Psalm 54 - Doing Right And Getting Hunted

Welcome back to Tabernacle Talk. We are in 1 Samuel 23 today.

You might say, what? No, really, we are in Psalm 54. But we are in Psalm 54 by way of 1 Samuel 23 today.

And it's because of the inscription that David writes on this psalm, which says, for the choir director with stringed instruments, a masculine David, when the Ziphites went and said to saul, is David not hiding among us?

And as I'm certain for you as well as for me, you don't recall much about the Ziphites and this particular portion of David's life.

And so I thought we would do a little bit of backstory looking at 1 Samuel 23 and what led to David writing these particular words.

And my prayer is that as we look at that, we'll see how we can gain comfort from the Lord in times when we are in struggles just as David was.

So, 1 Samuel 23 comes right after the slaughter of the priests that Doeg the Edomite had done and killed these people that had provided safe haven to David. And so David's on the run, saul's pursuing him.

And that's where we pick up in 1 Samuel 23 and verse number 1. It was reported to David, Look, the Philistines are fighting against Keyila and raiding the threshing floors. So here was a city in Israel and the Philistines were coming.

They were robbing people. And verse number 2, David inquired of Yahweh, Should I launch an attack against these Philistines? Yahweh answered David, launch an attack against the Philistines and rescue Keyila.

But David's men said to him, Look, we're afraid here in Judah. How much more if we go to Keyila against the Philistine forces? So here these men are saying, Hey, we're scared and we don't really want to try and fight against these people.

If we go there, we're going to be so much closer to saul and saul is going to get us. So verse number 4, David doesn't just say, Oh, OK, you guys don't want to go. God told me to go.

And so I guess I'm not going to. He goes back to God. Once again, David inquired of Yahweh, verse number four, and Yahweh answered him, Go at once to Kiila, for I will hand the Philistines over to you.

Then David, his men went to Kiila, fought against the Philistines, drove their livestock away and inflicted heavy losses on them. So David rescued the inhabitants of Kiila.

Abiathar, son of Ahimelech, fled to David at Kiila and he brought an ephod with him. That is the son of the main priest that had rescued and provided safe haven for David.

His son had escaped when Doeg the Edomite was killing many of the other priests, and he came to David. He brought an ephod, which was something that was used back in the Old Testament to figure out, okay, does God want me to do this or this?

You would use an ephod, and you would figure out what God wanted you to do.

Verse number seven, when it was reported to saul that David had gone to Keilah, he said, God has handed him over to me, for he has trapped himself by entering a town with barred gates.

Then saul summoned all the troops to go to war at Keilah and besieged David and his men. Man, here, David, he's just trying to follow the Lord. He's just trying to be obedient.

He's trying to save God's people. saul didn't get all of the people to go fight against the Philistines, but he did take all of the people, all of his army to go fight against David.

And man, when we when we are not walking with God here, as saul is, even though he's using God's name in vain, saying God has delivered David into my hand, even though he knows that God isn't with saul, God is with David.

He told saul, you are going to have the kingdom taken away from you because of your wickedness, because you have not believed in me, you have not trusted me, you have not obeyed me. And so I'm going to give it to someone who will have my heart.

And so saul now, he's going and his enemies are God's friends.

And if you find yourself in a spot where you're like, man, why can't these Christians just figure out this thing that, you know, my favorite pundit or my group of people over here, like, they're so much more fun, they're so much cooler.

Why can't these Christians just be more like these unsaved people that don't know God? That should be a giant red flag for us. If we go, OK, God's people are saying this and doing this and having these attitudes and espousing these beliefs.

And I have this group of people that I like, and they don't hold any of those things, that should give us pause to say, there's a problem here.

There's a problem spiritually with me that I am listening to the wrong kind of people when God's people are my enemies and the world is my friend.

I think even of what James says in James 4, that to have friendship with the world, with the world system, with the way it thinks, the way it acts, how it talks, to be friends with the world is to be an enemy of God. So here this is what's happening.

David, verse number 9, when David learned that saul was plotting evil against him, he said to the priest of Biathar, bring the ephod. He wants to know from God, God, what do you want me to do?

Then David said, Yahweh, God of Israel, your servant has reliable information that saul intends to come to Key Isle and destroy the town because of me. Will the citizens of Key Isle hand me over to him? Will saul come down as your servant is heard?

Yahweh, God of Israel, please tell your servant. Here, David doesn't come with like an accusatory at God, kind of like, hey, you told me to save these people, and now saul is coming to get me. How, like, how could you let me down?

He goes like, no, I know whatever plans God has for me that God will provide me my next steps. So he asks God like, hey, is saul going to come and destroy these people because of me? Or like, are they going to hand me over even though I saved them?

saul didn't save them, but they will back up saul and not me. So he asks, and the Lord answered, verse number 11, he will come down. Verse number 12, David asks, he asks again, he says, will the citizens of Kiila hand me and my men over to saul?

They will. Yahweh responded. So David and his men, numbering about 600, left Kiila at once and moved from place to place.

When it was reported to saul that David had escaped from Kiila, he called off the expedition. David then stayed in the wilderness strongholds and in the hill country of the wilderness of Ziph. saul searched for him every day.

But God did not hand David over to him. Here there's almost this statement that saul doesn't know what God's doing. saul thinks, oh, God's handing David over to me on a silver platter.

And the writer here of 1 Samuel 23 is taking special pains to show us. saul doesn't know what God does, how God does it, what God's views are. And there are people still to this day that will say, oh, God is doing this.

God is making this happen. I give a prophecy that God is going to do this at this time, or this is when the end of the world is going to happen, or this is the next world leader. And I'm figuring this out by prophecy of the Lord.

And every time that people like that fail when they have said, or God said this and God did not say it, it should instantly turn us off to listening to those types of voices. Those are not godly voices.

Those are voices in violation of the third commandment, that you will, you shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain. Don't use God's name as an authoritative push for you to say whatever you want.

And talked about that several times before. So, first Samuel 23 and verse 15. Now we're in the wilderness of Ziph.

So here we're approaching the exact spot where David is going to write the Psalm from. David was in the wilderness of Ziph in Horesh when he saw that saul had come out to take his life.

Then saul's son Jonathan came to David in Horesh and encouraged him in his faith in God. Man, I need friends like this in my life. You need friends like this in your life.

Friends that to interact with them is to be encouraged in your faith in God. Not encouraged in your own ability, not encouraged just in, oh, I'm sure life's happenstances will eventually turn your way.

But to encourage someone in their faith in God is to encourage someone in something that will not fail. And here's what Jonathan in verse 17 said to David. Here's how he encouraged him.

He said, Don't be afraid for my father, saul, will never lay a hand on you. You yourself will be king over Israel and I'll be your second in command. Even my father, saul, knows it is true.

Then the two of them made a covenant in Yahweh's presence. Afterward, David remained in Horesh while Jonathan went home. I do find it funny that Jonathan, because his heart is for David, his heart is for God, for the Lord, that he speaks truthfully.

He knows God promised the kingdom to David, and so David is going to be the king one day.

And though Jonathan didn't know that one day he was going to die in battle, he had this faith that everything that God had said to David was going to come to pass.

And so Jonathan was able to find David, saul couldn't, because Jonathan's heart was for David, for the Lord, and saul had no idea.

Verse number 19, some Ziphites came up to saul at Gibeah and said, David is hiding among us in the strongholds in Horesh on the Hill of Hakkala, south of Gishamon. Now, whenever the king wants to come down, let him come down.

Our part will be to hand him over to the king. So here these people that, they certainly think that they're doing the right thing by handing over a fugitive to the king, but they are doing wrong.

Verse 21, May you be blessed by Yahweh, replied saul, for you have shown concern for me. Go and check again. Investigate where he goes and who has seen him there.

They tell me he is extremely cunning. Investigate all the places where he hides. Then come back to me with accurate information and I'll go with you.

If it turns out he really is in the region, I'll search for him among all the clans of Judah. So they went to Zeth ahead of saul.

Now David and his men were in the wilderness near Maon, in the Araba south of Jishamon, and saul and his men went to look for him. When David was told about it, he went down to the rock and stayed in the wilderness of Maon.

saul heard of this and pursued David there. saul went along one side of the mountain and David and his men went along the other side.

Even though David was hurrying to get away from saul, saul and his men were closing in on David and his men to capture them. Then a messenger came to saul saying, Come quickly, because the Philistines have raided the land.

So saul broke off his pursuit of David and went to engage the Philistines. Therefore that place was named the Rock of Separation, that that mountain had separated, had saved David and his men from saul.

From there, David went up and stayed in the strongholds of Engedi. So it's in that background of David being betrayed by people that were his countrymen that should have had his back, that he did right by people.

He saved them from the Philistines that saul should have been fighting against, but instead saul spent all of his energy trying to hunt down David. So David says this in Psalm 54 and verse 1, God save me by your name and vindicate me by your might.

God, hear my prayer. Listen to the words from my mouth, for strangers rise up against me and violent men intend to kill me. They do not let God guide them.

I think it's so interesting here, David's saying, these people, they aren't asking God what they should do like David is. They aren't saying, here's what God has said like Jonathan did. These are people that were going their own way.

And so David pleads on God to save him, for God to vindicate him, for God to hear his prayer. He says in verse 4, God is my helper. The Lord is the sustainer of my life.

He will repay my adversaries for their evil. because of your faithfulness, God, annihilate them. Here, this is a cry for justice from a person that has been hunted like an animal, like an evil doer, despite the fact that he had done no wrong.

And so he says, God is my helper, my easer, the one that is by my side to help me, because I could not do this on my own.

There, that word helper again is that same one from Genesis Chapter 2, where God told Adam that he had made a helper suitable or fitting for him.

Here, God is that one, that like a great spouse, is there to be able to lift David up, to encourage him, to let him be able to escape, to send Philistines and messengers at just the right time, so that saul does not capture him.

He says that the Lord is the sustainer of my life, that God is the one that is keeping David alive. It's not through his own cleverness. It's not because he's so cunning, as saul thinks.

It's because the Lord is the one that sustains him. Can I tell you today, if you're breathing, if you're living, then God has sustained you today. He is your helper.

And so, praise him for it. Tell him who he is and what he has done.

And maybe if there's times when you're praying for justice to be done, when you're praying for the right to win out, that you can pray something like David prayed here of repay my adversaries for their evil.

And because of your faithfulness, because you cannot allow sin to go unpunished, annihilate them. Lord, may you bring justice. And this is a real heart to be able to pray this.

Certainly, we would also take into account the New Testament, that Jesus was annihilated in our place for our sins. And so that should affect some of how we think about those that are our adversaries.

That even Jesus with the Sermon on the Mount, when he tells them, like, hey, you're going to have enemies, you're going to have people that are against you.

But like, pray for them, bless them, turn the other cheek, because you are to act in such a way, like God's kingdom has already come down, and so you're not in need of anything.

You don't need to repay justice, because all of God's justice has already been poured out. But that doesn't mean that we can't pray for right to be done.

Even as we look at the Book of Revelation and we see the martyrs around the throne of God asking, like, hey, how long until we are avenged for our deaths? And God says, hey, I'm bringing the judgment.

Verse number six, I will sacrifice a freewill offering to you. I will praise your name, Yahweh, because it is good, for he has rescued me from every trouble. And my eye has looked down on my enemies.

I think of David there on that mountain.

And as he's looking at saul and all of his men and the messenger that brought the message about the Philistines, as he sees them running away, to go take care of what is going on there, David's like, hey, God, like, you deserve offerings, you deserve

sacrifices, you deserve my praise, because you are good, because you have rescued me, and you have now put me in the place that I wanted to be, a place where I am now literally looking down on my enemies. I'd encourage you today, be thankful to God

when he answers your prayer requests, be thankful to God when he provides for you, be thankful to God because he has saved you and rescued you from hell, because he has rescued you from living a life outside of knowing his presence. Let's praise the

Lord because his name, the name of Jesus, is good and is worthy to be praised. Thanks for tuning in today.

I hope that this study and as we look at David and kind of his life and things that he was going through and how he's saying back to God as a result of it, I hope that it's an encouragement and might meet you wherever you are in your life.

Thanks for tuning in. See you next episode.