The Wilderness - David in the Cave

Africa, thanks for praying. It has been cold.

It has been really cold. And we're all just trying

to survive. We're all just trying to make it.

We have been doing a series called In the Wilderness.

And I am encouraged to know that scripture is

replete with stories of humans who have both

literally and figuratively found themselves traveling

the wilderness seemingly in limbo and caught

in the in -between. I'm glad to know that scripture

does not sanitize those stories. They are difficult.

They are often long years and decades of wilderness

journeys. And so today we find ourselves in David's

story. as it comes to us through 1 Samuel 23

and 24. It's a lot. I'm not going to read all

of that, so I'm going to do a little bit of summary

to start out with. So David, if you remember,

David from David and Goliath, or later on, King

David, whichever part of the story you're familiar

with in his life. There's this thing, this cat

and mouse thing, that he and the current king

of Israel at his time, have been doing for years.

And so David has been really making King Saul,

who was Israel's first king, mad. And it simply

comes down to people seem to like David better.

And so David started out actually as one of Saul's

favorites. He really liked him. He gave him gifts.

He offered daughters as wives. But over time...

As people started singing comparative songs about

the two and David was getting rapt public attention,

Saul grew more and more sour on him. And so Saul

started a little bit more in the background of

things. He was a little bit more subtle, maybe

like sending David out for a battle. You know,

David was a leader of warriors, and so he'd send

him out to a battle. hoping that perhaps David

would fall, that it would get him killed. And

it did not. David kept coming back with victories.

And that was what was making Saul mad. And so

Saul eventually made it very clear, like he started

saying the quiet part out loud, that he wanted

David gone no matter what. And he became obsessed

with this and barely attempting to hide it anymore.

And we read in 1 Samuel 23, 8. And Saul called

up his forces for battle to go down to Calah.

And this is where David was defending the city

against the Philistines. And guys, it's always

the Philistines. It's like constantly the Philistines.

In order to besiege David and his men, Saul basically

was like, it's a walled city. We're going to

get him this time. He's going to be stuck in

there. And so David and his men, about 600 of

them, left Calah and kept moving from place to

place. And when Saul was told that David had

escaped from there, he decided not to go there.

It was about getting David. It was about retribution.

And so David stayed in the wilderness strongholds

and in the hills of the desert of Ziph. And so

this is right on what's known as the wilderness

of Judah, which will be important. Day after

day, Saul searched for him. But God did not give

David into his hands. Verse 15 says, While David

was at Horesh in the desert of Ziph, he learned

that Saul had come out to take his life. Worth

noting, David wasn't just hiding out from Saul

at this point. This had been going on long enough.

Enough tension and word getting out had built

at this point. But he was hiding out so as not

to be seen by anyone, or at least trying to stay

off. large radars. Anyone who saw him or knew

about where he was going was going to give him

up. And did. Intel was passed along when someone

had it. And where do you go when spies are everywhere?

And it gets so bad, David has to keep moving

all over the wilderness to keep away from Saul

and really everybody else. David is desperate,

not just to save his own life, but now he's responsible

for... These hundreds of people. David was not

alone in this. He had these people traveling

with him, and most of them were warriors, but

also some of them were enemies of his enemy,

you know? So they were all under threat, largely

because David had the ire of the king. So imagine

trying to stay out of the king's eye, and it

makes me think of Sauron, the eye of Sauron.

Thank you. You were right there for me. Good.

By the way, happy 25th anniversary for Fellowship

of the Rings to all those that observe and celebrate.

That is this year, this month. So David and his

600 companions were not easy to find shelter

for without passing by someone's watchful eye.

And this is where the wilderness of Judah is

really important because it is craggy, it is

difficult, it is rocky, it is in fact a wilderness.

People did not just go there to build communities.

I imagine David's time in the wilderness must

have felt like he was very much going in the

opposite direction of the plan. So let's pray

right now before we go forward. Because I think

that idea right there is probably going to be

the one that hits most of us the strongest. So

Lord, we give you our time, we give you our attention.

We ask for your wisdom to be among us. and in

us. Open our eyes. Make things clear and settle

your word deep in our hearts today. I pray this

in your name. Amen. So I was 24 when I moved

to the Quad Cities 25 years ago. I believe this

very week. If not this week, it's next week.

I know. I was like writing this down and I was

like, oh my gosh. Also, a happy 25th anniversary

to Jen Moves to the Quad Cities for anybody who

observes and celebrates. It was the end of January

2001, and I had been living back home in Rochester,

New York for the previous eight months, and I

was working on raising support to move to England.

I had secured a position in a church in a little

town a little bit west of London. I was pretty

stoked. It had been sort of like England was

like one of these places that from childhood

I was like, if I could get there. my life is

going to be, like, that's the apex, is that.

Because it felt so unreachable, you know, these

places that feel unreachable. And so that felt

really, really exciting to see that, like, something

that I had been really passionate about or even

something that had been, like, put as a goal

in front of me was really close. But I was making

no progress in fundraising, and if you know me,

this is still a difficult area. But I was making

no progress, and I needed a change. I was living

at home, and that was not a long -term solution.

A few years ago, we did a series called Summer

Playlist, and a few of us that were preaching

that summer chose a couple songs, two or three

songs, to use as sort of a home base for lessons

that God taught us. And U2's Stuck in a Moment

was mine for that summer of 2000, heading into

2001. It described my life in every way. And

I had thought, leaving college, my future felt

very clear. And then I watched it just get farther

and farther away. And I was asked to consider,

in that time frame, moving out here to join a

team of, to join a young adult ministry team,

which I met Greg and Cindy and Robin. I literally

met them on the day I drove into town. That was

like Greg and Robin were sitting in the church

I was coming to work at. And I was feeling very

lost about my future at that point. I was like,

well, I'll come do this because I need to change.

Like I need to move. I need to make a move. And

I imagine David had those moments too. Like this,

I can't be here. I need to make a move. You know,

he couldn't stay in one place because Saul was

going to find him. And so I was like, well, I'll

move to the next place, but that's also temporary.

And when you just feel like you're in this place

of just making temporary moves, you don't feel

like you can think long -term. You're just surviving.

Feeling very lost about my future, I told my

parents. I had been asked two months before,

but one week before I moved, I said, I'm moving

to Illinois next week. And my parents were like,

does she know somebody in Illinois? We are not

from the Midwest. I packed up my Camry and I

directed myself westward, which, if you're directionally

challenged, let me let you know, is not the direction

of London from New York State. If you're going

to be cranky about it, sure, you can go west

and eventually get there. The earth is round.

But I remember pulling off the exit towards Moline

off a 280 and thinking, what? Have I done? I

just moved to the ends of the earth. Because

I, well, I had gone to college in the Midwest,

but that was not a long -term plan. Obviously,

England was. That felt like, this is cool and

amazing. And I was like, I moved back to the

Midwest. What is happening? So, comparatively,

was I being hunted down by a jealous and vengeful

king? I was not. Was my life in threat? Also

no. But the unknown, the moving in the opposite

direction of what you imagined the path of a

promised trajectory to be can sure be terribly

disorienting. And then to find yourself making

temporary moves constantly, the long term gets

lost. The sense that God has something for you

gets lost. And humans don't tend to react well

in this position. Now, finding oneself in a wilderness,

in these places, I mean, it can be surprising.

You don't choose to be there. And there are various

reasons you find yourself there. Sometimes something

just pushes you into it. In the case of David,

he didn't ask for the calling of the Lord to

put the future kingship on him. He didn't ask

for the king to turn on him. That was Saul's

heart turning sour. And he found that Saul's

homicidal intentions were kind of a lot to deal

with. And so he decided to get lost, literally.

But sometimes you also just take an unintentional

wrong turn. You're on the wrong road, but you

don't know it until 10 miles in, and then there's

no turnaround for another 30 miles. Anyone? Yes.

And sometimes you do get there yourself by making

poor decisions. It is a mix of these things.

And when you're there, you often don't realize

that until you're in these patterns of temporary,

short -term plans, moving around, feeling stuck.

Like, oh, when did this happen? How did I? We

don't walk into wildernesses thinking we're going

to stay there. And so our most basic instinct

when things are unfamiliar and feel unsafe is

to simply survive. And when we do go into survival

mode, we think only about practicalities. We

think about efficiency. We do not manage more

abstract ideas well. It's tactical. And so you

might find yourself in survival mode. You yourselves

right now may find yourself in survival mode,

making the most of basic decisions because you

have spent all your energy on merely surviving.

A wilderness can take everything from you. mentally,

emotionally. Part of what's hard about a wilderness

is that you're not prepared to be in them. You

didn't pack a bag for it. Or at least not for

an extended amount of time. Like I said, you

make a lot of temporary moves. The landscape,

the weather, the wildlife, the food, the terrain.

You're not long -term planned for it. So the

instinct, as I said, is to survive. To try to

shift things to your advantage. It's counterintuitive

then. to work less or to fight less or to try

less. We here on earth are very attached to results.

We are very attached to progress. We want tangible

things that prove we are making some kind of

calculable progress towards something and not

away from it or slowing down. And David's life

trajectory was headed for kingship. And it looked

like he was on that path. When he was a teenager,

there had been a promise, there had been a calling,

there was an anointing, and now, and now. So

I imagine David wondered many times over if it

was possible he misunderstood or, oh, not king

of Israel. No, you're right, I did mishear it.

Like if there were those moments for him, if

he was like, what? I'm confused. What was that?

Times in the wilderness, though, are often opportunities

to slow the roll on the progress train, at least

in our own minds, to shift focus, to remember

something that was there before the calling and

the purpose and the progress and the results

were, and to remember the relationship with the

one from whom those things come. Because if we

are not tied in and caring for that relationship,

If we are getting preoccupied with progress and

forsaking the one who called us in the first

place, we really will end up going nowhere, even

if it looks like we've arrived. And so David,

a one -time shepherd, cannot become the true

king of Israel without being deep in the heart

of God who created and called out the nation

in the first place. David cannot shepherd a people

of God's calling while forgetting God. which

was what got the Israelites a king in the first

place. One of the very cool things about scripture

and how the Bible is assembled is that we know

that David was thinking and how he was communicating

with God during this time of survival. We have

it. David's time on the run and in the wilderness

produced some psalms rich with imagery of the

landscape he was mobilizing through, expressions

of joy and fear. feelings, emotions, and thoughts

that were in direct correlation with the landscape,

with the moment, with where he was. A man on

the run for his life, knowing he must keep hold

of God. So I'm going to read through some of

the psalms that he wrote while he was in the

wilderness. I won't read through all of them,

but you may want to write them down just to go

back through and read the complete ones. Psalm

59 is for the director of music to the tune of

Do Not Destroy, of David, a mictum, when Saul

had sent men to watch David's house in order

to kill him. That's what this psalm is introduced

as. And he writes, 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. That is not metaphorical.

That is real. Psalm 57 has a header of, for the

director of music, to the tune of Do Not Destroy

of David a mictum, when he had fled from Saul

into the cave. Have mercy on me, O God, or have

mercy on me, my God, have mercy on me, for in

you I take refuge. He's in a cave as a place

of refuge, realizing it's God in whom he needs

to take refuge. I will take refuge in the shadow

of your wings until the disaster has passed.

Psalm 142, a mascal of David when he was in the

cave, a prayer. I cry aloud to the Lord. I lift

up my voice to the Lord for mercy. I pour out

before him my complaint. Before him I tell my

trouble. When my spirit grows faint within me,

it is you who watch over my way. In the path

where I walk, people have hidden a snare for

me. Look and see, there is no one at my right

hand. No one is concerned for me. I have no refuge.

No one cares for my life. When David is writing,

it is you who watch over my way. He knows what

it's like to have eyes on him and not know where

they are or who it is. But he reminds him that

it is God who watches over his way. Psalm 54,

for the director of music with stringed instruments,

a mascal of David, when the Ziphites had gone

to Saul and said, is not David hiding among us?

They turned him over. It says, save me, O God,

by your name. Vindicate me by your might. Hear

my prayer, O God. Listen to the words of my mouth.

Arrogant foes are attacking me. Ruthless people

are trying to kill me. People without regard

for God. Surely God is my help. The Lord is the

one who sustains me. He is in the desert. We

do not know how easy it is to get food or supplies.

And so he recognizes that it is God who sustains

him. And I will read the complete Psalm 63 because

this takes place when he was in the wilderness

of Judah. Psalm 63, a Psalm of David when he

was in the desert of Judah. You, God, are my

God. Earnestly I seek you. I thirst for you.

Knowing he's in the desert is important. I thirst

for you. My whole being longs for you in a dry

and parched land where there is no water. You

can imagine David hiding out in the rocks, looking

over this arid land, knowing what this feels

like for both himself and the land to be. in

need of water. He is also parched and dry. I

have seen you in the sanctuary and beheld your

power and your glory. Because your love is better

than life, my lips will glorify you. I will praise

you as long as I live, and in your name I will

lift up my hands. I will be fully satisfied,

as with the richest of foods, with singing lips

in my mouth will praise you. On my bed I remember

you. I think of you through the watches of the

night. When you are being run down, you are watchful.

The watches of the night are familiar. Because

you are my help, I sing in the shadow of your

wings. I cling to you. Your right hand upholds

me. Those who want to kill me will be destroyed.

They will go down to the depths of the earth.

They will be given over to the sword and become

food for jackals. But the king will rejoice in

God, and all who swear by God will glory in him,

while the mouths of liars will be silenced. There

were stories being told. Saul was telling stories

about David. He wants to kill me. That's why

I'm after him. Because it's not a good look when

you're like, I just don't like him because people

like him better. So you have to tell lies. You

have to tell lies to get the people to sympathize

with you. And so all who swear by God will glory

in him while the mouths of liars will be silenced.

That is a reminder of what God's promises are.

David connects with God in the wilderness because

it's the wilderness. And he uses the landscape

and the geography and the feeling of the wilderness

to express his own His own experience. David

looks to God for his survival. And I said that

the instinct to survive is often what mobilizes

us when we're in this unfamiliar territory. This

territory that takes so much from us. But David

does something quite surprising here. And I believe

his deep connection to God, how we get to actually

see it. How he reached out to the Lord. how he

was honest with God, his expressions, his reflections.

It altered his basic rules of survival. So I'm

going to have us read 1 Samuel 24. And we're

doing this part late in the message, but when

we read passages like this, we do invite people

to stand or take a posture of reverence. And

so I will invite you to join me as I read 1 Samuel

24. 1 through 20. There are Bibles at your table,

and you can also use your Bible apps on your

phone. After Saul returned from pursuing the

Philistines, he was told, David is in the desert

of En Gedi. So Saul took 3 ,000 able young men

from all Israel and set out to look for David

and his men near the crags of the wild goats.

How many people does David have with him? 600.

How many people does Saul have? 3 ,000. He came

to the sheep pens along the way, and a cave was

there, and Saul went in to relieve himself. It

is what you think that is. He is going to the

bathroom. David and his men were far back in

the cave. Like, oh my gosh. The men said, this

is the day the Lord spoke of when he said to

you, I will give your enemy into your hands for

you to deal with as you wish. Small pause. You

can almost imagine. I mean, this is David's crew

being like, this is it. He is being delivered

to you. It can all end now. You can put an end

to this. You are supposed to be king. We all

know it. Let's hurry this along. David had the

chance to potentially speed up this holy plan

by taking things into his own hands when the

opportunity arose. The opportunity was there.

Back to verse 4. Then David crept up unnoticed

and cut off a corner of Saul's robe. How quiet

do you have to be to do that? Afterward, David

was conscious stricken for having cut off a corner

of his robe. He said to his men, the Lord forbid

that I should do such a thing to my master, the

Lord's anointed, or lay my hand on him, for he

is the anointed of the Lord. He is the king right

now. With these words, David sharply rebuked

his men and did not allow them to attack Saul.

And Saul left the cave and went his way. I should

also say he's his father -in -law, too. Saul

was none the wiser. Then David went out to the

cave and called out to Saul. So Saul leaves,

and David sort of comes out behind him. My lord,

the king! And Saul looked behind him. Oh, imagine

what he thought. David bowed down and prostrated

himself. He made himself vulnerable. with his

face to the ground. He said to Saul, why do you

listen when men say David is bent on harming

you? This day you have seen with your own eyes

how the Lord delivered you into my hands in the

cave. Some even urged me to kill you, but I spared

you. I said, I will not lay a hand on my Lord

because he is the Lord's anointed. See, my father,

look at this piece of your robe in my hand. I

cut off the corner of your robe, but did not

kill you. See that there is nothing in my hand

to indicate that I am guilty of wrongdoing or

rebellion. I have not wronged you, but you are

hunting me down to take my life. May the Lord

judge between you and me, and may the Lord avenge

the wrongs you have done to me, but my hand will

not touch you. As the old saying goes, from evildoers

come evil deeds, so my hand will not touch you.

And when David finished saying this, Saul asked,

Is that your voice, David, my son? And he wept

aloud. You are more righteous than I, he said.

You have treated me well, but I have treated

you badly. You have just now told me about the

good you did to me. The Lord delivered me into

your hands, but you did not kill me. When a man

finds his enemy, does he not let him get away

unharmed? May the Lord reward you well for the

way you treated me. I know that you will surely

be king. and that the kingdom of Israel will

be established in your hands. You may be seated.

That's a really haunting encounter. David's instinct

to survive was overtaken by his heart to be merciful.

And I... I have to think that what we see expressed

by him throughout his time in the wilderness

was that heart change. Because again, human instinct

is different than that. It would have made the

most sense for that story to go exactly the way

you thought it should. For David to be like,

I've been anointed king and you're a terrible

person. Let's just, I'm going to take this as

an opportunity and bring you down. And we're

just done with this. And so Saul was still king

until he wasn't, until he died. David still had

to wait. So if you're finding your trajectory

feels off, if you're heading west but the promises

you were given were eastward, if you feel like

the waiting has gone on longer than you think

it should, please know that you are not being

ignored. You are not being overlooked. Your trajectory

has not changed. God will fulfill his promises.

When I sensed, In college. That God was. Calling

me to serve in a global capacity. The work I

currently do now. Was not a job. It didn't exist.

So the calling was there. Before the path was.

There was a path. That existed. But it was not.

It was the path I had to get on. To find the

other path. Further down the road. And it was

because I was here. While I was waiting for there,

that I got there through other pathways, but

also longer timelines. And not only did I get

there, but it was far beyond what I could have

conceived in the years before. Rushing it would

have been exactly what I wanted to do. But what

the long -term... how things have gone long term

has been far better than I could have possibly

understood. And I'm so grateful. While our instinct

is to survive and preserve our resources and

to think tactically and practically when feeling

off course and in the wild places, remember that

God has already been caring for you and will

continue to care for you through these places.

God is taking care of you. God is protecting

you. God is leading you. We can let up a little

bit and we can trust him for the unseen path

and plan ahead of us. We can take the time to

worship him and to express our feelings about

the waiting to him. We can take the time to rest

in him. We can let down some of that. I just

need to figure this out. I need to shift things

to my advantage. I need to come up with a plan.

I need to, like that survival mode, not just

thinking, but like physical thing that happens

in you, we can let up on that and just be with

God. If God has promised you something, it is

still there. That promise exists. God has not

forgotten it. God has not forgotten you. So use

that time to hold on tightly to that relationship

that is the groundwork for the calling in the

first place. You don't have the vision and the

calling and the thing and the purpose and the

progress and the results. You don't have that

without caring for what's at the core of it before

any of that existed. So the Psalms are a great

way to get a sense of what that looks like for

a human to ease back into God's presence when

the need to survive feels like the most important

thing. In our fear and in our discouragement,

we can thank him and recognize that he is still

good and his mercies do, in fact, endure forever.

And that is a good promise. That is a good promise

for us. So if you are finding yourself in a wilderness,

or that you could be in one, maybe you're for

sure, you're like, yeah, I've been here a minute.

I am so tired. We got to get moving on this.

There may still be years ahead. That's true.

That's a real thing. But while you're in the

wilderness, you are not abandoned. You are not

abandoned. And perhaps that's the most important

message of all, because when you are in a wilderness,

you can feel lonely. But if you trust that God

is there and just attempt to believe, he will

meet you. There will be fruit there. Let's pray.

God, as we... live this very human life. We have

no other life to live but a human one. It can

sometimes feel very marked by long periods of

these wandering survival mode wildernesses. That

can be really hard. It's exhausting. It's a lot

of things. I pray that you would help us remember

that we can unclench our hands a little bit,

which just feels really counterintuitive, but

we can unclench our hands a little bit. We can

even jettison off some of those worries and rest

in you. We can... look to you, we can thank you,

we can worship you, we can acknowledge you, we

can express our concerns, we can express our

fears, we can express our joys. We can recall

promises that you've given either specifically

to us or to us through your word. But there is

more than just the wandering and the moving from

place to place. Because whatever it is that you've

called us to, it is nothing without you in it

anyway. So while we are here, help us remember

that you are the most important thing. We pray

this in your name. Amen.