St.Aidan’s West Epping, 21st January 2018
Rev. Paul Weaver
THE GOD WHO GUIDES AND PROVIDES
(1 Samuel 23:7-14; Psalm 31; 1 Corinthians 7:29-31; Mark 1:14-20)
Each Sunday during January and indeed for another couple of weeks we are hearing stories from the Books of Samuel: a number of incidents in the life of David, who became the second king of Israel. David’s story must be just about the longest narrative in the Bible: it starts halfway through 1 Samuel, includes all of 2 Samuel, and goes into the First Book of Kings: over 40 chapters in all.
And what a mixed story it is! It begins with the anointing of David, probably an adolescent at the time: Samuel the prophet and leader has been told that a member of the family of Jesse will become king after Saul, because Saul has been disobedient to God. David, the youngest son of Jesse, has seven older brothers who look like fine fellows, but the Lord tells Samuel that none of these is the one chosen by God. Young David has to be called from watching the sheep, and he is anointed. Everyone is surprised, although the family probably don’t know exactly why David is being anointed. However, there is the reminder that the Lord looks not on the outward appearance but on the heart.
Meanwhile Saul, told by Samuel that God has rejected him as king, falls victim to bouts of mental instability, and David, who is a gifted musician, is chosen to play for him in the hope of calming him down during these periods of depression and aggression. And before this or after this, David the youngster is the one brave enough – or confident enough in the Lord’s help – to take on the Philippine giant Goliath in combat, and he of course kills him with a stone shot from his sling.
It’s an impressive start: David is brave, resourceful, gifted in many ways, as well as being a person of real faith. And he becomes a close friend of Saul’s son Jonathan.
This forms the background to the next long part of the story, from which we have been hearing extracts this month. Saul, in his mental and spiritual struggles, sees that David is becoming more highly regarded than him. Will David try to take the throne from him, or from his son Jonathan?
Actually Saul already knows that he and his family have been rejected by God. But he becomes not only jealous of David, but even paranoid.
Saul becomes determined to get rid of David, his faithful and successful servant. He makes a couple of unsuccessful attempts to kill David himself. He offers him one of his daughters in marriage, then takes her back again, then offers another daughter. The bridal price involves David fighting dangerous battles, in which Saul hopes he will be killed. It becomes clear that David is no longer safe at Saul’s court, and he flees into the wilderness, gathering about 600 men, almost a private army. Saul pursues David with his large army, but is never able to find him. David refuses a couple of opportunities to kill Saul: it would surely be sensible, given Saul’s determination to kill David.
But David sees kingship as God’s gift and God’s call: he will not attack God’s anointed king, even though his own life is in danger from Saul. David finds himself having to live on the edge of Israel, and even to serve the Philistine king. However his service is only apparent, for in fact he fights the strongholds of Israel’s enemies, and acts as Israel’s protector.
It seems that David’s heart is in the right place. However he is far from ideal: he is unfaithful to his wife Michal who has helped him escape for Saul, and begins collecting wives as if he were a king. He uses dishonesty and violence to achieve his purposes. It is understandable: but David, the king after God’s own heart, is also beginning to show that he has feet of clay.
When Saul dies in battle and David eventually becomes king, he seeks to be a good and faithful king. He invades Jerusalem, still occupied by Canaanites, and makes it his capital: the city is helpfully located between the people of Judah, David’s tribe, and the other tribes of Israel. David wants to unite all the people of Israel. He continues to defeat Israel’s enemies, and Israel becomes much stronger and more secure.
But David has his flaws and weaknesses: the most famous demonstration of this is the story of his affair with Bathsheba, the wife of one of his officers, which leads to David’s murder of her husband, in order to reduce the embarrassment caused by her pregnancy.
What with David’s various wives and children, the family becomes disturbed and there is an extensive account of the division, often violent, within his family. David proves to be an ineffective father, and there is great confusion about who is the one to succeed him as king. Because of this violent division, David finds himself at one stage forced to retreat from Jerusalem in fear of his life. The division is only resolved on David’s sickbed not long before his death, where David is cajoled by Bathsheba into ensuring that Solomon her son succeeds him as king.
David the great king, the king after God’s own heart? Yes, but…we might say. A flawed individual as well: not so different from so many political leaders we see today! But whatever his faults, he grasped hold of the principle that kingship over the people of God was an honour to be received from God, and not a position to be grasped at all cost.
Today’s story comes from that period when David was on the run from Saul: he had based himself on the edge of Israel, and was still supporting the people of Israel. He and his 600 men had saved the Israelite town of Keilah from the attacks of the Philistines. And he had been joined by Abiathar the priest, after the other priests had been massacred by Saul because they had assisted David when he was escaping from Saul. Abiathar’s priestly clothing included the ephod, which seems to have been a garment worn by a priest over his chest: the ephod could be used in a particular way as a means of discovering God’s will.
Having rescued the people of Keilah, David might have expected that they would protect him from Saul’s armies: but through the priestly guidance he discovered that Saul and his army, having heard that David was in Keilah, would come to the city and attack it if they did not release David to Saul. David was not going to put Keilah in danger of attack by the murderous Saul, and he and his men escaped to the wilderness. Our reading concludes by telling us that “Saul sought David every day, but the Lord did not give him into his hand.”
The story reminds us how God provided for David’s needs and guided him so that he might know what he needed to do. And God’s provision is also given to us day by day, and his guidance is also available to us as we seek to live as Christ’s followers.
The Psalms we have been using this month are linked to the incidents we are reading about in the life of David. Many Psalms have headings which explain the background to David’s words in the Psalm. Psalm 31 which we have read today does not have such a heading, but as we read it, we can see how well it links up with the story of David and the town of Keilah.
The Psalm tells of one who is trapped as David seemed to be: “Rescue me speedily” he begs: “Take me out of the net that is hidden for me.” And so he prays for God to rescue him and to provide for his desperate needs. “Be gracious to me, Lord,” he cries, “for I am in distress.” But David expresses great faith, even in his difficult circumstances: “You are indeed my rock and my fortress”, he says. “I trust in you, O Lord: I say, ‘You are my
God’ ”. Here is faith under pressure, but it is faith which remains steadfast when times are tough. This is a good Psalm to turn to when we are finding life difficult.
However, this Psalm also takes us beyond David, and indeed beyond the ups and downs of our own lives. For one of its verses is heard on the lips of Jesus towards the end of his time hanging on the cross. “Into your hands I commit my Spirit” are words of faith, not just said by David, but by the Son of God himself.
After his hours of agony on the cross, Jesus is shortly to die. He commends himself into God’s hands. He has not avoided pain and suffering, but he knows he has done what needed to be done for the forgiveness of sins, and for the salvation of all. He can indeed commit himself in faith into his Father’s hands, and we know that the Lord will indeed welcome him and say: “You are my Son, my beloved, in whom I am well pleased.” As God rescued David from evil and death, so God through his Son has rescued us from evil and death.
But God’s blessing is received through faith, and so David’s attitude of faith stands as an example and a challenge to us. And Jesus’ call which we heard in the Gospel, to repent and believe the Gospel, to trust in the Gospel of Jesus, to place our faith in the Saviour, comes to us also.
Like David we have feet of clay. Like David we experience our own times of stress and difficulty. Like David we need to trust in the Lord. Like David in our Psalm, we need to be able to say – and we can say:
“I trust in you, O Lord; I say, ‘You are my God’.
My times are in your hand.” Amen. Paul Weaver