There's a Psalm for that...

He’s on his own, running for his life. Jonathan has aided him in his escape from Saul—Jonathan’s dad and David’s archenemy. It’s an interesting turn of events that gets progressively more so.

David is fleeing Saul. This is the theme of the next few chapters: David’s flight from Saul. David’s on the run, running for his life. Outwardly, he’s alone.

But we know better. The Lord does not let go of His own—that, friends, is the point of the story.

1 Samuel 21:1–9 NIV

1 David went to Nob, to Ahimelek the priest. Ahimelek trembled when he met him, and asked, “Why are you alone? Why is no one with you?” 2 David answered Ahimelek the priest, “The king sent me on a mission and said to me, ‘No one is to know anything about the mission I am sending you on.’ As for my men, I have told them to meet me at a certain place. 3 Now then, what do you have on hand? Give me five loaves of bread, or whatever you can find.” 4 But the priest answered David, “I don’t have any ordinary bread on hand; however, there is some consecrated bread here—provided the men have kept themselves from women.” 5 David replied, “Indeed women have been kept from us, as usual whenever I set out. The men’s bodies are holy even on missions that are not holy. How much more so today!” 6 So the priest gave him the consecrated bread, since there was no bread there except the bread of the Presence that had been removed from before the Lord and replaced by hot bread on the day it was taken away. 7 Now one of Saul’s servants was there that day, detained before the Lord; he was Doeg the Edomite, Saul’s chief shepherd. 8 David asked Ahimelek, “Don’t you have a spear or a sword here? I haven’t brought my sword or any other weapon, because the king’s mission was urgent.” 9 The priest replied, “The sword of Goliath the Philistine, whom you killed in the Valley of Elah, is here; it is wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod. If you want it, take it; there is no sword here but that one.” David said, “There is none like it; give it to me.”

David is desperate, that much is clear. He’s on a solo run through the countryside, running from here to there, to and fro.

[Map]

David will cover the width of this map in 1 Samuel 21-22. We can’t imagine quite what he’s going through, though you probably know what it’s like to be out of options.

At the end of your rope. Wondering where you go from here. What’s next? Is there a next?

We might sympathize or empathize with David. What we must not do is make David our role model or the hero of the story.

Granted, at this point in his life, David is doing mostly good things (though his behavior is about to get a little bit strange). David is fine, possibly a decent example; but he’s not the hero.

We aren’t to model our lives after David or any other person in this book who isn’t Jesus.

When we come to the Bible, we should think: What is God doing here? What does this teach me about the Lord’s character and work?

While David is on the run, he finds

THE LORD CARES FOR OUR NEEDS, BIG AND SMALL

David ran to the City of Nob, about 2 miles north of Jerusalem. It’d be the first town up the road once he fled from the palace.

Ahimelek trembled, though it’s hard to say why. The priest must have known something was up, something was wrong. I’m not sure why Ahimelek trembled if he didn’t get the sense something was going on.

David’s story doesn’t make a lot of sense. David must have been more concerned about making it out of Jerusalem alive than he was coming up with a good story. His story is pretty weak.

He’s on a top-secret government mission that just happens to be so urgent he’s left his weapons behind.

“He sounds like a plumber asking to borrow the homeowner’s pipe wrench.”

David’s pretty unprepared for the task he says the king has sent him to accomplish.

David needs food and weapons and, honestly, a better story.

I think David’s desperation at this point is pretty understandable. His story stinks, but it might also be that he’s trying to spare Ahimelek the priest.

If David doesn’t tell Ahimelek that he’s running away from Saul who’s trying to kill him, then Ahimelek has plausible deniability—Ahimelek can honestly say he didn’t know David was running for his life.

“He told me he was on a secret mission...”

David’s story might be desperation or it might be David’s way of protecting the priest.

What we know for sure is that the Bible neither condemns nor justifies David for his conduct. This is merely reporting what David did.

The more important question: What is God doing here?

Did you notice what happens? In the midst of his fear of Saul and the danger he’s faced, David is given some bread.

The Lord sustained David, meeting his needs. This is a clear need; David has nothing, not even any food.

Every Sabbath, 12 loaves of bread were piled on the table on the north side of the holy place in the tabernacle. They were there as a quiet witness: the Lord sustains His people and supplies their needs.

The holy bread becomes David’s daily bread.

Isn’t this what we pray? “Give us this day, our daily bread...”

My first thought as I read this text was, “No, no. David can’t have that. That’s not for David to eat. David doesn’t deserve that!”

Well, what else is new? Who of us would have daily bread if we depended upon our deserving?

When it’s all said and done, I receive my daily bread not because I am godly or deserving, but because the Lord is gracious.

As it is with David, so it is with you and me. The Lord cares for our needs, big and small. He’s gracious to meet them.

This is a lesson we’ll learn, over and again, as we study and read God’s Word. Even in the Psalms, many of which were written by David, we see David praising the Lord for meeting his needs.

“There’s a psalm for that,” we might say.

One of the psalms written in response to this time in David’s life is Psalm 34. Listen and see how this psalm applies. The Lord is meeting David’s needs, big and small.

David writes:

Psalm 34:6–10 NIV

6 This poor man called, and the Lord heard him; he saved him out of all his troubles. 7 The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him, and he delivers them. 8 Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the one who takes refuge in him. 9 Fear the Lord, you his holy people, for those who fear him lack nothing. 10 The lions may grow weak and hungry, but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing.

The Lord cares for our needs. There’s never a time this isn’t really good news, but then we do something really foolish and we find He still cares about us.

1 Samuel 21:10 NIV

10 That day David fled from Saul and went to Achish king of Gath.

Talk about foolish! Do you remember who lived in Gath? Turn back to 1 Samuel 17:

1 Samuel 17:4 NIV

4 A champion named Goliath, who was from Gath, came out of the Philistine camp. His height was six cubits and a span.

For some unknown reason, David runs all the way from Nob to Gath, the home of Goliath. And David just waltzes into town carrying Goliath’s sword.

All that drama with Goliath beside, David has killed more than his share of Philistines. What would possess David to head there?

David might have thought that he could find refuge in Gath—the enemy of my enemy is my friend, right? He’s been reading his Sun Tzu.

Maybe David thought Achish would even welcome him—better to have David on your side than to have him opposing you.

But that’s not how it went down:

1 Samuel 21:11–12 NIV

11 But the servants of Achish said to him, “Isn’t this David, the king of the land? Isn’t he the one they sing about in their dances: “ ‘Saul has slain his thousands, and David his tens of thousands’?” 12 David took these words to heart and was very much afraid of Achish king of Gath.

The servants of Achish know all too well who this man before them is—it’s the man, the myth, the legend. “Those tens of thousands David has killed? Yeah, most of them were us!”

David realized at this point that Gath would not be the safe haven he had hoped (it was a fool’s hope to begin with).

In verse 12, it says while David was in their hands, implying Achish has David arrested, confined, taken into custody, read Miranda.

What does David do?

1 Samuel 21:13–15 NIV

13 So he pretended to be insane in their presence; and while he was in their hands he acted like a madman, making marks on the doors of the gate and letting saliva run down his beard. 14 Achish said to his servants, “Look at the man! He is insane! Why bring him to me? 15 Am I so short of madmen that you have to bring this fellow here to carry on like this in front of me? Must this man come into my house?”

David’s desperation leads him to playacting insane. It’s an interesting move, to be sure. But why not? What else can he do?

David plays the madman, making marks on the doors…letting spit run down his beard.

It’s an odd picture of David.

But it works. Achish doesn’t want David around; Achish has enough madmen of his own and doesn’t want another.

This is either entirely coincidental OR proof that

THE LORD IS MERCIFUL TO FOOLISH FOLK LIKE DAVID (and me!)

David’s feigned insanity works. They let him go. He escapes and heads on down the road.

David doesn’t say or think or believe even for a moment that he “got lucky”.

He knows he owes all of this to the mercy of God who is merciful to His people, even when we act a fool.

There’s a psalm for that. David writes (Psalm 56) what was in his mind and on his lips during this whole ordeal. David prays:

Psalm 56:title–1 NIV

For the director of music. To the tune of “A Dove on Distant Oaks.” Of David. A miktam. When the Philistines had seized him in Gath. 1 Be merciful to me, my God, for my enemies are in hot pursuit; all day long they press their attack.

Psalm 56:3–4 NIV

3 When I am afraid, I put my trust in you. 4 In God, whose word I praise— in God I trust and am not afraid. What can mere mortals do to me?

Psalm 56:10–11 NIV

10 In God, whose word I praise, in the Lord, whose word I praise— 11 in God I trust and am not afraid. What can man do to me?

Our hope and trust, our security in times of danger and distress caused by our own foolishness, is the mercy of God.

We’ve likely each done our share of crazy things, made stupid decisions, acted impulsively and foolishly.

If not for the mercy of God...

The Lord our God is worthy of praise. He is merciful to fools like me. “Be merciful to me, my God...”

When all we deserve is wrath and judgment, when all we earn is scorn and shame, while we were still His enemies, Christ died for us.

The mercy of God shown to us on the cross is unspeakable, in both nature and scope.

The Lord is merciful!

His mercies are new every morning. This morning is no exception. Tomorrow morning, too. And the next day and the day after that—the merciful God will have mercy.

When we turn to 1 Samuel 22, we find David in a cave east of Gath about 12 miles.

1 Samuel 22:1–4 NIV

1 David left Gath and escaped to the cave of Adullam. When his brothers and his father’s household heard about it, they went down to him there. 2 All those who were in distress or in debt or discontented gathered around him, and he became their commander. About four hundred men were with him. 3 From there David went to Mizpah in Moab and said to the king of Moab, “Would you let my father and mother come and stay with you until I learn what God will do for me?” 4 So he left them with the king of Moab, and they stayed with him as long as David was in the stronghold.

When David’s family heard he was there, they went to join him. No doubt they were afraid of Saul and what Saul might do to them simply for being connected to David.

Another 400 men gathered around David and looked to David to lead them.

Dale Ralph Davis helpfully points out that we don’t need to “assume all the men were in the same cave. But neither should we imagine a cave as a cramped hole in the side of a hill. There are caves in that area today that easily rival or exceed large hotel lobbies for space. A game of full-court basketball would be no problem in some of them.”

All that to say, the Lord is going to show David that he isn’t alone; he’s got family and a bunch of people gathered around him to serve him and support him.

The main import of this is that David’s parents are quite old at this point (1 Samuel 17:12 “Jesse had eight sons, and in Saul’s time he was very old”).

David doesn’t want to drag them around with him as he runs from Saul (Mom and Dad don’t need that kind of excitement at this point in their lives).

From the cave, David traveled east to the Dead Sea and beyond to the land of Moab. He asked the king of Moab if his parents could stay there for a while.

On the surface, this might seem a little like showing up to Gath and hoping for hospitality. To Moab? Really?

But think back a hundred or so years before this in Biblical history. Ruth was from Moab. Ruth married Boaz. Ruth and Boaz had Obed, Obed’s son was Jesse, and Jesse youngest was David.

David’s great-grandma was from Moab. There was Moabite blood coursing through David’s veins.

THE LORD ARRANGES AND ORCHESTRATES

When we consider this story in light of what came before it, it all starts to make sense.

Long before David came to be, the Lord Almighty was working this out for David—years beforehand.

The Lord was arranging and orchestrating things through Ruth and Naomi and Boaz, how Ruth and Boaz got together, even the loss that Naomi experienced...

The Lord was arranging and orchestrating ALL OF IT for His good purpose.

The God of the Bible is constantly at work in the lives of His people and He is working things out—arranging and orchestrating the events of their lives—in ways they may never understand.

I know for a fact neither Ruth nor Boaz had a clue about this moment in their great-grandson’s life. David wasn’t on their radar. Who knows if Ruth or Boaz were around for much of Jesse’s life, let alone David’s life?

But Romans 8 has always been true, and it always will be:

Romans 8:28–30 NIV

28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. 29 For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. 30 And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.

The Lord is arranging and orchestrating the events of your life in ways that you can’t begin to understand and may never understand this side of heaven, but you better believe He’s working all things together.

Guess what? There’s a psalm for that.

When David was in the cave, he cried out in prayer to the One who arranges and orchestrates:

Psalm 142:title–3 (NIV)

A maskil of David. When he was in the cave. A prayer.

1 I cry aloud to the Lord;

I lift up my voice to the Lord for mercy.

2 I pour out before him my complaint;

before him I tell my trouble.

3 When my spirit grows faint within me,

it is you who watch over my way.

It’s the Lord who watches over our way. He’s arranging and orchestrating all things for His glory and our good.

One last verse, one last point:

1 Samuel 22:5 NIV

5 But the prophet Gad said to David, “Do not stay in the stronghold. Go into the land of Judah.” So David left and went to the forest of Hereth.

THE LORD LEADS AND DIRECTS

A prophet named Gad pops up and becomes part of the story. David’s hanging out in the stronghold (whatever that is).

The stronghold might refer to Masada, a military Mesa on the other side of the Dead Sea. Masada was a strategic spot, only one way up.

It’s the high ground which gives the advantage to whomever has it (even in Star Wars, somehow, the high ground gives an advantage; they have “the force”, light sabers, telekinesis, but hey, I’ve got the high ground so I win…it’s so dumb).

Sorry, back to 1 Samuel. David probably feels as safe as he has in a while by virtue of being in the stronghold.

And here comes Gad. Gad tells him: Do not stay in the stronghold. Go into the land of Judah.

It’s no small thing to have a prophet—one who speaks for God—speak to David, giving him direction from the Lord.

The Lord gives David direction and special guidance through a prophet. This was something Saul didn’t have.

Saul was a man on his own, a man without direction from God. Saul had no light in his darkness.

David, on the other hand, was up against it, but he wasn’t alone. He had direction and leading from the Lord.

There’s a psalm for that, Psalm 63, a psalm of David, when he was in he Desert of Judah:

Psalm 63:7–8 NIV

7 Because you are my help, I sing in the shadow of your wings. 8 I cling to you; your right hand upholds me.

David likely doesn’t understand why he’s to go back to the land of Judah (that’s where Saul is). But he goes.

He follows the Lord’s direction and leading—wherever it leads—because the Lord is good and trustworthy. Always. And the Lord is always working things out.

The Lord’s people today, troubled and trembling have guidance and direction more certain than David’s prophet:

2 Peter 1:19–21 NIV

19 We also have the prophetic message as something completely reliable, and you will do well to pay attention to it, as to a light shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts. 20 Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation of things. 21 For prophecy never had its origin in the human will, but prophets, though human, spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.

Romans 15:4 NIV

4 For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through the endurance taught in the Scriptures and the encouragement they provide we might have hope.

The Lord leads and directs; He guides us and speaks to us through His Word, showing us where to go, reminding us where we need to turn in times of trouble.

>Christian, the Lord cares about you. He’s meeting your needs big and small. He shows us such mercy, even in our foolishness. He’s arranging and orchestrating the events of your life, leading and directing you.

There is no one like our God!