Sermon
David
August 29, 2004
Pastor Donald Sheley

I'm going to ask you to take your Bible this morning and join with me. We're at the end of the summer and I've had a lot of fun, and I say that sincerely, a lot of joy in going over these various stories that we have thought about all summer long; these great characters of the Old Testament.

The Lord willing, we're going to start our new series in just a couple of weeks, and we're going back to the book of Exodus. And we're going to journey through the book of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, some of the old books of the Bible. You say, Why go there Pastor? Because what I find, that many of the great truths of our Christian faith have their foundations laid in Old Testament text. And if we do not understand the Old Testament foundational truths, we'll not be able to grasp all there is to grasp in regards to the New Testament references to them. And so we're going to have an enjoyable time as we have our series entitled 'From Bondage to Freedom,' and I pray that you'll join with us in that new series which will begin in just a couple of weeks.

Today, we have come to David's life. I left David to the last because I realize the complexity of his life. You have to understand that here is a man with mammoth emotions and great gifts. He could tear lions and bears apart in the field in protection of his sheep. He could take his slingshot and strike down a giant in the fields. He could govern an army. He could rule a kingdom. He could write a song. He could play his instrument. He was a man of great complexity and deep emotions, and when you begin to see him in that light you then understand why the extremities of his experiences that he had...and to put them altogether is an intense challenge, but we're going to try it just in a brief moment today.

When we study the life of David, his story really begins at page 199, 1 Samuel chapter 16. That's where he's introduced to us from the sheepfold. But just hold your finger there and go back two or three pages to 1 Samuel 13, and we have here an introduction. God gives David a very interesting title. Remember Saul was the first king of Israel. Let me just trace it for you a moment. We go back into the book of Joshua. Joshua brings the children of Israel out of the land bondage and brings them into the Promised Land. And they are placed at different locations throughout the land. Each tribe is given a specific plot of ground, but for 400 to 500 years they do not have a leader.

And as a result, it's a time were they would go into a great spiritual apostasy. God would send them a man or a woman and lead them back to spiritual truth, and then it just went over and over, and you find this terrible history in the book of Judges, and it covers as I say about 450 years. And then they cry out for a king and God answers them. They reject God as their king in essence and they want an earthly king, and as a result God gives them Saul. He flounders and he falters, and he terribly misuses his divine assignment as the first king of Israel. And as a result, God rejects him and God selects a new man.

Now in verse 13 we have Samuel talking to Saul about this very matter. Look at what he says: "You have done foolishly. You have not kept the commandment of the Lord your God, which He commanded you. For now the Lord would have established your kingdom over Israel forever. But now your kingdom shall not continue. The Lord has sought for Himself a man after His own heart, and the Lord has commanded him to be commander over His people, because you have not kept what the Lord commanded you."

So God defines David, who's going to be that anointed one, as the man after His own heart. What a description, and now let's be introduced to David. We go to chapter 16 and now David will come on the scene.

Now the Lord said to Samuel, "How long will you mourn for Saul?" Remember, Samuel is the prophet. He feels terrible about the way Saul has mishandled his sacred assignment and in foolishness done things that he should never have done as a king. But Samuel loved Saul deeply, and when he hears of Saul's death he weeps and he mourns over it. And so the Lord says to Samuel, "How long will you mourn for Saul, seeing I have rejected him from reigning over Israel? Fill your horn with oil, and go; I am sending you to Jesse the Bethlehemite. For I have provided Myself a king among his sons."

And Samuel said, "How can I go? If Saul hears it, he will kill me." But the Lord said, "Take a heifer with you, and say, 'I have come to sacrifice to the Lord.' Then invite Jesse to the sacrifice, and I will show you what you shall do; you shall anoint for Me the one I name to you."

So Samuel did what the Lord said, and went to Bethlehem. And the elders of the town trembled at his coming, and said, "Do you come peaceably?" And he said, "Peaceably; I have come to sacrifice to the Lord. Sanctify yourselves, and come with me to the sacrifice." Then he consecrated Jesse and his sons, and invited them to the sacrifice.

So it was, when they came, that he looked at Eliab and said, "Surely the Lord's anointed is before Him!" But the Lord said to Samuel, "Do not look at his appearance or at his physical stature, because I have refused him. For the Lord does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart."

So Jesse called Abinadab, and made him pass before Samuel. And he said, "Neither has the Lord chosen this one." Then Jesse made Shammah pass by. And he said, "Neither has the Lord chosen this one." Thus Jesse made seven of his sons pass before Samuel. And Samuel said to Jesse, "The Lord has not chosen these." And Samuel said to Jesse, "Are all the young men here?" Then he said, "There remains yet the youngest, and there he is, keeping the sheep."

And Samuel said to Jesse, "Send and bring him. For we will not sit down till he comes here." So he sent and brought him in. Now he was ruddy, with bright eyes, and good-looking. And the Lord said, "Arise, anoint him; for this is the one!" Then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the midst of his brothers; and the Spirit of the Lord came upon David from that day forward. So Samuel arose and went to Ramah.

But the Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul, and a distressing spirit from the Lord troubled him. And Saul's servants said to him, "Surely, a distressing spirit from God is troubling you.

Pause - Now if you have a Bible and it has a chronological marking on the side of the Bible, it'll say that anointing where Samuel anoints David probably happened in the year of 1063 B.C. Now when David actually becomes the king you'll find the marking in your Bible at about 1048. So there is a timeframe between this anointing, where he is set aside; Saul continues to reign as king, and until Saul's death David does not take the throne. And we can only assume...the markings are different in each of our Bibles, but we do know it was a number of years. It could have been 10, 12, or 15 years that David, knowing that he's been anointed, Saul knowing it also, that Saul continues to reign as king.

And there were times when David's relationship with Saul was one of kindness and one of love, and then there were other times when Saul when you would have this distressing spirit hit him, he would try to kill David. In fact, David would be playing his instrument in his presence and Saul would have this terrible spirit and this attitude towards David, as a result, he would throw his spear and every time he missed David, so it was a relationship of possible death and yet, sometimes friendship. So David spends this period of time running from Saul.

Now in this period of the 12 or 15 years a number of events take place. One that we all remember very, very well, because when we were in Sunday school we were taught the story of David and Goliath. The Philistines were a constant threat. They were people lived down along the sea of the Mediterranean, which today we call the Gaza Strip, and their little plot of land, and up here is Jerusalem, and over here is the Mediterranean Sea. And as a result, their kingdom at times would be very large and it would almost touch Jerusalem, and as they would dwindle in strength then their little kingdom would become smaller. But those Philistines were a constant irritation, not only to Saul, but in the early years of David's reign. They had constant fights.

So one day one decides, look at, let's quit losing so many people on the battlefield. Let's just have one men, you stand out...you take one man and he'll stand out for you, and we'll put our man out and let the two of them fight it out, and whoever wins we'll declare that's the side that's the winner. So the Philistines put up Goliath. He's nine feet tall. And I don't know how much you weigh when you nine feet tall, I know this, that the mail the steel plates that they put over him weighed 125 pounds. He had bronze that covered his legs, a bronze helmet, and a spear where just the end of the spear weighed 15 pounds. I mean he was a fearful thing to look at.

And he would get out there are the valley and he would challenge the Israelites, and they were all in their tents hiding. They didn't want to go out and meet Goliath. Well, David comes on the scene because dad has sent him to visit the brothers who were supposed to be out there fighting but they are hiding in their tent. And David sees the scene and he suggests that he can offer his services. He's just a shepherd boy, and after much negotiation they let him go out there on the field.

As he's going out to meet Goliath he's got a little slingshot in his hand. He picks up five stones. Now I've always wondered why he picked up five; he could hit with one, but he picks up five stones. And he goes towards that Goliath and says, I come to you in the name of my God. He took that slingshot, let it go, the rock hits the forehead of the giant, and he falls. The Philistines have lost and the Israelites have won. That's the end of the battle.

They hurry home, but Saul now gives great attention to David. Here's where those episodes happen within his courtroom and within his palace. Saul sometimes chases him, sometimes loves him, but it's a miserable relationship.

Now, the second phase, it your notes turn with me just quickly if you have your notes there with you...we come to the second phase of his life. If we were studying the life of David we would take this first part from his anointing, we would take it to the part we're coming to now in the 27th chapter, which would be the days of his outlaw activity, then we would come to his third part which would be the study while he was the king.

Page 4 says: This brings us to the second period of David's life, his outlaw existence. It may seem an improper word to use concerning David but this is exactly what happened. He lived off the country, by marauding and plundering; at one time he had to save his life by taking the shewbread, the bread of the Presence, from the altar of the Lord.

The young man not only became an outlaw with reference to the laws of King Saul, but a violator of the written law of the Scriptures, in order to stay alive. Then David accepted protection from King Achish. Now take your Bible and go with me to 1 Samuel 27. You know I have read this over and over in the many years that I've had in the ministry, but I somehow did not recognize or remember this story, because it reveals an aspect of David's life that is hard for us to imagine really took place.

Now remember, God has said here's the man after My own heart. David comes from the sheepfold. He's anointed, he's blessed of God, he kills the giant, and God preserves his life over and over again, but he has ran for years to get out of Saul's hands and to get away from his threats. And look at what happens in 1 Samuel chapter 27.

And David said in his heart -- you never want to talk to your heart, that's the most deceitful thing to talk to. David said in his heart, "Now I shall perish someday by the hand of Saul." Come on David. David had known that he was anointed, that God has blessed him, and he killed the giant. He comes to a moment where he is now folding in unbelief. "Now I shall perish someday by the hand of Saul.

There is nothing better for me than that I should speedily escape to the land of the Philistines." What! That's the enemy David. Well I'm going to go to the land of the enemy. "And Saul will despair of me, to seek me anymore in any part of Israel. So I shall escape out of his hand." In other words he's saying, I'll go commit myself to my enemy the Philistines and Saul surely won't come over there.

"Then David arose and went over with the six hundred men who were with him to Achish the son of Maoch, king of Gath. So David dwelt with Achish at Gath, he and his men, each man with his household, and David with his two wives, Ahinoam the Jezreelitess, and Abigail the Carmelitess, Nabal's widow. And it was told Saul that David had fled to Gath; so he sought him no more.

Then David said to Achish..." now remember, this is the king that just sometime earlier David has killed Goliath, and Goliath was serving for Achish. And David makes an arrangement, he said to Achish, "If I have now found favor in your eyes, let them give me a place in some town in the country, that I may dwell there. For why should your servant dwell in the royal city with you?" In other words, they've healed whatever their differences were and now they're going to be friends.

"So Achish gave him Ziklag (a little community, a little village) that day. Therefore Ziklag has belonged to the kings of Judah to this day. Now the time that David dwelt in the country of the Philistines was one full year and four months." For 16 months David is suffering from unbelief. He's gone to live with the enemy, the Philistines, and he's being their friend.

Now look at what happens in verse 8: "And David and his men went up and raided the Geshurites, the Girzites, and the Amalekites. For those nations were the inhabitants of the land from of old, as you go to Shur, even as far as the land of Egypt. Whenever David attacked the land, he left neither man nor woman alive, but took away the sheep, the oxen, the donkeys, the camels, and the apparel, and returned and came to Achish. Then Achish would say, "Where have you made a raid today?" And David would say, "Against the southern area of Judah, or against the southern area of the Jerahmeelites, or against the southern area of the Kenites." David would save neither man nor woman alive, to bring news to Gath."

In other words, he killed all the witnesses.

"Saying, "Lest they should inform on us, saying, 'Thus David did.' And thus was his behavior all the time he dwelt in the country of the Philistines.""

Now when I read that I started contemplating and I said, now just a minute. God, You described David as the man after Your own heart. You've anointed him, had him anointed, he knows his assignment, he's going to be the next king of Israel. You've blessed him with power and strength, You helped him slay that giant, and You've been with him all these years, yet he comes to a place in his spiritual journey where all of his faith is gone. Where's God? He's tired out. He's run. He's probably weary, and he comes to that moment in his spiritual journey; God, I don't know if You remember the day when You had me anointed. I'm just going to go down here to the enemy and live with them. So he goes down to Philistia and makes friends with the enemies of God's people.

And the old king is quite generous. He's grateful now that David is not his enemy, at least he's got him in his own quarters. Sure you can have a little community right over there; that's called Ziklag. That's yours. But David, in joining with his enemy, did some things that were dastardly. He would go out time after time and he'd find a little village, a little settlement, of people, he'd raid them, kill them, and take all of their assets, their camels, their donkeys, whatever they had, their clothes, and bring them back to this pagan king.

The king would say, Where did you go today? And David would always lie, and made sure he killed all the people who would witness against him. I say, now just a minute God. You said this guy is a guy after Your own heart. How do I put these together? And I got to thinking about it. I believe the reason why God, by the Holy Spirit, put this story, the 16 months venture into a belief, because it's so describes sometimes experiences that some Christians go through.

They come to a place in their spiritual life where it seems that heaven is solid, all of their prayers seem to be going unanswered, they feel that God is a million miles away, He's hiding somewhere, and they just say, What's the use? What's the use trying to be a Christian? And they venture back to a lifestyle they had before they became Christians. They go to the Philistines. They live with the enemy, and when they live with the enemy they act like the enemy.

You know, as your Pastor, time after time I talk with people who have made their journey back to Philistia. They for a time, maybe in the younger part of their life, they served God, but something came along and caused them to question God. They went on their own journey and joined the enemy of God. And here's the sad thing, what Satan does he takes advantage of those people, because he keeps whispering in their ears, "You can't come back to God now. You've brought shame to the church. You've brought shame...and he just downs us and he loads us with guilt. And for some people they have lived in Philistia, the land of the enemy, away from God, some of them for years. And yet, they do not realize, as David did, that God was reaching out in love.

Even though David is down there doing those terrible things, he's still the object of God's affection. God knew his heart. But here's a man with complex emotions and his humanness, his weakness, causes him to go astray. David loves God, but he's got to live with a human body with passions and all that go with his personality, and thus, he finds himself in situations he knows are wrong and he's paining inside.

He had gone enough sense, 16 months was enough of living with the enemy, so he goes back home. Now from that story here's what I learn folks. God loves us no matter how far we go from Him. David did not enjoy his sins. His sins were painful. He lived with the pain of that sin until he went to his coffin. He didn't sin because he knew God would forgive him, he sinned because he was a human being at times torn with these terrible conflicts inside, and sometimes times of doubt and despair, and this is what happened.

You know, I've often told you folks, but there are a lot of us who have had those times when we thought God somehow was hiding in the dark.

Oz Guinness, a great writer, a student of Cambridge, wrote a marvelous book. It's a masterpiece. It's called 'God In The Dark,' and he deals with his whole matter of the belief and wrestling. His whole matter of disturbance that spiritually takes us away from God, and we beat our faith, and as a result, we're just like David. It's easier, it seems, to live in the land of Philistia than to run from Saul. But God loves us even when we're going through those terrible times where there are spiritual deserts.

Maybe you're here today and your relationship with God has been affected because you have felt that He's left you, He doesn't care, He doesn't love you. You've sinned too much you feel. Listen, David's hands dripped with blood. I mean his sins were a mile high, but God loved him and drew him back to Him. So I know this, I know that no matter how far you've gone, if you're here today, God wants to tell you He loves you and He wants you back home.

Now there's another lesson that I learned from David's story, and that is, when you listen to a man's prayer you understand the relationship that he has with God. In fact, that is true in human communications; the more intimate, the more honest, the more open the communication the better the relationship. Now David had that relationship with God. He knew his sinned.

Go with me to some of his prayers. Join with me in Psalm 38. Let's just follow for the next few moments. Here's were you get the heartbeat and why God could say here's a man after My own heart. He said a man looks at the outward appearance, and we often do that, when we talk about David we always talk about all of his sins. Just remember, we're just like him. We sin too. But David had a heart for God and it becomes very evident in his prayers.

Look at Psalm 38: O Lord, do not rebuke me in Your wrath, nor chasten me in Your hot displeasure! For Your arrows pierce me deeply, and Your hand presses me down. There is no soundness in my flesh because of Your anger, nor any health in my bones because of my sin. For my iniquities have gone over my head; like a heavy burden they are too heavy for me. My wounds are foul and festering because of my foolishness.

Here's a man who is wide open. God, He doesn't cover anything. He knows God knows it all anyway. He just said, God, I'm a sinner, I'm foul, I'm festering; I need forgiveness.

Go with me to Psalm 41, just a page over. Following his prayers, this shows his relationship to God. Verse 4: I said, "Lord, be merciful to me; heal my soul, for I have sinned against You. My enemies speak evil of me: 'When will he die, and his name perish?'" In other words they're saying, we hope he dies so we can get his name out of the record. And if he comes you can be sure he's telling a lie.

Pause - now David is known as a liar. I mean he lied to Achish, and you'll find that when you read his prayers that frequently he prays, God, help me in this problem of lying. So when he walks about he's known as one who you can't trust. He said, God, when they speak about me they speak of my lies, and he says his heart gathers iniquity itself when it goes out. In other words, you can't trust him.

David says, God, I'm wide open. My sins are foul and they are festering, and I'm asking You to forgive me. Now look at what he says in Psalm 42, it's just all the way through his writing: "As the deer pants for the water brooks, so pants my soul for You, O God." Can't you hear him? Out of all of his misery, his pain and his foulness he says, God, above everything I want you to know I love You! And as a deer pants for water, so my soul pants for You, O God. That's the David that God knew, and that's the David that God could say he's a man after My own heart.

"My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. My tears have been my food day and night, while they continually say to me, "Where is your God?" When I remember these things, I pour out my soul within me. For I used to go with the multitude; I went with them to the house of God." In other words, he's saying, God, I quit going to church. I used to enjoy going to church and being with the multitude as they lifted their voice in joy and praise, but I've forgotten the sanctuary. I've missed Your presence, God.

"Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God, for I shall yet praise Him for the help of His countenance. O my God, my soul is cast down within me; therefore I will remember You from the land of the Jordan, and from the heights of Hermon."

And then he recalls the times that he has had with God. Verse 9: "I will say to God my Rock, "Why have You forgotten me? Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?" As with a breaking of my bones, my enemies reproach me, while they say to me all day long, "Where is your God?" Why are you cast down?"

David is honest. God, I'm a sinner; I'm depressed, but I claim Your mercy and Your grace. Now David could do that and pray because he knew God in a wonderful way. Go with me to Psalm 103. Remember I said David didn't sin because he knew God would forgive him, he sinned because he was a human being, but he knew in all of his humanness God's mercy was sufficient. Look at what he says. Look at verse 8: "The Lord is merciful." No, I've got to go back to verse 1, because he starts his prayer with praise.

"Bless the Lord, O my soul; and all that is within me, bless His holy name! Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits: who forgives all your iniquities, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from destruction, who crowns you with lovingkindness and tender mercies, who satisfies your mouth with good things, so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's.

The Lord executes righteousness and justice for all who are oppressed. He made known His ways to Moses, and His acts to the children of Israel. The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in mercy. He will not always strive with us, nor will He keep His anger forever. He has not dealt with us according to our sins."

Thank God. David said God had a reason to really whip me. But "He has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor has He punished us according to our iniquities. For as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is His mercy toward those that fear Him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us."

Now David knew that when he asked God to forgive him, it was a settled, forgotten matter. We often have that problem. We go to God and we seek forgiveness, but we carry the guilt of that months and years later, and God forgot it. It's all forgotten. When you say, God, I ask for Your forgiveness and in Jesus' name I receive it. He forgives, and He forgets.

Look at, he says as far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us. I always say this, he didn't say as far as the North Pole is to the South Pole. That's a limited space, 13,250 miles or so. That would put a limitation to God's forgiveness. But if you take a globe and put your finger on the equator and start going west -- forever. Start east -- forever. You see that's what David knew.

David knew that when God forgive him of his sins, He forgot it. I think there are times we come back and ask God to forgive us a dozen times over some sin, and I think if He could call down from heaven He'd say, what are you talking about? I forgot about that a long time ago. Why are you reminding me? David knew that God was a God of mercy, and when He forgave, He forgot. David knew that.

Look at one more point. He says, "As a father pities his children, so the Lord pities those who fear Him." David was a father. We don't know how many children he had, but he had a love for his children surely, as we do. The Bible tells us in the New Testament that God loves us more than we as human parents can love our children. Boy, I can't figure that one out, because I really love my kids. You do too. But the Bible says God loves us more than we as human fathers can love our children. David knew that.

David knew when he came back home and asked for forgiveness, he had a Father who didn't condemn him. One other thing: He said, "For He knows our frame; He remembers that we are dust." Now that... you know we forget we're just little globs of dust, and we've got a lot of pride. David said, look at, God knows. He knows I'm just a little glob of dust, but He loves me.

He loved me so much that He sent his son to die for me. David realized his weakness, his frailty, his humanness, yet he could say, God, as a father pities his child You're going to pity me because You know what I'm made of.

You know I finished the lesson today, and like I said, the story is so complex. There are 40 chapters or so to study when you study of the life of David, so I had to grapple with at least two truths that really impressed me. I mean David...when you talk about being a sinner, and he was a sinner. His hands dripping with blood, in one of his prayers he said, God, forgive me, cleanse me of this blood guilt that I carry. But God still drew him back, forgave him, and said that's the man after My heart.

That says a lot to me, that no matter how far we go, He loves us; and no matter how big the sin, He forgives us. May be you're here today and you've never come back to God. Maybe you've drifted a long ways and you thought God doesn't care anymore and you've lived with the Philistines, you've lived with the enemy, the children of darkness, and you say I don't want to live there anymore. I'm going home. Just remember, God stands there and says, come.

"Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool." What a loving, wonderful, gracious, blessed God, and that's the God that David believed in, and God appreciated it. Amen. Let's pray.

Father, what a story, and yet to realize that as human beings as we are, just like David, we wrestle with our emotions, our failures, our faults, our wanderings, our sin. There are times we get so depressed over it we just feel like going back and forgetting it all. We understand what David was dealing with, but through it all, You loved him, You forgave him, and You made him the greatest king of the earth; other than King Jesus, and they were related. So if you can take that much humanness and love us with that much mercy, and lift us to places we never dreamed You would put us, may today we fall in love all over with You, dear God. I pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. God bless you all folks. God bless you.