Introduction
For the benefit of those who are new here and visitors, we’ve been following the life of David in the Bible and looking at him mainly through the prism of his relationship to others. David and Goliath. David and Jonathan. And so on.
Last Sunday we began to look at his relationship with Saul, the king who proceeded him on the throne. And we saw that Saul, with his “head and shoulders” profile, reflected in many ways a kind of church life that we have seen in sharp decline in the last few decades. A church life that is about self-reliance; democracy, management techniques, human wisdom and with a steady drift away from the authority of Scripture.
David, by contrast, was a man ruled not by the head, but by the heart. And David mirrors the kind of church life that always flourishes. A church life that is about the power of the Holy Spirit, the presence of God in worship and reverence for God’s word.
And we saw that the crowd chose Saul for his impressive looks. But God
chose David for his impassioned heart.
Last week, we viewed David’s relationship with Saul mostly from Saul’s perspective. And you can listen to the podcast if you missed it and want to hear it. But today, we are going to look at things more from David’s point of view.
The first time the two men are mentioned together in the Bible is in 1 Samuel 16.14-23, which immediately follows David’s secret anointing by Samuel, and immediately precedes his encounter with Goliath.
Let’s pray and then read what it says…
Now the Spirit of the Lord had departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the Lord tormented him. Saul’s attendants said to him, “See, an evil spirit from God is tormenting you. Let our lord command his servants here to search for someone who can play the lyre. He will play when the evil spirit from God comes on you, and you will feel better.” So Saul said to his attendants, “Find someone who plays well and bring him to me.”
One of the servants answered, “I have seen a son of Jesse of Bethlehem
who knows how to play the lyre. He is a brave man and a warrior. He speaks well
and is a fine-looking man. And [notice this, the Spirit of the Lord had
departed from Saul but as for David] the Lord is with him.” Then Saul sent
messengers to Jesse and said, “Send me your son David, who is with the sheep.”
So Jesse took a donkey loaded with bread, a skin of wine and a young goat and
sent them with his son David to Saul.
David came to Saul and entered his service. Saul liked him very much,
and David became one of his armour-bearers. Then Saul sent word to Jesse,
saying, “Allow David to remain in my service, for I am pleased with him.”
Whenever the spirit from God came on Saul, David would take up his lyre and
play. Then relief would come to Saul; he would feel better, and the evil spirit
would leave him.
Oh, hang on a minute. Rewind the tape. Did I read that correctly? An evil spirit from God? Is that a printing error in my Bible? We might expect an evil spirit from Satan, but surely not from God? But God’s word insists here, four times in fact, that it was from the Lord.
There are a few rare and exceptional instances in the Bible, when God permits the demonic to bring affliction in the short term in order to bring about his good purposes in the long term.
The entire book of Job for example. In the New Testament, there are two occasions where Paul, using his apostolic authority, hands over to Satan a Christian, who has gone dangerously off track, in order - not to spitefully seek revenge - but to provoke a vital spiritual U-turn.
This evil spirit sent from God here is about grabbing Saul by the lapels and showing him he’s got to urgently get right with God again and take his spiritual leadership seriously. It’s a wake-up call.
1. A Worshipper
There are two key features in David’s character that I want to highlight from this passage.
First of all, he was anointed to be a worshipper. Half of the 150 Psalms are written by David, every one of them a prayer from his heart, expressing his feelings; his joy, his delight, his confidence, his yearnings, his dismay, his fear, his sorrows.
Washington DC church leader Mark Batterson says, “The Holy Spirit cannot fill you if you're full of yourself.”
Saul was though full of himself, obsessed about his image. But David was full of the Spirit. In his Psalms, every emotion is there, all of it a testimony to his every day, every hour, relationship with God at the centre of his life.
All of those Psalms were set to music of course, and David sang them as he played his stringed instrument.
It says here in v17 that he played it well and that God was with him. That's what you want in your worship band; people who can play competently of course - but who are spiritually in tune as well.
You may or may not be part of a worship band, but have you got a heart for worship? Does the Lord get your whole heart when you come to worship?
2. A Warrior
Secondly, v18 says that David was anointed to be a warrior.
We saw that two weeks ago with Goliath. All the way through 1st and 2nd Samuel, David is busy smiting Philistines or Amalekites or Ammonites or Moabites or some other arch enemy of God. He was fearless in battle.
As I said last week, our warfare is not physical against people but spiritual against principalities and powers. And living as a Christian is a constant battle. Have you noticed?
We battle against indifference and cynicism and unbelief and greed and prayerlessness and fears and lust and lies and laziness and temptations of every kind. Oh my! It’s relentless.
1 Peter 2.11 says that sinful desires wage war against your soul. It’s unremitting. It’s carnage, but we can live in victory over it all by the grace of God.
Well, David was a fighter. Do you think people say that of you? Are you conscious of living in a life-long spiritual battle? Do you know that the weapons of our spiritual warfare are mighty for the pulling down of strongholds? Do you know that the Bible promises that God will soon crush Satan under our feet? Do you put on the armour of God every day?
David was a worshipper and a warrior, and it says here that Saul liked him very much at first. But that was all about to change.
3. An Outcast
Saul's greatest weakness was that he could not stand others succeeding around him. People started to sing songs comparing David’s great success to Saul’s more modest success. And because Saul was insecure, he became anxious, moody and jealous - even paranoid.
In 1 Samuel 18, Saul twice suddenly lashes out and tries to pin David to the wall with a spear. Twice David dodges out of harm’s way. In chapter 19 it happens a third time. Talk about a boss with anger management issues…David eludes him again.
Saul then attempts to murder David in his bed but David’s wife Michal gets wind of the plan and helps him escape.
Saul then sends out men three times to pursue him before going himself, but God frustrates the plot every time.
In chapters 21-31 David is on constantly on the run and in hiding from
Saul who becomes more and more determined to track him down with his troops and
kill him.
It is 11 chapters of unrelenting persecution. David flees to the desert and has to hide in caves and inhospitable deserts. Even here, years on end at rock bottom, David turns to God and pours out his soul. Many of the Psalms must have been written in those days of peril and danger.
Psalm 3 for example;
Lord, how many are my foes! How many rise up against me! Many are saying of me, “God will not deliver him.” But you, Lord, are a shield around me, my glory, the One who lifts my head high… I lie down and sleep; I wake again, because the Lord sustains me. I will not fear though tens of thousands assail me on every side…
The Lord is my light and my salvation - whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life - of whom shall I be afraid? When the wicked advance against me to devour me, it is my enemies and my foes who will stumble and fall. Though an army besiege me, my heart will not fear; though war break out against me, even then I will be confident.
And Psalm 63:
You, God, are my God, earnestly I seek you; I thirst for you, my whole being longs for you, in a dry and parched land where there is no water.
When life is hard, when people are not fair, when circumstances are bewildering, when God seems to be silent, when everything seems to be against you, do you bring it all to God? Do you tell him what you think? Do you tell him how you feel? Do you pour out your soul to the Lord?
And it’s around this time that men begin to join David. 1 Samuel 22.2 says this: “All those who were in distress or in debt or discontented gathered round him and he became their leader.” I’ll come back to that towards the end, because it’s very significant.
In chapter 24 there’s a pivotal moment when Saul is pursuing David with
an army of 3,000 men. David and the men loyal to him are hiding a long way back
in a cave.
And Saul goes into that very cave to relieve himself, not knowing of course that anyone is watching. And while Saul is responding to nature’s call, some of David’s guys whisper to him, “This is your moment! He’s a sitting duck! Go on, “kill this maniac and the throne will be yours.”
David creeps forward with his dagger, draws it from its sheaf and leans forward towards Saul, who has his back turned in the darkness of the cave.
But instead of plunging the blade into Saul’s heart, as he is urged to do, David cuts off a square of the king's royal robe and when Saul has left, he calls out to him, v9, holding up the piece of fine silk.
David shouts out, “Why do you listen when men say, ‘David is bent on harming you’? This day you have seen with your own eyes how the Lord delivered you into my hands in the cave. Some urged me to kill you, but I spared you; I said, ‘I will not lay my hand on my lord, because he is the Lord’s anointed.’”
I want you to notice this; the tremendous respect and reverence in which David values God’s anointing.
David had every reason to feel hatred and bitterness. He had every justification in self-defence, to plunge the dagger into the heart of a man determined to kill him. Everything that was happening to David was so unfair, so wrong.
But when God looked into David’s heart, he saw mercy. He saw grace. He
saw forgiveness. He saw a foreshadowing of David’s greatest descendant, Jesus,
the Son he loves.
1 Peter 2.23 says, “When they hurled their insults at [Jesus], he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly.”
In 1 Samuel 26 it happens again. Saul once more becomes consumed by jealousy. He gathers his 3,000 men and off they go again to hunt David down like a dog.
This time, when Saul and his men are asleep at night, David takes a guy called Abishai and they creep into the camp unnoticed. They stand over Saul, fast asleep, with his spear in the ground, right by his head. Knowing that David was unwilling to kill Saul before, Abishai whispers, “Go on! Let me pin him to the ground. I’ll kill him instantly and all this will be over.”
Again, David says “The Lord forbid that I should lay a hand on the
Lord’s anointed!”
The most difficult decisions we ever take are the ones we make under the pressure of great temptation. But they are the ones God most honours us for.
David is determined to put God first in his life, even if in the short
term that might mean more pain, more misunderstanding, more persecution, more
being wronged.
I just feel there might be people here this morning struggling with a big decision. You know the easy choice, but the wrong one, will make life simpler for you. You know the right choice carries a cost. But in the longer term, I want you to have faith that the Lord will bring honour to you and blessing on your life when you take the right but more difficult path.
So once again, David spares Saul. He retreats with Saul’s spear and water jug then, from a distance, shows him the evidence again that he could have killed him – but didn’t. And once again, Saul admits that he has been a fool, that David is more righteous than he is, that the Lord is with him and that, in the end, David will prevail.
4. A Leader
David is a leader. He leads through his Godly character, his worshipping heart, his warrior spirit and his moral courage. But supremely, David is a leader because people want to follow him.
The Silicon Valley church leader John Ortberg says, “He that say he
leadeth when nobody followeth only taketh a walk.”
Let me read 1 Samuel 22.2 again: “All those who were in distress or in debt or discontented gathered round him and he became their leader.”
It’s very notable that it doesn’t say these 400 men came to the cave. Famously,
men like caves and sheds but there was nothing attractive about the cave in
itself.
They weren’t saying, “Well, I go to Saint Cave’s Church now. Or I go to Cave Christian Fellowship. I like the dim lighting and the outdoors life and the alternative feel to it.”
It wasn’t the cave. It says they gathered round David. They saw his faith. They saw the purity of his heart. They saw his integrity. And they said, “I’m with him.”
In 1 Chronicles 12.18 God gives David more men. And the Spirit of the
Lord comes on one of them and he says,
“We are yours, David! We are with you, son of Jesse! Success, success to you, and success to those who help you, for your God will help you.”
Everything David suffered under Saul was so unfair, so cruel, but these men watched David under pressure, they saw how he responded, they saw his heart, they saw that God was in him and they gathered to him.
Remember what I said last week about Ern Baxter’s prophetic word that
Saul-type churches with their institutional, top-down model would fade as God
raised up David-type churches? So much of that is to do with people seeing Spirit-filled,
gracious, visionary leaders whom God is clearly blessing, even though some
oppose them.
People gather round anointed leaders and say; “I want some of what you've got!” “I’m coming with you. I’m buying into your vision. I am excited by the promises God is making to you. I’m in.”
So eventually, after Saul dies, and David weeps for him, and those guys see his magnanimity, in 1 Chronicles 11.1, it says this; “All Israel came together to David at Hebron and said, “We are your own flesh and blood.’”
In other words, we feel joined to you. We feel part of you. You see? It’s leadership based, not on institutional hierarchy, but on affection and loyalty and love.
It’s the same principle in the New Testament. In 2 Corinthians 8.5 Paul says of the Macedonian Christians, “They gave themselves first of all to the Lord, and then by the will of God also to us.”
And of course, it has to be two-way otherwise you’ve got an unhealthy
sect.
In 1 Thessalonians 2, Paul says, “Just as a nursing mother cares for her children, so we cared for you. Because we loved you so much, we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God but our lives as well.”
In David-type churches it's relational, not institutional; it’s not who’s the Right Reverend, the Most Reverend and the Very Reverend. It's not who's top dog?
It’s friendship and covenant and affection and family; “we are your own
flesh and blood.” This is what God has been raising up in the last few
generations. Not Saul-type Christianity with its obsession for
self-preservation. But a David-type Christianity with a fire in the heart for
God’s honour. David or Saul? Life or death?
Ending
God is looking for men and women with a worshipping heart, like David, not like Saul. Psalm 9, written by David, says; I will praise you, Lord, with all my heart; I will tell of all your wonderful deeds.
God wants men and women with a heart for worship who are committed to giving the very best to worthily magnify and exalt his greatness. Are you going to be one of them?
God is looking for men and women with a servant heart, like David, not like Saul. Acts 13:36 says, “David… served God’s purpose in his own generation.”
God wants servant-hearted men and women who are passionate about the purposes of God in ours. Are you going to be one of them?
God is looking for men and women with a trusting heart, like David, not like Saul. “David said: ‘I saw the Lord always before me. Because he is at my right hand, I will not be shaken’” (Acts 2:25).
God wants men and women who will not be moved because their hearts have placed their trust in God’s unshakable promises. Are you going to be one of them?
God is looking for men and women with an undivided heart, like David, not like Saul. Psalm 86, written by David, says: Teach me your way, Lord, that I may rely on your faithfulness; give me an undivided heart, that I may fear your name.
God wants men and women whose heart is steadfast, and never torn between God and an idol. Is that you?
God is looking for men and women with a prophetic heart, like David, not like Saul. Acts 2:29-30 says “(David) was a prophet and knew that God had promised him on oath that he would place one of his descendants on his throne.”
Who wants to hear from God and speak out his word? Do you want that to
be you? Well, earnestly desire spiritual gifts, especially prophecy.
God is looking for men and women with an obedient heart. Acts 13:22 says “God testified concerning him: ‘I have found David son of Jesse, a man after my own heart; he will do everything I want him to do.’”
In short, David had a heart for God. And God wants you and I to have one as well. Are you up for that?
Let’s stand to pray…
Sermon preached at King's Church Darlington, 7 May 2023
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