Before anything else I’m going to announce a couple of things. Of course, depending on who shares and exhorts regarding giving and offering, I’ll make a response and acknowledgement before said announcements.
First off, I pledged to the Mindanao people that we would be sending them regular financial assistance every month. I got the buy-in and commitment of a couple of people during the prayer meeting but I’m also going to encourage folks in the service to give, so we have an amount to send at the end of the month. I’ll need to remind them that if they do want a portion or all of their offering to go to Mindanao, they’d need to indicate it on the appropriate area on the offering slip.
Second, I wanted to remind people to stay just a little longer to pray for one another, before actually tuckering in to have whatever snacks we serve at the end of the service. This may mean I’ll end a little earlier, and I’ll probably encourage the team to make their closing worship shorter. Finally, I’ll be sharing what’ll happen during our afternoon slot at the main church anniversary celebration day, friendly reminder that we have the Filipino theme.
After all this I’m praying and I’m jumping in, reading from 1 Samuel 19:8-17:
David went out and fought with the Philistines and struck them with a great blow, so that they fled before him. Then a harmful spirit from the LORD came upon Saul, as he sat in his house with his spear in his hand. And David was playing the lyre. And Saul sought to pin David to the wall with the spear, but he eluded Saul, so that he struck the spear into the wall. And David fled and escaped that night.
Saul sent messengers to David’s house to watch him, that he might kill him in the morning. But Michal, David’s wife, told him, “If you do not escape with your life tonight, tomorrow you will be killed.” So Michal let David down through the window, and he fled away and escaped. Michal took an image and laid it on the bed and put a pillow of goats’ hair at its head and covered it with the clothes. And when Saul sent messengers to take David, she said, “He is sick.” Then Saul sent the messengers to see David, saying, “Bring him up to me in the bed, that I may kill him.” And when the messengers came in, behold, the image was in the bed, with the pillow of goats’ hair at its head. Saul said to Michal, “Why have you deceived me thus and let my enemy go, so that he has escaped?” And Michal answered Saul, “He said to me, ‘Let me go. Why should I kill you?’”
Back in the days when the main church was so into an evangelical presentation called the Judgment Morning Drama, we featured all sorts of scenarios, and at the end of each scene people would either make their way into Heaven or Hell. We’ve changed the scenarios and the conditions over the years, but through the years, the scenario of the drunkard was never taken out.
Now the actors and actresses were expected to follow a script, but eventually those who got pretty comfortable in their role took some creative liberties of their own. Take, for example, the drunkard, who was almost always portrayed by our good brother Hilario – because we portrayed him as someone who refused to believe Christ was His Savior, he was to be thrown by the actors portraying demons into what we constructed and called the gates of Hell… but not before putting up an act of being totally terrified upon seeing the ‘lead demon’, and shouting out without fail, and to the amusement of the audience – ‘That looks like my mother-in-law!’
When we take a look at the aforementioned Scripture, we find out that no matter who the in-law is; that is, mother, or father – they both have quite the reputation, don’t they? And in the case of our protagonist, the good shepherd turned warrior David, it was his father-in-law, then King Saul, who had an axe to grind with him.
It all started when the prophet Samuel rebuked King Saul for taking matters into his own hands, sacrificing when he couldn’t wait for things to happen. But I suppose anyone would be pretty shocked by the rebuke Samuel gave; because of one, then two acts of disobedience, he told the king that he would essentially lose his throne. That goes to show that back then, even the king wasn’t exempt from obeying the Lord precisely, down to the very last detail. And the kings had greater responsibilities, so this tells me that the consequences they endure would be greater as well.
Anyway, Saul would apparently carry all that fear and regret, because when he saw what David had done, and when the multitudes were openly praising David over Saul after killing Goliath (“Saul has killed his thousands, but David his ten thousands!”), all the negativity that he apparently held in drove him to madness – much so that he didn’t have an axe to grind, but he also had a spear to throw; and what a throw that was, that it seemed the spear stuck to the wall!
I could imagine Saul was thinking, ‘well, it’s pretty much out in the open already’, so after that spear throw incident he spent no time in openly sending ‘messengers’ to the house of David at night, to kill him in the morning. Fortunately, as you heard, Michal, David’s wife, was on his side. She warned him and covered for him as he escaped.
But clear and present danger notwithstanding, it seems as if David had the luxury of time – enough time, rather, for Psalm 59 to be written and composed during these moments… and we see, this shepherd turned warrior doesn’t beat around the bush:
Deliver me from my enemies, O my God; protect me from those who rise up against me; deliver me from those who work evil, and save me from bloodthirsty men.
For behold, they lie in wait for my life; fierce men stir up strife against me.
For no transgression or sin of mine, O LORD, for no fault of mine, they run and make ready.
Awake, come to meet me, and see! You, LORD God of hosts, are God of Israel.
Rouse yourself to punish all the nations; spare none of those who treacherously plot evil. Selah
Let’s stop at the Selah. Here we see a pattern – being so bothered by what was going on, and how his life was threatened, he probably knew that God knew what was going on, but he goes ahead and says all of it anyway to get it off his chest. I suppose it’s the same thing with us – We aren’t telling God what He already knows, but when we pray this way, we’re looking to get it out of our own chest as well.
But see where he writes, with a sense of urgency. He’s saying, God, wake up! That’s right, You, the LORD God of hosts, the God of Israel! He’s saying that he’s in danger, and he needs God to save him – and he’s telling God that while He’s at it, don’t just save David from those who have set out to kill him specifically, but rise up and ‘rouse yourself’ to punish not just individuals, but ALL the nations they represent! He’s calling on the Lord to rise up against all ‘who treacherously plot evil’.
Friends, this tells me two things, about how we ought to be when we seek the Lord ourselves – In our intention, it seems we can let it ALL out; (1) we tell God what we think from our limited point of view, and (2) we call on Him not only to save us on our level, but to simply rise up to address ALL evil. In Tagalog, ‘damay-damay na‘ – might as well pray on a larger scale!
Each evening they come back, howling like dogs and prowling about the city.
There they are, bellowing with their mouths with swords in their lips— for “Who,” they think, “will hear us?”
But you, O LORD, laugh at them; you hold all the nations in derision.
O my Strength, I will watch for you, for you, O God, are my fortress.
Okay, this isn’t a Selah… But I feel we need to stop here. See, I feel we haven’t really talked about how David was so detailed as to his thoughts regarding the enemy; And we also have an idea of just how vile those who would openly proclaim themselves to be our enemies would be. From the top, we see that they ‘rise up against (us)’, and ‘they lie in wait for (our) lives’; Two things here – (1) they ‘rise up’, or are as intentional as we are, only what they seek as ‘bloodthirsty’ (brutal) men ‘who work evil’ – they move intentionally for our lives. That’s right, (2) they don’t just want our happiness, nor do they just want our possessions – they want our lives. And actually, a third thing – they’re pretty open about how they hate us and how they want, howling like dogs, speaking harshly with their mouths.
My God in his steadfast love will meet me; God will let me look in triumph on my enemies.
Kill them not, lest my people forget; make them totter by your power and bring them down, O Lord, our shield!
For the sin of their mouths, the words of their lips, let them be trapped in their pride.
For the cursing and lies that they utter, consume them in wrath; consume them till they are no more, that they may know that God rules over Jacob to the ends of the earth. Selah
Each evening they come back, howling like dogs and prowling about the city.
They wander about for food and growl if they do not get their fill.
At this point I’m thinking that I should probably renew my approach to this one, and read the entire thing. Here’s what comes into mind.
First, we can see here that David sought the Lord during a time of distress, or a time when he probably should be doing more running than writing. This tells me that we could do the same thing – we can seek the Lord at a time when we have no time.
Second, David was pretty raw with the Lord – it may be that he knew he didn’t have much time, so he didn’t beat around the bush and told God exactly what he thought about these people who were lying in wait to kill him in the morning. He called them bloodthirsty men who work evil, fierce men who not only stir up strife against him, but also, as dogs they howl in arrogance (“who will hear us?”) and growl in hunger and frustration.
In times when we find ourselves out of time, or out of options, let us never forget that we will always have the option of seeking the Lord. We have a God who has guaranteed that the smallest groan reaches the throne.
We talked about seeking the Lord, and learning. We talked about seeking the Lord, and praising. I suppose that this day when I share this message is another example of how we seek the Lord – even in the most disadvantageous of moments – and we will STILL end up praising him… just like David did:
But I will sing of your strength; I will sing aloud of your steadfast love in the morning.
For you have been to me a fortress and a refuge in the day of my distress.
O my Strength, I will sing praises to you, for you, O God, are my fortress, the God who shows me steadfast love.
Psalm 59
Imagine, that we could seek the Lord and be intentional, even in such human things as complaining – but somehow the Spirit leads us, just as He would lead David, back to praising. So if you find yourself praying from the advice of a friend, and you feel bad about that friend telling you to do something that wasted your time because you didn’t ‘feel’ better, well, that’s probably a sign… for you to seek the Lord even more. You can’t say that you’ve sought the Lord without being satisfied.
Seek the Lord, and learn.
Seek the Lord, and praise.
Seek the Lord, and be saved.
I could end here, but I think this needs a follow up. A conclusion to truly wrap everything up.
Until the next post, God bless you.
“No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.”
John 3:13-17
For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Romans 5:6-10
The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. John 10:10
JB's Personal Brain Defragmenter 
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