Grace Emmanuel Church
Pastor Sam Chess
CONFESSIONS OF A
CAVEMAN-2
Here, in the political season, we often hear stories from
politicians of how they came from humble, poor, roots and by the
sweat of their brow and their undying care for the people of the
United States… they are most poised to take on an influential
position of governmental power. Sometimes we are inspired…sometimes
we're not.
Imagine, if you will, the youngest son of a lowly farming family,
whose best position ever was caring for his family's sheep and goats.
Imagine him…"by some stoke of luck" showing up as a messenger boy on
the battlefield just a nine foot "Terminator" blasts his countries
army and his God.
Imagine him taking his little shepherds sling and with one stone
out of his fanny pack he turns the tide of his nation and the
direction of his own life. Suddenly he is a national hero… within
months he becomes a military hero…saving his whole country from one
disaster after another… There is no record of David ever suffering a
military defeat.
And …He, also, quickly becomes the best known musician in the
country… playing his original compositions for the King. Then he
loses his "most eligible bachelor status"He has been promised the
kings daughter's hand in marriage…
How could one young man's dream's come any truer…and his little
heart become any happier.
Truth is… that part of the story of David's life is in just 2 1/3
chapters in 1 Samuel and a handful of Psalms. The next 12 2/3
chapters in the book of Samuel and many of David's Psalms are the
story of his "happiness bubble" bursting…
King Saul gets jealous. He tries to kill David… H e get cheated
out of his marriage to Saul's first daughter….David's marriage to
Saul's second daughter turns out to be, just, another attempt to kill
him. Saul, then, starts to use the army…of which David was the famous
commander…hunt him down…to murder him in cold blood.
Think through the psychological adjustments… that go on in David's
mind in the next few weeks…
From favorite son of Israel… victorious army commander, applauded
by everyone in the country to fugitive… outlaw..
And now…what has happened to his chances to be king…. If Saul
finds him and kills him…he's not going to make a very good king. What
about the rest of the countries good opinion of him… and what about
his wife?
If he does run… in a county the size of ________________ where in
the world is he going to run to? Where will he find shelter…what will
he eat?...
Let me show you a map of the United States with Israel inserted in
it…
So David is running from a whole army in a country the size of a
sliver of the state of Kansas.
Well then,,, why doesn't he just leave the country? …Slip across
the border???
To where? Every neighboring country they have they have been at
war with…and David has been commanding the army!!
When you read 1 Samuel… you discover that Israel was very much
like it is today. A tiny sovereign country buried in the middle of
other countries… that would, frankly, like see them pushed into the
sea….
David head's southeast…stops to see the priest Ahimelech, who he
persuades to give him the holy bread and the sword of Goliath. With
the sword of Goliath in hand (not exactly your Walmart economy model)
he heads toward where??? ___________________
Philistia - the land of the Philistines…the very place so many of
his earlier battles took place…including the sword of Goliath which
he, probably, is carrying on his back because it's taller than he is…
This move went really well…
1 Samuel 21: 10 So David escaped from Saul and went to King Achish
of Gath. 11 But the officers of Achish were unhappy about his being
there. “Isn’t this David, the king of the land?” they asked. “Isn’t
he the one the people honor with dances, singing, Saul has killed his
thousands, and David his ten thousands’?”
12 David heard these comments and was very afraid of what King
Achish of Gath might do to him. 13 So he pretended to be insane,
scratching on doors and drooling down his beard.
14 Finally, King Achish said to his men, “Must you bring me a
madman? 15 We already have enough of them around here! Why should I
let someone like this be my guest?”
I can't explain why David went their expecting not to be
recognized…he must have just been so desperate that he wasn't
thinking logically……
… and the only explanation, I've ever seen, for why the
Philistines didn't gleefully kill him, was that they, in their brutal
paganism, still had some kind of a special care for mentally ill
people… David must have known that and played on it…
Long story short… he hightailed it back across the border and
sneaks into a cave at Adullam, which oddly was only 10 miles away
from his home town of Bethlehem and less than twenty miles away from
Jerusalem and King Saul.
And some where… right in there…he pulls out his laptop and begins
to write a song to God! What is he going to say to a God who seems to
have forgotten him? What kind of words do you use to properly address
God… when your life is careening downhill…and you've got no brakes?
Psalm 34:1 I will praise the Lord at all times. (how
often) ( when times are good and life is great) I will
constantly speak his praises. 2 I will boast only in the Lord; (He's
the one who gets things done and done right…not us!) let all who
are helpless take heart. 3 Come, let us tell of the Lord’s
greatness; let us exalt his name together. (NLT)
It's helpful to me to know when David wrote this.. If he had
written it those words after becoming king and achieving fame and
success we might view it different… but he wrote them at the lowest
point of his life…running away from the Philistines back to Israel
with his whole life in tatters, his future unsure, his every move
watched…
You can't tell from the English here but David takes the special
care to make this Psalm into an acrostic poem…each verse starts with
the next letter of the Hebrew alphabet.
4 I prayed to the Lord, and he answered me. He freed me
from all my fears.
Remember those seemingly fearless days as a shepherd when he took
on lions and bears, maybe he really was scared out there all alone
and he learned to hang onto God for all he was worth. … remember the
fearless way he killed Goliath? What if, really, inside he was
quivering like jello, but his trust in his unfailing God pulled him
through? He said… he trusted in God and God delivered him from all
his fears! He was clearly scared out of his gourd in Philistia
and probably as he sits writing this song.
You know what it is to feel fear…. don't you? You look at the
situations in your life, in some cases there seems to be a huge black
hole in front of you…. and the whole army of Saul seems to be after
you…. let all who are helpless take heart…
5 Those who look to him for help will be radiant with joy; no
shadow of shame will darken their faces.
Watch this closely, this is my theme statement to us all today…
Though at times we are desperate - God is not! He knows what is
coming before it ever starts… God is managing every detail!
Repeat that with me…
David reinforces it…
6 In my desperation I prayed, and the Lord listened; he
saved me from all my troubles.
Oswald Chambers: When God gets us alone through suffering,
heartbreak, temptation, disappointment, sickness, broken dreams,
broken friendships…when he gets us absolutely alone, and we are
totally speechless (desperate) unable to ask even one question… then
he begins to teach us. (really, really, teach us)
God didn't save David from getting into "troubles"… he saved him
in and through his tests and trials. Picture this :
7 For the angel of the Lord is a guard; he surrounds and defends
all who fear him. (NLT)…. 7 The angel of the LORD encamps around
those who fear him, and he delivers them. (NIV)
Let me remind you…
Though at times we are desperate - God is not! He knows what is
coming before it ever starts… God is managing every detail!
His angels are camped around you… waiting to deliver you!
In the middle of David's trauma… he wanted every one who would
ever hear, read, or sing his acrostic Psalm (including you) to
experience God at the level he was right then experiencing Him.
8 Taste and see that the Lord is good! (even in the tough
times… especially in the tough times)
Hebrew word includes more than just tasting food but that gives us
the right idea. I went to Sam's Club Friday…one guy wanted me to
taste Cashews with sea salt and cracked pepper… I did…very
interesting…One lady wanted me to taste pomegranate juice…very
healthy she said. Had I just looked at her… the way I did the lady
with the crab meat… I would never have known what her sample tasted
like.
If you're going through tough times… that's not the time to get
angry at God or turn from his arms in frustration. That's the time to
throw yourself completely in his sovereign hands.
8 Taste and see that the Lord is good!... Oh, the joys of those
who take refuge in him! 9 Fear the Lord, you his godly people, for
those who fear him will have all they need. 10 Even strong young
lions sometimes go hungry, but those who trust in the Lord will lack
no good thing.
David tries to think of the most independent animal in his
memory…the lion…especially the young lion…but even they sometimes
howl with hunger and lack…. But God's people…regardless of what is
going on, on the outside, can be full of God on the inside.
Don't imagine verse 10 to be God's promise of wealth and perfect
health….Don't forget who is writing this and under what conditions.
God is far more interested in changing your desires to match his than
he is in giving you every earthly whim you might have. David's
promise is that those who trust in the Lord will lack no good
thing… God's "good things" are not always what we, initially, imagine
them to be…
17 The Lord hears his people when they call to him for help. He
rescues them from all their troubles.
Watch this close…
18 The Lord is close to the brokenhearted; he rescues (restores)
those whose spirits are crushed.
Brokenhearted, crushed….so God job is just gathering up baskets of
broken crushed people…. That's not the way brokenness works..
A.W. Tozer said: "It is doubtful that God can use a man greatly
until he has hurt him deeply."
Psalm 51:17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken
and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.
When you break arm and it is properly set and healed… the
former break becomes the strongest bone in your arm.
Regular glass or steel when subjected to extreme heat then cooled…
then heated and cooled… become tempered glass which is much stronger
than the original.
19 The righteous person faces many troubles, but the Lord comes
to the rescue each time.
