2 Samuel 16

We study through books of the Bible here at the village chapel.

We've got extra copies.

If you didn't bring one with you and you'd like one to follow along, raise your hand up real high.

Somebody'd be glad to drop one off for you.

And today we'll be in 2 Samuel.

If you care to go online and use the online Bibles, the password is up there on the screen for you.

And you can jump in at the TVC app if you like.

We'll be in chapter 16.

But just a couple of side roads before we get started.

Sometimes little tidbits of information that come our way.

Today is kind of a special day.

Most of you know there's some kind of sporting event tonight, and it's it it's uh I know some of you are you know planning to watch that.

I have it indeed worn red in honor of I think one of the teams will be wearing red that since both both of them love red, that's right.

So I'm I'm equal opportunity pastor for all of them.

But today is an interesting day uh in terms of the date.

It's digital, uh it's eight-digit rendering, which would be 0202, uh 2020, is uh is what they call a palindromic number, one that is written the same both backward and forward.

Some of you don't believe me.

I don't have it up on the screen, but you can write it on your bulletin and then look at it backwards again, and you'll see that that's indeed what it is.

The previous eight-digit palindrome date like this was 909 years ago, on November 11, 1111.

And so it went the same backwards and forwards, just all ones, of course.

The next time that happens, the next time we have a palindromic eight-digit date, uh, it will be actually 900 plus years from now.

Uh it will be December 12th, 2121.

So don't let that be the only thing you get out of the worship service today.

But I like that kind of stuff because I'm just a little nutty.

Uh, the other thing is that this is the one Sunday of the month that I'm given permission.

I sort of give myself this permission because I'm the pastor, I can I can do that.

But I I I like bad jokes, okay?

And raise your hand if you like puns and bad jokes.

Okay, good.

All right, so I like dad jokes and I like bad dad jokes.

I really do.

I mean, I'm I'm just into all that stuff.

And there is indeed a way to integrate all of your your concepts for what you're gonna do tonight watching this football game with church, okay?

So there are some football phrases in church, like the bench warmer in church would be the person who comes in, doesn't sing, doesn't pray, doesn't work, doesn't apparently give, and doesn't do anything but sit on the bench, okay?

So there are bench warmers.

The instant replay is when the worship team plays the same boring chorus over and over and over in that dearth-like slow motion, which our team never does.

The draw play in church would be what many people do with a bulletin during a boring sermon.

And I see a lot of that happening.

That happens a lot around here.

A field goal is when only three people respond to the altar call.

Um, and interception is when we become the church somebody used to go to.

And then in the last hour, uh, what was awesome is I I read the same list, and and one of the guys that's on our missions board said there's certainly plenty of unsportsmanlike conduct in the passage today.

I thought that was good.

And the previous chapters actually have some unnecessary roughness about them, and I think that's true.

He also said that passing interference is when someone is not paying attention, when the plate is passed here at the village chapel, which has never happened, actually.

Um, a turnover, he said, is the refreshing, uh, is refreshing the chapel between services or what late rising parishioners are doing in bed right now.

That's a turnover, okay?

And on a, you know, so that that's good.

I like that.

Delay of game is when the introverts arrive late because they don't like to stand and greet time.

They really just don't want to talk to anybody.

Get past that.

I'm gonna come in and then I'm gonna worship.

Uh, blitz is the rush to the restaurants following the benediction.

That's gonna happen.

We know there'll be a everybody out.

Um, and then just a couple more if you're still with me.

Quarterback sneak is when the pastor runs downstairs for a snack in between services.

Staying in the pocket is what happens to a lot of money that should be given to the Lord.

Two-minute warning is the point at which you realize the sermon is almost over and begin to gather up your stuff, and then sudden death is what happens to the attention span of the congregation when the pastor goes, overtime.

Anyway, that's that's a wife would say, don't encourage him.

Yeah.

All right, so we're gonna stretch back 3,000 years today, as we have been doing with 2 Samuel.

We have to jump some hurdles.

They're cultural, religious.

Um, you know, there's so many ways in which we read some of this stuff and we find ourselves going, what?

What is that about?

And why is that in the Bible?

You know?

And uh, and so when we get there, I like to I like to point all that stuff out.

Uh, we've been studying the work of God in the life of Israel's King David, 3,000 years ago, roughly.

His passionate love for God, his tenacious trust in God's sovereignty, his poetic spirituality, his craft as an ancient singer-songwriter, all of this mixed with his unrelenting humanity.

It keeps surfacing, just like mine does, just like yours does, if you're honest.

And all of that's captivated our attention, I'm sure.

But while most of us have been able to identify with some of David's struggles and his brokenness and his sinfulness and his his vulnerability to temptation, it is God's steadfast love and faithful provision throughout David's life, um, in spite of the undulation of his own walk with the Lord, uh, that I think has really inspired our faith as we've been studying.

We've come to the part in the story where David's son Absalom has fomented a rebellion among the people of Israel, and they're approaching Jerusalem to attempt a coup d'etat.

Uh King David has chosen to exit the city.

We studied that last week.

Tommy Bailey and Matt Pearson at the other campus did a great job with uh chapter uh walking you through chapter 15.

So David is on the run once again, just like he was a long time ago when King Saul was chasing him.

You'll remember that.

And chapter 16, as we read through this, guys, this is filled, overflows with colorful personalities, relationship tension, drama, political power plays, espionage, subterfuge, slander, shouting, rage, cursing, cunning, conniving, flattery, manipulation.

Sounds like Thanksgiving dinner with your family, doesn't it?

Sometimes it's just one of those things.

But it sounds like real life.

It sounds like the human condition as it has always been after the fall, as we have studied in the book of Genesis.

So this chapter breaks easily into two pericopes, verses one through fourteen, really focus on uh the continuing story of David's uh uh departure from Jerusalem.

Uh verses 15 to 23, more uh about what happens and what has been what happens and what has been happening back at the palace with Absalom as he moves in.

So let's read the chapter.

I'll make a few comments, and then I just want to summarize a few points uh uh at the end for us.

So remember, they're leaving, David is leaving with his entourage, his court, uh some of his mighty men, some of the soldiers that are very faithful and loyal to him, but there's been this huge uh rebellion.

Uh the hearts of the men of Israel have been turned toward Absalom, and he's been he's been working really hard at that with PR campaigns, you know, having 50 men run in front of him as he rides in his chariot, offering advice, all that sort of thing, pretending he was king.

Now he really wants to come back as king from Hebron, where he's gone to.

And when David had passed a little beyond the summit, this is David now uh going over the top of the Mount of Olives as was described uh in chapter 15.

Behold, and then there's going to come these three personalities into this chapter, and you can circle their names as we go.

In the last chapter, uh Tommy and Matt walked you through and introduced you to um to Ittai the uh uh who was the Gittite, who was very encouraging to David, to Zadok and to Hushai.

These are folks that were sort of encouraging.

Well, these three in this chapter are discouragers uh in one way or another.

And it's not going to be apparent as we go through this chapter.

I'll have to connect a few dots for you as we go, but I but I think you'll see um what's what's happening here.

So Ziba, the servant of Mephibosheth, met him.

This is meeting David, and he's got all these guys, and they're all leaving.

And remember, this is this is not just, we're not just going down to Franklin for the day.

This is difficult.

This is David conceding that Absalom is going to come back and take the throne, and so he leaves town.

We're told in chapter 15 that he's leaving because he wants to avoid the bloodshed, the violence, and all that.

It's not just an act of cowardice.

He's not just running because he's afraid.

He's actually thinking.

And I think this is interesting because, as we've seen, his life, his, his, his sensibility, um, uh, his relationship with God is undulated.

And he's had some pretty low moments.

But in this particular moment, I actually think the reason he's doing this is actually good.

It's he's thinking of the people like a leader ought to.

He's thinking of the bloodshed that might happen, and he wants to avoid that.

And so rather than have that, and rather than have to confront his own, his third son Absalom, um, he and in in some kind of violent way, he's gonna pull out.

So he goes over the Mount of Olives, Zeba meets him, he's the one that has been entrusted with the care of Mephibosheth.

Mephibosheth, uh, when you say his name, a lot of times people say, God bless you, they think you sneezed.

Mephibosheth.

Oh, God bless you.

You know, like that.

But that's the son of Jonathan, who was David's friend.

He's the grandson of King Saul, who so eagerly sought to kill David.

Um, and so this guy, Ziba, has been entrusted with the care of Mephibosheth.

Mephibosheth has been lame since he was five years old.

And this guy, Ziba, shows up at the as they crest the hill of the Mount of Olives, shows up with a couple of saddled donkeys, and on them were 200 loaves of bread, a hundred clusters of raisins, a hundred summer fruits, and a jug of wine.

That's important.

Why?

Because David left in a hurry.

And here comes somebody basically with a food truck, and is bringing all the groceries and everything they might need on the journey.

And that's kind of interesting that this guy would have thought of that.

I don't think his motives are altogether pure, and I'll point that out as we go along.

The king said to Zeba, why do you have these?

Good question to ask.

Zeba said, The donkeys are for the king's household to ride, the bread and summer food for uh food summer fruit for the young men to eat, and the wine for whoever is faint in the wilderness to drink.

And the king said, And where is your master's son?

In other words, where is Mephibosheth?

Ziba says to the king, Behold, he is staying in Jerusalem, for he said, Today the house of Israel will restore the kingdom of my father to me.

Now, if you just are David, and that's all the information you have, and your mind is swirling with what's been going on, and there are emotions and everything at work at play here because your son is coming to kill you.

And that just messes with you.

And you're wondering if you can get people out safely and on time.

And now here comes some supplies for the journey, and you know you're headed for the wilderness, that's where he's going.

Over the Mount of Olives, he's gonna be on the Jericho Road.

He's headed east.

He's gonna camp out and rest at the Jordan River.

We'll see that in a minute.

But in the moment, he just buys and believes what Zeba is saying, even though he says, Where's your master's son?

And Zeba literally tells David that Mephibosheth isn't interested in coming along, isn't supporting David.

He thinks the house of Israel is going to restore the kingdom of his father to him today.

See what he's doing there?

Um Zeba, Behold, all that belongs to Mephibosheth is yours.

So now he's transferring all the property, and just by royal fiat, by decree, he simply says to Zeba, Well, thank you for the bananas and thank you for all the stuff.

And as a matter of fact, go take the land from Mephibosheth.

It belongs to you now.

And as he's leaving, that's going to be his last act as a king.

Zeba says, I prostrate myself, let me find favor in your sight, O my Lord the king.

And he's just lathering it on.

That'd be my view.

When David came to Betharim, behold, there came out from there a man of the family of the house of Saul.

This is so colorful what's happening here.

So here comes a man who is from the house of Saul.

Remember, Saul was the king before David, and uh Saul was always after David to kill him.

This man's name was Shimei, the son of Gerah.

He came out cursing continually as he came.

And he threw stones at David and at all the servants of King David as they walked along this Jericho road, just cresting the Mount of Olives.

And all the people and all the mighty men were at his right hand and at his left, so he's on a he's on some kind of a high spot, and he's just tossing stuff at throwing rocks at them.

And thus Shimei said, when he cursed, Get out! Get out, you man of bloodshed, you worthless fellow.

This is what he's saying to David.

The Lord has returned upon you all the bloodshed of the house of Saul, in whose place you have reigned.

And the Lord has given the kingdom into the hand of your son Absalom.

And behold, you are taken in your own evil, for you are a man of bloodshed.

This, folks, is 3,000-year-old trash talk, is what it is.

I mean, he is angry.

And even brings God into the equation and says that God, in his sense of justice, has brought upon you all the bloodshed that you have sort of all that's in the wake of your life.

Now, remember, you're David.

You have actually, in the recent past, you're very keenly aware of all of the bloodshed and the fact that the sword would never leave your house is what Nathan told you.

That God, well, God had forgiven David the sin of kidnapped rape with Bathsheba and of murder with Uriah, her husband, God said, I'll forgive your sin, but there will be continuing consequences.

The sword will never leave your house, and the baby that you're gonna have with Bathsheba will die.

And all that the baby had died, that's already happened.

But the sword is not leaving his house, and there seems to be this ongoing bit of violence that's there.

And if you're David and you're in the middle of exhaustion, and you've crushed the hill, and you're being run out of Jerusalem, and your son wants to kick, and all of that, and this guy starts yelling that stuff, how are you gonna respond?

You know, that's that's set up straight.

Well, there's a guy named Abishai, verse 9 says, who's the son of Zeroiah?

He said to the king, Why should this dead dog curse, my lord the king?

Let me go over now and cut off his head.

And what Abishai knew is that if you go and cut someone's head off, they stop cursing all of a sudden.

Logical.

I mean, I like the reaction.

This guy's a realist, you know.

He's sort of a, he understands.

No head, no cursing.

No head, no throwing of rocks.

Or certainly, if the if they are thrown, they're not gonna really hit anything.

Um Abishai has been mentioned before in 1 Samuel chapter 26.

1 Samuel 26 · chapter mention

He was with David.

When David, as he was running from King Saul, King Saul who wanted to kill him, um, King David, or David rather, comes upon the encampment of Saul.

They're all asleep, and and they're gonna go down and walk in amongst them as they're sleeping.

And David says, Who will go with me?

And it's Abishai who says, I will go with you.

And when they find Saul asleep, right there with his spear right by his head, it's Abishai who says, Let me take him out.

God has delivered him into your hand.

Let's take him out now.

So Abishai is a man of action.

Uh he's not a man that necessarily prays before he acts, but he reacts and he's willing to uh fight for and defend his king.

I'm gonna, if I'm just gonna be at least generous and kind with with uh his motive, he's trying to defend uh uh David here.

And uh the king says to him, What have I to do with you, O sons of Zeroiah?

Remember, Zeroiah is David's sister, and Joab would have been a son of Zeroiah along with Abishai.

Um, what have I to do with you, sons of Zeroiah?

If he curses, and if the Lord has told him, curse David, then who shall say, Why have you done so?

And David said to Abishai and to all the servants, Behold, my son who came out from me seeks my life.

You see, it's on his mind.

How much more now this Benjamite, let him alone, let him curse, for the Lord has told him.

And this verse, verse 12, please underline this verse or asterisk it or something in your Bible, even in the Pew Bible.

Perhaps the Lord will look on my affliction, most of your English translations will say, and return good to me instead of his cursing this day.

In other words, perhaps the Lord will look upon what's been done to me and be merciful to me, or be kind to me.

The interesting thing is that as Dale Ralph Davis, who I think is one of the best uh, one of the has one of the best commentaries on 2 Samuel that you can buy, he points out that most English translations, when they use affliction or what's been done to me, they're basically springing off the Septuagint, which is the Greek translation of the Old Testament that was put together in roughly around the third century B.C.

And in the Septuagint, um, the word that's used there would more lean in the direction of what's been done to me, my affliction.

But there's an older uh Hebrew uh uh manuscript copy that actually uses a different kind of word, and it could be better translated.

Perhaps the Lord will look on my, listen, iniquity, not what's been done to me, but perhaps the Lord will look on my iniquity, the things I've done, and return good to me instead of his cursing this day.

Now, either way, I'm I'm okay, because if you if you're saying perhaps the Lord will look on me and be merciful to me because I need mercy because of all that's being done to me, and I'm sort of a victim in this case, but but even greater, even greater, perhaps the Lord will look on my sin and still return good to me.

And that's mind-blowing, and that foreshadows the gospel of grace.

For while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

He looked upon our iniquity, and he came and returned good for when we had been guilty.

This is really a powerful verse here.

Either way, it's important, impactful, and either way, it makes a great point.

So David and his men went on the way Shimei went along on the hillside parallel with him.

And as he went, he cursed and he cast stones and he threw dust at him.

I'm can you just see this?

Some of these up on the hillsides, and you're just trying to get, you know, hitting people, big soldier guys that could go and just lop his head off and all this sort of thing, and dirt clogs and stones and yelling and cursing, and your mother's ugly too.

You know, all that's happening, yeah?

And they're just trying to get out of the city, and they're just trying to flee so there won't be a bunch of violence and all that sort of thing.

And all of this is going on.

And David has the ability to say that what that guy is doing as he's yelling might be what I need to hear right now.

Perhaps God will look on my sin, perhaps God will look on my affliction, and return good to me instead of his cursing on this day.

The king and all the people who were with him arrived weary, and he refreshed himself there.

That's in verse 14.

Some English translations will add in, arrived at the Jordan.

I don't know if any of you have that, but that is uh certainly where they would be a natural stopping point if you've been to Israel before and you understand as he moves east and toward the wilderness.

Verse 15, the camera lens changes.

And now we're looking at a pericopey that's really all about what's going on in the palace.

Absalom and all the people, the men of Israel, entered Jerusalem, and Hethophel with him came about when Hushai the Architect, David's friend, remember, that's David's friend, who's still implanted in that uh in the palace, and he will sort of be like a spy for David a little bit.

Uh when uh uh Hushai the Architect, David's friend, came to Absalom, and the Hushai said to Absalom, Long live the king, long live the king.

He doesn't use his name, he doesn't say long live Absalom, he says, Long live the king.

And I think in his mind and in his heart he's saying, David.

Yeah, no, I don't think he's it's interesting that he doesn't use a name.

Uh he doesn't use a name in what he's about to say here coming up as well.

It's just interesting to me.

Um Absalom says to Hushai, is this your loyalty to your friend?

In other words, he knew Hushai was David's friend.

Why did you not go with your friend?

Hushai said to Absalom, No, for whom the Lord, this people, and all the men of Israel have chosen, his will I be, again, not using a name, and with him I will remain, not using a name.

Interesting.

Besides, whom should I serve?

Should I not serve in the presence of his Son, as I have served in your father's presence, so I will be in your presence.

Now the the the it seems to be, he's just saying, shouldn't I serve if I'm going to be here?

Absalom says to Ahithophel, give your advice.

This is not Hushai, but Ahithophel.

What shall we do?

And I need to tell you that Ahithophel, I think, I don't know, but just cross-referencing, is Bathsheba's grandfather.

He has a son named Eliam.

When we were introduced to Bathsheba, her she is the daughter of Eliam.

And I just wonder with Ahithophel, because he stayed behind, didn't go with David, I just wonder if he has been holding on to something for a number of years now and sees an opportunity to sort of be a what he might think is God's justice, just like Shimei does, you know.

And uh and so he stays behind and he becomes Absalom's advisor.

And Ahithophel says to Absalom, go in, and this is heinous what he suggests to him.

Go into your father's concubines, whom he has left to keep the house.

There were ten of them, as you remember from the last chapter.

Then all Israel were here that you have made yourself odious to your father, meaning to David.

The hands of all who are with you will also be strengthened.

So they pitched a tent for Absalom on the roof, and Absalom went into his father's concubines in the sight of all of Israel.

And this indeed was a practice back in the ancient time when one king would run over top of another kingdom in all kinds of different ways, including this.

They simply would make a very public and bold statement that not only am I taking your land and all your stuff, but I'm taking your wives too.

I'm taking everything in your house, and I'm taking your wives too, and your concubines as well.

And it's just an affront.

Now, this is godless uh this goes against everything God would have taught Ahithophel.

But he does it anyway.

He's perhaps an angry grandfather.

I don't know.

The advice of Ahithophel, which he gave in those days, was as if one inquired of the word of the Lord.

In other words, he was quite respected as an advisor.

Um yeah.

It was as if it were someone inquiring of the Lord.

So all the advice of Ahithophel regarded by both David and Absalom.

So he had been an advisor to David, now he's an advisor to Ahithophel.

And there's uh, boy, this is like I said, colorful, lots of tension, lots of stuff going on.

And while there are uh tons of, you know, the moral of the story lessons we might be able to pull from this chapter, I don't, I I I mean you could say, you know, have you got a zeba in your life?

Or have you got have you got an ahithophil in your life?

Or are you an ahithophil?

Or are you a zeba?

Are you are you one of those kinds of people like Ziba who's who's sort of pretending so that you can opportunistically take advantage of somebody?

Let me bring you some stuff and curry a little bit of favor.

Um or maybe like Shimei, you you think of yourself as speaking prophetically, and yet at the same time you're throwing rocks and you know, you're just angry all the time, you're just overrun with uh uh outrage.

And I've I've said this before, I think I think outrage is the kudzu of our culture right now.

It's gonna choke us to death, it's gonna cover us up and choke us to death because we're just always wound up and mad.

And the people of God ought not to be that way if we're trusting in the sovereign God.

Um, there are lots of moralisms we could draw from.

I don't want to do that.

I really think that rather than that, there's so many interesting parallels between what happens to David here and what happens with Jesus in the Gospels.

It's really awesome, and I just I just want to throw some of these up on the screen for you.

Both David and Jesus knew the bitter taste of betrayal and rejection.

You know, yeah.

David with Absalom, his son here, with Ahithophel, the advisor, with the people of Israel.

Even the men of Israel had their hearts were turned toward Absalom, we're told.

Jesus, uh, you know, as well, as Judas, one of his closest followers, uh, one of the twelve disciples, betray him.

Peter denies him.

All the disciples scatter when Jesus is arrested.

Uh the people of Israel turn against him, yell at crucify, crucify, crucify him.

So they both had that in common.

Both David and Jesus knew that very bitter taste of betrayal and rejection.

Maybe you're here today and you know that as well.

Um time to time will have somebody that just shocks us.

We didn't know they were thinking that.

We didn't know that we had hurt them that way.

We didn't know that what we had done offended them like that.

And uh and yet they held on to something and and uh it's never the air has never been cleared, and and and and maybe somebody rejected you, or maybe in some way your heart has been gripped by rejecting someone else or betraying someone else.

Um it's important, I think, to look at those kinds of things that happen.

That's right.

But in the in this particular case, I think David is foreshadowing Jesus.

I think he does that in the fact that they both had significant events happen as they exited Jerusalem via the Mount of Olives.

Place and history remain important in terms of the lessons of time.

David and Jesus both leave Jerusalem, cross the Kedron Valley, ascend the Mount of Olives, and travel the Jericho Road, and there's big stuff happening all along the way.

Um these aren't massive things, but I think they're interesting things.

Both David and Jesus had followers who wanted to resort to force.

Um Abishai wanted to take the head off of Shimei.

Um and Peter, one of the closest of Jesus' disciples, when the soldiers came to arrest Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, what does he do?

He pulls out his sword and he swings his sword to take off the head of Malchus.

All he gets is an ear, which means Peter was a lousy swordsman.

Um but he was angry and he was bold and brave at the moment, and he's I think sometimes overconfident in a lot of ways.

And he and so he gets this guy, Malchus' ear.

Um Jesus, Luke tells us, the doctor, Luke tells us, picked up the ear and put it back on Malchus' head and healed him.

Whoa.

Man, what an amazing king, King Jesus is, to do that kind of thing.

Um, David and Jesus both had followers who wanted to resort to force.

David and Jesus refrained from retaliating against their immediate enemies or persecutors.

David refrained from retaliating right against Absalom heretofore, at least up to now.

Shimei as well.

Jesus with Judas, the religious leaders, the fickle crowds, the executioners at the cross, goes even further than just tolerating them, but prays for them.

Father, forgive them.

They know not what they do.

Perhaps the Lord will look on my iniquity and will return good instead of evil.

Jesus, the greater son of David.

Jesus, the greater king, the one to whom we should all turn.

Much of what happens to David foreshadows Jesus here as well.

Um both David and Jesus were betrayed by confidants who um, having lost the hope of increasing influence, despaired unto death.

Now we haven't come to that part just yet with a hithophle.

We will next week, but I'm just going to tell you, spoiler alert, he goes out and hangs himself.

What does that sound like?

Yeah.

Happens with Jesus as well.

His confidant, who, having lost the hope of increasing influence, goes out and hangs himself.

Both David and Jesus resign themselves to the sovereign will and purposes of God in ultimate outcomes.

And folks, this is this is the big, to me, this is the big contrast.

Because outcomes, now that, you know, I mean, I can kind of follow in David's way, going, yeah, maybe, you know, maybe Shimmy I've got something to say, I gotta listen to, okay, maybe I ought to listen to it.

But to actually trust God for the outcomes in all of life and and and Jesus facing the cross to in the Garden of Gethsemane to bow and say, Father, if it's possible, let this cup pass, but not my will but thine be done.

That's that is a very difficult prayer to pray.

There are theologians who will say, if you pray that prayer, you're saying, if, and you're not really confident in God.

I say, I will kneel beside the Lord Jesus any day of the week and pray that prayer.

Because if it's good enough for Jesus, it's good enough for me.

I want to submit myself to the sovereign will of a sovereign God and then rest in his love.

Because maybe the Lord will look at my affliction, maybe the Lord will look at my iniquity and return good for me, as he has done with the death of Jesus on the cross to reconcile all of us who believe and trust and hope in him to a righteous and holy God.

That, my friends, is cause for giving thanks.

That, my friends, is cause for turning to the greater King Jesus and trusting and hoping in him.

The aforementioned Dale Ralph Davis, you just can't imagine how deep and warm and longing God's compassion is for you, even when he disciplines you for your sin.

But David would try because he knew him.

What an instinct for God, what a holy hunch.

I love this.

This is really awesome.

Should this word not come as special help to Christians who believe they've made a royal curse job of their lives?

Is that you today?

Christians who at some point, sometimes with open eyes, have smashed God's commandments and defied his standards and then suffered miserably for it?

Shouldn't this be hope for you and hope for me?

That he would look upon our iniquity, our affliction, and he would return good for us.

My good friend John Yates and his wife Susan are here today visiting with us.

Yesterday he told me about a book by Rebecca Manley Pippert, A Heart for God.

And I went online and grabbed part of it and I read this and I said, Man, I gotta share this with the church.

So thank you, John, very much for that.

David knows what to do with all of his humanity.

He brings it to God.

David brings his scars, his wounds, his failures, and petitions to the one who knows us, the one from whom no secret can be hid.

I love this.

Yeah.

No secret can be hid.

He is a God who can be trusted for every season of our lives.

David never doubts God's overriding sovereignty because David understands that the issue in life is not whether God will be faithful to us, but whether we'll be faithful to God.

In other words, our God is trustworthy.

We sang it earlier.

He will hold me fast.

Somebody came up to me after the last service and said, it's a strange illustration, but I'm going to give it to you anyway.

Now, don't usually tell these kinds of stories.

But I was in the men's room at the mall yesterday.

And he said, I was in a stall, there was another father in there changing the diaper of his kid on one of those little tables that pulls down.

And the kid was so afraid and squirming and screaming.

And this guy shared with me, he said, he heard the father say more than once, Don't worry, son, I got you.

Don't worry, son, I got you.

He will hold you fast.

Even though we're running away, he will hold us fast.

Even though we're coming to a place where we just can't jump that puddle.

I was in New Orleans with Kim a couple weeks ago.

We spent a couple days there.

And and uh, you know, when you have little little vacation moments, sometimes something happens.

Well, I stepped in a puddle, and so I had one wet shoe, and it was the beginning of the day.

So the entire day I'm walking around with like that.

So we were all talking about a song called One Wet Shoe.

Songwriters have added, it's all yours.

I don't care.

One wet shoe.

And just how you go through life, and there's one wet shoe, you know, and your whole day is just like that, you know.

But he will hold you fast.

He's like the grandfather that you get to the puddle that lifts you up and and and carries you over, even though you're not paying attention yourself, and you might just step in it and get two wet shoes, you know.

He will hold us fast.

We can trust a sovereign God.

I see David doing that.

No matter what this guy shimmy I do, I get hit with another rock.

Oh, some of my soldiers are disrespected and hit with rocks.

We're all being cursed and yelled at.

No matter what, I trust God for the outcomes.

Jesus in the garden, not my will but thine be done, Father.

As fully human as he could be, praying a prayer like that, you know.

Fully trusting a sovereign God, and we can too.

I'll close with this uh quote from uh watchfulness by Brian Hedge.

It's probably one of my favorite books last year that I read.

Uh if you haven't read it, get it.

It's great.

This is the only balm for a wounded conscience, the only hope for a sinful soul.

This is the only way to deal with our hearts.

We've got to run to Christ.

And once you're there at his feet, stay there.

For your only safety is found in him.

I don't know where you're at today.

I don't know where you're running to.

David was running out of Jerusalem.

Um, but may I encourage you to turn to him and run to him.

No matter what need you may have, no matter how much iniquity you have fallen into, no matter how much you're bound up in the grip of some temptation that you keep flirting with.

Turn to him.

You can trust him.

He is eager to be gracious to you and to me.

And for that, we'll come to the table in just a moment and say thanks.

Will you pray with me?

Thank you, Lord, for this passage.

Very vivid, uh, Lord, these personalities, very colorful in so many ways, and all of this so very real in David's life.

Uh, but thank you for these um these timeless uh indicators that point us to Jesus, our only hope, our great hope, our living hope, our king, the king we've always wanted, the king we've always needed.

So as we turn to you in this moment, uh, Holy Spirit, move on all of us, I pray.

Uh renew us, revive us, restore us as we come before you to give thanks for the gift of life in the name of Jesus.

And in his name we pray.

Amen and amen.