Psalm 56 - Crazy Spitting Drummer and God’s Tear Bottle

Well, welcome back to another episode of Tabernacle Talk. I am recording this in the middle of a day of some lectures and stuff for a seminary class.

And so I am attempting to record a few things and get some things done.

The day that this is coming out, I am actually in Tennessee at a music conference with a buddy of mine that I graduated kindergarten, sixth grade, high school, and Bible College with.

And he has been a music pastor down in Tennessee since we graduated. And I'm at the Sing Music Conference by Keith and Kristin Getty. And they're modern day hymn writers.

They've written some kind of well-known ones like In Christ Alone. If you've heard Christ, Our Hope in Life and Death that Michael W. Smith recorded.

They've also written Power of the Cross, Speak O Lord. If you're from here at Tabernacle, we learned their song O Church Arise during April and May during our Tabernacle DNA series. And so really, really looking forward to being there.

But we're going to jump right into our passage today, Psalm 56. And the inscription for the Psalm says this, for the choir director, according to a silent dove far away. And that would probably be like the name of a specific tune.

And it says, a myctum of David. This is one of kind of the golden songs. Psalm 16, if I remember correctly, is another one of the ones that's labeled here, a myctum, not a maskelle, a myctum of David.

And the occasion for this is when the Philistines seized him in Gath. So we're going to head over to 1 Samuel 21 for today. And we're going to get here.

So David is on the run from Saul. And this is, if I remember correctly, a fairly new thing that's breaking out. Yeah.

So Jonathan has interacted with David. David has married Saul's daughter, Michael. Saul begins throwing some spears and some different things at David because he is, number one, demon possessed.

Number two, he is jealous of David and thinks that he's going to steal the kingdom. From Saul, which David would would never do, and makes clear to Saul over and over and over again. So David is just now kind of starting off in his fling.

This actually takes place before the Psalm that we looked at a couple of days ago, both Psalm 54 with the Ziphites. And before Psalm 52 about Doeg, the Edomite. So this is before both of those instances.

So David is just freaking out for the first time going, man, I'm being hunted by the king of my nation. That I have served him. I've been good to him.

I'm literally his son-in-law. And yet he is pursuing me and trying to kill me. So he goes to the Priest of Himalek at Nob.

And there he receives some great things. The Bread of the Presence that's there that Jesus references. That whole event taking place.

And Doeg the Edomite sees that David was there and interacted with the priests and what the priests gave. David gets the Sword of Goliath, the Philistine from Gath, as well from Himalek. And verse No.

10 of 1 Samuel 21 says this, David fled that day from Saul's presence and went to King Achish of Gath. And what's crazy here is this move makes almost no sense. David here is going, okay, well, what is Saul afraid of?

What is Saul really dislike? And he remembers, okay, Saul didn't want to fight against Goliath. Like he was scared of Goliath.

Where was Goliath from? From the city of Gath. This was one of those like really big headquarters of the Philistines.

And so we would also know from the rest of the scripture that Goliath had four brothers as well. And may even have had, I think it's at least one son, if not more children than that even.

And so there are some mighty warriors, some mighty Philistines within this kind of town, city, city-state type things. You can think even of something like in Athens or Sparta in ancient Greece, that kind of deal going on with the Philistine city.

So here there's the city of Gath. And David knows, well, Saul really never fights against the Philistines.

Saul, despite the fact that he was like head and shoulders above everyone else in Israel for his height, even though he had like his own armor, which was not something that was very normal back in those days, even though he had a sword, even though

he had spears, he didn't really do a whole ton of fighting against the Philistines, at least not from what we read in Scripture. Like most of the time, he's running away, he's avoiding, God's like, hey, I want you to like eradicate this evil, like

these people that are murdering and pillaging and robbing and all of this stuff. And Saul is always kind of like hesitant to ever actually like jump into the fray.

The only time that he fights is when he's like, hey, we've been fighting this battle all day and anyone that eats any food before the enemy is defeated, I'm gonna kill him. And then they're like, well, Jonathan ate some stuff, your son.

He's like, okay, well, I'm gonna kill Jonathan. And then they're like, what's wrong with you? Or David, where it's like, hey, here's your son-in-law that's fighting your battles.

Whatever you ask, he does like double of he's like, he's amazing. And now you're hunting him, not because he did anything against you, but because you just think he might at some point in the future.

So Saul spends all of his time fighting God's people and basically none of his time fighting against the actual enemy. And I think there is something in there for us to consider. Who are your enemies?

Are your enemies, you know, fellow humans, flesh and blood? Or is your enemies, you know, what God views as his enemies?

That is, the world, the flesh, the devil, sin in our own lives, or those demons that want to trick everyday people into not following Jesus but into following their own way.

So as that's going on, I can only imagine that that was some portion of why David is fleeing to Gath. Because he knows Saul doesn't like fighting the Philistines, and he will prolong it off as much as he possibly can.

And if Saul is now David's enemy, well, then it makes sense that the enemy of Saul would now be David's friend. So he goes to Achish of Gath. But verse number 11, Achish's servants said to him, isn't this David, the king of the land?

See, even these Philistines knew what Saul did not. Saul didn't realize God is lifting up David to be the new king. He didn't recognize that, but the Philistines did.

And so Achish's men say to him, hey, this is David, king of the land. Don't they sing about him during their dances? Saul has killed his thousands, but David, his tens of thousands?

Now, again, they are using greatly inflated numbers. This is singing. It's, you know, I can do anything, you know, let's party all night.

You're not saying like actually all night, at least not in most instances, but there's a little bit of creative license going on here. But they notice, hey, everyone knows about David. He is a mighty warrior.

Verse number 12, David took this to heart. So he's hearing what they're saying, what they're talking about, what they're like, okay, wait, wait, wait, wait, we gotta tell Achish about this.

I don't really think like we're safe with David in our midst. So verse 12, David took this to heart and became very afraid of King Achish of Gath. So he's gone there.

And for whatever reason, he didn't think that there was going to be a problem. He hears people talking about this, and now he gets afraid. And verse number 13, so he pretended to be insane in their presence.

He acted like a madman around them, scribbling on the doors of the city gate.

The it's interesting here, the ancient Greek translation of 1 Samuel, the Septuagint says that he was drumming on the doors of the city gate and letting saliva run down his beard.

Like he's just going like a crazy man, like someone that today, you know, might be on drugs or might be experiencing like kind of a mental crisis moment. And this is how David's acting because he thinks that this is going to save him.

And King Akish notices, he says, look, you can see the man is crazy, Akish said to his servants. Why did you bring him to me? Do I have such a shortage of crazy people that you brought this one to act crazy around me?

Is this one going to come into my house? And Akish basically in essence says, like, get him out of here. Like I have no need for him, but he doesn't kill him.

So could have gone worse. So this is the song that David writes as a result of this time when the Philistines seized him in Gath. He says, Be gracious to me, God, for a man is trampling me.

This is Saul. He fights and oppresses me all day long. My adversaries trample me all day for many arrogantly fight against me.

When I am afraid, I will trust in you. In God, whose word I praise, in God I trust, I will not be afraid. What can mere mortals do to me?

They twist my words all day long. All their thoughts against me are evil. They stir up strife.

They lurk. They watch my steps while they wait to take my life. Will they escape in spite of such sin?

God, bring down the nations in wrath. You yourself have recorded my wanderings. Put my tears in your bottle.

Are they not in your book? Then my enemies will retreat on the day when I call. This I know.

God is for me. In God, whose word I praise, in Yahweh, whose word I praise, in God I trust, I will not be afraid. What can mere humans do to me?

I am obligated by vows to you, God. I will make my thank offerings to you. For you rescued me from death, even my feet from stumbling, to walk before God in the light of life.

Here, David says, God be gracious to me. I need you to like bless me, to give me your favor, to help me out, because no one else is going to do it. I love verse 3.

When I am afraid, I will trust in you. I think in the Old King James, it might say, What time I am afraid, I will trust in you. Fear is not really something that might come.

There will always be times in our life where we are fearful. And when we are afraid, we can trust in God because he is there for us. I'm going to continue on.

Verse 4, he says, I trust in you, in God whose word I praise. What can give us confidence in God? What would make us think that we don't have to be afraid?

It's the word of God. It's not just random thoughts about a deity or a being. It is actually knowing who God is, what he has done, what he has said that gives us comfort in times of fear and anxiety.

He says, in God I trust, I will not be afraid. What can mere mortals do to me? I think of Jesus' words where he says, don't fear the people that can only kill your body.

And if they kill your body, you know, your soul is free forever. That if we die, if we're absent from the body, we are present with the Lord.

I think of what Paul says in Philippians 1 where he says, I have a desire to depart and to be with Christ, which is far better. He says, I don't know what to choose because I want to help you guys, but I also want to be with Jesus.

And I think that are here. Let me backtrack back to Jesus says, So don't fear the people that can just kill the body and can't do anything more to you.

He says, have a care, have a have a fear, a reverence and awe for the one that can kill both your body and your soul in hell. And Jesus there is not saying like, you should think that God is against you and wants to harm you.

And so you better run to him or else he's going to destroy you. Like he's saying, in your life, you naturally don't fear God. You don't think about your actions or your words before him.

You don't think about your relationship with him normally. You just care about, okay, I got to make sure that I don't, you know, walk down the wrong street at the wrong time of day. Otherwise, I'm going to get killed.

He says, don't worry about your physical death.

He says, if you're going to worry about something like worry about your spiritual death, care about your relationship with God, follow him, and don't worry about like these earthly things because your soul is what's most important.

So that's what David says here. What can mere mortals do to me? The worst that they can do is make you instantly in the presence of God.

Like that's the worst this life has to offer is sending you to Jesus. And so what a comfort that that is for us, that we don't have to be afraid.

I think of the next section there of the twisting of words, the thoughts against him are evil, the stirring up strife, lurking, watching his steps, waiting to take his life. This is what Saul was doing.

Jealousy is a brutal thing that mistreats image bearers of God. And we should realize that what God has given us is sufficient. It is this coming Sunday.

We're going to be looking at John 3 verses 22 through 36. And John, John the Baptist's disciples are interacting with some people and they get jealous kind of of Jesus and his followers and what Jesus is accomplishing and what Jesus is receiving.

And they try to like bring that jealousy to John the Baptist. And he's like, no, like if anyone has anything, it's because God gave it to them. Also, Jesus is way more important.

He's from heaven. He's got to increase, become more and more famous. He says, I've got to decrease.

He says, the more that I'm lifted up, the less Jesus is. And so I've got to lift Jesus up. And I don't care if that makes me super small in the eyes of people.

That's okay because I'm here to serve God. And if John had that attitude that if anyone has anything, it's been given to them from God, I ought to have that same attitude towards other people.

And I'm certain I'll dive more into that on Sunday as far as some specific steps or something that we could take as a result of that. I love verse 8 where he says to God, You yourself have recorded my wanderings. God knows every step of your life.

He says, put my tears in your bottle. Saying like God, you know, you have held every tear that I've cried. My emotions are not apart from my relationship with God.

They're not apart from God's knowledge. And God doesn't just let them fall. Like David here says, God, you treasure my emotions and my heartbreaks and my fears.

And you know when you hold them and you view them as precious. He says, are they not in your book that God records? He's not just like passively kind of noticing.

He's putting in effort to say like, Hey, here's everything that is happening in Brian's life. Here's everything that is happening in Dina's life or in Myron's life or in John and Shelley's life or whoever else is listening today.

God says, I know you. I know every moment of your life, every emotion, every heartbreak, every wandering. And I am here with you and I love you and I see you.

This prompts David to say in verse nine, This I know God is for me. What a wonderful comfort and truth that that is for us. He says kind of the same refrain again of God and him praising the word of God twice over.

He says, in God, I trust I will not be afraid. What can mere humans do to me? And then he says, I'm obligated by vows to you, God.

He says, I promised you like, hey, God, if you get me out of this, I'm going to serve you. I'm going to bring you a lamb to the tabernacle. I'm going to pour out a drink offering.

I'm going to give my thank offerings to you. And so he says, you rescued me from death, my feet from stumbling to walk before God in the light of life. And I am so thankful that God, through Jesus Christ, he has rescued us from death.

He has kept our feet from stumbling into hell, and we walk in the Spirit before God in the light of his life, the light of Jesus that lights everyone that comes into the world, and the life that is the light of men.

Today, turn to God if you're afraid, if you're crying, if you are hurting, if you are fearful of your situations, turn to God. Realize in his word that he has promised eternal life to you. He has promised his holy family to you.

He has promised that he will never leave you or forsake you. He has promised that though sorrow may endure for the night, that joy comes in the morning. He has promised that he is for you, that nothing can separate you from his love.

He has promised you that everything in your life, good and bad, it works together for God's glory and for your good.

He has promised that even if the worst of this life comes against you and you die like Jesus died, you can know that you have resurrection, you can know just like Jesus resurrected, you can know that you have a home forever in heaven.

So trust in the Word of God, rely on him, have confidence in him, realize that if God is for us, then who can be against us? God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in time of trouble. Thanks for tuning in today.

I hope it would be an encouragement to you. I know I was encouraged just during this time that I can rest on God. When I am afraid, I will trust in God.