God and Man

God pours out his grace equally on all people, and it is the weakness or the strength of the human will, failing or managing to hold on to that grace, that determines whether we stand on the side of good or of evil. The difference between the resolve to live by God’s word and the failure to keep that resolve is what divides the way of good from the way of evil. Of course, because of our evil nature we sometimes fall, but we who belong to God must strive to live good lives. If you have resolved to live a life of faith, it is wise to pray that God’s grace may fill you all the more.

Although it was through David that the nation had been saved, Saul resolved to kill him over a single word of praise from the women. He knew that his daughter Michal loved David, yet he kept trying to kill him; and when David again won distinction in battle, bringing back two hundred Philistine foreskins, Saul ordered all his servants to make sure David was killed. We must always be on our guard, because when people cannot master their emotions, they end up going so far as to take a precious life. Saul forgot that there was a God who had made him king, and he would have no one stand above him.

When his father Saul gave the order to kill David, Jonathan told David to hide in a secret place. Looking at Saul, whose moods swung wildly, and at Jonathan, who never wavered, you will be able to discern which kind of person sins against God. Violent swings of emotion lead to fits of temper, which is why we always need training to see the world through God’s eyes. Calm people like Jonathan weigh the whole situation before they act, so they are slow to sin. Jonathan urged his father not to commit the sin of murder. He pleaded that David must not be killed, since David had spent his very life so that Yahweh might work a great deliverance for Israel. He pleaded this because killing David would be the road to becoming God’s enemy.

Deuteronomy 19:10

10This is so that innocent blood will not be shed in the middle of your land which Yahweh your God gives you for an inheritance, leaving blood guilt on you.

Jonathan told Saul not to shed innocent blood because he knew that if his father killed David, God would not forgive him. Jonathan knew that God does not pardon those who slander or murder the innocent, and that he will surely call them to account for that sin. When your temper flares as you face a problem, you too must weigh carefully whether it comes from a heart that cannot control its emotions or from a desire to rebuke the other person’s wickedness. And however unjust the problem you face, if you commit even your hurt to God, he will fight on your behalf to guard that good heart.

Moved by Jonathan’s earnest words, Saul swore by the name of Yahweh and promised that he would never kill David. Saul realized how great a wrong he was doing to God and to David, and he truly repented. But a human promise that comes from a heart not wholly transformed is like the stench of decay rising from a tomb. Just as no amount of whitewash on a tomb can change what lies inside, so the promises of those who have not been born again through the word will in the end go bad.

In verse 10 Saul again tried to kill David with his spear, but David slipped aside, the spear stuck in the wall, and David fled. Saul, who had even sworn in the name of God, could not in the end master his temper.

Do you, perhaps, also swear in God’s name every time you face trouble? Have you sworn by the name of God that you would never sin again, only to break your word with ease? We excuse ourselves by saying the flesh is weak and we could not help it, but God will surely call us to account for our sin. As we go through life, we make countless promises, not only to people but to God, and think nothing of failing to keep them. We behave this way because we do not care how fearful a sin this is before God.

People also always measure their happiness by someone other than themselves. They take another person’s success as their own misfortune, and so the thankfulness, joy, and happiness they have enjoyed until now collapse in an instant. In extreme cases they make that person, who has nothing to do with them, a target of attack and cannot contain their hatred. A twisted heart keeps them from rejoicing in another’s success, while an obsession with success and a sense of victimhood afflict them. I hope that whenever a brother or sister in the faith beside you has cause for celebration, you will celebrate with them to your heart’s content, and whenever they need comfort, you will comfort them with all sincerity. God will protect those who have such a spirit.

Saul hurled his spear because he wanted David dead. To be sure, David dodged it and was not struck, but the act was murder all the same. Among the Ten Commandments God gave, the sixth tells us not to murder. Taking a person’s life is murder, but so is a heart like Saul’s, set on killing. Whether or not David survived, in God’s eyes Saul had already committed murder.

In Matthew 5:28 the Lord said that everyone who gazes at a woman to lust after her has committed adultery with her already in his heart. His words, that harboring lust in the heart is already adultery whatever one may or may not do, show us that God’s law stands above human law.

God tells us to throw hatred out from the very beginning, because hatred in your heart can grow until you commit the sin of murder. The heart born again through Jesus is what he called the new wineskin, and he told us to fill it with new wine, the word of truth. When the new wine fills it to the brim, there is no room for worldly thoughts to squeeze in, and that heart becomes an instrument of God. Even a king with earthly power like Saul will in the end come under God’s judgment if he does not live by God’s will. Unable to use him as his instrument, God has no choice but to cast him away.

Psalm 59 records David’s earnest prayer to God in a moment of great danger, when he had escaped Saul’s spear and was at home with Michal, and Saul sent men to kill him. It was then that his wife Michal let a rope down from the window and helped him escape. As events closed in on him, David did not depend on people; he prayed, longing earnestly for God’s grace.

Psalms 59:1-2

1Deliver me from my enemies, my God. Set me on high from those who rise up against me. 2Deliver me from the workers of iniquity. Save me from the bloodthirsty men.

David knew that God alone could protect him. Seeing no way out wherever he looked, he prayed earnestly that God would show no mercy to his enemies.

Psalms 59:4

4I have done no wrong, yet they are ready to attack me. Rise up, behold, and help me!

David called himself innocent, without fault. When we see him tell God boldly that he has done no wrong, we can tell what kind of life he had lived until then. Because God knew how hard David had striven to live by his will, David could pray that God would not pardon his enemies but would deliver him. That is why it matters to live a life of faith at all times. David, who prayed earnestly to God, received mercy. In the same way, all the troubles of life crash down on us suddenly like a great wave, but those who have received mercy are always rescued by the mighty hand of God.

Psalms 59:16

16But I will sing of your strength. Yes, I will sing aloud of your loving kindness in the morning. For you have been my high tower, a refuge in the day of my distress.

This confession is the faith of David. In reality he was surrounded by the king’s men who sought his life, but he believed he would be rescued by God’s grace, and so he said that in the morning he would sing to the Lord and praise the strength of God. He was convinced that God would surely be his high tower and his refuge, and because of that he could offer a prayer of thanks even as he faced a situation with no way of escape.

With Michal’s help David slipped out of the house and went to Samuel. Samuel was at Naioth in Ramah, a kind of dormitory where he lived with the company of the prophets. Learning that David had gone to Samuel, Saul sent messengers to Naioth. The young prophets there prayed with Samuel and searched the word, which is why they were always spiritually full. When the messengers Saul sent arrived at Naioth, a miracle took place: just as the young prophets were filled, Saul’s men also prophesied along with them. When Saul heard of it, he sent other messengers, but they too prophesied, and the third group he sent likewise prophesied and failed to bring David back. Furious, Saul came to Naioth in Ramah himself, but he too became one of those prophesying before Samuel. He even stripped off his clothes and prophesied, naked, all day long.

What does Scripture mean to tell us when it says that the messengers Saul sent, and even Saul himself, could not say a single word to David but only prophesied? It shows that when the power of God came over them, the wicked could do nothing to the good. That Saul sits on the throne is, after all, also the grace of God. Here we discover a very important truth of God’s providence: when God permits it, anyone, evil or good, can sing praise to God, pray, and prophesy. Saul and his men prophesied clothed in the grace of God. Had they grasped that marvelous providence of heaven and striven to live by God’s will, God would have worked in them with still greater grace, and David would have become their co-worker.

When the grace of God came upon him, Saul took off his royal robes of his own accord, prophesied the will of God, and laid down his hatred of David. Clothed in God’s grace, we can let go of our worldly greed without even realizing it; but those who do not receive grace and cannot let go of worldly greed cannot cast off their murderous intent, and it carries them into death. What are you wearing now? Look closely at whether it is the mercy you have been clothed with by God’s grace or greed for the world. If it is mercy, I hope you will ask for more of it; if it is greed, that you will take it off yourself.

Earthly king though he was, Saul could do no evil in the presence of Samuel, who served God, and he could neither speak a curse against David nor lift a hand against him. The power of Samuel, who had received grace from God, held back the evil man’s deeds. Then what do the people you meet do when they are with you? Are they changing, as Saul did when he met Samuel? Or are you changing to become like them, like the people of the world?

God answered David’s prayer in Psalm 59, even to the point of bringing about a situation in which Saul prophesied. Even if God’s overpowering work changed Saul for a while when he came to kill David, that faith would not have been true faith. God gave Saul a passing grace because, as long as Saul was held fast by grace, David was safe. Through this event we can see in how many different ways God works to protect his people. We must know how precious are the grace, the Holy Spirit, faith, eternal life, and salvation that we speak of so easily.

How thankful you can be that your faith is not, like Saul’s, a grace worn for a moment so that David might be saved! To keep this love forever, may you always live by faith, standing where goodness is. I bless you in the name of Jesus Christ.

1 Samuel 20:12-23

12Jonathan said to David, “By Yahweh, the God of Israel, when I have sounded my father about this time tomorrow, or the third day, behold, if there is good toward David, won’t I then send to you, and disclose it to you? 13Yahweh do so to Jonathan, and more also, should it please my father to do you evil, if I don’t disclose it to you, and send you away, that you may go in peace. May Yahweh be with you, as he has been with my father. 14You shall not only while yet I live show me the loving kindness of Yahweh, that I not die; 15but you shall also not cut off your kindness from my house forever; no, not when Yahweh has cut off every one of the enemies of David from the surface of the earth.” 16So Jonathan made a covenant with David’s house, saying, “Yahweh will require it at the hand of David’s enemies.” 17Jonathan caused David to swear again, for the love that he had to him; for he loved him as he loved his own soul. 18Then Jonathan said to him, “Tomorrow is the new moon, and you will be missed, because your seat will be empty. 19When you have stayed three days, go down quickly, and come to the place where you hid yourself when this started, and remain by the stone Ezel. 20I will shoot three arrows on its side, as though I shot at a mark. 21Behold, I will send the boy, saying, ‘Go, find the arrows!’ If I tell the boy, ‘Behold, the arrows are on this side of you. Take them;’ then come; for there is peace to you and no danger, as Yahweh lives. 22But if I say this to the boy, ‘Behold, the arrows are beyond you;’ then go your way; for Yahweh has sent you away. 23Concerning the matter which you and I have spoken of, behold, Yahweh is between you and me forever.”