Samuel chapter 30. I want to
read the first six verses. And it came to pass when David
and his men were come to Ziklag on the third day that the Amalekites
had invaded the south and Ziklag and had smitten Ziklag and burned
it with fire. and had taken the women captive
that were therein. They slew not any, either great
or small, but carried them away and went on their way. So David
and his men came to the city, and behold, it was burned with
fire, and their wives and their sons and their daughters were
taken captive. Then David and the people that
were with him lifted up their voice and wept until they had
no more power to weep. And David's two wives were taken,
Ahinnahm, the Jezreeltis, and Abigail the wife of Nabal the
Carmelite. And David was greatly distressed
when the people spake of stoning him, because the soul of all
the people was grieved, every man for his sons and for his
daughters. But David encouraged himself in the Lord his God."
Let us pray. We bless You and thank You for
Your Word as it sets forth the truth of our condition, our failures
and our faults, our frailties and our sin, our errors in judgment,
our poor choices. And Father, You never cover up
those things, but show them for what they are. And we're thankful. We're thankful, Father, because
we know that these things are things of the flesh. And we all
need to be reminded that our eyes must be fixed on Christ. Father, we thank you for this
report here of David encouraging himself in the Lord his God. We ask tonight for that blessing
that you would bring us to that place also. Father, we live in
discouraging times in many ways, and we are thankful that we know
in our hearts that Thou art God, that there
is none beside Thee, there is none like unto Thee. You declare
Thee in from the beginning, You purpose it and it shall stand.
You rule in the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of
the earth, and none can stay Your hand or say unto You, What
doest Thou? We bless You, Father, that You are sovereign, that
You have taken Your power to Yourself and have reigned and
do continue to reign. In this we find great comfort
and peace in the knowledge that You, who are God, have put away
our sins by the sacrifice of Your Son, that You'll remember them no
more. Father, we confess our sins. And we know that you're
just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us of all unrighteousness. Father, we pray for those of
our company who are sick and afflicted. We ask, Lord, you'd be with them,
comfort them, strengthen them. You know our desires, they be
healed and strengthened and brought back to a good measure of health.
We also know your will will be done. And we bow to that knowing
that the judge of all errors shall do right. Help us now to
worship You, Father, as we consider these things. Teach us Thy ways. We pray in Christ's name. Amen. Now we've been dealing with this
story of David and Ziklag for some time now, so we all know
this story pretty well. We have seen how the Lord has
delivered him time and time again out of many trials and many troubles.
We have also seen David apply to the flesh immediately after
the Lord has rescued him almost every time. And David, his actions
and his faith have shown us the life of the child of God in an
honest and real report. As Donnie Bell has often said,
describing the life of the believer, it is the miserablest, happiest
life in the world. David is the quintessential example
of the truth of that statement. The last phrase of this passage
that we'll consider tonight is these words, David encouraged
himself in the Lord his God. Now David has been brought to
this place. He's been brought to this place
and he's been brought to this sentiment of heart by divine
providence. In the truest sense, because
of the things that have occurred at this time, at this writing,
David is alone. He's at the end of himself and
he has nowhere to turn but to God. That's the best place you'll
ever be. Pray God He keeps you there at
the end of your rope. David's ill-conceived compromising
alliance with Achish has given him momentary, fleeting, false
peace. We know that as we've looked
at it in past weeks. But now in the face of the loss
of all he has, his wives, the allegiance of his army who are
threatening to stone him, everything he has has now crumbled. His safe haven is gone and he's
come to the end of his rope. His sad strategies now arise
from the ruins with the smoke of his smoldering sanctuary.
And now, only now, he encourages himself in the Lord, his God. We know in previous studies that
often the omission of a thing tells a great story about the
thing. Before we have the report of
David's wonderful turn here in verse 6, the last report that
was the impetus for the actions that brought David to this place
is found in chapter 27 and verse 1. This is the last thing the
Holy Spirit said about him. And David said in his heart,
I shall now perish one day by the hand of Saul. There is nothing
better for me than I should speedily escape into the land of the Philistines. And Saul shall despair of me
and seek me no more in any coast of Israel. And so shall I escape
out of his hands. And David arose and passed over
the six hundred men that were with him to Achish, the son of
Malak, the king of Gath." That's the report we have of David that
started everything that leads to this place here in chapter
30 and verse 6. And between David's fear, revealed
in chapter 27 and verse 1, and his encouragement in the Lord,
a year and a half has passed. A year and a half has gone by
from the time David feared and ran to Gath, and now a year and
a half later, the Holy Spirit says He encourages himself in
the Lord. Now what happened in that year
and a half, we don't know much about. Just a few incidences
are all brought forth in that time. But the Holy Spirit who
inspired this book chose to record two things that happened, two
things that happened a year and a half apart. David's fear and
David encouraging himself in the Lord his God. Now during
that time the Lord suffered David to scheme and to plot And during
that time there is no record in that span of David once calling
upon the name of the Lord. That omission is very important.
We know of David fearing and running to Gath. That's what
the Holy Spirit told us he was going to do. And then the Holy
Spirit tells us a year and a half later that he encouraged himself
in the Lord. We see him kowtowing to Achish. We see him attributing salvation
to the enemy of God. We see him begging for mercy
at the door of the enemy, but we see no reference to the prayer
of faith in all that year and a half that he spent in this
horrible, horrible place. To call on God while employing
the flesh cannot be done. It cannot be done. Let me show
you something over in Galatians chapter 5. In Galatians chapter 5 and verse
16 it says, This I say then, walk in the Spirit, and ye shall
not fulfill the lusts of the flesh. That's just so. For the flesh lusts against the
Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh, and these are contrary
to one another, so that you cannot do the thing that you would.
Walk in the Spirit, you shall not fulfill the lusts of the
flesh. Walk in the flesh, you shall
not fulfill the Spirit. You shall not fulfill the Spirit.
Many years ago, my brother Billy wrote a little booklet entitled,
From Struggle to Submission. I may still have it in my office.
It was written back in the 60s, I think. It was a small treatise
on the foolishness of struggling to fix our problems when the
only solution to our problems is submission to God. That's
the only solution to our problems. There is no other. The fact is
that everything short of submission is struggle. And that struggle
is merely works of the flesh in different clothing. David's
efforts have been struggles that have, as they always will, end
in despair. That's where struggle is always
going to end, in despair. That's the design. Now, in despair,
a year and a half after he's exercised his will for a year
and a half, we find him encouraging himself in the Lord, his God. And he's finally come to a good
place. Finally been brought to a good place. This trial of David's
faith, for now, has had her perfect work. The course of the trial
is a kind of catalog of how trials for the believer often materialize. David's trial began with deliverance. Back in chapter 26, the Lord
delivered him from Saul, and he declared that he would trust
the Lord from that day forth. Somewhere between that incident
and David's fear, and flight to Gath, David most likely began
to look at God's sovereign deliverance as his own accomplishment. We
all suffer from that malady. We make it through something
and we think we did it. And that's just not the case.
That's just not the case. You see, confidence in the flesh
always ultimately results in fear. Always does. That's the way it manifests itself.
To the human natural mind, self-confidence eventuates in raising up enemies
and attributing power to them even though they might not exist. Be careful of self-confidence.
Be careful of it. Its fuel is the invention of
enemies in order to boost the notion that you might be able
to fight your own battles. The result will be a sense of
isolation, accompanied by self-righteous indignation, ending and circling
your wagons, and further applying to the flesh for help and support."
You can mark this down, mark it well. If your eyes are on
the circumstance, you are struggling and not submitting. For a year
and a half, David's eyes have been on the circumstance, on
the circumstance. This does not mean that there
will not be in your endeavors of the flesh moments that seem
to suggest that you're doing the right thing. You will have
moments of seemingly success in your endeavors in the flesh.
The Lord will allow that for you. David, running for his life,
received a city to live in. That's a pretty good deal. He
received Ziklag, which is part of Judah, which he was the king
of anyway. During this time, he had opportunity to rout the
Amalekites and other enemies of his people. He was even relieved
of the promise he had made to fight against Israel. And as
he arose that morning, excused by Achish to go back to Ziklag,
to go home to Ziklag, I'm sure he did so in great confidence
that things were going according to his plan. Why turn to God
when things are rolling so smoothly? I'm sure his trek to Ziklag was
an easy trek. His soldiers with him were looking
forward to seeing their wives and their kids back home again.
They were going to have to fight against Israel with the Philistines.
They had been summarily dismissed by the Philistines and by Achish. Perhaps he thought he had avoided
the snare of the fowler one more time. His wit and his charm and
his willingness to humiliate and degrade himself before the
enemy had gained him safe harbor. There is a way that seemeth right
unto men, but the end thereof are the ways of death. And while he was pulling rearward
watch for the army of the Philistines, the Amalekites had taken Ziklag. He didn't know anything about
it. Taking all the spoil, including his wives and the wives and children
of his soldiers, and had burned the city to the ground. That's
the story we have before us. The sorrow and the woe was palpable. The cries had been so prolonged
that tear ducts had dried up. They couldn't cry anymore. Imagine
that, 400 men wailing and moaning as they looked at their houses
that they had occupied and the city they had occupied burned
to the ground. What is it for David? Well, his
ersatz hope is gone. It's gone. The confidence is
gone and his very life appears to be in jeopardy. His men want
to stone him. He says he is distressed and depressed. and has been rendered
incapable of rubbing two cogent thoughts together. David, the
great planner, the great planner. Boy, he's a good planner. You
read this, he planned this well. He manipulated people well to
get what he wanted. He was a genius manipulator.
He was a master of serendipity. He looks on all his grand machinations
and they are just ashes and dust. Everything he's tried has turned
to nothing. He does not see the bodies of
his wife and that's the one thing that offers some hopeful thing
here in this whole matter. What he does not see gives him
hope. David had spared nothing when
he destroyed the Amalekites, did he? He took the spoils But
He killed every man, woman, and child. You can find that back
in chapter 27 in verse 8 and 9. What could mean the absence
of these bodies here? No bodies in this town, just
burned down buildings. There are no animals in this
town. There could be but one explanation. God intervened. In fact, the
wording here seems to suggest this is an anomaly. In verse
2 it says, "...and had taken the women captive that were therein,
they slew not any." They slew not any. The Holy Spirit adds
that. Why did He add that for us? Because
it's an anomaly. It's an anomaly. It's a strange
occurrence. The Amalekites were not known
for their mercy. Just the opposite was true. They
were ruthless, marauding murderers who left nothing in their trail
but blood and sorrow. Why would they spare these wives
and children of David's soldiers, David being their mortal enemy? There can be but one explanation.
God. in His overriding providence,
overcame the will of the Amalekites, manipulating thoughts and reasonings
and nature to bring about this end. He had done it many times.
Every time almost that Israel went to battle in the Numbers
and in Deuteronomy, we find that God did something to the minds
of the enemies, put fear in their hearts, made them afraid of hornets,
all kinds of stuff. And here we see him working again,
and I believe David in his heart knew this is what happened. He
looked out over the ruins, but he didn't see any dead bodies.
We know that's the case because in our next study we'll see him
go to God and say, shall I pursue after Him to get back my wives
and wives of my soldiers? He knows that to be the truth.
And we find these words. Now you think, oh, this is what
David said. This is where David has arrived.
This is where David has been brought to this place where he
has nothing. Everything before him is ruined.
His best plans and ideas in the flesh have been brought to nothing.
And we read these words, But David encouraged himself in the
Lord his God. What a statement. He encouraged
himself in the Lord his God. You reckon he read his Bible
more or prayed more? No indication there. It said
he encouraged himself in the Lord his God. And notice that
this statement begins with that little albeit mighty conjunction,
but in spite of all that David had done, all the errors of judgment
that he had made, all the lies and the humiliation, just out
of the blue it seems, it says, David encouraged himself in the
Lord. In spite of all that, but David
encouraged himself in the Lord. The wording here is very important.
Though David had sinned, the Lord was still his God. That's the wording. David encouraged
himself in the Lord. I'm going to stop there. But
it did. It added these two words. The
Lord, His God. His God. How did this encouragement
take place? This is a declaration of the
covenant God. The covenant God and the unchangeable
relationship He has with His elect. David could not encourage
himself in God by saying, I've done my best, because he hadn't
done his best. He couldn't encourage himself
in God because of some good work he'd done because he hadn't prayed
in a year and a half, hadn't talked to the Lord. He couldn't
encourage himself in his bravery and his courage because he has
wept and cried and begged and done obeisance to an enemy of
God. How does he encourage himself
in this terrible end of his self? One way, the only way we can.
The Lord our God. The covenant relationship. God is my God. God is my God. Look over at Jeremiah chapter
32 just for a moment. Jeremiah 32 verse 36. And now, therefore, thus saith
the God of Israel concerning this city, whereof ye say, It
shall be delivered into the hands of the king of Babylon by the
sword, and by the famine, and by the pestilence. Behold, I
will gather them out of all countries, whether I have driven them in
mine anger, and in my fury, and in my great wrath, and I will
bring them again unto this place, and I will cause them to dwell
safely. They shall be my people and I
will be their God. I will give them one heart and
one way that they may fear me forever for the good of them
and of their children after them. And I will make an everlasting
covenant with them that I will not turn away from them to do
them good, but I will put my fear in their hearts that they
shall not depart from me. Yea, I will rejoice over them
to do them good. I will plant them in this land
assuredly with my whole heart and my whole soul. saith the
Lord, like as I have brought all this great evil upon this
people, so will I bring them all the good that I have promised
them. That's David's life in a nutshell
right there. In a nutshell. God's people may stray. No, they
will stray. Their relations with Him may
change. David just did for a year and a half, didn't he? His relationship
with God changed. He didn't think about God. He
was thinking about himself. Protecting himself, self-preservation,
and new ways to come up with avoiding Saul. His relationship
with God changed. But God's relationship with him
didn't. And he knew that. And we know that. We know that. This is a blessed, excellent
knowledge. David has no reason to encourage himself in his own
action or even in the fact that he is now thinking right. Here's his hope. Here's his strength. Here's his encouragement. God
does not change. The God that he worshipped before
he fouled up. is the same God he worships now,
the very same God. God does not change, and our
faintings and our falterings do not alter His covenant. Religion
would like you to think that God can get angry with His people. And in the Old Testament, there's
no doubt that He did under that covenant of works. But David
was a picture of God's child, a man after God's own heart,
a picture of Christ Himself. David is a picture of the elect
of God. We change. We change all the time. We change
with every wind of circumstance. But the Word from heaven resounds
in our ears when He finally brings us to the end of ourselves, that
He has brought David to have nothing but Him. I am the Lord. I change not. Therefore you sons
of Jacob are not consumed. David ought to be consumed. I
ought to be consumed. I ought to be wiped off the face
of this earth. Why am I not? Well, because I
am a preacher. No, I have nothing to do with
it. Because I pray. I don't have
anything to do with it. I read my Bible. I study. I don't have anything
to do with it. Why am I not destroyed? What is my encouragement? God
doesn't change. He saved me. He always loved
me. chose me before the foundation
of the world, predestinated me to be like Christ, sent His Son
into this world to die in my room instead, pay for my sin,
put away my sin, make me perfect and righteous before Him and
accepted in His presence. And that will never change. Nothing
I can do or not do will ever change that. Nothing David can
do. There is no way that we can justify any of David's behavior
in this year and a half. Try as you might, you cannot
justify it in a spiritual sense. Now you might justify it naturally,
and I'm sure if the situation availed itself, we might act
just exactly like David does. But listen to me, you can't do
anything that will change God's relationship with you. And there's
nothing more sweet and blessed on the top side of this earth,
knowing what we are. You can't do anything. It's not going to
change. God's not going to change. Therefore, you sons of Jacob
are not consumed. Neither our faith nor our repentance
gives us comfort. Does it? You say, well, I'm a
believer. Does that give you comfort? No,
because I'm so full of unbelief. And my faith is so small and
so weak and so frail. And my repentances, they just
seem to be a way of life for me. It's like, you know, the last
one didn't work. I've got to do it again and again and again.
Do I take any hope? No, because I've got to continue
doing them. Only our unchanging God will
encourage us. That's how David encouraged himself.
He didn't say, Lord, I'm sorry for what I did. He was sorry
for what he did. He was weeping. He was moaning.
He was distressed, depressed. He was counting that it's his
fault. He didn't say that. As he looked out there on that
ruin, he said, God hasn't changed. He encouraged himself in the
Lord His God. His God. Look at Isaiah chapter 64. Listen to the words of Isaiah. Verse 6 says, But we are all
as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are
filthy rags. We do all fade as a leaf, and
our iniquities like the wind have taken us away. And there
is none that calleth upon thy name, none that stirreth up himself
to take hold of thee. For thou hast hid thy face from
us, and hast consumed us because of our iniquities. Look at those
next words. But now, O Lord, thou art our
Father. You're our Father. That's what
David said. You're my God. You're my God. We are the clay and Thou art
the potter. We are the work of Thine hand. That's encouragement in the Lord. Look at Psalm 89. Psalm 89, look at verse 20. I have found David My servant, And with my holy oil have I anointed
him, with whom mine hand shall be established, mine arm also
shall strengthen him. We know this is speaking of Christ,
but it is also speaking historically of David. The enemy shall not
exact upon him, nor the son of wickedness afflict him. I will
beat down his foes before his face, and plague them that hate
him. But my faithfulness and my mercy
shall be with him. And in my name shall his horn
be exalted. I will set his hands also in
the sea and his right hand in the rivers. And he shall cry
unto me, Thou art my Father, my God, the rock of my salvation. Also I will make him my firstborn,
higher than the kings of the earth. My mercy will I keep for
him forevermore, and my covenant will stand fast with him. His
seat also will I make to endure forever, and his throne as the
days of heaven. If His children forsake My law
and walk not in My judgments, if they break My statutes and
keep not My commandments, then, look very carefully, I will visit
their transgression with the rod. He doesn't say, I will visit
them. He said, I will visit their sin
with the rod. What does that mean? He's going
to put our sin on somebody else and punish it. That's what that
means. Then I will visit their transgression with a rod, and
their iniquity with stripes. Nevertheless, my lovingkindness
will I not utterly take from him, and nor suffer my faithfulness
to fail. My covenant will I not break,
nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips, once I have sworn
by my holiness. And I will not lie unto David.
And David encouraged himself in the Lord our God. The hymn writer wrote, "'Tis
grace that taught my heart to fear, and grace my fears relieved."
That's the case with David. Grace has been the driving force
behind all of this. David has come to fear the Lord
and cry out to Him. David wrote this during this
time in Psalm 56. In verse 3, he says, "...what
time I am afraid, I will trust in Thee." I will trust in Thee. And then in verse 4, "...in God
I will praise His Word, in God I have put my trust, I will not
fear what flesh can do unto me." Down in verse 11, "...in God
have I put my trust, I will not be afraid of what man can do
unto me." I'd say that's pretty much a change of mind, wouldn't
you? This is true repentance, a change
of mind. Look at all he did up to this
point. Who he feared, how he feared, what he did in order
to alleviate his fear and find himself among the enemy, all
those things. And now he says, I'm not going
to trust. When I fear, I'm going to trust God. I'm going to trust
the Lord. David encouraged himself in the
Lord, his God. That's what it all comes down
to. You know it and I know it. Troubles come our way. We invent
most of them. We bring them on ourselves. The
chastisement of the Lord upon us is because of our iniquity,
because of our failures, because of our failures. But it's never
done with a hand of punishment or a hand of wrath. It's always
done with a hand of love and a hand of mercy. Back in Psalm
37, we read these words. Verse 23, "...the steps of a good man are ordered
of the Lord, and he delighteth in his way. Though he fall, he
shall not utterly be cast down, for the Lord upholdeth him with
His hand. I have been young, Now I am old,
yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging
bread." David encouraged himself in the Lord his God. God won't forget His covenant.
He won't forget His covenant of grace. He won't forget the
covenant He's made with His people. No matter what you do, And we
do some dillies. We do some awful, awful things.
Things that we wouldn't even tell our closest relative about. We think things that we would
never want made public, that we'd probably put in jail. What's our hope? Certainly not
in me. Encourage yourself. in the Lord
your God. He will never, ever change toward
you. Father, bless us for our understanding.
We pray in Christ's name. Amen.