turn tonight to 1 Samuel chapter
21. With this chapter, David begins
to live the life of a fugitive. through the rest of this book
of 1 Samuel, he is fleeing from Saul. The many, many troubles
that he experienced during these days we know serve as backdrops
for his many Psalms. Many of the Psalms that we read,
we find that he is in trouble and difficulty. He certainly
experienced that for this part of his life. In this chapter
we say that he comes to visit the tabernacle. Now this will
be the last time that he will be allowed to visit the tabernacle
of the Lord for several years and I could not help as I thought
about that to think about Psalm 84 where he began, how amiable
are thy tabernacles O Lord of hosts. My soul longeth for the
courts of the Lord. My heart and my flesh crieth
out for the living God. You know, sometimes we don't
miss something until it's gone, until it's taken away. And David,
now he's no longer able to attend the tabernacle. and how he missed
it, how he thought about, how he envied even the birds, the
sparrows, who could build their nest in the altars there at the
tabernacle. Listen to Matthew Henry's comments
on this chapter. David, he said, might be a type
of Christ who being anointed to the kingdom, humbled himself
and was therefore highly exalted. But the example of the suffering
Jesus was a copy without a blot. That of David was not so, as
we see in this chapter. His testimony had blots, as we
find out and as we read in this chapter, reminding ourselves
that man at his best is still a man. There's only been one
perfect man who's ever walked on the face of God's earth, and
that is our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. So Matthew Henry
divided the chapter into two parts, and that's the way I want
us to look at it tonight. First, the first nine verses,
David imposed upon Ahimelech, the priest, to get from him both
vittles and alms. Then came David to Nob, to Ahimelech
the priest. And Ahimelech was afraid at the
meeting of David, and said unto him, why art thou alone, and
no man with thee? And David said unto Ahimelech
the priest, the king hath commanded me a business, and hath said
unto me, let no man know anything of the business whereabout I
send thee. what I have commanded thee, and
I have appointed my servants to such and such a place. Now,
therefore, what is under thine hand, give me five loaves of
bread in mine hand, or what there is present. And the priest answered
David and said, there's no common bread under mine hand, but there
is hallowed bread, if the young men have kept themselves at least
from women. David answered the priest and
said unto him, of a truth, women have been kept from us about
these three days since I came out, and the vessels of the young
men are holy, and the bread is in a manner common, yea, though
it were sanctified this day in the vessel. So the priest gave
him hallowed bread, for there was no bread there but the showbread
that was taken from before the Lord, to put hot bread in the
day when it was taken away. Now a certain man of the servants
of Saul was there that day, detained before the Lord, and his name
was Duech, an Edomite, the chiefest of the herdsmen that belonged
to Saul. And David said unto Himalek,
and is there not here under thine hand spear or sword? for I have neither brought my
sword nor my weapons with me, because the king's business required
haste. And the priest said, the sword
of Goliath the Philistine, whom thou slewest in the valley of
Elah, behold, it is here, wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod.
If thou wilt, take that, take it, for there's no other save
that here. And David said, there's none
like that, give it me. One of the writers pointed out
that David's words in chapter 20, in verse three, we looked
at these last time, there is but a step between me and death. I'm sure most of us don't remember
that we looked at three sayings of David in that chapter, chapter
20, and that was the first one, there is but a step between me
and death. And I use that to remind us of
the brevity of life. That our life in this world is
like a vapor that appears for a little while and then it vanishes
away. But this particular writer pointed
out that is where probably David's downfall began. Because it seems
to be a confession of unbelief. When he said, there is but a
step between me and death, he surely had not forgotten that
God's prophet Samuel had anointed him to be king. And God's word
is not going to be somehow changed or dismissed or overthrown. And
he had been anointed to be king and God's purpose would be accomplished. Unbelieve. And I think of that
as the apostle in Hebrews said, to lay aside every weight and
the sin that doth so easily beset us. And I believe with all my
heart the sin of unbelief is that sin that doth so easily
beset all of God's children. We're tempted to unbelief most
any time when something startling happens, something out of the
ordinary, I might say, comes in our life and, oh, what are
we going to do? We sang that hymn just a few
minutes ago, Never Alone. He promised never to leave me,
no, never alone. But do we always remember that
or sometimes we tend to forget that? Well, that may be true,
what that writer said, that that was the first step in David's
downfall here, unbelief. But whether that's so or not,
this we know is definitely true. He lies. He tells an outright
lie to the priest. David, he wasn't some ordinary
man. Remember that. At this time in
his life, he wasn't some ordinary Israelite who might come to the
priest, come to the tabernacle, and the priest might not think
anything about it. But here comes the king's son-in-law,
David. Here comes a man who'd been celebrated
as a great warrior, and he's traveling. pretty much without
a lot of people around him. And that causes the priest to
have fear, to feel, to have suspicion something isn't right. Maybe
he had heard even, now that Saul had tried to kill David. And he asked David, he said,
notice that in verse one, why art thou alone? and no man with
thee." That's strange. The priest says, that's strange
that you're here by yourself, you know. And Saul was capable of killing
the priest, and we're going to see the Lord willing if we continue
going through 1 Samuel that he will exactly do that. And David
would be the cause. This lie and his visiting the
tabernacle this time, this Edomite who was there. I won't go into
that, but you know how he told on the priest, told Saul. And what he said was true, but
he said it in such a way as it implied that the priest was complicit
with David in some kind of rebellion. David's failure here to tell
the truth. He said, David said unto Ahimelech
the priest, the king hath commanded and has said unto me. Well, that
was a lie. King hadn't commanded him to
leave. The king had not commanded him on some secret mission or
something like that. In fact, the king had sent to
take him to kill him. Now David's failure here, this
sin, it's recorded, as we all know,
not that we would imitate it, not for our imitation, but at
least I thought of these four reasons as to why not only David,
but we know we have recorded the sin of Moses and Abraham
and all of those characters in the Old Testament, Peter in the
New Testament. Why? Why are these failures recorded
for us to read? Well, there are several reasons,
of course, but one reason is, first of all, to show us the
inspiration of the Scripture. You know, This word is inspired
by God the Holy Spirit. And it tells the truth about
what took place. And we don't know for sure who
wrote 1 Samuel, the man at least. We know God, the Holy Spirit's
the author. But he recorded this lie. You know, sometimes they'll say,
well, the Bible's full of lies. Well, the Bible records some
lies. David was not inspired of the
Holy Spirit to tell this lie. He told a lie, and the man who
God used to write the book, inspired of God, recorded it. That's one reason, no doubt,
these failures are recorded to point out to us the inspiration
of the word of God. If this book was not inspired
of God, these failures wouldn't be recorded. I mean, these men
like Abraham, the father of the faith, and yet we know it's recorded
of him. He told his wife, you tell them
that you're my sister. And he did that more than once.
He did it twice, didn't he? Yes, that was not right, and
in a way it was a half-truth, but the way he told it, it was
a falsehood because the man he told it to assumed that Sarah
was not his wife. And the same thing about Moses,
in his unbelief. and others we could mention also. So first of all, these things
are recorded to impress upon us the inspiration of the word
of God. And as I said just a moment ago,
there's only been one man, one man, the Lord Jesus Christ, who
has walked through this earth, walked through this world without
sin. Never a lie came out of his mouth. Never a lie. A second thing,
it admonishes us, these recorded failures admonish us, let him
that thinks he stands take heed lest he fall. And it admonishes
us to be careful of pride and to assume that, well, yeah, that
happened to him. I would never do that. I would
never be guilty of that. but by the grace of God, but
by the grace of God. And a third reason, it reminds
us to pray daily, daily. You know, when our Lord gave
his disciples the model prayer, and he said, give us this day,
our daily bread. And then a part of that prayer
is lead us not into temptation. but deliver us from evil. That
should be part of our prayer every day, shouldn't it? Lead
me, Lord, lead me not into temptation, but deliver me from evil or from
the evil one. And a fourth reason, it assures
us that none are without sin in this world. And thank the
Lord in the New Testament Also, John emphasizes this in his first
letter, doesn't he? If we say we have no sin, we
deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. These things write
unto thee that you sin not. That's the word, isn't it? That's
the command, sin not. Don't lie, don't steal, don't
cheat. But if any man sins, we have
an advocate with the Father. In other words, A man falls,
and we all do, and we sin, we don't have to get saved all over
again. No. When the Lord saves a person,
thank God we're saved for eternity, aren't we? We're saved forever. He that hath begun a good work
in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. Yes,
if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father. And when we
sin, he's there. He's there at the right hand
of God. He is the propitiation for our sins. They're put away,
they're taken away. Well, David asks first for bread,
and he receives bread. Now the priest tells him, now
the only bread here in the tabernacle, I'm sure he had bread at his
house. But remember, David is, he's implying that he He can't
stay long. This secret mission that he's
set on requires haste. And I need something now. And
so the priest tells him, well, the only bread here in this tabernacle
under my hand is hallowed bread, bread which had served The 12
loaves of bread were replaced every Sabbath day on the table
of showbread there in the holy place. Remember, there were three
things in the holy place, the table of showbread, the golden
altar of incense, and the lampstand. And on the table of showbread,
every Sabbath day, they would place 12 loaves of bread and
then pour I believe frankincense on top of those loaves of bread.
And of course, they were one loaf for each tribe of Israel,
12 loaves. And they were changed, as I said,
every Sabbath day. So these that the priest tells
him we have here were loaves that had been taken off. They'd
stay on the table for a week, then they're replaced. These
are loaves, but they're hallowed. They're considered to be hallowed
bread because they had served as the show bread. And David
says, well give that to me. And I don't know why he asked
for five. Maybe that's all there was. Maybe
there was only five loaves. Now the priest, remember the
priest could eat that bread. But only the priest, according
to the law. Only the priest could eat that
loaf. Now, the Lord Jesus used this. If you turn with me to
Matthew chapter 12, some of the Pharisees accused
his disciples of breaking the Sabbath. They said that his disciples
were working on the Sabbath. They're working on the Sabbath.
They've passed through the grain field and they've took some of
the wheat and they rubbed their hands. That was work. Can't do
any work on the Sabbath day. And they accused his disciples
of working on the Sabbath. Read here in Matthew 12, verse
1. At that time, Jesus went on the
Sabbath day through the corn or the wheat and his disciples
were hungered. and began to pluck the ears of
corn and to eat. And when the Pharisees saw it,
they said unto him, behold, thy disciples do that which is not
lawful. You can't do that on the Sabbath
day. But he said unto them, have you not read? Now, don't you
know that was, to these men, these Pharisees, that really
scalded them. That's all they did was study
the word, study the law. Have you not read? Have you not
read? He accuses them, first of all,
of being ignorant of the scripture. He did the same thing when they,
the Sadducees, when they denied there'd be a resurrection, you
remember. He said, you do err not knowing
the Scriptures nor the power of God. Well, here it is. Have you not read what David
did when he was in hunger and they that were with him? You
never read that? Don't you read your Bible? Oh,
I know that. That had to upset those Pharisees. But remember what he told them
in John. Search the Scriptures. For in
them you think you have eternal life. But there they which testify
of me, and you will not come to me that you might have life. Have you not read what David
did when he was in hunger and David were with him? He entered
into the house of God and did eat the showbread, which was
not lawful for him to eat. for them that were with him,
but only for the priest. Haven't you read that? Look down
in verse seven. But if you had known what this
meaneth, do you know what this means? This is the second time
I believe he's told them the same thing. If you had known
what this means, I will have mercy and not sacrifice. you would not have condemned
the guiltless. If you knew what that meant,
that God would have mercy and not sacrifice, that God takes
more delight in acts of mercy and compassion done by men to
those in need than even in those sacrifices, and especially the
sacrifices that were offered without a person's heart being
engaged, just going through the motions. So David asked, first
of all, for bread, and the priest, let's go back to 1 Samuel 21,
the priest gives him the bread. And then David asked for either
a sword or a spear. He said, I left in such a hurry
that I didn't even bring my weapons with me. Well, that surely should
have sent off an alarm bell to that priest there. I mean, he's
a warrior. Man doesn't forget his sword,
not a soldier, not a man who goes out to fight the king's
battle and he goes out without a sword. But anyway, the priest
tells him, well, there's only one sword here. It's the sword
that you took, David. We folded it up and put it in
behind the ephod there of the priest's garments and we've kept
it as a memorial to God's goodness of how God delivered Israel through
your hand when you killed the giant Goliath. That's the only
sword here. And this is so important to me
in verse nine. when the priest told him that,
and the priest said, the sword of Goliath, the Philistine, whom
thou slewest in the valley of Elah, behold, it is here wrapped
in a cloth behind the ephod. If thou will take that, take
it, for there's no other save that here. And David said, now
this is what's, look at this. There's none like it. Give it
me. Now, When Paul gives the armor
of a Christian, remember in Ephesians chapter 6, he calls what the
sword of the spirit, what? Come on. Some of you know that. What's the sword of the spirit?
You're afraid to answer. The word of God, right? There's
none like it. You see the connection there
when David's speaking about that sword of Goliath. Yes, there's
none like it, but the word of God, the sword of the spirit,
there's none like it. There's none like it. The making of many books, I believe
Solomon said, there's no end. Thousands, millions, if not billions
of books have been printed and published and have been burned
up and gone, and the world's not any worse off that they're
all gone. There's none like this book.
There's none like it. This book tells me about God,
the truth about God, not what I might want to think about God,
not what I might want to believe about God, but this book tells
me the truth about God. There's none like it. And this
book tells me the truth about myself. It doesn't flatter us, does it?
It tells us that we have a heart that is deceitful above all things. How about that? It doesn't flatter
us. This book, there's none like
it. And this book tells us the truth about Christ, doesn't it?
There's none like it. I don't like it. Give it me. They say, give it
me, and that's what I say, don't you? Give it me, give me the
word of God. Oh, it'd be an awful, awful calamity,
awful thing if we were in this world without the word of God,
the sword of the spirit, which is a light and a lamp. All right,
here's the second part of the chapter, and let me go through
this, beginning with verse 10. And David arose and fled that
day for fear of Saul, and went to Achish the king of Gath. 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 ten thousands? David laid up
these words in his heart, and was sore afraid of Ahab, the
king of Gath, and he changed his behavior before them, and
feigned himself mad in their hands, and scrabbled on the door
of the gate, and let his spittle fall down upon his beard. Then
said Ahab unto his servants, lo, you see the man is mad, wherefore
then have you brought him to me? Have I need of mad men? that you have brought this fellow
to play the madman in my presence, shall this fellow come into my
house. Again, Matthew Henry's comments
here I found to be very good. David, anointed to the crown,
and yet here forced to flee from his country. Thus do God's providences
sometimes seem to run counter to his promises. For the trial
of his people's faith and the glorifying of his name in the
accomplishment of his counsels, notwithstanding the difficulties
that lay in the way. Now it seems strange. It seems
very strange that David would go to Gath, doesn't he? Remember
there were five principal cities of the Philistines and Gath was
one of them. Now Goliath, he was from, he
was from this city. He was from Gath. Here David
comes in with Goliath's sword on his waist. It seems strange
that he would have ever gone there, of all the places he might
have fled, to flee to the Philistines and to flee to the very city
of the giant whom he had slain. But notice the scripture says,
and David arose and fled that day for fear of Saul and went
went to Achath the king. He went to the king. He went
to the king. And this is, now this is just
a suggestion, but seemed like most of the commentators used
the same suggestion that maybe this man, this king, Achath,
was for some reason thankful that Goliath was dead. Remember,
he's a king and Goliath is in his city. He may have looked
upon him as a threat to himself. We don't know that. But he may
have been thankful that David had eliminated Goliath. He may
have had some degree of kindness toward David. I know this. If you look in chapter 29, 1
Samuel chapter 29, he came to speak very highly of David, this
man, this king, Achish. He came to trust in him. Maybe
there was some connection there beforehand. I don't know, but
it does seem very strange that he would go to this place if
he did not somehow believe he'd be well received. In chapter
29 and verse 6, this is when they're going to
go to battle with Israel, the Philistines. And Ahab called
David and said unto him, Surely as the Lord liveth, thou hast
been upright. Now the other kings of the other
four principal cities of the Philistines, when they saw David
along with Ahab, and they're going to fight Israel, no, no,
he's not going with us. But Ahab called David and said
unto him, surely as the Lord liveth, thou hast been upright,
and thy going out and thy coming in with me in the host is good
in my sight. for I have not found evil in
thee since the day of thy coming unto me unto this day. Nevertheless,
the Lord's favored thee not. So maybe there was some connection
there that caused David to go to the very city of the giant
he had killed. But when his servants, this king's
servants, they began to point out to him This is the man, this
is the man here that you're willing to take in who they have sang
songs of praise to him of how many he's killed. Saul's killed
his thousands, David his 10,000. And you're gonna allow him to
come in and live here in the territory over which he ruled
evidently. And notice in verse 12, and David
laid up these words in his heart. and was sore afraid of Achis,
the king of Gath. Cannot help but think that maybe
it was because of this that David wrote in one of the Psalms, it
is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in princes. Maybe he had assumed this prince
was going to protect him and allow him to live there. which
he did, but only after he feigned himself to be mad, to be a madman. And evidently that convinced
the servants of this king, well, he can't be of any harm. The
man's, he's not, he doesn't have all of his senses. I want you
to, I want to close with this. I want you to turn to Psalm 34. Now, you know the titles before
these psalms. Some people believe the titles
themselves are inspired, some don't. But I want you to notice
the title before this psalm, Psalm 34. A psalm of David when
he changed his behavior before a Bimelech. Now, that's not a
Himelech. It's close. A Hemelech with an
H was the priest to whom he fled, but now a Bimelech with a B,
and the writers say that this was a term that it means king,
father, father, king. It was a term that the Philistines
used for their kings, showing that they were their king and
their father, a Bimelech. Psalm of David when he changed
his behavior before Abimelech who drove him away and he departed. I will bless the Lord at all
times. His praise shall continually
be in my mouth. My soul shall make her boast
in the Lord. The humble shall hear thereof
and be glad. Oh, magnify the Lord with me
and let us exalt his name together. I sought the Lord and he heard
me and delivered me from all my fears. They looked unto him
and were lightened and their faces were not ashamed. This
poor man cried and the Lord heard him. and saved him out of all
his troubles. The angel of the Lord encampeth
round about them that fear him and delivereth them. Oh, taste
and see that the Lord is good. Blessed is the man that trusteth
in him. Oh, fear the Lord, you his saints,
for there's no want to them that fear him. The young lions do
lack and suffer hunger, but they that seek the Lord shall not
want any good. Come, you children, hearken unto
me. I will teach you the fear of
the Lord. What man is he that desireth
life and loveth many days, that he may see good? Keep thy tongue
from evil, thy lips from speaking guile. Depart from evil and do
good. Seek peace and pursue it. The
eyes of the Lord are 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. The righteous cry, and the Lord
heareth and delivereth them out of all their troubles. And notice
especially these last verses. The Lord is nigh unto them that
are of a broken heart, and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit. Many are the afflictions of the
righteous, but the Lord delivereth him out of them all. He keepeth all his bones, not
one of them is broken. Evil shall slay the wicked, and
they that hate the righteous shall be desolate. The Lord redeemeth
the soul of his servants, and none of them that trust in him
shall be desolate. May the Lord bless this word
to all of us here tonight.