I invite you to turn with me in your copy of
God's Word either in the pew rack in front of
you or that you have brought to the book of First
Samuel. What we're gonna do today is we're gonna
look at First Samuel and I'm going to make reference
at the end of this sermon to two Psalms, two
Psalms that David wrote in light of his experience.
in what is happening here in 1 Samuel 21. So
we're going to read 1 Samuel and then I'm going
to refer to Psalm 34 and Psalm 56. Those were
David's lessons learned from this experience.
1 Samuel chapter 21, we're going to read the
whole chapter today, 1 Samuel 21. Then David
came to knob to Ahimelech the priest. And Ahimelech
came to meet David, trembling, and said to him,
Why are you alone and no one with you? And David
said to Ahimelech the priest, The king has charged
me with a matter and said to me, Let no one know
anything of the matter about which I send you
and with which I have charged you. And I have
made an appointment with the young men for such
and such a place. Now then, what do you have
on hand? Give me five loaves of bread or whatever
is here. And the priest answered, David, I have
no common bread on hand, but there is holy bread
if the young men have kept themselves from women.
And David answered the priest, truly women have
been kept from us as always when we go on an
expedition. The vessels of the young men are
holy even when it is an ordinary journey. How
much more today will their vessels be holy? So
the priest gave him the holy bread, for there
was no bread there but the bread of the presence
which is removed from before the Lord to be replaced
by hot bread on the day it is taken away. Now
a certain man of the servants of Saul was there
that day, detained before the Lord. His name
was Doeg the Edomite, the chief of Saul's herdsmen.
Then David said to Ahimelech, Then have you not
here a spear or a sword at hand? For I have brought
neither my sword nor my weapons with me, because
the king's business required haste. And the priest
said, The sword of Goliath, the Philistine, who
you have struck down in the valley of Elah, behold,
it is here wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod.
If you will take that, take it, for there is
none but that here. And David said, There is
none like that. Give it to me." And David rose
and fled that day from Saul and went to Achish
the king of Gath. And the servants of Achish
said to him, is not this David the king of the
land? Did they not sing to him, to one another
of him in dances? Saul is struck down as thousands
and David is tens of thousands. And David took
these words to heart and was much afraid of Achish
the king of Gath. So he changed his behavior
before them and pretended to be insane in their
hands and made marks on the doors of the gate
and let his spittle run down his beard. Then
Achish said to his servants, Behold, you see
this man is mad. Why have you brought him to
me? Do I lack madmen that you have brought this
fellow to behave as a madman in my presence?
Shall this fellow come into my house? And then
you see in chapter 22, David departs from there
and escapes to the cave of Adullam. Well, some
people say, and it's probably some Greek or Roman
philosopher who first said that desperate times
call for desperate measures. meaning that in
difficult situations, sometimes people will take
really extreme actions that they wouldn't normally
consider, acknowledging that unusual problems
do require unconventional solutions. Well, David,
it seems to him at least, has fallen on desperate
times, and so he resorts to very desperate measures.
But what we need to see from this text today
and what we will see is that desperate times
truly call the Christian to dependence upon God.
Desperate times call the Christian to dependence
upon God. David here in this passage resorts
to all kinds of worldly strategies, lying, deception.
trusting overly so in earthly means to secure
his safety from whom? He's running from Saul.
He's afraid for his life. And we see things go
from bad to worse for David, for his lying not
only leads to death, but it almost leads to his
own death, as we will see. And there's lesson
for us here, great lesson for us, for in times
of stress, In times of desperation, when we feel
like we are in a dark place, we may be as well
tempted to trust in sinful or overly worldly
strategies of self -rescue. David would tell
you to trust in the Lord and that God is still
good to us even, even when we fail to trust in
him. Our God is so gracious and so good. And
he is that way to David, he is that to us. In
times of desperation, then, rather than leading
on our own understanding, this passage calls
us to dependence on God. And because God delivers
his people, because he does deliver his people
from their foolishness, and even the very fears
that caused them to act foolishly in the first
place, because he delivers them from that, because
he delivers us. from fear and foolishness. We
must remember his promised provision and run
to him for refuge. Big idea today because God
delivers us from our fears and foolishness. We
must remember his promised provision and run
to him for refuge. Where do we see that provision?
Well we see that in David's life if we look here
at verses one and following to verse nine. From
the outset, this passage is loaded with anxiety.
The priest here receives David. The priest of
Nob receives him. What does it say in verse one?
He's trembling. The priest is afraid because
this is highly unusual. David doesn't have his
mighty men with him. He has no provisions, no
weapons. He's all alone and this is out of the
ordinary and this is not a good situation. And
so the priest is afraid, he's trembling, and
he asks David, what are you up to? What are you
doing here, essentially? And David begins to
lie as he comes up with this story about this
secret mission. Why is David lying? Well, you
see what's going on here. We heard in verse seven
about a certain servant of Saul who is also there.
with the priest, and so David doesn't want to
betray himself. He doesn't want to betray the
priest. He doesn't want to give himself away
to this fellow named Doeg the Edomite, and so
David tries to lie. We can't dive into or know
all of David's reasons and motivations here,
but he is afraid, the priest is afraid, and he
begins to spin this lie. He's hungry. Of course
he's hungry. He doesn't have any food with him.
And so he asks the priest for some bread in verses
three through six. Now the priest essentially
says, well, I can give you this bread, long and
the short of that, about keeping themselves from
women. If they essentially were ceremonially
clean, if they were holy and ceremonially clean,
then they could have the holy bread. They could
have the consecrated bread. Now think about this,
one of the things that that bread of the presence
represented, one of the things that that holy
bread in the temple represented was God's commitment
to provide and take care of and sustain his people.
So the priest gives him the bread because, well,
they meet the requirements. Then David also asked
for a sword. His lies deepen, claiming that he
didn't have time to bring his weapons along with
him. You see there in verse Now, if you're a
Himalek, the priest at this point, you're beginning
to wonder, okay, David is here all alone without
his retinue of knights or mighty men. He doesn't
have a weapon of any kind. He doesn't have any
food. He looks like he's running from something.
This is a very suspicious situation. The priest
offers Goliath's sword, you see there in verse
eight and nine. David, seeing the sword, says
in verse nine, there is none like that. Give
it to me. This is profound. David is very excited
to have this sword because there's none like
it. He's gloating in this sword. He is boasting
in this sword. To him, this weapon represents
his best chance of success against the enemy.
This is a very different picture of David in
chapter 21 than we see in chapter 17. You remember
chapter 17. David says no to Saul's armor and
weapons. And he goes, instead of running from
danger, what is David doing? He's running to
fight the battle against Goliath. And instead
of dealing in lies, David fights Goliath's lies
and derogatory remarks against the people of
Israel and against Israel's God. David fights
those untruths and comments with the truth. This
is a. Totally different picture of David that
we see in this passage. He is resorting to his
own schemes, his own understanding. He is desperate,
and he doesn't seem to be considering who he
is or who he belongs to. Doesn't seem to be considering
the Lord at all. Now, it's somewhat debatable.
as to whether David's lies in every case were
justifiable. We're not going to go down that
trail. Suffice it to say, I think the picture
we see here in this passage is that David is
not behaving courageously. He's not the same
courageous David that is trusting in the Lord
that we see in chapter 17. He is the same David.
But he is wracked with fear and anxiety and resorts
to lying to save his skin. We'll see later, or
rather, you'll see later that Ahimelech, the
priest, is actually killed by Saul because of
David's lies here and his anxiety. A question
for us as we look at this passage might be this.
What do I do? What do you do? What do we do when
we are wracked with anxiety or fear? or nagged
by some sort of worry that just won't seem to
let go or that we can't seem to let go of. We
fear ill health and so we go through all of these
measures and protocols and we avoid this and
avoid that. and our lives may be ruled by fear
of illness. And so we do all these things that
we might normally ought to do because we're in
the grip of fear. Maybe a particular fear that
you have or that some of us struggle with is
financial fears, fears of financial insecurity.
And so there's a temptation to not be forthright
on taxes, or maybe your fear is loneliness, and
that fear of loneliness drives you to all sorts
of illicit relationships. Fears, when they come
upon us, they cloud our thinking, don't they?
They cloud our judgment, and they cause us, like
David, to make all kinds of impulsive decisions.
I mean, the impulse to run to the Philistines
for protection is a rather rash and unwise decision,
but David is in the grip of fear, yet there's
something in this text that we've already read
that should help us when our fears seem to rise
to the surface, whatever those fears are, and
that is actually in verse six. That help is in
verse six. You see there the priest giving David
his holy bread. The priest gives David this bread
here, and as David consumes this bread, this,
as Davis says, is a testimony that God still
cares about him. God has provided David With
his daily bread, God has met David's need right
where he needed it. And so in a sense, David
should be waking up at this point and realize
that as he consumes this food, this bread, this
sustenance, that God is still sustaining him.
God still cares about him. And dear ones, God
still cares about you. Maybe you know that, maybe
you're resting in that this morning, but maybe
someone in here needs to hear that today. God
still cares about you. If you woke up this morning,
if you have a roof over your head, If you'll
have food on the table at lunch today, you know
he is still keeping his promise and will continue
to keep his promise to provide for all of your
needs according to his glorious riches in Christ
Jesus just as he supplied David with his daily
bread. So he supplies you with that as well.
And so I think a practical exercise could be
for us. when we're anxious about our circumstances
or overwhelmed with worry, is to take a moment
and pause and remember the daily bread that God
does provide. David does this in a couple of
different Psalms where he recounts to himself
God's faithful provision. And so maybe someday,
maybe this afternoon, sit down and write how
God has blessed you and provided for you today.
Write a list of things he's provided for you
this week. Write a list of things he's given
you this year and blessings he's laid before
you over the last month even. Count your many
blessings, name them one by one. Count your many
blessings and you will remember what the Lord
has done. So we see God's provision for David
in the midst of his darkness. and that is a sign
of his care, and that should be something that
not only helps him, but helps us realize that
God is providing for us, even in the midst of
our fears. But God also provides for David in
the midst of his foolishness. Despite David's
foolishness, God rescues him. And despite our
foolishness, God rescues us and he restores our
reason. You see that as David moves from the
place of the priests, the place where the priest
is there at Nob, he moves from there to this
city of Gath. David flees to Gath. This is no
small thing. David is fleeing to God's enemies
for refuge. Can you believe this? They had just
chased God's enemies off the battlefield and
now he is running over to their side. This is
no neutral thing. David is committing spiritual
treason. And if the Apostle Paul had lived in
David's day and somehow passed David by on the
road on David's way to Gath, he would have said
to David, David, don't you realize, don't you
realize what you're doing? Paul would have quoted
to him, surely, 2 Corinthians 6, 14, do not be
unequally yoked with unbelievers for what partnership
has righteousness with lawlessness, or what fellowship
has light with darkness. Well, of course, you
can imagine what happens when David goes to Gath.
He's recognized. Verse 11, you see there, he
is given away. And, you know, how is he given
away? How is he recognized? Well, for one thing,
what's he carrying? He's carrying the sword of
Goliath in his belt. Obvious giveaway. And everybody
knows the song about David. that Saul has slain
his thousands and David his tens of thousands.
So immediately David's fears, rather than being
answered, his fears go from bad to worse at this
point. He foolishly runs into the den of disaster,
thinking he will escape. Instead he falls into
the hands of God's enemies. And so David resorts
to further desperate and shameful behavior here.
It's hard to blame him. I mean, what else would
you do? Yet, we need not excuse this behavior.
This is coming from a heart that is lacking in
trust. And so here, he resorts to further human
strategy to save his skin. In terror, it says
verse. David takes these words to heart and because
he's afraid of the king, he changes his behavior
in front of the king in the king's court. He
pretends to be crazy. And David who had stood
tall against the indomitable Goliath now begins
to act like a lunatic. This is a sorry scene.
He's drifted into very impulsive behavior, but
it works. It works and King Akish says, there
in verse 14 and 15, get this man out of my sight.
I don't have time for crazy people. So David
is released and he flees and he's spared. A few
things that we learn negatively, a couple of
things from this passage that Phillips points
out. None of us are immune to fear and any of
us can fall prey to sin. the way David did. David
is one of these mighty men, a man after God's
own heart, and yet we see him here lying, deceiving,
and acting like a madman to save his own skin.
We need to be reminded that though we have many
great spiritual successes in life, we are still
weak and we are still dependent on the Lord.
And that's why we've got to be on our guard and
how do we remain on our guard? By keeping close
to the Lord and by keeping close to his people.
Notice David is alone. David is alone here and
Christians are not meant to live life alone.
And that's why we need one another as a church
family to encourage one another and to hold one
another accountable to pursue holiness because
none of us are immune. We need the Lord and we
need one another. to point each other to the
Lord. Another thing we learn here is that sin's
cost is far greater than we can imagine it to
be. Sin's cost is far greater than we imagine
it to be. David thought by leaning on his own
strategies he could get away from Saul. But he
ends up with lie after lie after lie and you
see later in scripture that after he is shamed
and broken, the priest of Nob, Ahimelech, is
actually killed by Saul as a result of David's
lies. His sin leads from bad to worst. Someone
has said that sin will take us further than we
want to go, keep us longer than we want to stay,
and cost us more than we want to pay. The scripture
says that When desire has conceived, it gives
birth to sin, and sin, when it's fully grown,
gives forth to death. And so we should make no
allowance or no justification for sin. But knowing
that any of us could fall to sin, and knowing
that sin, the pursuit of sin, only leads from
bad to worse, how do we deal with that? How do
we fight? What do we learn from this passage?
Well, we learned what David learned in Psalm
34 and in Psalm 56, and I wanna read some of
those lessons that David drew to encourage us
today. David learned that in the midst of all
of his struggle and despair, God is still tender
-hearted towards David. In Psalm 56, it says,
David says about this situation, about this time
when he was running from Saul and when he was
running from the priest to the Philistines, he
says, of the Lord, you have kept my tossings
and my tears in your bottle. Are they not in
your book? The Lord sees our tears. He sees our
anguish. He sees our desperation. And he sympathizes
with us in our pain and our weakness and our
struggle. And how can he do that? Because the
Lord Jesus knows what it's like to be tempted.
He knows what it's like to be tried. David's
greater son knows what it's like to struggle
to the point where he sweated drops of blood
in the garden of Gethsemane. He was made like
his brothers in every respect except without
sin so that he could sympathize with us. and
so that he could help us. And so what we see
from David's learned experience out of this passage
in Psalm 56 is that God is so tenderhearted to
us in the midst of our struggle, whatever that
despair, whatever that difficulty may be. We
also learn from Psalm 34, another set of lessons
learned from David in this experience, that the
Lord is the only lasting refuge, the only lasting
protection. When sorrows like sea billows roll,
we won't find safety in the world's ways. We
won't find safety in sin. We will only find safety
in our Savior. David says this, taste and see
that the Lord is good. Blessed is the man who
takes refuge in Him. The sword of Goliath was
not going to bless David. Only the Lord, his
refuge, was going to bless him. And David realized
that after this experience. This is David's testimony
after that experience. And so what should we
do then in light of that, in light of the reality
that the Lord is the only refuge we will find
in the midst of trouble? We ought to make every
use of that refuge. We run to him when we seek
him. In his word, we run to him when we get on
our knees in prayer. We run to him when we gather
with the saints on the Lord's day. When we come
week by week, we find that refuge, that protection
in the midst of our trouble. Are you running
to the Lord for refuge? Another lesson that David
learned from this experience is that God actually
provides for our needs. Oh, we go through trials
and we doubt, don't we? We go through tribulations
and we wonder, is God going to show up or is
He going to abandon me? David learned that God
really does care and He really does show up.
Even, even when He was acting like a madman in
front of the Philistines to save His own skins,
God was there and He was meeting His needs. Psalm
34, 8 and 9. about David's experience before
the Philistines at Gath. David says, oh, fear
the Lord, you his saints, for those who fear
the Lord have no lack. The young lions suffer
want and hunger, but those who seek the Lord
lack no good thing. Dear ones, God provided for
David, God provided for David in the day of trouble,
and he's going to provide for you on Monday morning
as well. Lastly, Well, second to lastly, this
passage calls us to trust. It simply calls us
to trust. David says in Psalm 56, when I am afraid,
I will trust in you and God whose word I praise.
And God, I trust I will not be afraid. What can
flesh do to me? In other words, if David's God
is your God, you are safe, whether you are in
battle or whether you are in bed, if you're in
his hands. What can flesh do to you? This passage
calls us once again to rest on him and his protection
and provision. But you know that you have a true
refuge and protection and provision in him, not
because, well, not because of David ultimately,
but because of David's greater son, the Lord
Jesus Christ. He knows what it's like to be isolated
and desperate because he was forsaken on the
cross by his father for your sake when he paid
for our sins. He knows what it's like to bear
the full weight of temptation because he suffered
in temptation and trial and fasting for 40 days
in the wilderness and never gave in to the tempter.
He knows what it's like to be troubled because
he says, in this world you will have trouble
to his disciples. But what does he say after
that? He says, take heart, I have overcome the
world. And because Christ stood condemned, we
say with the psalmist in Psalm 34, we will never
be condemned. We will never be condemned for
every time we have lied, doubted, wandered or
worried. because Christ has paid it all. He stood
there in our place enduring the cross for our
sins so that we who receive Him by faith will
have eternal life, so that we who receive Him
by faith would have assurance that there's no
condemnation. He's redeemed our life by His blood,
obeyed God's law perfectly, and He's the bread
of life that will supply our daily bread. our
daily bread as well. And so remember, God has
provided for you His greatest gift. He will be
everything you need. You have no other refuge.
So whatever you're dealing with today, run to
Christ and you will find, as David did in Psalm
34, that when you seek Him, He will. deliver
you not only from your sins, amen, but he will
deliver you from all of your fears. Let's pray.