Had a good time in Mexico with
the Groovers. They're enlarging their building
right now, and so wasn't any preaching to do, so I did nothing
but sung, fun, rest, and digest. But it was great being with them.
Walter and Betty almost seem ageless. They seem the same.
And then Koby and Winnie, it was just a blessed time to be
with them. Turn to 1 Samuel chapter 21. I'd like to read verses 10 through
15 of 1 Samuel chapter 21. And David arose and fled that
day for fear of Saul and went to Achish. The king of Gath,
he went to seek refuge among the Philistines. And you remember
Goliath was from Gath. So he went to this heathen place
for refuge. And the servants of Achish said
unto him, Is not this David the king of the land? Did they not
sing one to another of him, and dances, saying, Saul hath slain
his thousands, and David his tens of thousands? And you remember
the women singing that when David returned from defeating Goliath.
And David laid up these words in his heart, and was sore afraid
of Achish the king of Gath. And he changed his behavior. before them and feigned himself
mad in their hands and scrabbled on the doors of the gate and
let his spittle fall down upon his beard. Now picture that in
your mind, this is King David acting like this. Then said Achish
unto his servants, lo, you see the man is mad. Wherefore then
have ye brought him to me? Have I need of a madman that
you brought this, look at the word fellow, it's in italics,
like there's not a word even used to describe this man. This
is zero, this nothing, that's what he's calling David. Have
I need of madmen that you brought this nothing to play the madman
in my presence? Shall this nothing come into
my house? Interesting passage of scripture.
Let's pray together. Lord, we come into your presence
in Christ's name and Lord, we ask in his name that you would
be pleased to speak to us from your word. Lord, that Christ Jesus might
be exalted, that we might be enabled to sit at his feet and
hear his word. Lord. How desperately we need
your grace and your presence and your mercy to meet with us. Lord, we confess our sins. We
pray for forgiveness and we pray for cleansing and Lord, we ask
that you pour your spirit upon us and give us all grace to take
the lowest seat in the house. And for each of us is to esteem.
The other is better than ourselves. Now, Lord bless us for Christ's
sake. Be with our friends that aren't here. We ask that you
would keep them by your grace. In Christ's name we pray. Amen. Now you could see that this is
one of the many low points in David's life. He went down at
this time. And quite frankly, I'm glad that
these low points are exposed in David. Because they give us
some understanding of ourselves and the low points in our own
lives. Now you think of David, this man who killed a lion and
a bear with his bare hands. Supernaturally enabled by God
to do these things. What strength he possessed. And
how he took on Goliath of Gath. And he had no fear. He came running
at him. and saying, you come to me with
a sword and a spear, but I come unto you in the name of the Lord
of hosts. He had such courage. And now all of a sudden he trembles
with fear. He's afraid of Saul, scared to
death, and he goes into the land of the Philistines for refuge. What happened? Now, the fear
of man, the scripture says in Proverbs 21, 25, brings a snare. The fear of man brings a snare,
but whoso put his trust in the Lord shall be safe. Now at this
time, Saul himself is overcome with the fear of man. Look in verse 10 once again.
And David arose and fled that day for the fear of Saul and
went to Achish, the king of Gath. He went for refuge to the Philistines. Now, something's wrong with that.
Something's wrong with that. Verse 11, And the servants of
Achish said unto him, Is not this David the king of the land?
Did they not sing one to another of him in dances, saying, Saul
hath slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands? This
is our enemy. This is a man who has slain thousands
of us, tens of thousands of us. Why do we have him? Now David
heard them say this, verse 12, and David laid up these words
in his heart and was sore afraid of Achish the king of Gath, the
mighty giant slayer trembling with fear. And verse 13 says
he changed his behavior before them. Out of fear of them, he
changed his behavior before them. and feigned himself mad in their
hands, and scrabbled on the doors of the gate, and let his spittle
fall down his beard." Now when I read that, what hits me is
how many times have I changed my behavior before men? Now that's what took place through
fear of man, He changed his behavior before men. Have you ever remained
silent when you should have spoken? Have you ever compromised what
you believed with a statement or statements that compromise
the truth because of fear of who you've been around? Or simply
acted like an unbeliever around unbelievers? And someone would
have seen you and said, well, they're just like everybody else.
Now that's where David was at this time. He feigned himself
a madman. And you picture David doing this
before the Philistine king all because of fear. Is this the
same man that slew the giant? Is this the same man that tore
apart a bear and a lion with his bare hands? And now he's
so afraid of this man that he changes his behavior. And he
feigns himself a madman. Yes, it is. Now, in the first
case of him acting so courageously, we have the actions of the new
man. And in this case, this case of cowardice, we have the actions
of the old man. Verse 14, then said Achish unto
his servants, lo, You see, the man is mad. He's crazy. Wherefore then have you brought
him to me? He was speaking of David with
such contempt. This one who was at one time
so strong, he now speaks of him with such contempt. Have I need,
verse 15, of madmen, that you've brought this fellow to play the
madman in my presence? Shall this fellow, this nothing,
come into my house? Now let's go on reading. I think
it's important to read the next two verses to see what happened
at this. We're gonna consider this more next week. But David
therefore departed thence and escaped to the cave Adalim. A
cave. He's now in a cave. And when
his brethren and all his father's house heard it, they went down
thither to him. And everyone that was in distress and everyone
that was in debt and everyone that was discontented gathered
themselves unto him. And he became captain over them
and there were with him about 400 men. Now we're gonna consider
that more in detail next week. That's a beautiful picture of
who actually comes to Christ. Those who are distressed, those
who are in debt, those who are discontented, they always come
to the Lord Jesus Christ. But in this sad account of what
took place, we're given two Psalms. As usual, the Lord brings good
out of evil. Only He can do this, and we're
given two blessed, blessed Psalms that we're going to consider.
And in this, David is a type of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now,
David changed his behavior. He became something he was not
before. He changed his behavior. Now,
on the cross, and I want to speak reverently, but there was a time
when the Lord Jesus Christ knew no sin, and on the cross something
changed, and he now knew sin. What all that means, I don't
know, but it's horrible, isn't it? He now knew sin. Scripture
says he was made sin. He was changed in the sense that
he never quit being what he was, but he now became something he
was not. He was made sin. And then after
this change, he is like David, is called by a kiss, a nothing. He's a zero. He's not even fit
to be called a man. Shall this fellow, and you'll
notice that word fellow is in italics, shall this nothing?
And do you remember what our Lord's cry from the cross was
in Psalm 22, six? I am a worm and no man. That's what the Lord said of
Himself. I am a worm. That's the Lord Jesus Christ
speaking. That's how truly He was made sin. He made this confession
of Himself. I am a worm and not even fit
to be called a man. And He's placed in a cave, isn't
He? He's placed in a cave. He's placed in a tomb. And through
His death, who's drawn to Him? Everyone that's in distress,
and that word is literally disabled. Disabled. Everyone that's in
distress, everyone that's in debt, they can't pay for their
sins. And everyone that's discontent,
disillusioned with themselves, with life, with religion, every
one of them came. to him in that tomb. So we can
see how David is a type of the Lord Jesus Christ. Everything
that he is, is always a type of Christ. But what I would like
for us to consider with the remainder of our time looking at that is
the Psalms that came out of this event because this was a very
low time in David's life. Can you imagine how horrible
he felt when he was scared to death, let spit run down his
beard, scrabbling on the gate, acting like he was totally crazy
out of fear of man. He completely changed his behavior.
Where's your faith, David? Where's your confidence in God?
At one time you seemed to have such confidence. Where did it
go? Well, it doesn't seem to be there, does it? As far as
the way he acted, he changed his behavior out of fear of man. What hits me about that is how
many times have I changed my behavior out of fear of man? Well, David did. Now, turn with
me first to Psalm 56. Look at the heading of this psalm. To the chief musician upon whatever
that word is, when the Philistines took him in Gath. Now this is
what he wrote during this period. He was in Gath for I don't know
how long, but this is a Psalm that he wrote during that period. Now here, his first word, and
you can see why he prayed this. He didn't have anything else
to pray. Be merciful unto me, O God. for man would swallow
me up. He, fighting daily, oppresseth
me." Now, the first thing David knew of is his need for mercy
with this constant conflict, this fear of Saul, this fear
of Akish, him running, oh, have mercy upon me. Verse two, mine
enemies, in my marginal reading says my observers. my observers,
would daily swallow me up, for they be many that fight against
me, O thou most high. Enemies observe me in order to
criticize me, in order to expose me, in order to show how weak
and sinful I really am. And I got to thinking about this.
If anybody wants to expose me, they won't have much problem
finding things to expose, will they? Every one of us know that
about ourselves. You see, what I want to learn
from this is love covers the transgression. It doesn't seek
to expose. Anytime I'm trying to expose
somebody and say something negative about them, anytime I do something
like that, it's contrary to love, isn't it? And he says, my observers,
my enemies, he calls them my observers. They're observing
me in order to expose me. They be many that fight against
me, O thou most high. You know, it's David. You know, sometimes everything
looks bleak, doesn't it? There's many that fight against me. Other
times, everything's going downhill, everything's easy, life's great.
Other times, oh, there's many that are against me. And then
he says what he should have said at all at the very first, at
what time I'm afraid, I will trust in thee. May the Lord give
us grace to simply do that. He's in control. He's at no matter
what's happening, he's in control. And whatever time I'm afraid,
I will trust in thee. Verse four, in God, That's the
only place I want to be, in Christ, in God. That's the only place
of safety, isn't it? You know, when you say you're in Christ,
you're saying you're in God, aren't you? That's the only place
of safety if I'm in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, in God, I
will praise his word. In God, I have put my trust. I will not fear what flesh can
do unto me. Now, I love that. He had been
so afraid. Why? He wasn't looking to Christ. That's the only answer. He wasn't
looking to Christ. But now, as the Lord enables
him to, he says, I will not fear what flesh can do unto me. Verse
5, he says, every day they rest my words. All their thoughts
are against me for evil. He almost sounds paranoid, doesn't
he? You ever been there? Everybody's against me. Hank
Williams had a song, Everybody's Against Me. I can't remember
the words to it, but I always thought it was funny. He almost
sounds paranoid here, but it's painful to have things projected
on you that aren't true, and we've all experienced that, and
that's what David feels like he's experiencing. He says, every
day they rest my words, all their thoughts are against me for evil. Verse six, they gather themselves
together. They hide themselves, they mark
my steps when they wait for my soul. Shall they escape by iniquity? The answer is no. In thine anger
cast down the people, O God. Verse eight, thou tellest. my wanderings. Now David knew
at this time he'd been wandering. Prone to wander, Lord I feel
it. Prone to leave the God I love. Now that's what he's saying.
You see my wanderings. He's now thinking about himself,
what he is. Quit thinking about other people
and realizing that he's the big problem, not anybody else. He's
the problem. I'm the problem when I went down into Gath. You
tell my wonderings, put thou my tears into thy bottle. Are
they not in thy book? He sees them all. He says in
verse nine, when I cry unto thee, then shall mine enemies be turned
back. When I cry unto thee, then shall
my enemies turn back. And here's how come this I know,
for God is for me. And if God be for us, What's
the rest of that verse? Who can be against us? He says,
once again, in verse 10, in God, in the Lord, Jesus Christ, will
I praise his word. And all our hope is found in
his word in the Lord. Well, I praise his word. Verse
11 in God. Have I put my trust. I will not
be afraid what man can do unto me." Isn't that a blessing? The
same one who was so immersed in the fear of man now says under
the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, I will not fear what man can
do unto me. What if men did kill you? What if they did? Where
would you be? You'd be in the very presence
of Christ. He says, I will not fear whatever man can do. I'm
not going to be afraid of it. Verse 12, thy vows are upon me,
O God. Now he's talking about his vows
as a surety. He says, I know that you have
vowed my salvation, and that's where I rest. Thy vows are upon
me, O God. I will render praises unto thee,
for thou hast delivered my soul from death. It's something that's
already been done. You know, on the cross, he delivered my
soul from death. And he asked for something else.
Will not thou deliver my feet from falling? He's already delivered
my soul from death, but my feet, my walk, oh Lord, keep me. Keep me from falling. Keep my
feet from falling. Keep me walking in a way that
brings honor and glory to you. He's looking back out of how
he's dishonored the Lord with his cowardice. And he says, oh,
Lord, keep me from falling. You know, when you pray this
prayer, Lord, keep me from falling, you're saying, I know I will
fall if you don't keep me. So be pleased to keep me from falling,
that I may walk before God in the light of the living. Now,
what a precious psalm. And that psalm came out of this
horrible event. Now, turn to Psalm 34. This is
the other psalm that came from this after he got into the cave. Now once again, this is an example
of how the Lord brings good out of evil. These blessed Psalms,
and one of the things about David, David expresses my thoughts better
than I can express them. The closest I ever come to prayer
is when I'm reading a psalm and David is praying to the Lord,
and that's my prayer. We can identify with David so
much. You know, he's the sweet psalmist
of Israel. He explains our thoughts. He explains our desires. If you
wanna know what really goes on in a believer's heart, read the
psalms. Oh, how I love the psalms. I
love to read them over and over again. David. I guess David's
my Old Testament hero. I love Paul in the New Testament.
I love them all, but Paul's my hero in the New Testament. David's
my hero in the Old Testament. What a man after God's own heart. Now, look at this psalm in 34.
Look at the title of the psalm, the psalm of David, when he changed
his behavior before Abimelech, who drove him away and he departed.
This is the one about when he changed his behavior. Now look
what he says. This is after he's departed.
He's escaped into the cave of Adolin and this was written from
that cave. He says, I will bless the Lord
at all times and his praise shall continually be in my mouth. My soul shall make her boast
in the Lord. What are we boasting? in the Lord. We glory in the
cross. We don't have anything to boast
in ourselves. David couldn't boast about himself, could he?
He saw how cowardly and shameful he had acted. But now the Lord
has brought him out of the camp of the Philistines. He's in this
cave and he says, my soul shall make her boast in the Lord. The
humble shall hear thereof and be glad. You know, It takes humility to
hear the gospel. True, God-given humility. A just estimate of yourself. That's what humility is. Some
say, well, I've acted humble. Well, if it's an act, it's not
humility. True humility is a just estimate of yourself. Now, if
God gives me and you the grace to have a just estimate of ourself,
when we hear the gospel, we'll be glad, won't we? We'll rejoice. He says in verse three, oh, magnify
the Lord with me and let us exalt his name together. You know,
David's speaking to me and you when he says that. He's speaking
to every believer. Oh, magnify the Lord with me.
He says in verse four, I sought the Lord and he heard me and
delivered me from all my fears. Verse five, they looked unto
him and were lightened and their faces were not ashamed. Now,
what is that but looking to Christ? That's all he's talking about.
They looked unto him and were lightened. When you look to him,
you're gonna have light as to who God is, you're gonna have
light as to who you are, and you're gonna have light as to
how he saves. What a blessed thing is spiritual
light. They looked unto him and were
lightened, and their faces were not ashamed. Now see, when I
look to him, I see that he is my salvation, that I have nothing
to be ashamed of. The only time I'm not ashamed
is looking to him. In anything else, oh, I have
so much to be ashamed of. But looking to Him, there's nothing
to be ashamed of. Isn't that wonderful? That's
what faith is. It's looking to Him, and you
have perfect righteousness. You have perfection before God.
You have nothing to be ashamed of. And the only way that can
be seen and experienced and understood is looking to Him. They looked
unto him and were lightened. The only light you're ever gonna
have is looking to him. You look to him, you'll be lightened.
And their faces were not ashamed. Verse six, here's the story of
every believer's life. This poor man. How often did
David call himself poor and needy? This poor man, this man who has
nothing to offer, this man who has nothing to bring to the table.
This man who is poverty stricken, blessed are the poor in spirit
for theirs is the kingdom of God. This poor man cried and
the Lord heard and saved him out of all his troubles. The angel of the Lord encampeth
round about them that fear him and delivereth them. When I was
overcome with fear, I remembered this, the angel of the Lord encampeth
round about them that fear him and delivereth him. Now, do you
know that the angel of the Lord is encamped around you at all
times? You know, when David was playing the madman, when he was
acting like a phony, when he was letting spittle go down his
beard in fear, the angel of the Lord was encamped round about
him. And the Lord allowed all this to happen. for good, wise,
and holy purposes. Like I said, we've already seen
a type of the gospel in this with David, but these Psalms,
what a blessing these Psalms are to us. Let's go on reading.
Verse eight, he says, oh, taste and see that the Lord is good. Blessed is the man that trusteth
in him. This isn't theoretical. Taste and see. Oh, he tastes
so good. His grace tastes so good, sweeter
than honey. Taste and see. He says, oh, taste
and see that the Lord is good, he's merciful. Blessed is the
man that trusteth in him. Verse nine, oh, fear the Lord,
ye his saints, for there's no want to them that fear him. Now, this fear of the Lord that
is the beginning of the wisdom, and that's what it is, the fear
of the Lord. One of the scriptures for this
morning is the fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever. It's the one thing that's clean.
The fear of the Lord is his gift and it endures forever because
it's his work in the heart. The fear of the Lord is clean.
And so he says in verse nine, oh, fear the Lord, ye his saints,
his sanctified ones, for there's no want to them that fear him.
The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. Verse 10, the
young lions do lack and suffer hunger, but they that seek the
Lord shall not want any good thing, because the Lord is my
shepherd, I shall not want. Verse 11, I love this verse.
Come you children, park it unto me, and I'll teach you the fear
of the Lord. Now this is some teaching I want,
don't you? I want to know what this teaching is. Now look what
he says. What man, verse 12, what man is he that desireth
life and loveth many days that he may see good? And Peter quotes
this in one of his epistles. What man is he that desires life?
Do you desire life? Do you desire life before God? Eternal life? The life of God
in your soul? What man is he that desireth
life and loveth many days that he may see good? Now I want that,
I want to see good, don't you? I don't want to see evil, I want
to see good. Well, look at what David says. Keep thy tongue from
evil, and thy lips from speaking guile or deceit. Now the first
thing he speaks about is our tongue. Our tongue. I suppose that all the trouble
that I've gotten myself into has come through this member.
The tongue. Keep your tongue from evil, and
your lips from speaking deceit. Now that means so many things. First of all, make sure your
words are consistent with the gospel. That your words are the
gospel, not that which is contrary to salvation of the Lord. And
don't speak evil of people. Don't gossip, don't slander,
don't malign, don't destroy people's characters. Oh, whenever I do
that. You know, anytime I say something
bad about somebody, and that's plenty, That's plenty. I say
to my own shame. But anytime I say something bad
about anybody, you know what happens? I hear this voice that
says, hypocrite, you do the same things you're condemning them
for. You think the same things. You have the same attitude. Now,
He says, if you want to love life, if you want to keep thy
tongue from evil, thy lips from speaking guile, I think it's
interesting how James says the tongue is a world of iniquity.
Read James chapter 3 this week, and just read it real carefully
and slowly. He says in verse 14, and your lips from speaking
guile, deceit. You know what? That means so
much. That doesn't simply mean deceptive and manipulative speech.
It also means speech that's not honest about ourselves, where
we try to present ourselves in some kind of upper way that we're
really not. We're trying to impress people.
He says, watch your tongue. David understood that. Depart
from evil and do good. Seek peace and pursue it. The
eyes of the Lord are open or upon the righteous, and his ears
are open unto their cry. The face of the Lord is against
them that do evil, to cut off the remembrance of them from
the earth. Now here he speaks of the righteous
and the evil. Now, you know as well as I do,
that there's only one way we can be righteous, and that's
to have his righteousness. Amen? Don't you believe His righteousness
is the only righteousness there is before God? But His righteousness
is my personal righteousness before God, thus I'm righteous.
God calls me. He calls every believer the righteous.
He speaks of the righteous and the evil. The righteous cry,
verse 17, and the Lord heareth and delivereth them out of all
their troubles. Verse 18, the Lord is nigh unto
them that are of a broken heart, and saith such as be of a contrite,
crushed spirit. Now a broken heart, everybody's
got their heart broken when they, in some kind of You know, kids,
how many times were your heart broken in junior high school
or high school? You know, but that's not the
broken heart he's speaking of. It's really not. I mean, I, I
understand that you appreciate, you feel sorry for somebody with
a broken heart, but he's talking about a heart that when you see
your heart, it's broken, it doesn't work. It's no good. It's no good. David said of his heart, oh,
create in me a clean heart. Oh, God, renew a right spirit
within me. Mine's no good. It's filthy. Give me a new heart. Create in me a clean heart. Grant
me this new heart. Mine is just absolutely no good. The biggest problem I have is
my heart. Now, he says, the Lord is nigh
unto them that are of a broken heart, and save as such as be
of a contrite spirit. Many are the afflictions of the
righteous. Got a lot of problems, don't
we? There's other ones coming around
the corner. Many are the afflictions of the righteous. But the Lord
delivereth him out of them all. Verse 20, he keepeth all his
bones that not one of them is broken. Now you know that that's
a reference to the Lord Jesus on the cross. And every believer
is his bones. I'm one of his bones and I'm
not broken. Now my heart's broken. I've got
a contrite spirit, but because of that, I'm one of his bones.
He made my heart that way and his bones are all safe. Every
believer is the body of Christ and not one of them is broken. And David says, evil shall slay
the wicked. And they that hate the righteous
shall be desolate. And my marginal reading says
guilty. The Lord redeemeth the soul of
his servants as redemption. And that's what he did on Calvary's
tree. He redeemed me. And none of them that trust in
him shall be desolate. And that's the same word as in
verse 21. None of them that trust in him shall be guilty. Guilty. I'm without guilt. What a gospel we have that makes
us redeemed and makes us without guilt. Now, out of this story, we're
given these two blessed Psalms. We're given this picture of Christ,
the change he had to go through, being made sin, going down into
a tomb, going into a cave, and the people that are drawn to
him from that. Have you ever changed your behavior
and acted the part of a madman? Aren't you thankful for grace? Here's hope for a fellow who
changed his behavior and acted like a madman. The Lord had mercy
upon him. Okay.