Word of Encouragement (10/05/2023)

Then David said in his heart, "Now I shall perish one day by the hand of Saul. There is nothing better for me than that I should escape to the land of the Philistines. Then Saul will despair of seeking me any longer within the borders of Israel, and I shall escape out of his hand." (1 Sam. 27:1)

This is not a prayer. But that is the point. David had an important decision to make. He spared Saul’s life for the second time, and, for the second time, Saul acknowledged his sin in pursuing him. But David couldn’t trust him. According to v. 4, Saul did not stop seeking David’s life ever after the second time. David knew that Saul would never stop trying to kill him. But in making this important decision, he did not pray; he merely engaged in a God-less self-talk.

This was no other than David! God called him a man after His own heart. Out of his reverence toward the LORD, he refused to kill Saul even when he had the chance, twice. Because he trusted in the LORD, he faced Goliath without fear when everyone else in Israel’s army was terrified of him. But now, he acted like a different man; he acted just like those who trembled with fear at the taunting of Goliath. He was so filled with fear that any thought of God, any memory of what God had done for him was driven out of his consciousness!

David lost sight of that glorious reality when he thought his God-less thought. All he could see was Saul with his mighty army and himself with only six hundred men without proper training and weapons. He could only see the many close calls he had—when Saul threw his spear at him in the court, when the people of Keilah were about to hand him over to Saul, when Saul came so close that he had him and his six hundred men (and their families with women and children) in sight, etc. He failed to remember that God was there to rescue him every time. He did not see that God was between him and Saul, like the pillar of cloud and fire, which was between the helpless Israelites at the Red Sea and Pharaoh’s chariots charging against them. He forgot that, as long as the infinite God was between him and Saul, there was an infinite gap between him and Saul even if they were only five feet apart. Yet, because he did not think of God, he trembled with fear while he was safe in the shadow of God’s wings. How sad!

If someone like David can become so weak and fearful when his eyes are off God, we can’t expect to do better when we are not mindful of God and lean on our own wisdom and devices. Prayer is a divinely ordained way for us to keep our eyes on the Lord. And it doesn’t take much to turn our worries and complaints into prayer, does it? We just need to direct them to God and cast them at His feet! That’s it! When we do that, our complaints and worries will be prayers of lament, which we find a lot in the Psalms. May the Lord convict our hearts to go to Him in prayer, not just for our overwhelming troubles but also for everything that concerns us!

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