Await & Arise Teaching: Fear into Faith- 1 Samuel 21-24

Situations can catch us off guard and typically my response is fear, but God calls us to trust in him and to instead respond in faith.  
Today's teaching focuses on David as he flees from Saul and we see that fear jeopardize the town of priests at Nob and his response in fear lacking faith.  
God is in it with him though and eventually we see David's fear turn to faith and God continues to give David victory even when times seem bleak.  

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Transcript

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And it is running for his life for life. And he's feeling the free for any kind of protection. That he can use to defend himself. He is facing his faithful fear first. He is running and dealing with things with fear first. And to face we need for this in front of him. We need for him with her fear with a situation. He will turn it into face. And we can leave him. Forever isn't forever. In this situation, David is for the faith. And I think it's such a telling moment. The third that he is. For even fishing too much for me. For the victory. For the victory. And here we can look at this. And he will free. And he will give us the faith to free in him. Salvation in any situation. It's crazy and faith. We are going to face the faithful. He doesn't say he's going to fix it for us. He doesn't say he's going to take us into the better situation and flip us into goodness. I'm going to walk with you and I'm going to show you the way out. He's being showfully away out. It's not through fear. It's through faith. I hope you enjoyed the teaching. Go back and read those chapters, 1 Samuel 21 through 24, before you listen to the teaching. And then enjoy. And thanks for being here. Welcome to another episode of Await and Arise. Join me as we dive into scripture and just pause in awe of our good God. And as we give our souls just a moment of rest and refresh. Well, how was everybody's week this week? Good. Saul. Oh, Saul. Peril is imminent danger to life or limb. And a psalm is sacred song of praise. So we meet David in a crux of his life, a turning point, definitely a time or opportunity to lean into God. His start is rather shaky, right? He's fleeing out a window with nothing but his clothes on his back, and he runs to a Himelech and he lies and he puts Ahimelech and all of the priests in the town of Nob at danger. He then takes the sword, which is really telling of the place of fear that he's standing in, because it's the sword that when he opposed the one who carried it and took it in the first place, he stood with faith, not needing a sword. And now here he stands in fear, saying, Have you got a sword or anything in this place? And it's interesting that it's Goliath's sword. It should be kind of telling to him that, hmm, maybe our faith is in the wrong place right now. We're leading with fear. And David was a man, he was anointed by God, and in the beginning he showed no fear. He had strong faith and trust in God's provision and protection. But as Saul is pursuing him, we see that deteriorate a little bit in the beginning. We see that I don't know what to do, I'm fearful, and we don't first run to God. We run away from the person who's chasing us. So it seems to decline a bit. Sometimes when we seek the Lord, um we find success. And when we find success, we kind of become complacent. We go, well, this is how it's going to be forever. And then we sit back in our nice little throne chair and enjoy our successes until a curveball of life hits us. And we don't always, in complacency, respond really well to the curveball. We go, oh, what was that? And I'm out of my chair and I'm mad at the curveball. And I don't first go, God, what should I do with this? Sometimes our first response is in fear, like it was for David. Sometimes we turn to anxiety and stress and fear before we go to faith. There's an old country song that says, Sometimes you're the Louisville slugger, and sometimes you're the ball. Sometimes it all comes together, and sometimes you're gonna lose it all. And I think that's what we're seeing here. We see him flee out this window. We see him running to a Himelech. We see him lie to a Himelech to get provision and protection. He fails to go to God first. He's letting fear lead him. As we progress in the chapters, we see him return to faith. And his Psalms give us this unique ability to actually see his heart as he walks out this particular valley in his life. He proves to us our own humanity, doesn't he? It's a little bit comforting to watch David because you can kind of go, Oh yeah, I've been there. I've not handled things real well sometimes, right off the bat. I tend to be bad at response. Like my first response is like, and then later I'm like, I'm really sorry about that first response. Here's who I really am. And you know, I don't know, maybe nobody else does that. But sometimes that's me. So we may react really well under pressure. Maybe that's you. Maybe you're like, yeah, pressure's my thing, or but maybe not. Maybe we operate in fear first. It doesn't have to be the end, though, if we operate in fear first. And that's what we get to see with David. It doesn't have to be the end. God is always there, ready for us to turn back to him and to focus on him and act in faith instead of fear. And praise him in that valley. So turning fear into faith by praising God in the valleys. Let's pray. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for David. We thank you that you call him a man after your own heart, which comforts my heart as I see myself in David so many times in his in his life. I thank you for his story. I thank you that I can read it, and your scripture is relevant today in my life, just as it was in his day. Lord, I thank you so much for your word. And I pray for it to be your words and not mine. Amen. So today I wanted to kind of take a different look. Um, I want to look at it from the peril of the situation that David is facing and the psalm that he wrote as he pours out his heart to God amidst all of his distress. Um, so we start in chapter 21 and 22. David's on the run. His wife is bought him some time. He's fled to Ahimelech to gain provision and weaponry. As I said before, we see him lie to Ahimelech, putting Ahimelech and the other priests in a lot of danger. He takes the bread and Goliath's sword, and then he flees to an even greater enemy's land, the land of Gath, which was home to the Philistines and also used to be home to none other than Goliath. Isn't it interesting that he says, there is none like it when he's talking about the sword? Like it's unique. And then he goes to Goliath's old home. That might be recognizable then. But he's in fear mode. He's running from Saul. So this seems to be the right way to go. Once he's there, though, he sees this new danger and realizes that might not have been the best choice. So he acts like a madman. Um, so there's a commentator that says that when in that tradition, in the Jewish tradition, to let uh insanity show, to have especially the shaming of one's beard by letting saliva drip down your beard, was something that they would never intention, an Israelite would never intentionally do. So, but other other um commentators said he he covered his sanity with insanity. So he hid his sanity with insanity. I thought that was interesting. Now, as he's on the move, he writes this uh Psalm 34. And it says, I will bless the Lord at all times. His praise shall continually be in my mouth, my soul makes its boast in the Lord. Let the humble hear and be glad. Oh magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt his name together. I sought the Lord, and he answered me, and he delivered me from all my fears. Our verse from this week. Those who look to him are radiant, and their faces shall never be ashamed. This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him and saved him out of all his troubles. The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him and delivers them. Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good. Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him. O fear the Lord, you his saints, for those who fear him have no lack. The young lions suffer want want and hunger, but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing. Come, O children, listen to me. I will teach you the fear of the Lord. What man is there who desires life and loves many days that he may see good? Keep your tongue from evil, keep your lips from speaking deceit, turn away from evil and do good, seek peace and pursue it. The eyes of the Lord are toward the righteous, and his ears toward their cry. The face of the Lord is against those who do evil, to cut off the memory of them from the earth when the righteous cry for help. The Lord hears and delivers them out of all trouble. The Lord is near to the brokenhearted, and he saves the crushed in spirit. Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all. He keeps all his bones, but not one of them is broken. Affliction will slay the wicked, and those who hate the righteous will be condemned. The Lord redeems the life of his servants, but none of those who take refuge in him will be condemned. Can you imagine David writing this as he's just faced a king who more than likely wanted him dead? And he's running from another king that has definitely more than one time tried to kill him. And yet he knows if I take refuge in the Lord, I will not be ashamed. I will not be condemned, and he will protect me. And then Psalm 56 is wrote as he's coming out of Gath, or when he's seized in Gath, actually. So it says, Be gracious to me, O God, for man tramples on me all day long, an attacker oppresses me. My enemies trample on me all day long, for many to attack me proudly. When I am afraid, I put my trust in you, in God whose word I praise, in God I trust, I shall not be afraid. What can flesh do to me? All day long they injure my cause, and all their thoughts are against me for evil. They stir up strife, they lack, they watch my steps, they have waited for my life, for their crime will they escape? In wrath, cast down the peoples. Oh God, you have kept count of my tossings, put my tears in a bottle. Are they not in your book? Then my enemies will turn back in the day when I call. This I know that God is for me. In God whose word I praise, in the Lord whose word I praise, in God I trust, I shall not be afraid. What can man do to me? I must perform my vows to you, O God. I will render thank offerings to you, for you have delivered my soul from death, yes, my free feet from falling, that I may walk before God in the light of life. So he leaves Gaff. He gets sent out because he's insane. Um and he finds refuge then in the cave of Adulum. And as he's in the cave of Adulum, this is when his family comes, and many miscreants come, the ones who are discontented with Saul's reign, and he finds himself in a mass of people to lead, right? And he writes Psalm 57. And this says, Let your glory be over all the earth. That's what it was called. Um, be merciful to me, O God, be merciful to me, for in you my soul takes refuge. In the shadow of your wings I will take refuge, till the storms of destruction pass by. I cry out to God most high, to God who fulfills his purpose for me. He will send from heaven and save me. He will put to shame him who tramples on me. Selah, God will send out his steadfast love and his faithfulness. My soul is in the midst of lions. I lie down amid fiery beasts, the children of man, whose teeth are spears and arrows, whose tongues are sharp swords. Be exalted, O God, above the heavens. Let your glory be over all the earth. They set a net for my steps, my soul was bowed down, they dug a pit in my way, but they have fallen into it themselves. Selah, my heart is steadfast, O God, my heart is steadfast. I will sing and make melody, awake my glory, awake, O harp and learn I will awake the dawn. I will give thanks to you, O Lord, among the peoples, I will sing praises to you among the nations, for your steadfast love is great to the heavens. Your faithfulness to the clouds. Be exalted, O God, above the heavens. Let your glory be over all the earth. So here he is in the cave. And that's what he has to say. He's running for his life, and yet he is praising God. And not only that, but speaking the truth of God, knowing that in the refuge of God he is the safest, and that God's victory is the one that he's after. Not his own, not his own gain, but God's victory. So he places his faith in God. He's turning that fear into faith. And then he hears from Abiathar. Abiathar comes from Nob and discloses the sad information that the entire town has been wiped out. 85 priests or 84 priests, if Abiathar live, and three score people, so which would be around 300 people, were killed. And he wrote this psalm in regards to Doeg the Edomite. Why do you boast of evil, O mighty man? The steadfast love of God endures all the day. Your tongue plots destruction like a sharp razor. You worker of deceit, you love evil more than good, and lying more than speaking what is right. Selah, you love all words that devour, O deceitful tongue. But God will break you down forever, He will snatch and tear you from your tent, He will uproot you from the land of the living. Selah, the righteous shall see and fear and shall laugh at him, saying, See the man who would not make God his refuge. But he trusted in the abundance of his riches and sought refuge in his own destruction. But I am like a green olive tree in the house of God. I trust in the steadfast love of God forever and ever. I will thank you forever because you have done it. I will wait for your name, for it is good in the presence of the godly. David didn't seek God right away. And in his fear, he put Ahimelech and the entire town in terrible danger. And the loss of all those people will be his burden to carry. They will be on his shoulders. And he assumes that responsibility. But his running in fear was different than Doag, because Doag was acting in evil to gain. Selfishly. And you can just hear it in his words, his hatred for that. We don't always act wisely when we're hit with those curveballs in life. Fear, distrust, anxiety can overwhelm us. David is definitely proof of that humanity, but he's also proof of God's faithfulness. We may start in fear and make a mess of things like David did here, but God is worth good, and he's worthy of our return to faith. Our returning to trusting him. Consequences must still be dealt with, and we see that in David's lot. He has to deal with the consequences. David's situation with the priests and the and the loss. But he turns that fear into faith. He pours out his heart in praise to God and focuses on what God will do now through him. And it's the same for us. We can start out in fear, but when we turn to God in faith, we can say, Lord, I'm here at your feet. I maybe didn't respond exactly right. I might have some stuff to deal with, but Lord, you are the leader of me. You are the one I follow. Show me what the way is to go, and he will be faithful to clean and renew our hearts and set us on the path that he has for us, turning our fear into faith and praising God in those valleys. And now we're in chapter 23. So uh this year my husband and I gutted the old schoolhouse at our house and decided to do a remodel, which I've heard that these kind of projects can cause divorce. So we're good. But it was definitely stressful. It was a lot of work, and there's a lot of times that we did a lot of the work because we tried to save money, so that puts some fun pressure on marriages. Anyways, my husband would say, I have to go back to work to get a break. And that's probably not too untrue. I might be a bit of a slave driver sometimes, but in my defense, he's reciprocal. So we work, we both push hard on each other. But um, it made me think of David here and that situation with him when he joked about having to go back to work to get a break. Um, that David probably in this stress, this anxiety, this place of unknowing, that's like locked in a cave, you know, we're stretching ourselves. I don't know what's coming next. I'm following God, but it's dark in here. I don't know what's next. Maybe it was kind of. A break to go back to work and be a warrior. He knew how to do that. We can be successful here. I can slay some Philistines. Let's go back to work for a minute. I gotta get this off my chest. So he goes to, and I don't think I'm saying it right, but uh Kalah, and they um push the Philistines back. They save them from the Philistines. But just as they're there and they're starting to feel kind of like, all right, we got some people on our side, God says, Hey, get the heck out of Dodge. Because Saul is coming for you. Saul didn't want to defend his territory from the Philistines, but he was more than happy to come there and get David. And because this town was fortified, he was, he's like, well, he's locked himself in his own prison, so God is doing this for me. He's obviously handing me David. Well, David gets out of there, and as he leaves, he goes through the through Ziff or the desert of Horash. And the Ziphites, they don't even, he doesn't even have to talk to him, and they're like, Hey Saul, he's over here, right? Under that rock right there. You can come and get him. We love you. Right? That's so here David is then. He writes Psalm 54. Because he's kind of like, hey, I just saved these Kolites, and now I'm in this other area. I haven't even done anything to the Ziphites, and they're already throwing me under the bus. Lord. So he writes Psalm 54. Oh God, save me by your name and vindicate me by your might. Oh God, hear my prayer. Give ear to the words of my mouth, for strangers have risen against me. Ruthless men seek my life. They do not set God before themselves. Saila, behold, God is my helper. The Lord is the upholder of my life. He will return the evil to my enemies. In your faithfulness, put an end to them with a free will offering. I will sacrifice to you. I will give thanks to your name, O Lord, for it is good. For he has delivered me from every trouble, and my eye has looked in triumph on my enemies. David answers his fear with truth. And that bolsters his faith. Man, isn't that the best? That is the truth. When I'm facing something and my faith is weak and my fear is strong, if I speak the truth of God's word, I all of a sudden my faith gets stronger and the fear gets smaller. And that's how David handles it. He speaks the truth about God to himself, bolstering his faith, turning that fear into faith. I will praise your name, he says. But that's how David was. David was like, I will praise your name, even when it's hard. My daughter Lila was a temper tantrum thrower when she was little, and she would be just really hard to love at those times. And she would just scream and kick and fight. And I remember, I remember the Lord putting it on my heart that, like, this kid needs a hug. And I go, Well, I am not hugging her. She's a prickly little cactus right now. But that's what she needed. She needed to be embraced and to be hugged. And that's David here. He's like, I know it's hard to say the things, but Lord, I will be thankful. Even in this time, this terrible, difficult valley where I'm facing death, I will praise your name. Take your eyes off of the battle just in front of you. Focus them on God and praise him. Speak his truth and you will bolster your faith. You will turn that fear into faith and praising in the valley. In chapter 24, the counter to this is Psalm 142. With my voice I cry out to the Lord. With my voice I plead for mercy to the Lord. I pour out my complaint before him. I tell my trouble before him. When my spirit faints within me, you know my way. In the path where I walk, they have hidden a trap for me. Look to the right and see there is none who takes notice of me. No refuge remains to me. No one cares for my soul. I cry to you, O Lord. I say, You are my refuge, my portion in the land of the living. Attend to my cry, for I am brought very low. Deliver me from my persecutors, for they are too strong for me. Bring me out of prison that I may give thanks to your name. The righteous will surround me, for you will deal bountifully with me. God is good. And he is good to give David this outlet of song. As he is walking through this, this is a way for him to pour out his heart. And what a blessing it is for you and I. Because as we watch him walk through this struggle and this fear, we can see what his heart is pouring out to God. That is a unique opportunity for us. So at this point, he's got 600 men. He's running from Saul. He's been to the wilderness of Zif, the wilderness of Moan, the cave of Adulum, the and now the cave of Engedi. Here he writes this Psalm 142 that I just read. He pours out his heart. He's asking the questions, but in the end, he's always praising God. It is not a bad thing to ask God questions. If there's things going on in your life and you have some big questions, you go to him and then you praise him. Because God is good and he can handle the questions. He handled David's questions. And David finished it by praising God, knowing that his faith was sound in him. That it was good to trust God and to let his fear not lead the way. And here he is, he's in the cave. It looks as though God has delivered Saul right to his hand. And any one of us probably would have thought the same way all the warriors thought. Well, he's right here, we can take him, God is good. But David knew otherwise. He knew that he was still God's anointed, he knew that it wasn't his time, and he was not allowed to touch him. He took the hem of a piece of his cloak and cut it off and immediately felt great remorse. He knew it was wrong. And so he followed Saul out. Psalm 105, 15 says, Do not touch my anointed ones. Do no harm to my prophets. Even though Saul had killed an entire city of priests, God's anointed ones David would not. David would not. And David vows. David started out with fear, leading the way. But as things progress, we see his actions, but they parallel his heart. The inner struggle of all the situations and the circumstances, but yet a constant return to trusting God and placing his faith back in him. Don't you love that David shows us the struggle? That God allowed us to see the struggle. Because in it we get to see his humanity. And then we can relate. And then we don't have shame when we struggle if we take it back to faith. That's life. Life is hard, and life will cause us to struggle. God's okay with that. But take that fear, speak the truth to it, and turn it into faith. Praising God in the valleys. This week, that's my challenge to you. Any fear, any situation you're walking through, big, small. Take that fear by the child and hand it to God. Put it at Christ's feet. Let him speak truth over you. Stick your nose in his word. Read about who he is. Because it's not about the situation you're in, it's not about the foe you're against. It is about the God you serve. And he is bigger. And he has already won that victory. All you're doing is trusting that that victory is a goodness in your life. And it is. Because it's for his glory. And God's good. So turn the fear into faith and praise God in your valley. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we just thank you so much for your word. We thank you for the parallel of David's situation and his heart. Thank you for 1 Samuel and Psalm. Can I just give it to you, Lord? Whatever we're walking through, you know each one of us. You know us so much more than we even know ourselves. Lord, help us to trust you. Help us to lay it at your feet and pick up our faith in you, trust you, be grateful for you, and praise you. Lord, I thank you so much for your word. And I just pray you bless us as we go this week. Amen. Thanks, ladies. Thanks for joining me today. If your soul was refreshed by this pause in the word, then I hope that you'll continue to join me weekly for these await and arise meditations. My hope is that this podcast space will be a reprieve for you to just take a pause away from the world, to be refreshed in the word, and to await in the presence of a good God. Would you go to the comment section and leave a word or a scripture that's lifted you up this week? I really do love to see how God is working in all of our lives. And my desire is to see that this space just grows as a community of people who come together and encourage each other in the word. I want to see him working in all of us. It's just such a sweet reminder that we are all in this together. And God, he goes before us. So until next time, I'm praying your heart stays anchored in his truth. We and Rise podcasts are available on all podcast players. If you would like to see Angela me as I teach weekly live, click on my YouTube channel or go to my webpage, AngelaRaber.com. And you can find those episodes there. Meditations come out each week on Thursday, and live teachings are weekly on Monday, and I post those on Tuesday. You'll subscribe and feel free to share this episode with family and friends and on social media. Connecting with a community Bible study in your area. 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