David and Saul

(We are currently in a series on the life of David at Chelsea Village. As I’ve written before I attempt to write a full manuscript of my sermon before preaching. Throughout this series I’ll be posting some of the sermons I think will be helpful. If you would rather listen to the sermon, you can find it here.)

All of the good music I have discovered in the last few years I found because of a couple of friends who point me to good new artists. These friends have been talking for the last couple of weeks about Ryan Adams’ new album which covers all of the songs from Taylor Swift’s 1989. Adams’ sound has been described as “alternative country” and sounds nothing like Taylor Swift’s new direction. His covers of her songs are soulful and haunting. You can tell he spent a lot of time with texts in working to reimagine them. James K.A. Smith, a philosophy professor at Calvin College, made a great point about Swift’s music, Adams’ covers, and the way we talk about life and worship in this post.

“Not until you hear Adams’ mournful rendition, in the gravelly timbre of his voice, does the truth of 1989 disclose itself.  It’s like, up to now, the melodic tenor and sonic grammar of Tswift’s album was lying about what it said. The sound isn’t true. There is a kind of disclosure and revelation and truth that is viscerally carried in the sonic environment of the album, and it took the heartbroken musical genius of Ryan Adams to unveil this–to point out the cognitive (and pre-cognitive!) dissonance at work in Taylor Swift’s original.  Adams’ cover tells the truth about the music, and thus tells the truth about a sad, broken world by redeploying Swift’s lyrical honesty in a sonic environment that fits.

What does this have to do with worship?  We live, you might say, in a major chord culture.  We live in a society that wants even its heartbreaking lyrics delivered in pop medleys that keep us upbeat, tunes we can dance to. We live for the “hook,” that turn that makes it all OK, that lets us shake it off and distract ourselves to death.  And this cultural penchant for a certain sonic grammar seeps into the church and the church’s worship, so that we want songs and hymns and spiritual songs that do the same.  But as a result we often create a (pre)cognitive dissonance between the Bible’s honesty, carried in our hymns and psalms, and our pop retunings.  Or we embed them in a sonic liturgical environment that endeavors to be, above all, “upbeat” and positive–a weekly pick-up encouraging you to just “shake it off.”

But then a Ryan Adams comes along and takes you back to lament, and reminds you of all the minor chord moments of the biblical narrative, and invites you into a sonic environment that actually tells the truth about the broken world you live in, and that your neighbors live in, and that refugees from Syria live in.  Worship should be a proclamation that tells the truth, not just lyrically, but sonically.  And that means music that resonates with broken hearts.  Even though the Gospel exhorts us to “lift up our hearts,” sometimes that only happens because God in Christ comes down to meet us in our brokenheartedness”

I bring up this discussion because this morning we are going to talk about lament. We live in a beautiful world, but this world has been broken by sin and sadness has invaded this world. Too often though we don’t know how to handle this. Either we try to pretend life isn’t as sad as it really is or we freak out because we think things shouldn’t be this way. So this morning we want to ask, where do we turn when we are overwhelmed by the difficulties and sadness of life?

We’re going to see this today from Psalm 57. David wrote this Psalm at a tremendously difficult time in his life. We are going to use this Psalm to tell a bit of the story of David’s life, but first we need to read this together.

To the choirmaster: according to Do Not Destroy. A Miktam of David, when he fled from Saul, in the cave.

Be merciful to me, O God, be merciful to me,
for in you my soul takes refuge;
in the shadow of your wings I will take refuge,
till the storms of destruction pass by.
I cry out to God Most High,
to God who fulfills his purpose for me.
He will send from heaven and save me;
he will put to shame him who tramples on me. Selah
God will send out his steadfast love and his faithfulness!

My soul is in the midst of lions;
I lie down amid fiery beasts—
the children of man, whose teeth are spears and arrows,
whose tongues are sharp swords.

Be exalted, O God, above the heavens!
Let your glory be over all the earth!

They set a net for my steps;
my soul was bowed down.
They dug a pit in my way,
but they have fallen into it themselves. Selah
My heart is steadfast, O God,
my heart is steadfast!
I will sing and make melody!
Awake, my glory!
Awake, O harp and lyre!
I will awake the dawn!
I will give thanks to you, O Lord, among the peoples;
I will sing praises to you among the nations.
For your steadfast love is great to the heavens,
your faithfulness to the clouds.

Be exalted, O God, above the heavens!
Let your glory be over all the earth!

Psalm 57

Acknowledge the Reality of our Situation

So we need to talk about what is going on right now in David’s life that bring us to this Psalm. Did you notice how he described his situation? “My soul is in the midst of fiery beasts- the children of man, whose teeth are spears and arrows, whose tongues are sharp swords.” “They set a net for my steps.” “They dug a pit in my way.” You add to this the introduction to the Psalm. David writes from a cave where he is hiding from Saul. In 1 Samuel 17 David killed Goliath to deliver the Israelite army from sure defeat and death. David seems to be a hero to Saul until Saul comes back from battle and hears people singing, “Saul has slain his thousands and David his tens of thousands.” At this point Saul realizes the people hold David in greater esteem than him and from that day forward he “had his eye on David.” Saul made several attempts to kill David but they were thwarted both by his daughter Michal who married David and by his son Jonathan who considered David his closest friend. David fled from Saul and lived for a time in Nob and then in Gath. In Gath they had heard the song about David killing his tens of thousands, so David pretended to lose his mind so they would not harm him. They sent him away and he came to live in this cave.

Living in a cave had horrid symbolic significance for the people of this day because they often buried people in caves. This would be the modern equivalent of having to hide in a cemetery. David has the king after him, and now he finds himself hiding in a cave wondering when the hammer is going to fall. So we need to see this situation and see how David embraces the reality of his situation.

I think one of the things we learn from this Psalm immediately is the danger of denying what is actually happening in our circumstances. Too often we try to gloss over where we actually are or exaggerate the difficulties we face. Here David knows what is happening. People want to kill him and he is being trampled on. In the same way you need to be honest about where you are. Nothing good comes from pretending. We are a people who like to pretend and who like to hide. We want people to think well of us so we try to put on a good front. Nothing good comes from this because you cannot seek help when you are not willing to admit you need help.

At the same time, we must be aware of who God is for us in our pain through Christ. We will talk about what it looks like to turn to the Lord in a minute, but I think we should remind ourselves of who God is in this passage. David speaks of crying out to God most high and God sending from heaven to save him. Now think about this for a second, when you are facing adversity at the hands of other people, why would you need to remember God is the “Most High?” Don’t we need to remember God is sovereign over all when we are in pain? Don’t we need to remember that he has not taken the day off and has not lost the ultimate battle? God is the most high God, so we remember who he is and entrust ourselves to him.

Also we do need to acknowledge the reality of life’s difficulties. Unfortunately we have lived in a time when many of us have not faced the sufferings of time’s past. Take my grandfather’s generation for example. He was born in 1921 in rural south Alabama, so the Great Depression hit when he was almost eight. He endured the difficulty depression then fought in World War 2 in the south Pacific. I never heard him tell one story about the war. After watching some documentaries about what our men went through in that area I’m afraid I know why. Millions in his generation faced the same circumstances. They grew up with difficulties so they did not get surprised when things were hard. Then you turn to us. (I don’t say this to mock us.) We grew up in a culture of relative affluence. We enjoyed childhoods where we played sports or video games. Many of the amenities they did not enjoy until later in life we think we should have immediately upon our entry to adulthood. The result has been that we tend to scoff at the least bit of pain and difficulty in life. We have a fine line to walk in life. We want to not be surprised when things are hard while not becoming cynical about our lives. This happens when we see the world as being created by God, marred by sin, and being redeemed because of the work of Jesus.

One of the other things which does strike me about David’s situation is the fact that he is in this position because of another person. When I mention difficulties I think we think cancer, jobs, or money; but aren’t some of the most painful things we go through in this life at the hands of other people. Other people have the potential to rip our hearts out. We must learn to see the same thing from people that we do from circumstances.. Don’t expect perfection or the worst from them. Every person has been made in the image of God and has fallen into sin. If they are a Christian they have been redeemed and by God’s grace will be growing. People are going to hurt you. Know it is going to happen without becoming cynical. Don’t expect the worst from people but also don’t be surprised by it.

Cry out to God for His Grace

So now let’s see what David did in the midst of this. First notice he turns to prayer. Unfortunately for us our last instinct is to pray. Since everything in our lives comes by God’s providential hand, our first turn should be to him. He invites us to pray, so why on earth would we not. Think about some of the biblical admonitions to pray. “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication let your requests be made known to God. “Cast all your anxieties on him for he cares for you.” I realize this is not specifically a call to pray, but there is application. “Come to me all you who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest.”

The calls to pray blow my mind because we don’t have many people in our lives begging for us to dump all of our junk on them. Almost everything you read these days about personal relationships tells you to dump high maintenance people. Our father does the exact opposite. He invites the high maintenance into his presence to receive his grace. Then in exchange he give us his peace. Why on earth would we continue to carry our sorrows and anxieties on our own when the King of the universe invites us in to get his peace?

Can I take apart a phrase real quick I hear people say a lot and I think we need to stop saying it. “Stop telling God how big your problem is and tell your problem how big your God is.” I hear this a lot, but it is built upon a terrible premise. First for you to stop telling God how big your problem is means you have stopped praying. That’s a terrible idea. Second the “tell your problems how big your God is” phrase is built on the health and wealth Gospel idea that our words have the power to shape our destiny. They teach we are little gods, and I’m sorry some of your favorite people on TV believe this and its awful, therefore like God’s words have creative power your words have creative power. This simply isn’t true. Our words don’t have creative power and we cannot speak to our circumstances. We pray and we don’t speak to our circumstances, but we do need to preach the truth to ourselves. We do need to remember how big our God is so we remember to trust in him while we walk through our problems. So from now on let’s keep telling God how big our problems are and tell ourselves how big God is so that we trust him, have his peace, and continue to bring him glory even though we walk through great pain.

David says several things here I find encouraging and they show us what it looks like to long for God’s grace. First David begs for God’s mercy. The cry here for mercy simply means he wants the Lord to show him kindness and change his circumstances. If his circumstances do not change he will be killed by his enemies. He prays for something else to change.

This reminds us that the Lord is merciful. We like to crow about everything we deserve but if we were left to ourselves the only thing we deserve is judgement. Through his mercy God takes away what we justly deserve and has compassion on us. He looks on us in our place of pain and he meets us there to give us peace and sometimes he works to bring deliverance. Either way, we know he is near to us and whatever happens he is working all things together for our good.

Another important thing we see here is that David takes refuge in God and says he takes refuge in the shadow of his wings. The picture here is a bird gathering its chicks under its wings for protection. The way he phrases this should conjure up for us images of affectionate, loving care.

From this we need to remember that God loves his people. Are you convinced of this? I think we often give lip service to the love of God but fail to really believe it. As God’s people we need to know and be convinced of his love for us. We could turn to so many passages for this, but one of the more important ones is Romans 5:8. “But God demonstrates his own love towards us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us.” This reminds us the love of God depends on something within God and not necessarily something within us. We know his love is real and we can believe it because Jesus came and gave his life for us.

This is what helps you find refuge in God through your pain. If you are convinced of his love for you, you will run to him in every difficulty. If you are not convinced you will not be quick to run to him. So today I want to encourage you to spend time reflected on the love of God. How does it change your future to know God loves you? How does it change the way you approach your troubles when you know he is for you? Why should you continue to bear your troubles on your own when the King of the universe is also your father who bids you to come and find refuge in him?

The truth that God is our Father gives us tremendous help in the midst of pain and difficulty. I used to hear people say God would not put more on us than we could bear, but this is not true. The Bible says he won’t allow us to be tempted without a way of escape, but he never promises we won’t be given more than we could bear. In fact he often gives us more than we can bear doesn’t he. Doesn’t he many times give us more than we can bear so we can be reminded we can’t live life without him? Aren’t our circumstances sometimes so overwhelming we don’t have anything to do but look up? He often sends us enough of a load to remember our great need for him and to help us grow, but he does so without crushing us.

Many people believe the presence of suffering in this life is one Christianity’s greatest challenges. This would be true if God were absent from our sufferings. If suffering had no meaning and God exempted himself from it I would completely agree. This is not what has happened though is it. God himself entered into the suffering of this world in the person of his Son. His Son underwent every kind of suffering imaginable culminating in the suffering of the cross. He died in our place that we might live. If the greatest injustice in the history of the world works all things together for our good then we can be convinced God uses our sufferings as well.

Seek to Glorify God through our Pain

Because of this we can glorify God through our pain. Notice there are two times in the Psalm where David says, “Be exalted, O God, above the heavens! Let your glory be over all the earth!” Hiding in a cave David says he will glorify God and prays for the glory of God to be displayed over all the earth.

We especially see this through desire through what happens in the chapters around this cave episode with David. After the priests at Nob help him and he eventually flees to the cave, Saul goes to Nob and Doeg the Edomite tells him what the priests there did for him. Saul has Doeg kill all eighty-five priests in Nob and puts the whole city to the sword. Only one person escapes to David to tell him what happened. Up to six hundred people have now come out to help David and he begins to take refuge in Engedi. Saul pursues him and two times David has the opportunity to kill Saul but says he refuses to “touch the Lord’s anointed.” Samuel anointed David to be the King but Saul is still King and David refuses to kill Saul so his problem would go away and he would be King. David refuses to sin to make his life better or easier.

In this David honors and brings glory to the Lord with his life. David shows through his actions that he trusts God for deliverance and will not do anything to short circuit God’s providence or take matters in his own hands. I think we often wrestle with the tension between God doing something and us doing something. How do I know when to do something and when to wait on God’s timing? If you have to sin to do something it is not God’s timing. If you do not feel right about doing something it is not God’s timing. If you have peace about something, it is not a sin, and you want to do it; go for it. We never know the timing is right for something until we do it, but we know the timing is wrong if us sinning or violating our conscience is involved.

David remembers the pit dug for him but knows the people who set the trap for him will ultimately fall in it. He remembers the Lord will ultimately deliver him because he has promised to do so and so he waits patiently for it to happen. The cave is only a temporary setback in the victory the Lord is going to give him.

Then look at what David begins to say after he remembers the victory of the Lord. He says his heart is steadfast in following the Lord. Then he begins to call himself to praise God. He will sing and make melody. Then he calls himself to wake up and give glory to God. He will give thanks to God among the peoples. In other words he will praise and give thanks to the Lord while he lives in exile among people who do not know God. And he does this because God’s steadfast love extends all over the earth.

The thing that strikes me about this is David does not begin got praise God after the deliverance is effected. No! He knows the Lord will bring about ultimate deliverance and so he praises him and gives him thanks in the interim. We do not praise God only in good times! We give God glory, praise, and thanksgiving even when life is at its hardest because we know he is with us and we know he is working all things together for our good. We know he will ultimately deliver us and so we praise him even as we walk in pain.

David’s sojourn in the cave remind us of another anointed King who went into a cave. Jesus gave his life for us and they buried him in a borrowed tomb, but on the third day he rose triumphantly from the grave. For those of us in Christ, we know we will rise from the grave too because Jesus conquered sin and death for us. We know our ultimate deliverance is real and we look forward to it with great expectation. We have the promise of eternal glory and eternal life, so this gives us the resources we need to praise him and bring him glory while we wait for our deliverance. He never promised everything would be rosy here but he has promised to be with us until he brings us into his kingdom. Every person who trusts in Christ will reign with Christ forever! How can we not praise him here even when things are at their most difficult? It hurts now and things are hard, but we walk in confident faith knowing he is with us and will bring our ultimate deliverance.

Let’s go back to the beginning. We sing songs in a minor key because life is sad and we need to stop pretending that it’s not. But, we get to turn from minor key to major key because Jesus died and rose again because now everything sad will come true. Jesus has not and will not abandon his people, but is preparing us for our future glory. We know he is working all things together for our good. We know we can trust him looking forward to our ultimate deliverance; and we know we can live for his glory now while we wait for his ultimate salvation. Because these things are true we can say “Be exalted, O God, above the heavens! Let your glory be over all the earth!”

Related Posts:
“David and Jonathan”
“David and Goliath”

For Further Reading:
1 Samuel: Looking on the Heart by Dale Ralph Davis
When the Darkness Will Not Lift by John Piper