Today we read about David in exile, David the outlaw, David trusting in God when success no longer comes easily.
David at the cave of Adullam
1 Samuel 22:1
David’s prayer for help
Psalm 142
Many come to David
1 Samuel 22:2, 1 Chronicles 12:16-18
David’s evening prayer
Psalm 141
David flees to Moab
1 Samuel 22:3-5
David’s prayer for protection
Psalm 64
Doeg slays the priests
1 Samuel 22:6-20
David’s prayer for help
Psalm 35
David saves the people of Keilah
1 Samuel 23:1-5
David offers Abiathar protection
1 Samuel 22:21-23
David sets up a base in a cave in Adullam. and his family join him there, and a ragtag collection of outlaws. David becomes their leader, and he begins to instil his example of faith into them all. Psalm 34, that I read yesterday, is associated with this time in David’s life, and it is a powerful message of faith. I can imagine David teaching it to his outlaws, and gradually helping them grow their faith in God. It’s an acrostic, which means each line begins with the next letter of the alphabet in Hebrew. So it would be easily learnt, and I can imagine them bellowing it out with David and muttering it under their breath as they confronted the Philistines.
David’s prayers have a common theme - he wants to trust in God at all times, despite every bad thing that has happened to him. So he asks that he may be kept pure, that he may avoid temptation. he doesn’t want to end up like them, he wants to be vindicated by God. “Set a guard over my mouth, O LORD; keep watch over the door of my lips. Let not my heart be drawn to what is evil, to take part in wicked deeds with men who are evildoers; let me not eat of their delicacies.” (Psalm 141:3-4)
At this stage in his life, he is utterly faithful. In hardship, he never wavers. It will be the assaults of peace and prosperity that cause him to slip.
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