So we are going to 1 Samuel chapter
23 and we'll read from verse 1. Then they told David, saying,
Behold, the Philistines fight against Caela, and they rob the
threshing floors. Therefore David inquired of the
Lord, saying, Shall I go and smite these Philistines? And
the Lord said unto David, Go, and smite the Philistines, and
save Calah. And David's men said unto him,
Behold, we be afraid here in Judah. How much more then, if
we come to Calah against the armies of the Philistines? Then
David inquired of the Lord yet again, and the Lord answered
him and said, Arise, go down to Calah, for I will deliver
the Philistines into thine hand. So David and his men went to
Calah, and fought with the Philistines, and brought away their cattle,
and smote them with a great slaughter. So David saved the inhabitants
of Calah. And it came to pass, when Abiathar
the son of Ahimelech fled to David to Cala, that he came down
with an ephod in his hand. And it was told Saul that David
was come to Cala. And Saul said, God hath delivered
him into mine hand, for he is shut in, by entering into a town
that hath gates and bars. And Saul called all the people
together to war, to go down to Cala, to besiege David and his
men. And David knew that Saul secretly
practised mischief against him. And he said to Abiathar the priest,
bring hither the ephod. Then said David, O Lord God of
Israel, thy servant hath certainly heard that Saul seeketh to come
to Cala to destroy the city for my sake. Will the men of Cala
deliver me up into his hand? Will Saul come down, as thy servant
hath heard? O Lord God of Israel, I beseech
thee, tell thy servant. And the Lord said, He will come
down. Then said David, will the men
of Caela deliver me and my men into the hand of Saul? And the
Lord said, They will deliver thee. Then David and his men,
which were about six hundred, arose and departed out of Caela,
and went whithersoever they could. And it was told Saul that David
was escaped from Caela, and he forbear to go forth. And David
abode in the wilderness in strongholds, and remained in a mountain in
the wilderness of Ziph. And Saul sought him every day,
but God delivered him not into his hand. And David saw that
Saul was come out to seek his life, and David was in the wilderness
of Ziph in a wood. And Jonathan, Saul's son, arose
and went to David in the wood, and strengthened his hand in
God. And he said unto him, Fear not,
for the hand of Saul my father shall not find thee, and thou
shalt be king over Israel, and I shall be next unto thee, and
that also Saul my father knoweth. And they too made a covenant
before the Lord, and David abode in the wood, and Jonathan went
to his house. Then came up the Ziphites to
Saul to Gebeah, saying, Doth not David hide himself with us
in strongholds in the wood in the hill of Hachilah, which is
on the south of Jeshimon? Now therefore, O king, come down
according to all the desire of thy soul to come down, and our
part shall be to deliver him into the king's hand. And Saul
said, Blessed be ye of the Lord, for ye have compassion on me.
Go, I pray you, prepare yet, and know and see his place where
his haunt is. And who hath seen him there?
For it is told me that he dealeth very subtly. See, therefore,
and take knowledge of all the lurking places where he hideth
himself, and come ye again to me with the certainty, and I
will go with you, and it shall come to pass, if he be in the
land, that I will search him out throughout all the thousands
of Judah.' And they arose and went to Ziph before Saul. But
David and his men were in the wilderness of Man in the plain the south of Jeshimun. Saul also
and his men went to seek him and they told David wherefore
he came down into a rock and abode in the wilderness of Ma'an
and when Saul heard that he pursued after David in the wilderness
of Ma'an. And Saul went on this side of
the mountain, and David and his men on that side of the mountain. And David made haste to get away
for fear of Saul. For Saul and his men compassed
David, and his men round about to take them. But there came
a messenger to Saul, saying, hasty, and come, for the Philistines
have invaded the land. Wherefore Saul returned from
pursuing after David, and went against the Philistines. Therefore
they called that place Selah Hamma Likoth. And David went
up from thence, and dwelt in strongholds at Engedi. Amen. May the Lord bless this reading
from his word. Today's chapter tells us of Saul's
continuing pursuit of David through the tribe of Judah, throughout
the tribe of Judah, where David had taken refuge. He was hiding
in the wilderness, he was hiding in the mountains, he was hiding
in caves wherever he felt that he could get some security. And if I can put it this way,
although there's nothing really major or dramatic or exciting
takes place in this chapter, I didn't want to pass over what
is said because I think that there are some hidden gems within
it. It is true that we learn about
Cala and that city was a city close to the border of the land
of the Philistines and because of its proximity to the border,
it seems to have been subject to violent raids which the Philistines inflicted
upon the inhabitants of that area and they came to steal the
people's harvest. And David liberated the people
of Cala from these thieves. We read the story, I won't repeat
it again. But David learned something at
Cala. Despite doing good by the people
of the town, he discovered that they would not hesitate in handing
David and his men over to Saul if Saul came and besieged the
city. David inquired of the Lord whether
these people would protect him or whether they would hand him
over, and he learned from the Lord that they would just hand
him over if he remained in the city. David had delivered these
families from the hands of the Philistines, but there was little
in the way of gratitude, there was little in the way of honour
amongst the inhabitants of Keilah. And I just wanted to mention
that as we grow up, as we learn about people, Sometimes people
will encourage us and sometimes, like these people from Cayla,
they will disappoint us, even when we have done them good. Mainly, the chapter tells us
of David moving from place to place and trying to keep a step
ahead of his nemesis, of his trouble, of Saul. And the lasting
impression is that David found little in the way of help, little
in the way of comfort from the people around him, even although
he was of the same tribe, the tribe of Judah. The Cahalites,
we've thought about them already, they probably knew what had happened
to the city of Nob where Saul had killed all the priests. They
wanted to hand David over, or would have done if Saul had required
it. And when we discover also that
another group of people, the Ziphites, who lived in another
region where David came into, These people came to Saul and
offered to betray David and his soldiers and to deliver him captive
into Saul's hands. So that there were few whom David
could trust. It's interesting when we were
reading to note that Saul had the nerve, he had the gall to
thank the people of God by calling upon God's blessing for them. for divulging David's hideout
to him. There is so much hypocrisy, and
here were two groups, Saul and the Ziphites, who were perhaps
made for one another. The world will use God, the world
will use religion, whenever it suits its purpose. But all this
said, I think that there are a few points that we can take
from this chapter to highlight the goodness of God and the blessings
that God gives even when, and perhaps especially when, our
lives seem hardest and most difficult, and sometimes when no one seems
to care about us. And I want us to note three things. The first one is this, that David
took his troubles to the Lord. And I hope we can all, whether
we're older or whether we're younger, I hope that we can all
take a lesson from this. When David was uncertain, when
David was anxious, when he was disappointed, when he was lonely,
he took his troubles to the Lord. and we should too. Now I know that David felt pretty
downcast and depressed during this time, but we discover that
the Lord had given him two important blessings that are not really
obvious at first. And this is what they are. God
had given David the company of Gad the prophet. Remember he
was the one that came to David and told him in the previous
chapter that he should go into the land of Judah. And so God
had given David the company of Gad the prophet. He was a prophet
from the school of the prophets under Samuel. And he had also
given David the company of Abiathar the priest. And these two men
had come to David at God's direction to help David, to care for and
support David, who was the Lord's anointed during these times of
trouble. And if I'm not mistaken here,
there are together a prophet, a priest, and a king. By different means and different
circumstances, God brought together these three and he gave thereby
David access to know God's will. God had given David Gad and Abiathar
to be his helpers. and step by step along the way,
David, though he could see no clear path, yet he was provided
by the Lord with the help that he needed. And similarly, we
might not see a clear pathway ahead in our lives. But when
the Lord loves a man or a woman or a boy or a girl as he loved
David, and when we trust in the Lord as David trusted in him,
and as David took his troubles to the Lord, we shall find, like
David, that the Lord will provide for our needs step by step along
the way. Each believer is anointed by
God, just as David was anointed. David was anointed to be king,
and each believer is anointed by the Lord. We are anointed
with the Spirit. We are anointed with the oil
of God's blessings. And each believer has our very
own prophet and priest. in the person of King Jesus,
who fulfils every office to ensure that we are preserved, protected,
and provided for day by day. And Saul might be searching for
David, and our enemies and our troubles might be searching for
us. They might loom large in our
minds. They might seem to be overwhelming. but when the Lord Jesus Christ
is with us, he is greater than them all. I said a little earlier
that I knew that David was downcast and depressed at this time. And
I knew that because he wrote at least two psalms about it
during this period. Psalm 54 and Psalm 63. Tell us in their introductions,
you might remember when we used to read the psalms together,
at the beginning of some of them there's a little introduction
which explains, and they are part of the psalm, it explains
where and the circumstances in which they were written. So Psalm
54 says this, a Psalm of David, when the Ziphims, or the Ziphites,
came and said to Saul, doth not David hide himself with us? And David begins, Save me, O
God, by thy name, and judge me by thy strength. And then in
Psalm 63 and verse 1, we read, A psalm of David when he was
in the wilderness of Judah. O God, thou art my God, early
will I seek thee, my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for
thee, in a dry and thirsty land where no water is. Now I'm not
going to speak about those Psalms today, except to say this, David
speaks in them of receiving a glimpse, despite
of all his troubles, receiving a glimpse of the Lord Jesus Christ
in his power and in his glory. So that David tells us in those
Psalms, although it's not written here in this chapter in 1 Samuel,
he tells us in those Psalms that he personally experienced the
presence of the Lord Jesus Christ with him and no doubt it was
a spiritual experience but it shows where David's hope lay
and when those around him proved unfaithful and proved deceitful David found comfort in the Lord. And perhaps the Lord will grant
us some spiritual glimpses of God's power and glory in Christ
when we have our greatest times of need. Perhaps it's when we
hear the gospel preached that the Lord will give us some comfort. that he will help us to trust
in his promises. God did not let David down and
he won't let us down. The second thing I want us to
note from this passage is that here David was preserved by the
Lord. One example of that daily protection
is given when David received the Lord's help at an unnamed
mountain. It's simply called a rock. And Saul pursued David to do
him harm, and David fled before Saul. Saul was very close. David was on one side of a mountain,
Saul was on the other side of the mountain. All he had to do
was go round the mountain, or up over the top of the mountain,
and there was David on the other side. But all the time, God used
the rock to keep them apart. I like that. The Lord Jesus Christ
is our rock of ages and he interposed himself between us and our enemies. Just as that mountain, just as
that rocky mountain kept David and Saul apart, so the Lord Jesus
Christ interposed himself between us and our enemies. This is true
for salvation because Christ interposed himself between the
sinner and God's wrath. He took the judgement that we
deserved. Our enemies cannot touch us. When the rock, our saviour, hides
us. One of the old hymn writers,
Augustus Toplady, wrote a hymn which said, And that's what David
discovered, that the rock hid him from Saul. And the end of
that lovely incident in David's life is this. Just as Saul seemed
to be closing in on David, there in the land of Judah, The Lord
called the Philistines to cross into the land of Benjamin with
an army. So that with their own homes
and families now in danger, Saul and his army were forced to leave
David just as they were about to capture him and return home
without him. So that David was preserved once
again and slipped out of Saul's grasp. And I'd like to leave just a
final thought and then we're done today. And it's about Jonathan's
visit to David. Because during this time when
David was so much alone, when David was so much downcast, during
this time the Lord gave a special blessing to David. a visit from
his dear friend Jonathan. It was a memorable moment. There in the forest, the men
renewed their covenant before God, probably in the presence
of Gad and Abiathar. It was a joyful, it was a comforting
time for David to meet his old friend, his brother-in-law, and
no doubt to get news from home. Actually, it was the last time
that these two friends would meet, but it was a precious gift
to David from the Lord in this bleakest of times in his life. And I think that we will discover
that the Lord does that for us too. Little incidents, unexpected
meetings, strange coincidences that bring joy and pleasure to
us in the midst of our trials. And I would like us to note those
things, to mark these moments and trace them back to the Lord. Mark these moments as gifts from
the Lord, occasions of refreshment, but also to look beyond them
as well, to see the Lord Jesus Christ and mark the encounters
that we have with him. Perhaps as we pray, perhaps as
we read our Bible, perhaps as we fellowship in the gospel in
times like this and in little gatherings like this. Let us
look to Christ in faith, seeing all his dealings and providential
care as reasons to thank the Lord for daily help and for those
special, unexpected encounters that bring spiritual joy to our
souls, that comfort our hearts and cause us to say with David,
the Lord is good. He has delivered me out of my
trouble. Amen. May the Lord bless these
thoughts to us.