WEBVTT 00:00:00.160 --> 00:00:00.959 Of your word now. 00:00:01.280 --> 00:00:02.640 And Father, we give this all to you. 00:00:02.720 --> 00:00:03.839 We give this entire service to you. 00:00:03.919 --> 00:00:05.040 In Christ's name we pray. 00:00:05.360 --> 00:00:05.919 Amen. 00:00:06.160 --> 00:00:08.240 Alright, kids can be dismissed. 00:00:13.679 --> 00:00:14.320 Amen. 00:00:17.920 --> 00:00:19.519 Make sure those fourth graders stay. 00:00:19.600 --> 00:00:20.719 Don't let them leave. 00:00:23.760 --> 00:00:26.559 Well, we are continuing again in 1 Samuel. 00:00:26.640 --> 00:00:28.960 We're going to be in chapter 19 this morning. 00:00:30.160 --> 00:00:35.200 If you want to find your way to 1 Samuel chapter 19, we'll read the whole chapter in just a moment. 00:00:36.159 --> 00:00:44.320 In 1555, there was a man named John Denley who was arrested for his faith in Christ. 00:00:44.399 --> 00:00:51.920 And when he was just unflinchingly refusing to deny Jesus, he was then sentenced to death at the stake. 00:00:52.560 --> 00:01:01.759 And they bound him and they lit the wood beneath him, and as the flames rose higher all around him, he began to sing a psalm. 00:01:03.280 --> 00:01:04.560 He began to sing. 00:01:05.040 --> 00:01:06.400 Let that sink in. 00:01:08.480 --> 00:01:18.079 And one of his tormentors picked up a piece of burning wood from the pile in anger and hurled it at him, and it hit him in the face. 00:01:18.879 --> 00:01:26.239 But instead of silencing him, Denley simply replied, and I quote, Truly, you have spoiled a good old song. 00:01:26.879 --> 00:01:30.959 And he started over and continued singing until he died. 00:01:35.439 --> 00:01:51.280 In 2015, a little more recently, a man uh in Asia, Andrew Chan, he walked with several other condemned Christians to the field to stand before the firing squad while singing together in unison. 00:01:52.400 --> 00:02:10.080 And it was when they had just finished the third verse of Ten Thousand Reasons that they were executed, having just sung together, and on that day, when my strength is failing, the end draws near, and my time has come, still my soul will sing your praise unending, ten thousand years and then forevermore. 00:02:13.840 --> 00:02:28.960 In the year 203 AD, a twenty-two-year-old woman named Perpetua was imprisoned for being a follower of Jesus and then sentenced to death among the wild beasts in the Roman arena. 00:02:30.080 --> 00:02:42.000 And she wrote in her diary, just days before her death, she wrote, It will all happen as God wills, for we may be sure that we are not left to ourselves but are all in his power. 00:02:42.560 --> 00:02:51.599 And she writes more, saying that she was convinced that her coming death was not outside God's purposes, but was part of the path that he had appointed for her. 00:02:52.960 --> 00:02:59.199 And then she was led into the arena among the vicious beasts, singing songs of praise to God. 00:03:02.000 --> 00:03:17.840 Now, how is it that all of these men and women and dozens and dozens hundreds of others throughout Christian history have faced persecution and suffering and torture and death, the most terrifying unknown of human experience, singing songs of praise to God? 00:03:18.000 --> 00:03:18.960 How is that possible? 00:03:19.199 --> 00:03:30.479 How is it that Paul and Silas in Acts 16, having just been violently attacked by mobs and stripped naked and publicly shamed and beaten with rods and thrown into a dungeon and bound in the stocks? 00:03:30.560 --> 00:03:34.400 How is it that their response to that in the middle of the night is to sing hymns of praise to God? 00:03:35.840 --> 00:04:02.479 And how is it that Jesus, in Matthew 26, the night he was betrayed and arrested, knowing full well that he was about to be shamed and tortured and murdered on a tree and to bear the full weight of the wrath of God, walked to his location of his arrest, singing a hymn with his disciples, and then bled out on the cross with the words of Psalm 22 on his lips. 00:04:07.039 --> 00:04:13.840 Well, it's not because of the pleasantness of their circumstances that these men and women sang. 00:04:14.800 --> 00:04:17.680 It's not because they loved the situation they were in. 00:04:17.920 --> 00:04:22.240 It's not because they were untouched by fear or loneliness or pain. 00:04:22.319 --> 00:04:27.519 It's not because death was somehow less terrible to them than to anyone else. 00:04:28.399 --> 00:04:39.360 It's for the same reason that so many of us came in here today and sang praises to God in the midst of our hurt and pain and confusion and fear. 00:04:43.279 --> 00:04:57.040 It's the reason 22-year-old Perpetua wrote in her diary when she said, It will all happen as God wills, for we may be sure that we are not left to ourselves, but are all in his power. 00:04:59.040 --> 00:05:23.120 Not because their lives were perfect and painless, but because they understood that God was not absent from their suffering, but sovereign over it, that he governs all things, not as an indifferent dictator or a distant observer, but as a loving heavenly father, who rules the universe for the good of his children and directs all of human history according to the purposes of his perfect will. 00:05:24.720 --> 00:05:27.920 They understood this truth called providence. 00:05:29.199 --> 00:05:43.360 This truth that comes into sharp focus in 1 Samuel 19, where David is being hunted by Saul on the verge of death, surrounded by uncertainty and chaos and fear, and yet quietly preserved by God's providence every step of the way. 00:05:43.600 --> 00:06:00.399 And it is in faith, brothers and sisters, trusting in God's providence, that we with David and those after him can sing joyful praises to God in the midst of suffering, even in the valley of the shadow of death. 00:06:00.720 --> 00:06:09.040 So let's read now from God's word in 1 Samuel 19 and listen with open ears as the risen Lord Jesus speaks to us from his word. 00:06:09.279 --> 00:06:18.399 I invite you to stand if you're able and follow along with me in 1 Samuel 19, beginning in verse 1. 00:06:19.839 --> 00:06:21.519 Word of God reads. 00:06:22.560 --> 00:06:28.800 And Saul spoke to Jonathan, his son, and to all his servants, that they should kill David. 00:06:29.759 --> 00:06:32.639 But Jonathan, Saul's son, delighted much in David. 00:06:32.800 --> 00:06:38.319 And Jonathan told David, Saul, my father, seeks to kill you, therefore be on your guard in the morning. 00:06:38.800 --> 00:06:48.480 Stay in a secret place and hide yourself, and I will go out and stand beside my father in the field where you are, and I will speak to my father about you, and if I learn anything, I will tell you. 00:06:49.120 --> 00:06:58.480 And Jonathan spoke well of David to Saul his father, and said to him, Let not the king sin against his servant David, because he has not sinned against you, and because his deeds have brought good to you. 00:06:58.720 --> 00:07:04.000 For he took his life in his hand and he struck down the Philistine, and the Lord worked a great salvation for all Israel. 00:07:04.240 --> 00:07:06.160 You saw it and rejoiced. 00:07:06.399 --> 00:07:11.360 Why then will you sin against innocent blood by killing David without cause? 00:07:11.839 --> 00:07:14.319 And Saul listened to the voice of Jonathan. 00:07:14.560 --> 00:07:18.959 Saul swore, As the Lord lives, he shall not be put to death. 00:07:19.519 --> 00:07:27.279 And Jonathan called David, and Jonathan reported to him all these things, and Jonathan brought David to Saul, and he was in his presence as before. 00:07:28.160 --> 00:07:29.759 And there was war again. 00:07:30.000 --> 00:07:35.199 And David went out and fought with the Philistines and struck them with a great blow, so that they fled before him. 00:07:35.439 --> 00:07:51.920 Then a harmful spirit from the Lord came upon Saul, as he sat in his house with his spear in his hand, and David was playing the lyre, and Saul sought to pin David to the wall with the spear, but he eluded Saul, so that he struck the spear into the wall, and David fled and escaped that night. 00:07:52.319 --> 00:07:56.160 Saul sent messengers to David's house to watch him that he might kill him in the morning. 00:07:56.319 --> 00:08:01.839 But Michael, David's wife, told him, If you do not escape with your life tonight, tomorrow you will be killed. 00:08:02.160 --> 00:08:07.040 So Michael let David down through the window, and he fled away and escaped. 00:08:07.519 --> 00:08:13.519 Michael took an image and laid it on the bed, and put a pillow of goat's hair at its head, and covered it with the clothes. 00:08:13.759 --> 00:08:17.680 And when Saul sent messengers to take David, she said, He is sick. 00:08:18.160 --> 00:08:23.199 And Saul sent the messengers to see David, saying, Bring him up to me in the bed that I may kill him. 00:08:23.439 --> 00:08:28.319 And when the messengers came in, behold, the image was in the bed, with the pillow of goat's hair at its head. 00:08:28.560 --> 00:08:33.679 Saul said to Michael, Why have you deceived me thus, and let my enemy go, so that he has escaped? 00:08:33.919 --> 00:08:37.759 And Michael answered Saul, he said to me, Let me go, why should I kill you? 00:08:38.240 --> 00:08:44.639 Now David fled and escaped, and he came to Samuel at Ramah, and Saul, and told him all that Saul had done to him. 00:08:44.799 --> 00:08:47.039 And he and Samuel went and lived at Nioth. 00:08:47.759 --> 00:08:51.679 And it was told Saul, Behold, David is at Nioth in Ramah. 00:08:51.919 --> 00:09:02.320 Then Saul sent messengers to take David, and when they saw the company of the prophets prophesying, and Samuel standing his head over them, the Spirit of God came upon the messengers of Saul, and they all prophesied. 00:09:02.799 --> 00:09:06.399 When it was told Saul, he sent other messengers, and they also prophesied. 00:09:06.639 --> 00:09:10.559 And Saul sent messengers again a third time, and they also prophesied. 00:09:10.720 --> 00:09:16.879 Then he himself went to Rama and came to the great well that is at Seku, and he asked, Where are Samuel and David? 00:09:16.960 --> 00:09:24.080 And one said, Behold, they are at Nioth and Rama, and he went there to Nioth and Ramah, and the Spirit of God came upon him also. 00:09:24.399 --> 00:09:35.440 And as he went he prophesied until he came to Nioth and Ramah, and he too stripped off his clothes, and he too prophesied before Samuel and lay naked all that day and all that night. 00:09:35.600 --> 00:09:39.200 Thus it is said, is Saul also among the prophets. 00:09:39.679 --> 00:09:40.559 This is God's word. 00:09:40.799 --> 00:09:42.000 Please be seated. 00:09:44.000 --> 00:09:50.320 Lord Jesus, would you meet with us now to speak to us from your word? 00:09:51.120 --> 00:09:58.720 Help us to see and know you through this text, to become more like you, and to magnify your name as we do. 00:09:58.879 --> 00:10:00.639 We love you, Jesus, and we praise these things. 00:10:00.879 --> 00:10:02.720 Pray these things in your name for your glory. 00:10:03.039 --> 00:10:03.679 Amen. 00:10:07.679 --> 00:10:19.759 The heading of Psalm 59 tells us that David wrote that song, Psalm 59, the night that he fled for his life from his home when Saul sent men to kill him. 00:10:19.919 --> 00:10:23.919 This is the circumstances that David writes Psalm 59. 00:10:24.080 --> 00:10:33.519 And what we see in that song is David's joyful faith in God, even though he's on the verge of death, as he trusts in God's providential control of the universe for his good. 00:10:34.720 --> 00:10:39.440 And that's all made all the more clear as we look at the events of 1 Samuel 19. 00:10:39.519 --> 00:10:41.919 What we see in this story is a battle of wills. 00:10:42.480 --> 00:10:47.360 Two wills mainly are at work King Saul and King Jesus. 00:10:47.600 --> 00:10:50.799 King Saul is hell-bent on killing David. 00:10:50.960 --> 00:10:55.120 He hates this guy, he's envious of him, he fears him, and he wants him dead. 00:10:55.440 --> 00:11:00.799 And God is determined to bring David safely to the throne. 00:11:02.240 --> 00:11:12.559 And so, like a like a toddler attacking another child at the playground, Saul makes repeated, but flimsy attempts at David's life. 00:11:12.720 --> 00:11:24.320 And like a father scooping up his child and swiftly carrying him away to safety, God's will absolutely dominates and controls the whole situation, and his sovereign plan moves forward unhindered. 00:11:26.000 --> 00:11:33.039 We see this battle of wills unfold in four main scenes as Saul makes four attempts on David's life. 00:11:33.200 --> 00:11:46.159 There's the scheme in verses 1 to 7, then there is the spear in verses 8 to 10, the stakeout in verses 11 to 17, and then the search in verses 18 to 24. 00:11:46.240 --> 00:11:52.000 The scheme, the spear, the stakeout, and the stur the stur what's that word I'm looking for? 00:11:52.639 --> 00:11:52.960 Search. 00:11:53.120 --> 00:11:53.759 Thank you, Greg. 00:11:54.000 --> 00:11:55.120 I was searching for the word. 00:11:55.200 --> 00:11:55.840 There we go. 00:11:56.320 --> 00:11:57.360 First, the scheme. 00:11:57.519 --> 00:12:00.480 This is the first scene in verses 1 to 7. 00:12:01.200 --> 00:12:05.440 Saul is no longer keeping his once hidden agenda to himself. 00:12:05.600 --> 00:12:10.960 What he has been desiring since probably around the time of David and Goliath, back in chapter 17. 00:12:11.039 --> 00:12:12.639 It's now put on full display. 00:12:12.799 --> 00:12:18.799 As he says in verse 1, it says, Saul spoke to Jonathan, his son, and to all his servants that they should kill David. 00:12:19.200 --> 00:12:20.480 It's not even hiding anymore. 00:12:20.720 --> 00:12:21.200 It's official. 00:12:21.759 --> 00:12:34.159 What began as jealousy has now become policy, as the most powerful man in Israel, perhaps in the whole world at the time, has issued a death warrant against the Lord's anointed one, his chosen king. 00:12:34.799 --> 00:12:41.200 So it's a dark scene at first, but immediately the providence of God begins to shine through the darkness. 00:12:42.240 --> 00:12:49.759 Jonathan, Saul's own son, a fact that is repeated by my count, I think like seven times in this story. 00:12:50.080 --> 00:12:54.879 Saul's own son, Jonathan, it says, delighted much in David. 00:12:55.519 --> 00:13:00.639 And he steps in as a mediator to intercede for David. 00:13:02.080 --> 00:13:05.600 As Mike showed us last week, Jonathan is the crown prince. 00:13:05.840 --> 00:13:14.480 He had every reason to be like Saul here, to fear and envy David, to hate him, to see him as a threat to his own crown, to his own kingdom. 00:13:14.639 --> 00:13:31.279 And yet rather than grasping for his own rights and his own privileges and joining his father's pursuit of wealth and power and status, Jonathan lays down his pride, he lays down his royalty, he lays down his kingdom, he even lays down his life and steps between his father and his friend. 00:13:32.960 --> 00:13:41.200 He pleads David's innocence, reminding Saul that David has only brought blessing to Israel and has done nothing wrong. 00:13:41.519 --> 00:13:46.000 And for a brief moment, Saul listens and David is spared. 00:13:48.080 --> 00:13:52.080 So in just a few verses, we see both realities side by side. 00:13:53.039 --> 00:14:06.080 Human hatred, on the one hand, and its most depraved and determined, just intent to kill David, and also God's providential restraint, working through the unexpected faithfulness of a friend. 00:14:06.720 --> 00:14:07.840 And that's the point here. 00:14:08.480 --> 00:14:11.600 God doesn't rescue David by removing Saul. 00:14:11.759 --> 00:14:14.639 He rescues David by providing Jonathan. 00:14:14.960 --> 00:14:15.360 Right? 00:14:15.759 --> 00:14:17.120 God could have killed Saul. 00:14:17.200 --> 00:14:19.200 He could have struck him dead if he wanted to. 00:14:19.279 --> 00:14:20.960 In fact, eventually he does. 00:14:21.200 --> 00:14:25.279 1 Chronicles 10, 14 tells us Saul died for his breach of faith. 00:14:25.440 --> 00:14:27.200 The Lord put him to death. 00:14:28.000 --> 00:14:28.320 Right? 00:14:28.720 --> 00:14:29.840 This happens all throughout the story. 00:14:29.919 --> 00:14:38.000 We read back in chapter 2 of Eli's sons that they would not listen to the voice of their father, for it was the will of the Lord to put them to death. 00:14:38.320 --> 00:14:39.919 1 Samuel 2, 25. 00:14:40.399 --> 00:14:45.679 Soon we'll read in chapter 25, 38, that the Lord struck Nabal and he died. 00:14:45.840 --> 00:14:52.480 And in 2 Samuel 6, 7, the anger of the Lord was kindled against Uzzah, and God struck him down. 00:14:53.600 --> 00:15:00.159 So throughout the Bible, God's power, his sovereignty, his providence over life and death is on full display. 00:15:00.320 --> 00:15:11.600 And yet here, rather than striking Saul dead, which he had every right to and every ability to, the Lord instead provides David with a friend. 00:15:13.440 --> 00:15:24.320 God's providence is not limited by anything, but he chooses to use the instrument of friendship to accomplish his work in David's life and in our own. 00:15:25.200 --> 00:15:34.320 So this gives us a clear first lesson from this passage that God uses friendship as a powerful instrument of his providential care. 00:15:34.960 --> 00:15:42.240 God uses friendship as something that he has given as a gift to his people to providentially care for his children. 00:15:42.559 --> 00:15:45.039 Jonathan is not incidental in this story. 00:15:45.200 --> 00:15:48.799 He is God's chosen providential means of sustaining David's life. 00:15:48.879 --> 00:15:51.840 And that raises a helpful question for all of us. 00:15:52.080 --> 00:16:01.279 Namely, who has God placed in my life that he intends for me to strengthen or protect or encourage in some way? 00:16:02.080 --> 00:16:13.039 Is God calling you to be a Jonathan to someone who is weary or isolated or under pressure, someone who's doubting, someone who needs encouragement? 00:16:13.840 --> 00:16:25.600 And are you willing to lay down your rights and your privileges or your envy or your insecurity or your money or your time in order to serve that person? 00:16:27.440 --> 00:16:31.840 Not just say hi and chat on Sunday mornings out in the lobby, because we don't have one. 00:16:33.360 --> 00:16:41.440 But like a real friendship that's like deep and personal and spiritually based and involved and consistent and self-sacrificial. 00:16:42.159 --> 00:16:44.320 We need friends. 00:16:49.440 --> 00:16:57.919 We need one another as male friendships in the church for God to use us as providential means in each other's lives to care for us as his people. 00:16:58.480 --> 00:17:04.480 One of the ordinary ways that God preserves his people is through faithful friendship. 00:17:06.160 --> 00:17:16.559 And perhaps especially in our time, that's a word we need to hear, because many people, even in the church, are surrounded by crowds but starved of real friendship. 00:17:17.680 --> 00:17:21.200 How can we be a Jonathan to those around us? 00:17:25.279 --> 00:17:29.599 Jonathan, though, is not the only instrument in God's hands. 00:17:29.920 --> 00:17:35.920 God does not only preserve David through the courage of others, he also preserves David through David himself. 00:17:36.400 --> 00:17:39.519 That brings us to the second scene, the spear. 00:17:40.799 --> 00:17:46.319 David has returned to Saul's presence to play the lyre for him. 00:17:46.880 --> 00:18:02.720 But he's also been back at war, conquering God's enemies with incredible might and amazing victories, time after time after time, which only throws gasoline on the fire of Saul's envy and insecurity, rekindling his bitter hatred for David. 00:18:03.279 --> 00:18:07.279 And what happened back in chapter 18, surprise, surprise, happens again. 00:18:07.440 --> 00:18:10.000 Saul doesn't keep his word, but he attacks David. 00:18:10.079 --> 00:18:16.799 He either hurls the spear at him or lunges at him with it to try to pierce him through and pin him to the wall. 00:18:16.880 --> 00:18:27.119 And David, young, agile, fit warrior David, dodges Saul's assault and makes a run for it, escaping the attack. 00:18:27.680 --> 00:18:32.799 And this, too, though it's David acting, is God's act of providence. 00:18:33.680 --> 00:18:38.640 Which shows us a second lesson from this passage, that God's providence is not limited by anything. 00:18:38.799 --> 00:18:47.759 But just as he uses friendship as an instrument for his sovereign purposes, he also uses individuals and the abilities and gifts that he has given us. 00:18:49.519 --> 00:18:53.039 David's not rescued here by a miracle that removes him from the moment. 00:18:53.200 --> 00:19:04.799 He's rescued as he acts, as he serves, as he plays, as he moves, as he runs, as he uses wisdom and discernment, and God preserves him in and through it all. 00:19:06.160 --> 00:19:10.559 So the question is: are you using what God has already placed in your hands? 00:19:10.880 --> 00:19:16.400 Your skills, your opportunities, your responsibilities, your gifts, your relationships? 00:19:16.640 --> 00:19:23.359 Are you using what God has given you as the means to serve him and bring about his providential ends? 00:19:24.240 --> 00:19:33.279 Because in God's providence, ordinary faithfulness is typically the very place where God's most extraordinary work is accomplished. 00:19:34.640 --> 00:19:42.160 And it is through ordinary activity that God sovereignly preserves David's life here in verse 10. 00:19:42.400 --> 00:19:44.799 So we're beginning to see a pattern, right? 00:19:45.039 --> 00:19:54.559 Saul can try to kill David, even at point blank with a spear, possessed by an evil spirit, as he's been trying to do many times now. 00:19:55.279 --> 00:19:59.200 But through what seems like ordinary events, God is preserving him. 00:19:59.359 --> 00:20:03.039 And if God is preserving him, Saul can't touch him. 00:20:03.359 --> 00:20:05.680 David is immortal. 00:20:05.920 --> 00:20:10.960 He'll die eventually when God says it's time, but with God preserving David, David is immortal. 00:20:12.559 --> 00:20:23.839 There was this missionary, Henry Martin, back in the early 1800s, took the gospel to India and Persia and suffered immensely for the sake of the gospel. 00:20:24.079 --> 00:20:26.720 And he wrote this in his journal, The Year That He Died. 00:20:26.799 --> 00:20:35.200 He said, To all appearance, the present year will be more perilous than any I have seen. 00:20:35.920 --> 00:20:40.000 But whether life or death be mine, may Christ be magnified in me. 00:20:40.160 --> 00:20:43.279 If he has work for me to do, I cannot die. 00:20:45.680 --> 00:20:56.319 Martin's expressing there a profound truth that we would do well to reflect on daily, that until our work is finished, you and I are immortal. 00:20:57.359 --> 00:21:04.480 God's providence governs our lives, and until he says it is our time, we cannot be stopped. 00:21:05.519 --> 00:21:21.119 I remember coming to this realization in college during a season of um just lostness and confusion over like the purpose of my life and if there was meaning and a point, if I could be good for anything, if God had any use for me. 00:21:21.200 --> 00:21:23.519 I remember thinking, like, why doesn't God just take me to heaven already? 00:21:23.599 --> 00:21:24.960 Like, what am I doing here? 00:21:25.200 --> 00:21:39.039 And just a few days later, I was in an accident, and my car was totaled on the interstate when I was run off the road by a semi, and the car was just in a wreck, there was broken glass everywhere, the toilet that I had in my trunk had shattered into a million pieces. 00:21:39.279 --> 00:21:40.400 Long story. 00:21:40.720 --> 00:21:45.119 Um more like I just don't really have a good explanation for why I had a toilet in my trunk. 00:21:45.359 --> 00:21:58.160 But I I just I remember sitting there on the side of the road, every everything I just spun out of control, sitting in this crunched up car and thinking, like, God, that would have been a pretty good time to do it, right? 00:21:58.240 --> 00:21:59.759 Like, if you were going to take my life. 00:22:00.559 --> 00:22:03.599 He had every opportunity to, and he chose not to. 00:22:03.759 --> 00:22:08.960 And it was such a clear sign to me that God was saying, I'm giving you breath in your lungs. 00:22:09.440 --> 00:22:10.480 Keep going. 00:22:11.119 --> 00:22:12.960 There is a purpose. 00:22:14.000 --> 00:22:16.079 If he's done with me, he can take me whenever. 00:22:16.160 --> 00:22:21.119 The fact that I'm still breathing says something of God's providential will for my life. 00:22:21.680 --> 00:22:32.559 And the fact that we're all here in this room, breathing the breath that God has given us, says something about God's providential will for our lives. 00:22:32.799 --> 00:22:35.039 He has given us something to do. 00:22:35.759 --> 00:22:40.880 He has purposes for us, and he will accomplish them through us. 00:22:41.839 --> 00:22:49.440 Meaning each of us, like Henry Martin and like David, each of us is immortal until Christ's work in us is finished. 00:22:49.759 --> 00:22:51.680 If God is for us, who can be against us? 00:22:51.920 --> 00:22:52.559 Amen. 00:22:54.960 --> 00:22:57.359 That brings us to scene three, the stakeout. 00:22:59.599 --> 00:23:02.960 Saul is no longer only reacting in the moment. 00:23:03.119 --> 00:23:06.240 He's organizing surveillance of David's home. 00:23:06.640 --> 00:23:12.319 Verse 11 says that Saul sent messengers to David's house that they might watch him, so that they might kill him in the morning. 00:23:12.559 --> 00:23:16.720 So this is planned, patient, systematic violence. 00:23:17.119 --> 00:23:28.160 David's not just threatened by the impulse of a man with a short temper anymore, but by a coordinated attempt to trap him where he sleeps and put him to death as soon as he steps out his door the next morning. 00:23:29.519 --> 00:23:35.599 And once again, God provides a deliverance that comes through an unexpected hand. 00:23:36.480 --> 00:23:46.480 Michael, Saul's own daughter and David's wife, who was given to be a snare to him, warns David that if he doesn't escape tonight, he'll be dead in the morning. 00:23:46.720 --> 00:23:57.279 So she lowers him through a window, probably out the back wall, which would have been part of the city wall, so that he kind of he bypasses the town gates and escapes the city's perimeter undetected. 00:23:57.519 --> 00:24:09.039 And then she takes deliberate steps to trick the messengers to buy David's time using two of my childhood favorite tricks: playing sick and stuffing the bed with pillows to sneak out of the house at night. 00:24:09.279 --> 00:24:11.599 Um, my dad's here. 00:24:11.680 --> 00:24:12.720 I shouldn't have said that. 00:24:12.960 --> 00:24:14.799 That was a joke, I never did that. 00:24:15.039 --> 00:24:22.079 Um in Michael's case, though, she she uses an image as the ESV says. 00:24:22.160 --> 00:24:25.680 Some translations uh describe, well, it's an idol or a household god. 00:24:27.200 --> 00:24:31.200 And when Saul then, her father eventually arrives on the scene, she lies. 00:24:31.359 --> 00:24:35.039 She says that David threatened to kill her, which is why she helped him escape. 00:24:35.680 --> 00:24:38.799 And it's important to see what the text is showing us here. 00:24:39.119 --> 00:24:45.039 Because Michael is not condemned for her actions outright, but she's not portrayed as morally pristine either. 00:24:45.200 --> 00:24:46.559 She does something good. 00:24:46.799 --> 00:25:05.039 She's caring for David's well-being, she's loving her husband, she's helping him escape, she's risking her own life, she's using clever strategy and resourcefulness and decisiveness, but she also lies to save herself in a way that slanders her husband and only makes her father's hatred of him even worse. 00:25:05.279 --> 00:25:08.880 And also, what is Michael doing with idols and pagan gods in her home? 00:25:10.720 --> 00:25:18.160 She's a complicated instrument in the story here, not a perfectly clean one, and yet God is still at work, right? 00:25:18.319 --> 00:25:19.119 Clearly. 00:25:19.599 --> 00:25:20.559 Which is the point here. 00:25:20.720 --> 00:25:26.480 God's providence is not limited to the strengths of his people or hindered by their weaknesses. 00:25:27.119 --> 00:25:38.640 He uses the wisdom they have, the instincts they act on, the courage they show, and yes, he even uses the mixed motives and the moral complexity and the sinful actions that are part of sinful fallen human relationships. 00:25:39.599 --> 00:25:54.400 Which shows us a third lesson: that God often uses the good and the broken within our closest relationships, especially marriage, like we see here, as instruments of his providential care for our lives. 00:25:54.640 --> 00:26:01.839 God uses both the good, the bad, the ugly, all of it as instruments of his providential care for our lives. 00:26:02.000 --> 00:26:11.039 That means that your spouse, your loved one, with all of their complex mixture of good and bad, is never incidental in your story. 00:26:12.400 --> 00:26:33.599 God is at work through them, not only in their strengths, but even through the tensions and the weaknesses and the conflicts and complications that come with real life, and God has given you them in order to do good things through their faults for you. 00:26:35.680 --> 00:26:44.000 God's providence works not in spite of, but through the complex mixture of good and bad that each of us bring to our relationships. 00:26:44.799 --> 00:26:54.960 Are you willing to trust that God is working through your closest relationships, even when they are difficult and imperfect and confusing and sometimes immensely painful? 00:26:58.480 --> 00:27:12.240 David is saved through a household that is far from perfect, and a marriage that is far from ideal, and yet God is still faithfully moving his purposes forward through it. 00:27:13.920 --> 00:27:17.119 Which brings us to our final scene, the search. 00:27:17.680 --> 00:27:19.359 And it's a weird one. 00:27:19.440 --> 00:27:20.960 Um, but it's also beautiful. 00:27:21.119 --> 00:27:34.160 David flees to Rama, where Samuel is, the prophet, to receive the word of God, and Saul's men are pursuing him, and he'll be on the run from Saul from this point forward for the rest of Saul's life, for the next decade or so. 00:27:34.319 --> 00:27:37.920 He's on the run as a fugitive while Saul is trying to kill him. 00:27:38.400 --> 00:27:47.759 And it's this night, it's it's at this moment on the run, with death on his heels, that David sings Psalm 59. 00:27:48.240 --> 00:27:58.720 Deliver me from my enemies, O God, protect me from those who rise up against me, deliver me from those who work evil and save me from bloodthirsty men. 00:27:59.039 --> 00:28:01.440 For behold, they lie in wait for my life. 00:28:01.680 --> 00:28:08.240 Fierce men stir up strife against me, for no transgression or sin of mine, O Lord, for no fault of mine they run and make ready. 00:28:08.400 --> 00:28:11.359 But you, O Lord, you laugh at them. 00:28:12.400 --> 00:28:15.680 My God, in his steadfast love, will meet me. 00:28:16.000 --> 00:28:18.960 God will let me look in triumph on my enemies. 00:28:19.200 --> 00:28:24.319 They come back howling like dogs and prowling about the city, but I will sing of your strength. 00:28:24.559 --> 00:28:29.039 I will sing aloud of your steadfast love in the morning. 00:28:29.519 --> 00:28:33.759 For you have been to me a fortress and a refuge in the day of my distress. 00:28:34.000 --> 00:28:36.880 Oh, my strength, I will sing praises to you. 00:28:37.039 --> 00:28:41.680 For you, O God, are my fortress, the God who shows me steadfast love. 00:28:45.920 --> 00:28:51.599 You notice that Jonathan told David to be on his guard in the morning. 00:28:52.079 --> 00:29:07.200 And Michael told David that he would be killed in the morning, and Saul sent his men to murder him in the morning, and David here, trusting in God's providence, says, I will sing of your strength, I will sing aloud of your steadfast love in the morning. 00:29:08.480 --> 00:29:16.720 Because of David's trust in the providence of God and in the promises of God, he knows that death is not ultimately what awaits him, but singing. 00:29:19.839 --> 00:29:23.279 Saul hears where David is. 00:29:23.599 --> 00:29:29.039 He launches one final attempt to seize him, he sends messengers to capture David. 00:29:29.359 --> 00:29:47.200 But when they arrive, the Spirit of God comes upon them and overpowers them, and instead of arresting David, they begin prophesying and praising God in what seems to be some sort of ecstatic frenzy of uncontrollable worship and proclamation of the truth of God and his anointed. 00:29:47.279 --> 00:29:50.640 And so Saul sends another group, the same thing happens. 00:29:50.880 --> 00:29:53.680 They send a third group, and the same thing happens. 00:29:53.839 --> 00:29:55.920 And at this point, the scene is almost comedic. 00:29:56.079 --> 00:30:01.759 Saul is trying to arrest David, and God keeps turning his arrest units into some sort of like prophecy conference. 00:30:01.839 --> 00:30:15.200 Like it's a revival that just keeps growing as Saul sends more and more men to be part of the arrival and be overtaken in just this uncontrollable worship as they collapse in God's presence, powerless, with mouths, beautifully and uncontrollably pouring forth words of praise to God. 00:30:16.000 --> 00:30:19.920 And finally, Saul says, you know, if you want something done right, you gotta do it yourself. 00:30:20.240 --> 00:30:25.359 And when Saul arrives, actually before he arrives, when he's like way outside the city, he begins prophesying too. 00:30:25.440 --> 00:30:26.640 The same thing happens to him. 00:30:26.799 --> 00:30:29.279 The Spirit of God overtakes him. 00:30:29.759 --> 00:30:50.079 The hunter becomes helpless, the pursuer becomes a prophet, and the king who came to seize David ends up lying on the ground all day and all night in public humiliation as he is stripped of his royal robes and his kingly garments and laid bare and utterly helpless before the Lord. 00:30:53.119 --> 00:30:54.559 And that's the point. 00:30:55.440 --> 00:31:04.000 As David sings in Psalm 59, each evening they come back howling like dogs and prowling about the city, but you, O Lord, you laugh at them. 00:31:05.599 --> 00:31:11.759 The most powerful efforts of opposition to God are laughable in his sight. 00:31:11.920 --> 00:31:16.160 Compared to his power, his providence, his sovereign authority, they are nothing. 00:31:16.720 --> 00:31:23.920 And they are transformed into a joke, into utter humiliation, as Saul is made to worship God, whether he wants to or not. 00:31:24.960 --> 00:31:28.240 Saul's will is conquered by Yahweh's. 00:31:29.599 --> 00:31:33.119 In the first scene, God used a friend. 00:31:33.359 --> 00:31:36.319 In the second scene, God used David's own abilities. 00:31:36.400 --> 00:31:40.720 In the third scene, God used a wife's courage and cleverness and even her imperfections. 00:31:40.880 --> 00:31:46.559 But now, God pulls back the veil on all of it and shows what has been true the entire time. 00:31:46.880 --> 00:31:49.519 Jonathan did not ultimately save David. 00:31:50.000 --> 00:31:51.680 David did not ultimately save David. 00:31:51.839 --> 00:31:53.440 Michael did not ultimately save David. 00:31:53.680 --> 00:31:55.200 God saved David. 00:31:55.680 --> 00:32:01.200 The true King, Yahweh, Jesus Christ, is the one at work in this story all the way through. 00:32:01.359 --> 00:32:15.519 The same God, who worked through friendships and talent and marriage and strategy and courage and even human weakness and sin is revealed here as the one who stands behind every one of those means, directing all things according to his will. 00:32:17.599 --> 00:32:36.559 And that leads us to this final lesson: that just because God typically works through ordinary means that look ordinary to us does not mean that he isn't working, that he isn't actively, intimately, supernaturally powerfully involved in our lives. 00:32:37.279 --> 00:32:46.240 He is just as sovereign, just as in control, just as powerfully guiding every atom of the universe toward the end that he has ordained for it. 00:32:48.559 --> 00:32:54.720 Providence is not ultimately about the instruments God uses, it's about the God who wields them. 00:32:54.960 --> 00:33:02.079 And he can use supernatural spirits at work or friends reaching out to help one another. 00:33:02.799 --> 00:33:18.160 And that means that whatever threat stands before you today, whatever Saul is chasing you, whatever burden weighs on your heart, your hope is not ultimately and finally in your friends, your abilities, your spouse, your wisdom, your plans, or your resources. 00:33:18.319 --> 00:33:25.119 Your hope, your only hope, is in the God who rules over all of them for you. 00:33:26.640 --> 00:33:52.079 The God who preserved David, the God who sustained Perpetua and gave her a voice to sing, the God who strengthened Paul and Silas, the God who carried John Denley through the flames of death into everlasting glory, and the God who, through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, has promised that nothing, not even death itself, can thwart his purposes for his people. 00:33:55.039 --> 00:34:00.720 The cross is the greatest display of God's providence. 00:34:02.480 --> 00:34:20.159 Working through sinful, broken people in unideal circumstances, in the midst of tremendous, unthinkable suffering, to bring about the greatest good the world has ever known. 00:34:20.480 --> 00:34:25.920 That is how God works 2,000 years ago on the cross and today in your life and in mine. 00:34:27.440 --> 00:34:39.840 So when David sings in Psalm 59, while hiding from Saul's men, he is not denying reality. 00:34:40.000 --> 00:34:42.239 He is seeing reality clearly. 00:34:42.480 --> 00:34:46.000 Because behind Saul and his men stands the Lord. 00:34:46.239 --> 00:34:51.519 And before the spear stands the Lord, and over every scheme, every stake out, every search stands the Lord. 00:34:51.599 --> 00:34:56.800 And that is why God's people can sing in the valley of the shadow of death. 00:34:57.440 --> 00:35:08.079 Because, as Perpetua said, it will all happen as God wills, for we may be sure that we are not left to ourselves, but are all in his power. 00:35:08.320 --> 00:35:10.719 Let's pray and then we'll sing once more. 00:35:13.039 --> 00:35:22.880 Risen and ascended Lord Jesus, ruler of all creation, who upholds the universe by the word of his power. 00:35:25.440 --> 00:35:49.679 Would you comfort weak, weary, wounded, wandering sinners this morning with the truth of your sovereign authority, with the good news of your providence, that we would know that no matter who we are and no matter where we are, you are ruling the universe on behalf of those whom you have chosen. 00:35:50.239 --> 00:35:59.119 For any here who do not yet know you, Lord, we ask that you would bless them with faith this morning, with eyes to see your goodness and your sovereignty. 00:35:59.760 --> 00:36:03.599 Lord, we pray that you would return to us soon to make all things new and good forever. 00:36:04.079 --> 00:36:06.400 I pray this in your name, Lord, and for your glory. 00:36:06.639 --> 00:36:07.280 Amen.