God whom thou service continually able to deliver thee
from the mouth of the lions and the answer that came what a wonderful
answer that my God has sent his angel and he has stopped the
lion's mouths the Lord preserved and kept Daniel in that way I
know we are not In any way to presume, we have a most solemn
reminder of that with Satan tempting our Lord, even with the words
of the psalm that we read, where we read in Psalm 91, that he
shall give his angels charge over thee to keep thee in all
thy ways. They shall bear thee up in their
hands, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone. And Satan said
to our Lord, that is written there, therefore cast thyself
down from the pinnacle of the temple, the Lord will preserve
thee. And the Lord answered him, thou
shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. And so we mustn't take the
reservation or the promise of him and abuse him before the
Lord. But like with Paul, Paul is able
to give summary when he writes to the Corinthians in his second
epistle to them in the 11th chapter and he gives a summary of those
things that he suffered and went in and he says that he was in
prisons often more frequent in deaths oft the Jews five times
received I 40 stripes save one thrice was I beaten with rods
Once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwrecked, a night and a day
I've been in the deep, in journeyings often, in perils of waters, in
perils of robbers, in perils by my own countrymen, in perils
by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness,
in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren, in weariness
and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst,
in fastings, often in cold and nakedness. And that is the picture
of the Apostle in all the journeys that he made, and yet the preserving
care and keeping of the Lord over him. And it must be a source
of praise, of thanksgiving to God, when we notice the Lord's
preserving care. The end of Psalm 107, Whoso is
wise and will observe these things, even they shall understand the
loving kindness of the Lord. So when we have our text, thus
the Lord preserved David with us wherever he went. May we be
able to translate that to our lives and all the places that
we go and have been, that the Lord will preserve us also and
that we are to notice how he does that. It doesn't mean that
we won't have tribulation. It didn't mean that Paul did
not have to go through many of those things. But the Lord, we
can rely on to preserve us by body and soul, preserve us from
those things here below, and preserve us unto his eternal
kingdom. And these are things we need
to seek the Lord for, to commit unto him, and to put him in remembrance
of, the Lord would grant us these same blessings.