1 Samuel 18:5-19:24, John 8:31-59, Psalms 112:1-10, Proverbs 15:12-14
Today is the 16th day of May welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I’m Brian it’s great to be here with you today as we do what we do and take the next step forward together on our adventure through the Scriptures this year. And we have worked our way all the way into the books of Samuel and the emerging time of the Kings. So, King Saul is Israel’s first king, and he’s the king right now where we’re reading. But another man has emerged and been anointed as King and his name is David. And David’s very presence unsettles and destabilizes Saul. And, so, let’s get into the story and see what unfolds before us today. We’re reading from the Christian Standard Bible this week. First Samuel chapter 18 verse 5 through 19 verse 24.
Commentary:
Okay. Let’s take a look at what’s going on in the book of first Samuel because now there is a king, his name is Saul. We know that, and we’ve been watching him, and we’ve seen that he’s not a very stable person because he is a supreme insecurity issue and definitely is afraid of what people think about him. And now his life is intertwined with David who is a really good looking young man, but is a commoner, is a shepherd, wasn't…I mean, he’s like the youngest in his family. There…he wasn’t on any kind of trajectory to bring him into any kind of fame or fortune or notoriety of any sort. It’s just that he killed the giant, Goliath and that does not go unnoticed. He initiated a great victory for Israel. The armies of Israel were present and saw this happen. As the armies returned back to their villages and their homes like the word spreads about what happened. And, so, this lowly shepherd boy, although he has character and integrity and is good-looking and well-built and everything, he’s still a lowly person in his family and he is thrust into the spotlight. Like, he has to learn some things really fast because he’s gone from being sort of like an isolated shepherd, a person who spends a lot of time alone, a lot of time among the animals and now he’s a national hero. And one of the things we should start to observe right from the get go as we get to know David is his posture. He…he is a national hero. He did defeat the giant, Goliath, but he knows that it wasn’t in his own strength, that God allowed him to do this. And, so, he is in no way puffing himself up like he’s the new thing and that he’s gotta maximize on the traction and get as many followers to follow him as he possibly can. And when he issues decrees…and this sounds a whole lot like social media…but when he issues decrease, people listen. Like, he’s not doing that. He’s trying to stay low to the ground and look at his surroundings because all he’s known is like introverted, shepherding, and now he’s gotta navigate things that…he's…he’s coming into contact with people he would’ve never met. And then there’s the song of the women. “Saul has killed his thousands but David is killed is tens of thousands.” That’s not a good sign. That’s not a good sign in Saul’s mind either. And that gets in his mind and starts working in his mind and his mind starts concocting all kinds of scenarios and he starts to spin. And, so, just in what we read today Saul tried to kill David by spearing him while David was playing music. David had to like…in a hand-to-hand combat, close quarter sort of way, escape. And then Saul decided to send David into battle and like…kinda like honor him, but send him into a battle where he would probably be killed so that that would be the end of David and Saul wouldn’t have to worry about David anymore and Saul didn’t lift a hand against him. It was the enemy who killed him. He died in battle. He can be a great remembered hero, but he won’t have a future. But David was successful in everything that he did in his humility, and the people are starting to follow David because they see that he’s not trying to play the politics here, he’s just trying to survive and understand what’s going on and honor God in what he does and honor his king in what he does. And, so, then Saul, after trying to spear David, after trying to send him into battle to get killed decides to bring him even closer and invites him to marry his daughter. And he ends up marrying his daughter, Michal, Michal, the one who loved to David, but even in this there’s trickery, hoping that David will be unsuccessful. And, so, David being a commoner, he doesn’t have a lot of money, he can’t pay the bride price, he can’t enter into royalty, but what the king wants is 100 foreskins from the Philistines. We know what we’re talking about here, right? We’re talking about David and his men going and killing 100 of the enemy and then, you know, taking their manhood as it were, and bringing it back in, I don’t know, a baggie or basket or whatever, something to display to the king that…here…here are your foreskins. And, so, David goes out and…and doubles the price and brings back 200. And, so, David is once again successful instead of being dead. And then Jonathan, David’s friend, dear friend, is pulled into an assassination plot, but Jonathan will go along which further destabilizes Saul. And then Saul tried to kill David with his spear again. And then Saul sends troops to David’s house where his daughter is so that they can get David. And then Michal has to conspire with David to get him…to save his life, which only serves to further destabilize Saul. Now he feels like the walls are falling down around him because nobody’s loyal to him. But everybody’s looking at what he’s doing and sees it as erratic and sinful, wrong, because David’s posture hasn’t been to try to assume the throne or create some sort of military coup to take over or anything like that. He’s trying to stay low to the ground and figure out what he’s doing. He’s trying to be humble and loyal understanding that God is his only hope. Now that…even though he is for the king, the king wants him dead. So, what hope does he have? God. God is his only hope and he knows it. And here’s what’s interesting. Saul, king Saul, and David both know Samuel the prophet and both know God and worship God. Saul is being led into insecurity and paranoia. His jealousy and envy about David and his fear about what he looks like, his fear of his image are pulling him away from God. We’ve watched this since we met him. These things are pulling him away from God. But Saul’s erratic behavior and his insecurities and his paranoia are affecting David and they are pushing him toward God because David understands God is his only hope for survival. And we have all had these kinds of feelings on both sides before. And when we look into the things that David wrote, for example in the Psalms, we see David’s heart cry all of the time - my enemies are coming down upon me, deliver me, you are my only hope, defeat them. So, if we want to boil this down to just the basics, we can see that the attributes that are being displayed in Saul’s life are leading him away from God and the attributes that are present in David’s life are leading him to God. And we can see this in black-and-white in the story and then find this to be a mirror into our own hearts. Probably none of us are trying to pin somebody to the wall with a sword. But my goodness, we have pinned people to the wall with word swords plenty. None of us or most of us aren’t royalty with that kind of authority and so it’s taken out on the inside of us and it comes out in our words or in our malicious behavior’s. But as we can see pretty clear from the life of Saul from the Bible from the book of first Samuel, it’s not going anywhere. It’s not improving things. Saul falling into the darkness and trying to assassinate David isn’t making Saul better. Saul thinks if David’s just dead everything will be better, but it won’t because the problems were inside Saul before he ever made David. David is just the focus of his anger at this point. There is a lot there for us to think about and there is a lot that we can find in Saul inside of us. But thankfully, there’s a lot that we can see in David that is also within us. And, so, this war that sort of wages leads us to our own strength and our own erratic behavior or our complete surrender and understanding that God is our only hope, which is something that the Bible has been teaching us almost from the very beginning.
Prayer:
Father, we thank You for Your word and what it brings up innocent and brings up a lot, especially in stories like this where we have these contrasts because we realize we can be Saul and we can be David in the same day. And that shows us how destabilized perhaps we are in certain areas when certain things flip a trigger, a switch comes on then we immediately go into a certain mode. And maybe if we were able to examine it that mode has never worked well, maybe it’s only ever been destructive. But regardless of our behaviors or our patterns, what we begin to realize is when we try to navigate on our own no matter what phobia or no matter what illness or no matter what thing might be coming against our minds, invariably if we follow those paths, we are being pulled away from You. When we humble ourselves and see ourselves as we really are in our own strength, we are nothing. We are like the smallest member of the smallest clan in the smallest tribe. Like, we are nothing. All that we have is what You have given us, and that gives us a heart of gratitude, and that gives us a heart of trust knowing that You will provide what we need. And that allows us to stay true to You and loyal to You rather than in the erratic nature of trying to navigate things on our own and discern what everybody thinks about everything and how that affects us. Holy Spirit, come into this because this hits us where we live. Help us we pray. In the name of Jesus, we ask. Amen.
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And that’s it for today. I’m Brian and I love you and I’ll be waiting for you here tomorrow.
Community Prayer and Praise:
Hi DAB family this is Chris from Virginia I’m calling for prayer for God’s Yellow flower as she recovers from colon surgery. Please pray with me Jeremiah 17:14. Heal me O Lord and I will be healed. Save me and I will be saved for you are the one I praise. Father God, we come to You now asking for healing for God’s Yellow flower. Father she’s been there for us over the years praying hard for this family and loving You Father. Father, we ask for complete healing and we pray that this situation bring glory to this __. I thank You Father for __ in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Good morning from beautiful Cincinnati OH it’s Daniel Johnson junior, how are you right now? It’s been quite a month for me. The last four weeks have been ups and downs and a lot of downs but to me I think that getting to a place of surrender has been so helpful, so important. Have had hospital…my mom’s been in a hospital stay. I’ve had reduced capacity for work because of injuries, personal injuries to my foot to my lower back and God’s been working through it all. And I guess I felt inspired to come up with something off the top of my head this morning that I’m going to share with you.
Oh the sweet sweet surrender that which I desperately need
The giving over completely to Your will may I heed
to that sweet sweet surrender it’s what I longed to feel
because to You oh Lord I now must fully kneel
It’s definitely not so easy at first but to do it so I must
Please help me oh Lord with my lack of trust
for in that sweet sweet surrender I truly find my rest
and in that sweet surrender I’m finally my best.
So, God bless you from beautiful Cincinnati OH it’s Daniel Johnson junior your brother here listening to your prayers, longing to be with you in person but knowing that we have that heavenly home waiting for us. Make it…
Good morning this is Donna Longing to be God’s Light in Pennsylvania, and this is a prayer for God’s Yellow Flower who called in this morning to report she’s recovering from surgery, emergency surgery to repair a ruptured colon. So, Father God I lift up God’s yellow flower who has blessed us with her wisdom and faith when she calls in and I ask that You would bless her today, magnify her faith, bless and heal her body completely and quickly, relieve any pain or discomfort. I ask that You would bless those who care for her, bless her family and bless others through her, through her faith and through the Holy Spirit that works in her. I pray all these things in Your precious name. Jesus’ name…
Good morning DAB family. Hi. I’d like to share something and ask for prayer. I have a strong tendency to solve problems, at least try to and I insert myself into family situations and even though I am not asked for help or my opinion. Instead, I need to lay the situations down at the feet of Jesus, pray, and do spiritual warfare. I need to shut up and be still and know that He is God. I ask for prayer you guys. God is for us He’s not against us and He’ll fight our battles for us. He says so in his word. So, as I try to make a life change, I ask for your prayers in Jesus’ name. Amen. Thank you, you guys. Big hugs to all of you.
Hi family this is Melody Faith calling from Canada. I haven’t called for a while but I’m sending a turn SOS to the aid of my DAB family to please pray for my son who’s having some big problems. They’re just too big for me to talk about right now, for my husband who has just been diagnosed with some tumors. I feel kind of overwhelmed but it’s not about me it’s about them and the fact that we need an intervention. We need God to come through. We are just asking that you guys just remember us in prayer. Thank you so much. Love you all.