Now you'll recall where we ended
a few weeks ago, as Saul had wanted to kill David, and Jonathan,
Saul's son, interceded for David. Smoothed the situation over,
and David was restored to Saul as before. Everything looked
wonderful. But you know, in the life of
a believer, this is one thing we've all learned, that there
are times of peace, and there are times of war, times of trouble
and trial. And we enjoy the times of peace,
but if we're wise, any understanding of God's word, we know that a
time of war is coming. David had been restored to Saul's
before, but if you look in verse 8, we see there was war again.
And there was war again, and David went out and fought with
the Philistines and slew them with a great slaughter, and they
fled from him. In the life of a believer, it's
full. of trouble and trials. That's
what man's days are full of. But now don't lose hope when
we find our life full of these troubles and trials, because
our champion is always there to fight our battles. Israel
had David. Believers have Christ, the son
of David. And our enemies will always be
destroyed and flee from Christ our champion when he takes the
field. Now David took the field, the Philistines fled from him
and that just made Saul jealous and hate David again. It just
started all over again in verse 9. And the evil spirit from the
Lord was upon Saul as he sat in his house with his javelin
in his hand. And David played with his hand.
And Saul sought to smite David even to the wall with the javelin.
But he slipped away out of Saul's presence and he smote the javelin
into the wall and David fled and escaped that night. And Saul
also sent messengers unto David's house to watch him and to slay
him in the morning. And Michael, David's wife, told
him, saying, If thou save not thy life tonight, tomorrow thou
shalt be slain. So Michael let David down through
a window, and he went and fled and escaped. And Michael took
an image and laid it in his bed and put a pillow of goat's hair
for his bolster and covered it with a cloth. And when Saul sent
messengers to take David, she said, Now, I wondered when I
read this, what kind of man sits around his house with a spear
in his hand, just sitting in his house with this javelin in
his hand? Well, it's a man who's constantly spoiling for a fight.
And that's the kind of man Saul was. And he was determined to
kill David again. He keeps trying to do this. He
keeps trying to throw that javelin and nail David to the wall. But
again, he missed and David escaped. So Saul sends his men to surround
David's house. And as soon as he comes out in
the morning, they're supposed to kill David. Now, you know, this
situation seems very, very dire. David's surrounded. It doesn't
look like there's a way of escape. But we know the purpose of God
will always be accomplished. And the Lord frequently uses
his enemies to accomplish his purpose. do some good for his
children or for his namesake. And he does that to show us he
is in absolute control. Pharaoh was determined to get
rid of that deliverer born in Egypt to the Israelites. But
Pharaoh was the very fellow that raised up Moses, taught him so
many things, and he was the deliverer that led Israel out of Egypt.
raised Jonathan to intercede for David and keep David alive. Saul raised Michael, his daughter,
to love David and devise a plan to set David free. Saul meant
for Michael to be a trap for David. The Lord used Michael
to set David free from Saul's trap. The Lord does that to show
us he is in absolute control. So what Michael does, well let's
look here Pick up reading here in verse 14. And when Saul sent
messengers to take David, she said, he's sick. And Saul sent
the messengers again to see David saying, bring him up to me in
the bed that I may slay him. And when the messengers were
coming in, behold, there was an image in the bed with a pillow
of goat's hair for his bolster. And Saul said unto Michael, why
hast thou deceived me so and sent away mine enemy that he
has escaped? And Michael answered Saul, he
said unto me, let me go. Why should I kill thee? So David
fled and escaped and came to Samuel, to Ramah, and told him
all that Saul had done to him. And he and Samuel went and dwelt
in Naob. Now Saul's plan probably was
to take David as early in the morning as possible, you know,
when he came out of the house. They would take him, quickly
set up a mock trial and execute him as a traitor. And that way,
you know, before any of the people knew what was going on, David
would be dead. Much the same way, the Lord,
The Pharisees dealt with our Lord, taking him by night and
dealing with him by night so they could do these things quickly
before the people would rise up and try to stop them. And
Michael told David, or told the men that came to take David,
well, now he's not coming out this morning because he's sick.
So he went back and told Saul, well, we can't get him. And Saul
said, I don't care if he is sick. If he can't get out of bed, carry
him in his bed to me. It doesn't matter to me whether
he's sick or he's well. I'm going to kill him anyway. And when
Michael's plan was uncovered that David had escaped, I thought
this was interesting. And this tells you a lot about
Saul. She lied about what David had said. David never told her
he was going to kill her. She didn't help him escape. You
know, she lied about David because she was afraid of her own father. Now, what kind of man has his
own daughter afraid of him? Shawn, you're two daughters.
Can you imagine? being in trouble, not coming
to you for help, instead of being afraid of him. What kind of man
has his daughters afraid of? This is the kind of man that
Saul is. So David's escaped. Well, Saul's
just not going to give up that easily. Look at verse 19. And
it was told Saul, saying, Behold, David is in Maoth and Ramah.
And Saul sent messengers to take David. And when they saw the
company of the prophets prophesying, and Samuel standing as appointed
over them, The Spirit of God was upon the messengers of Saul,
and they also prophesied. And when it was told Saul, he
sent other messengers, and they prophesied likewise. And Saul
sent messengers again the third time, and they prophesied also."
Now, David is hiding out with Samuel in this place where Samuel
had a school for the prophets. And you know, it's a good idea
for us to do the same thing as David did. When we're in trouble,
we'd be wise if we went and found God's prophet. Now, I'm not telling
you he's going to have all the answers for our problems, but
I would not be surprised if when we're in trouble, we go find
God's prophet. God's given him a message for
us. It wouldn't surprise me in the least. As a matter of fact,
I expect it. So David went and found God's prophet, and Saul
sent men to lay hold on David and kill And they found themselves,
instead of laying hold on David, they found themselves laid hold
upon by the Holy Spirit. Instead of taking David and killing
him, they joined him in worship. It says here they prophesied. They joined in the worship and
the singing. Some of the old writers say that
they did actually prophesy of the future. They prophesied of
David's reign instead of Saul's. I don't know if they did that
or not, but certainly we know that they worshipped. And this
shows us the power of the Lord over men. We may not be concerned
about the activities of men around us. The Lord is in absolute control
over these people. He gave these men a new spirit.
He can turn the hearts, not just of the king, but of any man.
He turns it withersoever he will. Weren't the believers in Damascus
awful glad? When the Lord did that to Saul
of Tarsus, they could have been terrified of this man coming.
They need not be terrified of that man. The Lord just gave
him a new heart, just turned him on a dime. The Lord can do
that, and that's what he did to these men. So, verse 22, then
went Saul also to Ramah, and came to a great well that is
in Sheku. And he asked and said, where
are Samuel and David? And one said, Behold, they beat
Naoth and Ramah. And he went thither to Naoth
and Ramah, and the Spirit of God was upon him also. And he
went and prophesied." He started prophesying before he even got
there. "'Until he came to Naoth and Ramah, and he stripped off
his clothes also.'" That means he stripped off his royal clothes.
"'And he prophesied before Samuel in like manner, and lay down
naked all that day and all that night. Wherefore they say, Is
Saul also among the prophets?' Saul came to take David. Even
Saul couldn't kill David, because the Holy Spirit laid hold upon
him, and he prophesied. He joined in the worship. Saul
may have even prophesied of David's reign taking his place. You know,
and that just always scares me to death. Here's Saul, a reprobate,
prophesying It's just temporary. It's not something that's going
to last. But you know, the Lord caused Balaam to preach a wonderful
gospel message. The Lord used Caiaphas, whose
intent was to put the Lord to death, to preach a wonderful
gospel message of substitution. He'd do the same thing to Saul
too. And Saul, he prophesied, he laid in this trance all night
long. My goodness, you know, it looks
like he's so filled with the Holy Spirit. You know, people
are amazed. But they weren't. They were skeptical. You know,
this is a very kind of a sarcastic tone. They said, is Saul also
among the prophets? They really didn't believe it.
But at any rate, David was delivered. Now, that's an amazing story,
how David was delivered from this trial. Well, you wonder
why David went through this trial? What's the, what was God's purpose
in putting David through this trial? Well, during that dark
night, when Michael let David out of the window in a basket,
he escaped into the field. He's hiding in the field at night.
David wrote Psalm 59 that night. Now, turn over there to Psalm
59. We're going to look for a few minutes at this psalm. You know,
if David had not gone through that awful trial, we never would
have had this blessed psalm. This trial taught David more
about the Lord and more about the power of the Lord. Spurgeon
said that affliction is the tuner of harps, of sanctified songsters. And this affliction that David
went through tuned his heart to write this psalm of praise.
He said in verse one, deliver me from mine enemies, O my God.
Deliver me from them that rise up against me. Deliver me from
the workers of iniquity and save me from bloody men. Like I said
at the beginning, a believer is going to have times of trial.
We're going to have times when the enemy or the trial has surrounded
us on every side. We've got troubles within and
without. Well, what are we to do when we find ourselves in
that situation? Well, this is what David's teaching
us. He's teaching us to pray for deliverance. Pray to the
Lord. He's the only one who's able
to deliver. And that's what David does. He
says in verse 3, for Lo, They lie in wait for my soul. The
mighty are gathered against me, not for my transgression nor
for my sin, O Lord. They run and prepare themselves
without my fault, awake to help me and behold." Now, you know,
you can do everything right. You can live your life just exactly
the way that you're supposed to live it, but that does not
insulate you from trouble and trial. You can still find yourself
hated and suffering these trials and things, David didn't do anything
to deserve this treatment from Saul, but here he is in this
situation. Look over at 1 Peter 3. Now,
it's best to be innocent. David was innocent. He didn't
deserve this treatment from Saul. And Peter gives us some instruction
here on this very matter. 1 Peter 3, verse 13. Who is he that will harm you
if you be followers of that which is good? But, and if you suffer
for righteousness' sake, Happy are ye, and be not afraid of
their terror, neither be troubled. But sanctify the Lord God in
your hearts, and be ready always to give an answer to every man
that asketh you, a reason of the hope that is in you. And
do it with meekness and fear, having a good conscience, that
whereas they speak evil of you as evildoers, they may be ashamed
that falsely accuse your good conversation in Christ. For it
is better, if the will of God be so, that ye suffer for well-doing
than for evil-doing." It's better that you suffer for well-doing
temporarily than suffer for evil-doing eternally. Now look over at chapter
4, verse 12. Now suppose you're like David, you
have done everything right. You don't deserve this treatment.
Well, Peter says, Beloved, think it not strange concerning the
fiery trial that is to try you. as though some strange thing
happened unto you, but rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers
of Christ's sufferings, that when his glory shall be revealed,
ye may be glad also with exceeding joy. If ye be reproached for
the name of Christ, happy are ye, for the spirit of glory and
of God resteth upon you. On their part he is evil spoken
of, but on your part he is glorified. But let none of you suffer as
a murderer, or as a thief, or as an evildoer, or as a busybody
in other men's matters. Yet if any man suffer as a Christian,
let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God on this behalf."
Now, it's best that we be innocent. That's what Peter's saying. Don't
suffer as a murderer, or a thief, or these things. It's best that
you be innocent before men, because then you can have some confidence,
can't you? And if you're not If you're guilty
of being a murderer or thief or whatever, it's awful hard
to ask the Holy One to deliver you, spare you from punishment
if you're guilty. You know, the punishment that you deserve before
men. And we ought to be innocent before
men. But you know, none of us are
innocent before God, are we? None of us are. Well, what should
you do then when you're guilty before God? Well, I'll tell you
this. There is no better reason than
our guilt to throw ourselves on the mercy of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Just throw yourself upon his
mercy, throw yourself at his feet and beg for salvation and
deliverance. Christ is the only Savior of
sinners. If you're guilty, if you're a
sinner, come to him. Beg him for mercy and salvation. He'll show it. Well, David goes
on in verse 5 of our text, and he says, Thou therefore, O Lord
God of hosts, the God of Israel, awake to visit all the heathen.
Be not merciful to any wicked transgressors. You know, even
when we are surrounded by trouble, a believer can have confidence. And here's our confidence. Who
is David begging for help? Well, he's begging God. And he
describes God with two names that give the believer so much
confidence, give confidence to those who know his name. First,
David says he's begging for mercy, begging for help from the Lord
God of hosts. That's a military term, the captain
of the armies of heaven. He's able to deliver because
he's got all power, he's got all might, none can stay his
hand. None can stand in the way of
his wrath and his purpose. He's the Lord God of hosts. He's able to deliver. Second,
David's crying for deliverance, for help from the God of Israel. Now the God of Israel is the
covenant God who swore to save his people. He's the holy God. He won't be merciful to the wicked.
But he will be merciful to spiritual Israel because he's established
his covenant with them. He'll be merciful to Israel.
The Lord God of hosts is Abel, God of Israel, who has covenant
mercies reserved for his people. That's who he's crying to. And
in prayer, it's always wise to plead the character of God and
the word of God. He'll honor that, his character
and his word. Now the next verses, David's
pleading for help because his enemies are too much for him.
They're too powerful for him. You know, I thought of the saying,
people say it, you hear it, the Lord helps those who help themselves.
And that just breaks on my last nerve, like fingers on chalkboard.
David is teaching us to pray, Lord, help me because I cannot
help myself. That's who needs help. Look at
verse six. They return at evening. They make noise like a dog. They
go round about the city. Behold, they belch out with their
mouth. Swords are in their lips. For who, say they, doth hear?
Now, you notice who's got all the earthly power here? Not David. Not God's anointed. It's the
wicked that's got all the power. They're the ones that are holding
all the cards. And they still operate under the cover of darkness
because they know their deeds are wicked. This is just the
way they operate. They're like wild beasts who come around to
kill. You know, they've picked up the
sin of blood and they just come just driven wild by the sin of
this blood. They belch out blasphemy out
of their mouth just like smokestacks belch out pollution. And they're
completely unafraid because they think, who's going to hear that
can stop me? Who hears me that can do anything
about it? Well, they think they're too
powerful to be called into account. But they're nothing compared
to God. Look at verse 8. But thou, O Lord, shalt laugh
at them. Thou shalt have all the heathen
in derision. You know, we're afraid of the
wicked surrounding us. We're afraid of the trial that's
surrounding us because they're more powerful than we are. But
God's not afraid. You know, we shake in our boots.
He just laughs. They're nothing to him. The Lord
doesn't even trouble himself with these wicked men. any more
than any of us would trouble ourselves at the threats of a
three-year-old. You'd just laugh. It's just laughable.
Well, if the Lord doesn't trouble himself about these wicked, we
shouldn't trouble ourselves about them either, certainly. God's
in control. So, verse 9, David says, because
of his strength will I wait upon thee, for God is my defense. Now, there are so many reasons
to wait on the Lord. I'll give you three. His power. We can wait on the Lord because
of his power. He is able to deliver. He is
able to handle any situation. Second, we wait on the Lord because
of his wisdom. He'll know just when to enact
his power to deliver us and handle this situation. And third, we
wait on the Lord because of his loving kindness. He will deliver
because he loves his people. There's an article on the back
of the bulletin. Lord, don't you care we perish? His loving
kindness. He'll act for his people because
he loves his people. No matter what the situation
we find ourselves in, we are safe in the Lord Jesus Christ. He is our defense. David goes
on in verse 10. He says, the God of my mercy
shall prevent me. God shall let me see my desire
upon mine enemies. Now the word prevent here doesn't
mean to stop. It is not saying God will stop
me. The word prevent means to go before. Now trials come upon
us as a complete surprise. We don't see them coming, do
we? David didn't see this situation coming. It took him by surprise. But it didn't take the Lord by
surprise because he's the one who sent it. It came at his time
according to his purpose. But long before the Lord sends
the trial to his people, he's sending mercy. going before us
to prepare the path. This is provenient mercy. Mercy
that goes before preparing the path. And David is so confident. He says, I'm going to see my
desire upon mine enemies. He's confident of this. But the
words my desire there you'll see are in italics. They've been
added by the translators and it really detracts from the meaning
of this verse. What David's saying is God shall
let me see upon mine enemies. God will let me see. He will
let me look upon mine enemies. He'll let me look them in the
eye without fear, because God is my defense, because God is
with me. That's what that means. So verse
11, David says, Slay them not, lest my people forget. Scatter
them by thy power and bring them down. O God, our shield. And
I thought it was interesting that David didn't pray for the
quick annihilation of his enemies. What he prays is, make them like
Cain. Put a curse upon them and scatter them across the earth
as living monuments of divine power. Scatter them across the
earth and let them see, so the earth will see that his power
is engaged for the good of his elect. There be a living monument,
this is what happens to those who oppose God and oppose his
people. In verse 12, he goes on, he says, for the sin of their
mouth and the words of their lips, let them even be taken
in their pride and for cursing and lying which they speak. Let
them be caught in their own pride. Let them be caught in their own
traps, the traps that they set for thy people. And you see that
happen frequently. You know, some of them, they
set traps for God's people and they end up falling in that very
trap. You see it time and time again
in the scriptures. Then David prays in verse 13, consume them
in thy wrath, consume them that they may not be, and let them
know that God ruleth in Jacob unto the ends of the earth. Now
David prays that his enemies be consumed, but he doesn't pray
that his enemies be consumed so that he'll be free from them
and he'll have relief from his enemies. He prays that the Lord
will consume his enemies so the heathen will know. God reigns,
that God reigns. And he says that God reign in
Jacob. Now earlier, David prayed to
the God of Israel, the covenant God. But here he wants the heathen
to know that God ruleth in Jacob. And I looked and looked and looked
at that. I looked for help in different commentaries and didn't
find much, quite honestly. But I think this is what this
means. God sees his elect as Israel, doesn't he? Prince of
God. been made a new creature, Israel,
Prince of God. How does the world see us? The
world sees us as Jacob, sinners, cheats and supplanters. This is what's good for the heathen
and for us to learn. God's rule is absolute and he
rules for the protection and for the salvation of Jacob, of
Jacob, a sinful people. We don't deserve it. But he rules
for the salvation of a sinful people, Jacob. Now, what's your
reaction to that? The healing they may raise about
it. My reaction was, God be merciful to me, the sinner. Come beg him
for mercy. He rules for Jacob. He rules
in Jacob. Now, verse 14. And at evening,
let them return and let them make a noise like a dog and go
around about the city. Let them wander up and down for
meat and grudge if they be not satisfied. Let these wicked be
disappointed like a wild beast." You know, when David talks about
dogs here, you know, dogs in his day were wild beasts. They're
not, you know, tame house pets like what we have. They're wild
beasts. And he says, let them go around like wild beasts that
have arrived at the kill too late. They got there, all the
meat's picked off the bones, and they're disappointed. You
know, you see it on the animal planet. You know, the animals
that get to the kill too late and they're just agitated. They're
just running around and growling and roaring. You know, they're
agitated because they got there too late. They cannot be satisfied. The wicked can never be satisfied. And the only satisfaction any
son of Adam can find is in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's where
we find our satisfaction is in Him. So verse 16, now here in
the darkness of all this trial, David's praying for deliverance,
and before he sees the deliverance, look what he says. But I will
sing of thy power. Yea, I will sing aloud of thy
mercy in the morning, for thou hast been my defense and refuge
in the day of my trouble. Unto thee, O my strength, will
I sing, for God is my defense and the God of my mercy. During
that dark night, David didn't know how this was going to play
out. He had no idea. But he was so confident that
God would deliver him that he says, in the morning, I'm going
to be singing. In the morning, I'm going to
be singing. Either way, I'm going to sing in the morning. Either
they're going to get me and put this body in the ground and I'm
going to be in the morning singing in the presence of my Redeemer
or I'm going to be delivered. And on this earth, I'm going
to be singing the praises of my Redeemer, either way. And
you know the end of the story. What did David end up doing in
the morning? Not only did he end up singing and worshiping,
he ended up singing and worshiping with those fellows that Saul
came to kill him. He ended up singing with Saul
himself. God delivered him. In the morning, he was singing. You know, Andrew and I were talking
about this Friday night. Trials are very, very unpleasant
to this flesh. And they cause the unbeliever
to depart. This is a hard saying. Who can
hear it? This is a hard situation. Who can endure it? And they depart.
Trials in darkness of night drive the believer to Christ. Lord,
to whom shall we go? That he's the only one that we
can go to. But more than that, even in darkness, The believer,
with eyes of faith, sees the Lord Jesus Christ. Even in the
darkness of night, even when it seems like we're in total
despair and we're going down for the third time, even then,
the believer, with eyes of faith, sees the mercy and protection
of our God. That's the way David, and I close
my Bible to sing, that's the way he ended this song. Even
in the darkness of that night, He said, I'm going to send to
the God of my mercy, even in the darkness of night, even when
he didn't see deliverance yet, he trusted in the God of my mercy. Lord bless you.