Devotional comment on 1 Samuel for Aug 10 to Aug 16
These free devotions from a Reformed Presbyterian understanding of the Word of God may be used for personal or family devotions. I suggest you read verses around the daily verse as well, to get the wider context; and also choose another passage of Scripture to read. Any feedback on the way in which this attempt to serve the church can be improved please let me know by emailing covenanter@covenantedreformation.com. These devotions are of course not copyrighted and can be freely given to others.
1 Samuel
Lord’s Day 10th August
Be Encouraged1. Sam. 21:7-15 7 ‘Now a certain man of the servants of Saul was there that day, detained before the LORD; and his name was Doeg, an Edomite, the chiefest of the herdmen that belonged to Saul. 8 And David said unto Ahimelech, And is there not here under thine hand spear or sword? for I have neither brought my sword nor my weapons with me, because the king’s business required haste. 9 And the priest said, The sword of Goliath the Philistine, whom thou slewest in the valley of Elah, behold, it is here wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod: if thou wilt take that, take it: for there is no other save that here. And David said, There is none like that; give it me 10 ¶ And David arose, and fled that day for fear of Saul, and went to Achish the king of Gath. 11 And the servants of Achish said unto him, Is not this David the king of the land? did they not sing one to another of him in dances, saying, Saul hath slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands? 12 And David laid up these words in his heart, and was sore afraid of Achish the king of Gath. 13 And he changed his behaviour before them, and feigned himself mad in their hands, and scrabbled on the doors of the gate, and let his spittle fall down upon his beard. 14 Then said Achish unto his servants, Lo, ye see the man is mad: wherefore then have ye brought him to me? 15 Have I need of mad men, that ye have brought this fellow to play the mad man in my presence? shall this fellow come into my house?’
So David feigns madness. Ps 34 and 56 arise from this episode. The heading or superscription in Psalm 34 mentions Abimelech which may have been a title given to all the Kings of Gath.
But now he is in poverty. Instead of the banquet of the king, he has only five loaves of stale bread to sustain him. Instead of the safety of the royal court he is an outlaw in enemy territory and in the gravest danger. Its realism is evidence that the Bible is not the fabrication of men who want to establish an ideal man-made religion, but rather the very Word of God. The difficulties and hardships of life and the difficulties of reconciling the promises of God and the actual circumstances of our lives are not overlooked or ignored.
When struggling with your situation, consider the experiences and sufferings of the great saints of Scripture, and be encouraged.
Monday 11th August
God Has Not Deserted You1. Sam. 21:7-15 7 ‘Now a certain man of the servants of Saul was there that day, detained before the LORD; and his name was Doeg, an Edomite, the chiefest of the herdmen that belonged to Saul. 8 And David said unto Ahimelech, And is there not here under thine hand spear or sword? for I have neither brought my sword nor my weapons with me, because the king’s business required haste. 9 And the priest said, The sword of Goliath the Philistine, whom thou slewest in the valley of Elah, behold, it is here wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod: if thou wilt take that, take it: for there is no other save that here. And David said, There is none like that; give it me 10 ¶ And David arose, and fled that day for fear of Saul, and went to Achish the king of Gath. 11 And the servants of Achish said unto him, Is not this David the king of the land? did they not sing one to another of him in dances, saying, Saul hath slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands? 12 And David laid up these words in his heart, and was sore afraid of Achish the king of Gath. 13 And he changed his behaviour before them, and feigned himself mad in their hands, and scrabbled on the doors of the gate, and let his spittle fall down upon his beard. 14 Then said Achish unto his servants, Lo, ye see the man is mad: wherefore then have ye brought him to me? 15 Have I need of mad men, that ye have brought this fellow to play the mad man in my presence? shall this fellow come into my house?’
But how are we to reconcile David’s situation with the promises he has received? God had promised David that he would be King of Israel. But He had not promised that David would not go through a period of great trial before this came about.
Knowing that David was a type of Christ, we acknowledge that there was something special about David’s situation that does not apply to us. We can also see the parallels with our Lord of suffering prior to coronation. Our Lord knew the suffering He had to undergo at all times.
But on a personal level, the suffering that David had to undergo was in the providence of God. How should David have viewed the trials the Lord was sending his way?
God would only let Him suffer trials so that there might be some benefit to David. And David did learn that even in his darkest days, God did not desert Him, even though it seemed like it at the time. We can read Psalm 34 to illustrate what David learned from this experience.
Be encouraged, then, The Holy Spirit has recorded this experience to remind us that ultimately God does deliver His people, though they go through many trials. We too are given glorious promises. We are promised to be under God’s Fatherly care and direction in this present life and an eternity of bliss in the life to come.
Some interpret this to mean that our present life will be perfect and trouble free. But God actually promises us the opposite: ‘Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you’ 1 Pet. 4:12; ‘ And sent Timotheus, our brother, and minister of God, and our fellowlabourer in the gospel of Christ, to establish you, and to comfort you concerning your faith: 3 That no man should be moved by these afflictions: for yourselves know that we are appointed thereunto. 4 For verily, when we were with you, we told you before that we should suffer tribulation; even as it came to pass, and ye know’ 1 Thess. 3: 2.
And so when trials come, we can be assured that they do not mean that God had deserted us.
Tuesday 12th August
A Greater God You Ever Knew1. Sam. 21:7-15 7 ‘Now a certain man of the servants of Saul was there that day, detained before the LORD; and his name was Doeg, an Edomite, the chiefest of the herdmen that belonged to Saul. 8 And David said unto Ahimelech, And is there not here under thine hand spear or sword? for I have neither brought my sword nor my weapons with me, because the king’s business required haste. 9 And the priest said, The sword of Goliath the Philistine, whom thou slewest in the valley of Elah, behold, it is here wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod: if thou wilt take that, take it: for there is no other save that here. And David said, There is none like that; give it me 10 ¶ And David arose, and fled that day for fear of Saul, and went to Achish the king of Gath. 11 And the servants of Achish said unto him, Is not this David the king of the land? did they not sing one to another of him in dances, saying, Saul hath slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands? 12 And David laid up these words in his heart, and was sore afraid of Achish the king of Gath. 13 And he changed his behaviour before them, and feigned himself mad in their hands, and scrabbled on the doors of the gate, and let his spittle fall down upon his beard. 14 Then said Achish unto his servants, Lo, ye see the man is mad: wherefore then have ye brought him to me? 15 Have I need of mad men, that ye have brought this fellow to play the mad man in my presence? shall this fellow come into my house?’
And yet if there seems to be no escape from our present distress, what can be done in circumstances like this? The Bible teaches us that suffering should be our friend and not our foe. How does this work in practice?Firstly, all the suffering Christians experience turns out to their benefit. This was David’s testimony in Psalm 34, ‘O taste and see that the LORD is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in him.’ He could testify to the goodness of God in a way he never could when everything was going his way. You might wear a safety belt every time you hop into the car, but your real appreciation of the worth and value of that belt is not truly discovered until you have an accident and are saved by it. Release from suffering by the power of God introduces you to a greater God than you ever knew.
How does suffering helps us see the sinfulness of sin and encourage us to a greater zeal in putting to death the sins of the flesh? Caspar Olevianus, one of the writers of the Heidelberg Catechism said this in his sickbed, ‘In this disease, I have learned how great God is, and what the evil of sin is; I never knew sufficiently what God was before, nor what sin meant, till now.’
Jeremiah says in Lamentations 3: 19, ‘Remembering mine affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the gall’.David says in Ps 34, verse 18: ‘The LORD is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit.’ We are driven to God in prayer acknowledging our reliance upon Him in our extremity. Afflictions are like awakening a songbird with the prick of a needle, but now awake she breaks forth in beautiful song. The more God’s people are beaten with the hammer of affliction, the more we become trumpets praising God.
Wednesday 13th August
A Fine Refining1. Sam. 21:7-15 7 ‘Now a certain man of the servants of Saul was there that day, detained before the LORD; and his name was Doeg, an Edomite, the chiefest of the herdmen that belonged to Saul. 8 And David said unto Ahimelech, And is there not here under thine hand spear or sword? for I have neither brought my sword nor my weapons with me, because the king’s business required haste. 9 And the priest said, The sword of Goliath the Philistine, whom thou slewest in the valley of Elah, behold, it is here wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod: if thou wilt take that, take it: for there is no other save that here. And David said, There is none like that; give it me 10 ¶ And David arose, and fled that day for fear of Saul, and went to Achish the king of Gath. 11 And the servants of Achish said unto him, Is not this David the king of the land? did they not sing one to another of him in dances, saying, Saul hath slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands? 12 And David laid up these words in his heart, and was sore afraid of Achish the king of Gath. 13 And he changed his behaviour before them, and feigned himself mad in their hands, and scrabbled on the doors of the gate, and let his spittle fall down upon his beard. 14 Then said Achish unto his servants, Lo, ye see the man is mad: wherefore then have ye brought him to me? 15 Have I need of mad men, that ye have brought this fellow to play the mad man in my presence? shall this fellow come into my house?’
Can our spiritual wellbeing be hurt by afflictions in this life? What if we suffer brain damage or get Alzheimer’s? It is only our earthly condition that can be hurt by afflictions. That which is permanent will never be damaged by earthly suffering. Even if we suffer mental illness or brain damage, our soul is unaffected and we can be sure that in the resurrection we will be perfect irrespective of the pain we experience now. This is why Peter can ask ‘And who is he that will harm you, if ye be followers of that which is good?’ 1 Pet. 1:13. You may be afflicted, but the real you, the permanent you, will not be harmed. Martin Luther said of this life, ‘It is a very little cross that we bear’.
As David says, ‘For his anger endureth but a moment; in his favour is life: weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning. Ps 30:5’ David’s earthly afflictions were a few short years - his earthly reign 40 years, and his present bliss in heaven will last all eternity. Any afflictions that come to us proceed from God’s sweetest love. ‘As many as I love’, we read in the Book of Revelation, ‘I rebuke and chasten.’ Many a believer can attest to the fact that it was affliction and not blessing that equipped him for heaven.
One old saint lay dying and when his friends pointed to the ulcers and sores all over his body, he said, ‘These are God’s gems and jewels, by which he clothes his best friends, and to me they are more precious than all the gold and silver in the world.’
Who would be an example of someone in Scripture who could only properly evaluate his suffering once it was over? Can you think of four examples? The obvious example is Job whose latter end was better than his former. Consider Lazarus who lay at the rich man’s gate, with sores licked by dogs. He ends up in the bosom of Abraham. And think of Joseph rejected by family, jailed on a false charge and yet ultimately the ruler of Egypt second only to the great Pharaoh. And think of David here in his exile, but yet to reign with all riches and power of a great King. Consider Job in Job 23:10, ‘But he knoweth the way that I take: when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold.’
Thursday 14th August
Blessing The Lord At All TimesPsalm 34;
1. Sam. 21:7-15 7 ‘Now a certain man of the servants of Saul was there that day, detained before the LORD; and his name was Doeg, an Edomite, the chiefest of the herdmen that belonged to Saul. 8 And David said unto Ahimelech, And is there not here under thine hand spear or sword? for I have neither brought my sword nor my weapons with me, because the king’s business required haste. 9 And the priest said, The sword of Goliath the Philistine, whom thou slewest in the valley of Elah, behold, it is here wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod: if thou wilt take that, take it: for there is no other save that here. And David said, There is none like that; give it me 10 ¶ And David arose, and fled that day for fear of Saul, and went to Achish the king of Gath. 11 And the servants of Achish said unto him, Is not this David the king of the land? did they not sing one to another of him in dances, saying, Saul hath slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands? 12 And David laid up these words in his heart, and was sore afraid of Achish the king of Gath. 13 And he changed his behaviour before them, and feigned himself mad in their hands, and scrabbled on the doors of the gate, and let his spittle fall down upon his beard. 14 Then said Achish unto his servants, Lo, ye see the man is mad: wherefore then have ye brought him to me? 15 Have I need of mad men, that ye have brought this fellow to play the mad man in my presence? shall this fellow come into my house?’Gold may look bright and shining in its raw state, but it is only when it is refined that its true beauty and purity is discovered and ensured.
The troubles that come upon the wicked are far greater than those that come upon the godly, even though the suffering might outwardly have the same detail for both. Only the Godly possesses the solace that we have rehearsed in recent days. The Bible says that there is no peace for the wicked. And this means that when poverty strikes them, for example, because they have invested all their happiness in worldly goods, their temporary peace is destroyed. And when it comes to death, many a wicked man dies hard because he has no hope and a gnawing feeling that something even worse than death awaits him.
But this is not so for the people of God. Though we may be temporarily overwhelmed we have the knowledge that our suffering is not worthy to be compared with the glory about to be revealed.
As Psalm 34 indicates, David’s faith was only strengthened by adversity. What seemed to hurt him really helped him and equipped with wisdom and experience for other trials yet to come. Though despised and rejected of men, God does not reject him.
And this true of us! Though we may be in the valley of affliction, God has yet something glorious for us. He has ensured this in sending David’s greater son to ensure our entry into glory and our peace in this present world. Our testimony will yet be as David’s was from this dark circumstance, ‘I will bless the LORD at all times: his praise shall continually be in my mouth. 2 My soul shall make her boast in the LORD: the humble shall hear thereof, and be glad. 3 O magnify the LORD with me, and let us exalt his name together. Ps. 34:1-3’
Friday 15th August
Careful How You Judge1 Samuel 22:1-5 ‘David therefore departed thence, and escaped to the cave Adullam: and when his brethren and all his father’s house heard it, they went down thither to him. 2 And every one that was in distress, and every one that was in debt, and every one that was discontented, gathered themselves unto him; and he became a captain over them: and there were with him about four hundred men. 3 And David went thence to Mizpeh of Moab: and he said unto the king of Moab, Let my father and my mother, I pray thee, come forth, and be with you, till I know what God will do for me. 4 And he brought them before the king of Moab: and they dwelt with him all the while that David was in the hold. 5 And the prophet Gad said unto David, Abide not in the hold; depart, and get thee into the land of Judah. Then David departed, and came into the forest of Hareth.’
David has now hidden in a cave, the cave of Adullam situated some 16 miles Southwest of Jerusalem. If Saul could attempt to kill his own family then David’s family would be even more at risk. But the family joining David probably did so for more than just for reasons of security. The way the text is phrased suggests that there is at least the ideal of family solidarity there. This too was evidence that God intended to encourage David in his extremity. Do you think that difficulty often draws a family together and prosperity can often drive them apart?
In verse 2 when David receives others as well, the social misfits, debtors and the discontented as his followers, does he gives some credence to Saul’s charge that David had a conspiracy against him? We should keep in mind that being an outcast, in the way these people are described, may be the result of the evil of others. In this particular case, it is quite likely that under Saul’s rule there were many unjustly deprived of wealth and security and forced into such an extremity as is described here. Let us not judge people on their outward appearance.
Saturday 16th August
Hearing God’s Voice1 Samuel 22:1-5 ‘David therefore departed thence, and escaped to the cave Adullam: and when his brethren and all his father’s house heard it, they went down thither to him. 2 And every one that was in distress, and every one that was in debt, and every one that was discontented, gathered themselves unto him; and he became a captain over them: and there were with him about four hundred men. 3 And David went thence to Mizpeh of Moab: and he said unto the king of Moab, Let my father and my mother, I pray thee, come forth, and be with you, till I know what God will do for me. 4 And he brought them before the king of Moab: and they dwelt with him all the while that David was in the hold. 5 And the prophet Gad said unto David, Abide not in the hold; depart, and get thee into the land of Judah. Then David departed, and came into the forest of Hareth.’
David may have chosen Moab because of his ancestral links through Ruth the Moabitess. In verse 3 and 4, we see David leave his family in the care of the king of Moab, ‘till I know what God will do for me’. By this statement he is showing that he both believes that God is in control of his circumstances and that he can trust God to direct him.
And it is not a coincidence that in verse 5 we read that God does indeed guide David. A prophet, Gad, appears to be with David and so gives legitimacy to his present actions. Gad advises him to leave the stronghold of Adullam and go into the land of Judah. His wording ‘Abide not in the hold’ is an emphatic way of saying go immediately. (The use of the negative for emphasis is familiar to us in the Ten Commandments).
When David said in verse 3 Til I know what God will do for me, how do we know that he is not just sounding pious? When God speaks to him through the prophet, David is immediately obedient. Though there are no immediately inspired prophets today God still speaks to us clearly and unequivocally nevertheless. He speaks to us through His Word the Bible. And it doesn’t matter how pious our speech might be. As long as we fail to obey His will revealed in the Word of God our words are just empty or shallow. And so we see David obeying and fleeing to the forest of Hereth.
Garnet Milne
