Sunday School | David - 1 Samuel 19

How we doing? Ready? Settle in. We're gonna take a look at the life of David again. Yeah. Now we can hear you. Now is it louder? Pretty loud? How you doing, Ray? Doing alright. Glad you're here. Nice shoes. Thank you. If you get to use them.

Alright, so you guys, we're looking at the life of David. And if you just are joining us, we've been working our way through 1 Samuel, starting around chapter 15 or 16, and we are on chapter 19 now. So if you have a Bible and you wanna open it up to 1 Samuel 19, you can go there.

We're not really doing a series on Samuel. We're doing a series on David, but 1 and 2 Samuel are the primary source data for the narrative of David's life. But I mentioned to you guys several weeks ago that we have more material about David than any other character in the entire Bible, Jesus being accepted, of course. He kinda wins a lot of the games.

But it's not just the narrative. We also have so much information about David because he wrote half of the Psalms. In terms of the inner life of a person, we get more information about David than anybody, probably even more than we have about others. We don't have 75 poems that Jesus wrote, right? So we have all this information, not just about David, but a lot of information from David.

David's Psalms and Their Historical Context

What I put on your sheet here you should have found these. If there's not enough in your table, I have more, we can get you more. There's about a dozen Psalms—well, okay, so David wrote about 75 Psalms, but about a dozen of them, we know exactly what they were about, and we can correspond them directly to events in his life.

The reason we can do that is that sometimes what we call verse zero in the Psalms, or sometimes it's called the superscript—that first little line—is actually Bible. Generally speaking, throughout your Bible, whenever there's a heading for something, that's made up. That's man-made. It's not part of the original text. Somebody later, after the fact, went through and wrote down, "Okay, this is where Paul's gonna talk about baptism" or "This is where Peter's gonna talk about the Second Coming." They're later editions. They're not Bible.

But verse zero in the Psalms, that superscript, is the real deal. For instance, Psalm 59 says:

For the director of music to the tune of "Do Not Destroy," of David, a Michtam. When Saul had sent men to watch David's house in order to kill him.

That's Bible. That's official. That's a trustworthy record. And so based on those superscripts, those verse zeros, we can go back and say, "Hey, where did this one fit into the narrative?"

I went through and did that for you. These are them. So as you're reading through David's life, whenever we come across a passage that has its own direct psalm, it's right here. You might want to fold this up, put it in your Bible, keep it as a bookmark as you're reading through 1 Samuel. Whenever you come across one—like in chapters 21, 22, 23, and 24, and then in 2 Samuel a whole bunch of places—here's your psalm. That'll give you the inside track on what David was thinking about while these things were happening.

When we do that, it's kind of stereoscopic vision. With your right eye, you're seeing this. With your left eye, you see that, and something pops. We're gonna see that today. At the end of our lesson here, we're gonna start in Samuel, and at the end of it, we're gonna go to Psalm 59. And I think you'll be surprised by what Psalm 59 says—which is to say, what David was actually thinking behind the scenes of what we see him doing in 1 Samuel. Because there's actually—they're not exactly the same, and it's kind of an interesting juxtaposition to those two things.

Approach for Today's Study

So just hang on to that. You'll see that as we go through. What we're gonna generally do is walk through 1 Samuel chapter 19 and just try to make sense of what is going on, just as we've been doing.

As we always do it, we're gonna be trying to read through and learn how to read narrative. We're learning how to read Christocentrically. We're trying to understand David's life. And so we're gonna watch for echoes to other parts in David's story—what do things correspond to? Maybe we're gonna listen for echoes in other parts of God's total redemptive story. We're just trying to learn: What did the author mean when he wrote this? Why did he include this story, this detail? What's going on?

And hopefully, as we get through this week after week, this is gonna get old news for you. You'd be like, I know how to do this. This is easy. And you can start teaching the class. I'll take a couple days off, and you guys can get up there and just do it for me. Okay?

So let's start with the first chunk, first five verses, to kind of set the stage. This is 1 Samuel 19, and I'll start with verse one. You just listen in for echoes, listen to see what makes sense.

Saul told his son Jonathan and all the attendants to kill David. — 1 Samuel 19:1

That's interesting. What do you guys know about Jonathan's relationship with David?

He loves him.

And he says, go kill your best friend. So that's what happens. But Jonathan was very fond of David and warned him:

My father Saul is looking for a chance to kill you. Be on your guard tomorrow morning, go into hiding and stay there, and I will go out and stand with my father in the field where you are, and I'll speak to him about you and will tell you what I find out. — 1 Samuel 19:2-3

Jonathan spoke well of David to Saul, his father, and said to him, "Let not the king do wrong to his servant David. He's not wronged you, and what he's done has benefited you greatly. He took his life in his hands when he killed the Philistine, and the Lord won a great victory for all Israel, and you saw it and were glad. Why then would you do wrong to an innocent man like David by killing him for no reason?" — 1 Samuel 19:4-5

Let's start there. So what's the answer to the question—why would Saul kill him? Dad, what's going on?

Jealousy.

For sure. And what was the provocation of jealousy in the last chapter?

People were singing "Saul's killed 1,000, but David's killed 10,000."

That's right. The king is really pretty simple. Saul likes being the primary guy. And David, though everything he does is to the benefit of Saul, he's eclipsing Saul in the fight for glory, and he does not like that at all. Very much so—jealousy is a massive motivator.

John?

There is also Samuel's prophecy to Saul.

That is an excellent observation. So Saul has been told, you know what, you blew it, and we're going to take away the kingdom from you. And so he's a little bit on alert. He's ready for some usurper who's gonna come in and take it away. And in fact, evoking this idea of the kingdom will be taken away from you—some of that imagery is gonna show up again in this chapter, so I'm glad that you're kind of loading that into our minds. So there's jealousy in general for glory, and there's an actual threat to the throne. Very good. Anything else you guys would add why he's like this?

I think those are the primary things going on here. Will you add anything else?

No, we're content.

Okay. So Saul has this growing effort to eliminate David. What have we already seen him do in an effort to get rid of David?

Threw a spear at him, twice, right?

Anything else?

Sends to the front lines.

Sends to the front lines, right, which we said is reminiscent of—or not reminiscent, but is anticipatory of—what? What David does to Uriah, right? So we see that thing and it's like such a crummy thing that David gets sent to the front lines so he'll get killed, and then later on, many years later, he's gonna send somebody to the front lines, which is just such a crummy thing. We're just keeping that in our mind as we're building this story. Anything else he does?

Stakes out his house.

Yes, and that's what's gonna happen in this chapter. There's gonna be the stakeout, and that's gonna really get under David's skin as we see it unfolds. So Saul has this growing effort. You're gonna see increasing intensity, and it's not going anywhere. It didn't end in chapter 18. It's not gonna end in chapter 19. It's gonna be the ongoing reality of David's life.

Do you remember how long we said this is? How long is the time from when David's told he's gonna be king until he actually is king?

Fifteen years.

Fifteen years, Terri, yeah. From the time that David is told, "Hey, you're gonna be king," until he actually is king is fifteen years. And pretty much that entire time, he is a hunted man. He's being chased around the kingdom by Saul. We're just kind of at the front end of it. And it's just super—can you imagine how exhausting that would be? For fifteen years, what year was it fifteen years ago? It's like 2006? Since 2006, somebody's been chasing you, hunting you, trying to get you. It's just got to grow pretty wearisome.

So Saul has this growing effort. How did he used to feel about David? Do you remember?

Loved him.

Why did he love him? There was a time when there was great fondness. Go back to chapter 16. The relationship began well. Whenever Saul would be all freaked out, David would come in and play music for him and calm him down. He liked him for that. What was David's grand debut on the stage?

Killing Goliath.

He liked that too.

David was a good guy once, but now it's all kind of just corrupting for Saul. He doesn't like him. And so he keeps trying bigger and bigger and bigger things. Have you noticed this in your own life? Have you noticed that the angrier you get and the more sinful you get, the more stupid you get? Has this happened to you? Or is it only Ray that this happens to?

So what do you think of Saul's plan to ask Jonathan to kill David? Was there ever a moment that was a reasonable suggestion? Is there any reason he would think that Jonathan's gonna be like, "Sure, dad. You got it"? I think it's included there to give us a little bit of insight that Saul's losing it. This is the nature of sin. You just get stupider and stupider and stupider. He's like, "I got an idea. Jonathan's really close to David. He'll have opportunity." I mean, yes, but there's no way that was ever gonna happen, and yet he thought it would. So you see in Saul, he's losing it, it's gonna fall apart, and it's gonna get worse for him too. As we watch Saul, his life is gonna unravel over these many chapters to come.

It sounds absurd that he would ask that. That's absolutely true. So Jonathan is David's best friend, and therefore there's no way he's going to kill David. But hang on a second, because if Jonathan were a normal guy, he would want to be king when his father was gone. And he would recognize Saul's throne is not the only thing that's being threatened here, it's Jonathan's throne. And so it would make sense from a particular lens—from the way that Saul is viewing things, simply through power and not through love—his command probably seemed very reasonable to him. Again, that's through the lens of power, it makes sense.

And the author wants us to take a bigger view of the story: that power is not the only thing in the world. It may not even be the most important thing in the world, which to Saul would sound pretty stupid.

God's Purposes Will Be Fulfilled

David will be king. As we watch this thing play out, there's gonna be some moments where David, by all reasonable expectations, would die. But he doesn't. God is gonna save his life in these really dramatic last-second ways, and so to a certain extent, David is untouchable, he's invincible, because God's purposes will be carried out. And as we watch it in real time, man, it sure doesn't look invincible. It looks like he's about to go down, and then holy moly, he's gonna slip the noose again and again.

This is kinda like Cain and Abel too—the jealousy. There was some kind of jealousy going on there. And also with Jacob deceiving, then getting deceived the same way. David was sent to the front, well then he got sent there. You see echoes everywhere. The Cain and Abel jealousy, that's another great tag. There's all kinds of places where there's echoes everywhere.

Saul's Pattern of Foolish Commands

Where else has Saul issued a stupid command? Where has Jonathan been under Saul's foolish leadership? There's the honey story. They're going into battle, and Jonathan and his armor bearer are separated. They go off and they have a calf and they get weak, and Jonathan takes some honey and eats it. But Saul had put all the men under a ban that they were not to eat or drink, and so anyone who did could be killed.

The saying goes that an army advances on its stomach. What that means is that the only way you can win a war is if you're feeding your troops. And so Saul starves his troops going into battle. Anybody that eats, you're gonna kill. And then Jonathan's in here, he eats the honey, so he's supposed to die. So Jonathan is just used to his dad being stupid.

Are you afraid that your children are used to you being stupid? I'm afraid that they are. Of course they are. Jonathan is used to his dad being an idiot, but this is kind of a new low for him.

So we see David is profoundly humble, profoundly trusting, and we'll see it here in the Michal part about the cap'n in the story—is that he just trusts the Lord. He waits on the Lord and doesn't feel like he's gotta bow up or flex on it, which is weird. Although there's more going on beneath the surface when we get to Psalm 59.

The touch that is on David, the way the Spirit of God is alive on David, that's what scares Saul to death. Because Saul has this growing sense of the invincibility or even the inevitability of David, right? And by the way, just because this has been mentioned, I'll put this in again. David is the prototype of the Messiah. He's the archetype of the Messiah. In fact, at this point in the story, maybe he is the Messiah. This is what's happening.

David as the Anointed One

What does the word Messiah mean? It's a Hebrew word that basically sounds like Messiah—we just transliterate it. But it actually means something before it comes to have the title of the Anointed One. What does that mean, anointed one? This person's been specially chosen by God. And so when they would anoint someone, they're gonna put oil on them, right? We could do it with a cross, they would just put oil on them. The anointing David is the anointed one, right? He very much is. He's not Jesus coming. Jesus is gonna be the really anointed one, okay? But before we get there, David is Messiah in the sense that he is the one who has been anointed. There's a bigger capital M Messiah still coming, but the Spirit of God living on David's life is what sets him apart, very much in the same way that when the Son finally comes, he comes fully surrendered to the Spirit.

He is man, there's something special about him, and what is special about him is the Holy Spirit has just anointed him. Also, a thought on anointing is that the anointing is generally for a purpose—a specific purpose. Like when Jesus says of Isaiah 61, He has anointed me to—that's right. And in David's case, anointed to what end? To king. To rule.

The promised deliverer of the Jewish nation—that's prophesied in the Hebrew Bible. That's the meaning. And then there's a second meaning: a leader or savior of a particular group or cause. Those are ultimately the fuller meanings of Messiah, but we're borrowing the word Messiah from the concept of the Anointed One. Just like the word church, church means something, right? Church means this group of Christians, but we just stole the word. The Greek word behind church is Ecclesia, which all it means is gathering. We could have a gathering of anything. We've just kind of stolen the word and made it into a proper name, basically. And so that's all Messiah is. David is the Anointed One, but he points to the Anointed One that is coming.

Saul's Broken Oath

Saul listened to Jonathan, and took this oath, "As surely as the Lord lives, David will not be put to death." So Jonathan called David and told him the whole conversation, and he brought him to Saul, and David was with Saul as before. — 1 Samuel 19:6

Do you think Saul meant it? Well, it is true. I think he meant it for about twenty minutes, right? Have you had this happen in your life? Have you ever meant it for a day? Whatever it is, I'm never going to do that again. I'm not going to eat any more fudge. And you mean it. I think he means it. But he just can't stay there, right? He's not gonna persist. And so David goes and he hangs out with Saul and he comes back in, which is kind of a pretty courageous move on David's part, right? That he's gonna come in. This guy's chucking spears at him. He's gonna come in, he's gonna do it.

But an evil spirit from the Lord came upon Saul as he was sitting in his house with his spear in his hand. And while David was playing the harp, Saul tried to pin him to the wall with his spear. But David eluded him as Saul drove the spear into the wall, and that night David made good his escape. — 1 Samuel 19:9-10

How many times did Saul throw his spear at David last chapter? Twice. How many times in this chapter? Once. Why do you think that is? David wised up. I think that's it. For some reason, he stuck around long enough for two tosses. This time he's like, "Alright, we're done here." Right? And he's gone. I mean, he's just like, "We're done here."

Now, the fact that Saul—think about this—Saul's the most powerful man in Israel. He's inside his own fortress, and he's got a spear. Doesn't that seem strange? Like, there's got to be a royal guard, somebody that's got to do this, but he's ready to go.

And David sees it and David's gone, so he's out. The spear thing isn't going to work anymore because Saul's no longer going to have access to him. So he's got to devise another strategy. Do you remember what his next strategy's going to be? Stake out his house. Stake out the house, right? And he's going to involve somebody else. His one kid, Jonathan, isn't going to be real helpful to him, but there's more, so take a look.

So Saul sent men to David's house to watch it and to kill him in the morning, but Michael, David's wife, warned him, 'If you don't run for your life tonight, tomorrow you'll be killed. So Michael let David down through a window, and he fled and escaped, and then Michael took an idol and laid it on the bed, covering it with a garment and putting some goat's hair at the head. — 1 Samuel 19:11–14

Kinds of things going on here. He's already tried to get Michael to be his ally, remember? Like, he'll marry her, maybe he'll die fighting for her with the whole 100 foreskins thing. So maybe he'll get tangled up because she's really not very godly. See, also, she's got an idol to hide in the bed, right? But once again, just like Jonathan won't be his ally, Michael won't be his ally either. She's gonna help David to escape.

Now, just with that much said, and this much that we've read, there might be lots of bells going off. Where does this tie into your mind to the greater Biblical storyline? There's all kinds of echoes here.

One parallel is Rahab. Michael is functioning in the same role that Rahab did, of letting somebody out the window to keep them safe. And Rahab, though a woman of questionable character, she takes on this heroic role when the spies are coming through the land, and Michael is echoing that. So I think we're meant to see Michael in this, like, oh, she's a good one. She's helpful to him in that sense.

There's also the story of Paul in Damascus. When Paul is let down in an escape, we see that. That's of course not in Samuel's mind here, but this might be in Luke's mind when he's writing that story of this escape.

Women with Idols Saving Their Husbands

And there's another connection: Jacob's wife with idols. Think about women with idols saving their husbands. That's our theme. Who knew that was even a biblical theme? But it's exactly what happens. Jacob is fleeing from Laban—Jacob's a dirtbag, and Laban is his dirtbag. But Jacob meets Laban, and Laban is just as conniving and scandalous as Jacob is. And as they're leaving, his daughter, his own daughter steals one of his household idols, and she's gonna use this and hide this thing as a way to rescue Jacob. He said he was gonna kill whoever had his idol.

Now, does anybody happen to have a footnote on what this idol is called? It's called a terrafim, which might echo like seraphim, terrafim. So let me just read you this from a commentary on this:

The reference here to a terrafim, apparently a large anthropomorphic idol, is the second one in 1 Samuel, which who knew? Didn't notice that until I read this. Ominously, the prophet Samuel previously suggested that Saul's rebellious acts were equitable to—this is chapter 15—the evil of Terafim. Through the present compelling scene, and without the intrusion of a didactic commentary, the writer is suggesting that Michael was as much a spiritual rebel as her father. This observation foreshadows the outcome from Michael's life that is the feminine counterpart to Saul's. Michael's father lost his opportunity to establish a dynasty, and Michael lost her opportunity to establish a family. That's not going to happen until 2 Samuel 6.

And I say that to say there's all these complexities, right? On the one hand, Michael is an echo of Rahab because she's rescuing this guy through the window. But on the other hand, she's doing so through the use of an idol, which is going to actually lead to her downfall because she's faithless to the Lord. When you're reading a story, we have a strong tendency to be like, "Who are the good guys?"

Who are the bad guys? We want black hats and white hats. We want to be really clear. What do you think the author is suggesting here when we're watching all these characters proceed in all these ways about who the good guys are and who the bad guys are? What is supposed to pop for you in this?

That we're all messed up. Okay. This is right. Messed up. Right? So Michael is rescuing, but she's doing it so badly and in such a corrupted way. And yet, God is going use even her twistiness to save the one that he is determined to save. Right? That's exactly right. That's it.

And yet, in the midst of all of that, for now, David is hands clean. David is an exceptional character, until he's not. Right? He is faithful, he's never going to pick up the spear, he's never going to throw it back, he's going to do everything right. Everybody around him is just kind of a mess. Everybody around him is this host of contradictions and promises. As surely as the Lord lives, I won't lay a hand on David till tomorrow. Michael is everything's a mess, except there's this one sterling character who's walking through it all unfazed, and David stands in sharp relief. Make sense?

Alright, let's keep going. So we've got Jacob, we've all this. Who else was saved? One more guy that is saved by the daughter of the king. Can you think of somebody else in the Old Testament prior to this moment who was saved by the daughter of the king?

Moses. Moses, right? King had to reinterpret king for Pharaoh, but how was Moses saved by the daughter of the Pharaoh? Mom puts him in a basket, his pistons go off, and I guess what happens? Eaten by a crocodile or something? I don't even know what the plan of that was, but the Pharaoh's daughter takes him in and rescues him.

Lots of different things, I think, are being invoked in all of this, and by one means or another, God's sovereign purposes are going to prevail. And throughout all of it, all of it, David never raises a hand against Saul. At least not in the actual physical world, but wait for Psalm 59.

David's Escape

One Samuel 19:14 — When Saul sent his men to capture David, Michael said, "He's ill."

Was he ill? No. No. Okay. So then Saul sent the men back to David and told them, Bring him up to me in his bed so that I may kill him.

Okay, this is such a kingly move. What is he doing? The claim is David's too sick to get out of bed. And so the king says, Well, bring me the bed. Right? It is such a thing that, like, when you're sovereign, you're the king, can do whatever you want, you're like, No problem. Bring me the bed. Right? And so they go in to get him, and verse 16:

When the men entered, there was the idol in the bed, and at its head was some goat's hair.

Does that remind you of anything? Goat's hair? Okay, do you see how many little hat tips there are? There's a sense of the goat hair, is this disguised thing? Just whatever. You're just learning to notice, be curious.

Verse 17:

Saul says to Michael, "Why did you deceive me like this and send my enemy away so that he escaped?" And Michael told him, "Well, he said to me, 'Let me go away. Why should I kill you?'"

Did David say that? Michael is a liar. David's not sick, not even in the bed. David didn't threaten to kill her. Her strategy to get through the situation is lie, lie, lie, lie. Just notice this. Not Michael—God is going to use her, but she's a deceptive person, and it's going to go badly for her down the road. But of course Saul is the king, so he says, Just bring me the bed.

And then in verse 18 it says this:

When David had fled and made his escape, he went to Samuel at Ramah and told him all that Saul had done to him. And then he and Samuel went to Naioth and stayed there.

Why do you think David went to Samuel? Probably several reasons, but if you were fleeing, why Samuel? Samuel anointed him as the new king. Because Samuel knows his authenticity, the legitimacy. Samuel anointed him. He was the guy that said, You're the one that's going to be king. So he's likely to find some sympathy from him, right? Or some agreement from him. Great. What else is going down with Samuel? Why don't you just go home? Why didn't he go to Jesse's house? Samuel was a prophet also.

Okay, so Samuel is like the chief man of God in Israel, right? He's a big deal. You got this king, but prior to having a king, the guy that ran the country was Samuel. So Samuel was a big deal. He's the one who anointed him. What else? What else does David have in common with Samuel? They both love the Lord. They both love the Lord, for sure, genuinely. Samuel is a good guy. He actually loves the Lord. He's faithful to him. He sees him. Sometimes he hears his voice wrong, and he'll be like, Hey, here's the one I'm supposed to anoint, and I'm like, No, wrong. Do this instead. But he's a good guy, for sure.

There's something else that's relevant to David's flight here.

Saul hates Samuel too. Saul hates Samuel too, yes.

Saul's History with Samuel

How do we know this? Where did this happen in the story? It did happen before, that's right. Listen to 1 Samuel 16. Samuel was supposed to go anoint David, and he says this:

"But Samuel said, 'How can I go? Saul will hear about it and kill me.' And the Lord said, 'Take a heifer with you and say, I've come to sacrifice to the Lord.'" — 1 Samuel 16:2

There was a moment where Saul may have wanted to kill Samuel. So when David shows up and says, "This guy's trying to kill me, and I hate the way that feels," Samuel was like, "Yeah, I felt that way too." So there's a sympathy there. You like to go to somebody that understands why this is such a nightmare for you, right? And so David heads off to Samuel's.

The Spirit Overwhelming Saul's Men

He goes first and ends up being overwhelmed by the Spirit and prophesied. So let's watch that happen. This is one of the strangest things—very hard to visualize. Check it out, verse 19:

"Now word came to Saul, 'David is here in Naioth and Ramah.' He sent men to capture him. But when they saw a group of prophets prophesying with Samuel standing there as their leader, the Spirit of God came upon Saul's men, and they also prophesied. And Saul was told about it, so he sent some more men, and they prophesied too. So Saul sent men a third time, and they also prophesied." — 1 Samuel 19:19-21

What does this mean? What is happening here? God's trying to save David. He had to give him a chance to come to him. God is going to save David, and so what does he do? These guys show up with clubs and spears, and then what happens? The Spirit of God comes along in some weird way. What does it mean that they are prophesying? They're speaking the truths of God. They're speaking God's spirit, almost apart from their wishes. They come in wanting to cut somebody's head off, and then they drop their sword and they start singing. They're verbalizing these things, and they are all like a bunch of thugs that get sent to attack, and they all drop their clubs and start praising Yahweh. He's sending in another band of them, and they drop their clubs, start praising. Sending a third time, and then finally, you know what Saul's going to do when he's so sick and tired of all these thugs coming in and praising God instead of beating down his enemy? If you want something done right, just do it yourself.

Saul's Own Prophesying

"Finally, he left for Ramah and went to the great cistern of Ezekiel, and he asked, 'Where is Saul and David over at Naioth?' So Saul went there, but the Spirit of God came even upon him, and he walked along prophesying. And he stripped off his robes and also prophesied in Samuel's presence, and he lay that way all day and night. And this is why people say, 'Is Saul also among the prophets?'" — 1 Samuel 19:22-24

Do you know how aggravating that had to be? It's also interesting that it happens in chapter 10 as well. When he comes to see a group of prophets around verses 9, 10, 11, the spirit of God rushes upon him and he prophesies among them. There's something about this corporate gathering of people who operate prophetically. Just being among those people whom the spirit of God is powerfully upon influences other people that come around.

So they show up here to be aggressors, and they cannot beat them, so they join them. But I do not think they do so voluntarily. There's this battle, you guys, between the flesh and the spirit, and the spirit goes four and zero. Every band comes in and he's like, "Yeah, no problem. Okay, no problem. Okay, no problem." And then Saul finally strips off all of his clothes like an imbecile. He's completely denigrated here and lays there all night long having worshipped.

God could dispose of Saul any way that he wants, but he chooses to compel him to worship. We make a big deal in Christianity saying that God can evoke worship from stones, right? And who are our two favorite least likely worshipers? Rocks and a donkey. And I'm just gonna add Saul to the party, because it's the same phenomena.

When Jesus says God can raise up worshipers from these very rocks, when he makes Balaam's ass speak, and Saul's the same thing, right? And God wins. Man, how many times do we put ourselves in a position that's oppositional to him? He will tolerate it only so long. And then God just shows, once again, that if I anoint someone, then I protect them. And here is a big blatant example of you're not going to touch my anointed. That's the sovereignty of God—God's power over all things.

And yet he could kill Saul, but he chooses to draw him to worship, which is a pretty gracious touch. It's humiliating to Saul, but it's gracious.

Questions on Prophecy and Worship

One person asked: Do you think that what they were prophesying was really worship? Because in The Message translation, it says that they were in a babbling trance and that he laid there naked, rambling gibberish. So where might that come from?

I don't know all that I have is that they prophesied. We tend to think of prophecy in terms of prediction, but I think prophecy is broader than that. It's not just foretelling, but also forthtelling. So they were saying things that were true about God, which is not a bad definition of worship. I don't think they were just drooling and babbling. I think they were speaking things, but it doesn't say what they were speaking. Maybe it was in tongues, but there's no mention of that.

There may be more to that, but let me set that aside for the moment because I want to get something done.

God's Desire for Willing Worship

Real quick, I just want to focus on God's relationship with us—how he's sovereign and can make stones cry out. I would argue that Psalm 59 in particular explains that. God clearly doesn't just want them all dead. He wants to know them. He will get his worshipers, but what he wants is gladful hearts, not rocks to worship him. What he wants is for people to cry out and do so voluntarily. These guys' wills are being subdued, no question. But what he wants is gladful hearts that love him and see his beauty.

I'm out of time, so here's what I want you to do: Go to Psalm 59. We've seen the story, we've seen the way David is innocent of all things. Read through Psalm 59 because there are some interesting surprises when we peer into his mind. David is writing down his thoughts while Saul's watching his house.

Deliver me from my enemies, O God. Be my fortress against those who are attacking me. Deliver me from evildoers and save me from those who are after my blood. See how they wait for me. Fierce men conspire against me for no offense or sin of mine, Lord. I've done no wrong, yet they are ready to attack me. Arise to help me. Look on my plight, you, Lord Almighty, you who are the God of Israel, rouse yourself. — Psalm 59:1-4

What's David feeling right now? He's afraid. He seems like he's above it all, seems pretty unmoved, but the dude is terrified, and reasonably so. And in his fear, in his dread, in his terror, look what he says:

He says, Rouse yourself to punish all the nations. Show no mercy to wicked traitors. They return at evening snarling like dogs and prowl about the city. See what they spew from their mouths. Their words from their lips are sharp swords, and they think, "Who can hear us?" But you laugh at them, Lord. You scoff at all those nations. — Psalm 59:5-8

By the way, that's very Psalm 2-ish. If you know Psalm 2, there are a lot of echoes there. Go back and reread that.

You laugh at them, Lord. You scoff at those nations. You are my strength. I watch for You. You, God, are my fortress, my God on whom I can rely.

What's Michael's strategy? Lie. She's gonna lie. What is David's strategy? Praise. What is it, Brad? Cry out to the Lord. Cry out to the Lord. Michael's like pulling levers. Who can I lie to? How can I arrange this? And David's not lying to anybody. He's just gonna cry out to the Lord.

Now watch this:

God will go before me and will let me gloat over those who slander me, but do not kill them, Lord our shield, or my people will forget. In your might, uproot them and bring them down for the sins of their mouths, for the word of their lips. Let them be caught in their pride, For the curses and lies they utter, consume them in your wrath, consume them till they are no more. Then it will be known to the ends of the earth that God rules over Jacob.

What kind of psalm is this? Do you know what category of this? Imprecatory. Imprecatory. What does imprecatory mean? Basically, kind of calling curses on. Yeah. Right? Imprecatory psalms are hard for us because are we supposed to be like, God, crush them! Are we allowed to pray? Lord, consume them in your wrath. Consume them till they are no more. Like, does that feel weird? Yeah. That feels weird, okay?

The Purpose of Imprecatory Psalms

But here's what you've got to do. You've got to take the imprecatory psalm of what he is alone with God, crying out. He is saying this. And then, does he turn around and say, God, I will be your instrument of judgment? Does he do that? No. Instead, what does he do? He waits. He trusts.

Sometimes I think we struggle with the imprecatory Psalms because we assume that if we're crying out for God to judge, that we will therefore become bloodthirsty ourselves, that we will turn ourselves into those judges. We will answer our own prayer. But that's precisely the opposite effect of the imprecatory psalms. It is specifically our belief that God will be just that frees us from the burden of being the executors of that judgment.

The imprecatory psalms are an absolute necessity for all those that would live a peaceful life that Jesus has called us to live. Because we can say, you know what, I'm not going to touch him. I'm not going to lay a hand on him. I don't need to. The Lord will do what he's pleased to do. He is wiser than I, he is stronger than I, I'm gonna trust it to him.

So when you see this, you look at it, it's not a contradiction. The reason that David didn't throw the spear back is because he knew, God is just. I'll keep my hands clean. I'll let Him do it. Right? So we needn't be afraid of the imprecatory Psalms. We can call out to God to be just. He's wiser than we are, He's more powerful than we are, and if we trust him, then I do not need to become a vigilante, enacting justice and vengeance because I'm so wise and so powerful.

Do you see the juxtaposition? Don't be afraid of the imprecatory psalms. They're what enable you to live a peaceful life.

Now, Eric was asking—Eric's like, okay. I see David was his righteous dude, and his songs were awesome. And he was saying all these things about his enemies, crush him, God. You know? Destroy him. But then I'm hearing Jesus say, like, woah. Don't pray that way. Pray for more.

Okay, so Eric is saying, Does Jesus live out the imprecatory Psalms, or are we even called to a higher standard to pray for the good of our enemies? And the answer is, it's both. Both of these things are true.

Jesus and Divine Justice

And so Jesus absolutely—I mean, He dies for His enemies, right? While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us, and He cries out for the forgiveness of those that were crucifying Him, casting lots for His clothing. All of that is true, but it is also true that he says to the Pharisees:

You snakes, you brood of vipers, how will you ever escape being condemned to hell?

He also makes a whip out of a cord and clears out the temple. So you see in Jesus both the justice and the mercy. It's easy to take anybody and just run them through a filter, and you could see in Jesus merely His merciful kindness, and we love His merciful kindness, for we're sinners and we've come under that. But you also see in Him that His wrath is poured out against sin.

So that's why Paul says—look at this. This is our Savior that we long for His return. We're talking about Advent. Jesus defies simple description.

If you go to 2 Thessalonians chapter one, it's gonna say this:

All this is evidence that God's judgment is right, and as a result, you will be counted worthy of the kingdom of God for which you are suffering. God is just. He will pay back trouble to those who trouble you and give relief to you who are troubled and to us as well. This will happen when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with his powerful angels.

He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might on the day he comes to be glorified in his holy people, to be marveled at among all those who have believed.

Holy cow. That's as imprecatory as it gets. And this is from the guy who travels the entire Roman Empire, speaking of the love and the mercy of the salvation that are in Christ. He longs to see people come to Christ, and his whole life is about that. And yet, he knows that the God who is merciful and provides a refuge for sinners will finally be just. That those who will not come under his saving protection will come under his judgment.

We've got to live in both of those realities. You have to live with both. It's part of the real world in which we inhabit, and we've got to stop.

Sorry, we're out of time. So next week, I'm gonna be in North Carolina with Kelly's family, but Landon is gonna be teaching class here, and Landon is fantastic. I think you're gonna love him. He's terrific, so he'll be up here, so join us. Join him. I'll be in North Carolina. We'll be back the following week for chapter 20, so keep reading 1 Samuel. Thank you.