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Wednesday 10/16/24
Thru the Bible: Psalm Book II: chapters 54-57
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David feigns Insanity before King Achish
Psalm 54:1-7,
“(1) To the Chief Musician. With Stringed Instruments. A Contemplation of David When the Ziphites Went and Said to Saul, “Is David Not Hiding with Us?”
Last time we were together when we covered Psalm 52, you may remember that Saul was seeking David after having tried to kill him with a spear due to his jealousy of him.
A man named Doeg saw David visit the priest Ahimelech for help and told Saul.
The account of this event is found in 1 Samuel 21-22. The incident the psalm addresses happened later and is recorded in 1 Samuel 23.
David had heard that the city of Keilah was being attacked by the Philistines. So he asked the Lord if he should go and strike down the Philistines and deliver Keilah.
God told him to do so.
So David and the 600 warriors who were with him defeated them. Afterwhich Saul discovered David’s location at Keilah and David found out – so he inquired of the Lord if Saul was going to pursue him and if the leaders of Keilah were going to betray him by handing him over to Saul.
God told David that they would and so David and his men escaped.
All of this is the backstory of what we are about to read in 1 Samuel 23:13-29 which reveals the specific circumstances under which David wrote this Psalm.
1 Samuel 23:13-29,
“(13) So David and his men, who numbered about six hundred, set out and left Keilah; they moved around from one place to another.
When told that David had escaped from Keilah, Saul called a halt to his expedition.
(14) David stayed in the strongholds that were in the desert and in the hill country of the wilderness ofZiph.
Saul looked for him all the time, but God did not deliver David into his hand.
(15) David realized that Saul had come out to seek his life; at that time David was in Horesh in the wilderness of Ziph.
(16) Then Jonathan son of Saul left and went to David at Horesh. He encouraged him through God. (17) He said to him,
“Don’t be afraid! For the hand of my father Saul cannot find you. You will rule over Israel, and I will be your second in command. Even my father Saul realizes this.”
(18) When the two of them had made a covenant before the LORD, David stayed on at Horesh, but Jonathan went to his house.
(19) Then the Ziphites went up to Saul at Gibeah and said,
“Isn’t David hiding among us in the strongholds at Horesh on the hill of Hakilah, south of Jeshimon? (20) Now at your own discretion, O king, come down. Delivering him into the king’s hand will be our responsibility.”
(21) Saul replied,
“May you be blessed by the LORD, for you have had compassion on me. (22) Go and make further arrangements. Determine precisely where he is and who has seen him there, for I am told that he is extremely cunning. (23) Locate precisely all the places where he hides and return to me with dependable information. Then I will go with you. If he is in the land, I will find himamong all the thousands of Judah.”
(24) So they left and went to Ziph ahead of Saul.
Now David and his men were in the wilderness ofMaon, in the rift valley to the south of Jeshimon.
(25) Saul and his men went to look for him. But David was informed and went down to the rock and stayed in the wilderness ofMaon.
When Saul heard about it, he pursued David in the wilderness of Maon. (26) Saul went on one side of the mountain, while David and his men went on the other side of the mountain.
David was hurrying to get away from Saul, but Saul and his men were surrounding David and his men so they could capture them. (27) But a messenger came to Saul saying,
“Come quickly, for the Philistines have raided the land!”
(28) So Saul stopped pursuing David and went to confront the Philistines. Therefore that place is called Sela Hammahlekoth. (which probably means “Rock of Divisions”)
(29) Then David went up from there and stayed in the strongholds of En Gedi.”
Psalm 54…
“Save me, O God, by Your name, And vindicate me by Your strength. (2) Hear my prayer, O God; Give ear to the words of my mouth. (3) For strangers have risen up against me, And oppressors have sought after my life; They have not set God before them. Selah
(4) Behold, God is my Helper; The Lord is with those who uphold my life.
(5) He will repay my enemies for their evil. Cut them off in Your truth.
(6) I will freely sacrifice to You; I will praise Your name, O LORD, for it is good. (7) For He has delivered me out of all trouble; And my eye has seen its desire upon my enemies.”
Psalm 55:1-23,
This Psalm does not have a superscription to let us know the specifics of who is being referred to, both the Targum and the Talmud both point to David’s advisor Ahithophel during the time Absalom, David’s son, sought to divide the kingdom.
To remind you, since it has been a very long time since I’ve told you this, the Targum is an Aramaic paraphrase / interpretation of the Old Testament written sometime in the 1st century AD.
The Talmud on the other hand is a type of unofficial commentary on the Old Testament scriptures.
Unofficial in that it was not instigated nor inspired by God.
It is a concise record of the debates of the rabbis of the 2-5th century AD on the teachings of the Old Testament. Attempting to guide people in their understanding of the teachings of scripture.
At any rate, Ahithophel was David’s trusted advisor who joined himself to Absalom and began advising him.
David discovered the treason and sought God regarding it on the Mount of Olives.
There David also met a man named Hushai and sent him back to Saul to frustrate the counsel of Ahithophel. When this succeeded, Ahithophel committed suicide.
If these events are in fact what this Psalm is about then most certainly the greatest source of the frustration we hear in the words of David, are due to his broken heart regarding his son Absalom.
Now again I cannot in any way prove that these events from David’s life are what this Psalm is about, but it does fit the surface facts rather nicely.
Let’s read…
“(1) To the Chief Musician. With Stringed Instruments. A Contemplation of David.
Give ear to my prayer, O God, And do not hide Yourself from my supplication. (2) Attend to me, and hear me; I am restless in my complaint, and moan noisily, (3) Because of the voice of the enemy, Because of the oppression of the wicked; For they bring down trouble upon me, And in wrath they hate me.
(4) My heart is severely pained within me, And the terrors of death have fallen upon me.
(5) Fearfulness and trembling have come upon me, And horror has overwhelmed me. (6) So I said,
“Oh, that I had wings like a dove! I would fly away and be at rest. (7) Indeed, I would wander far off, And remain in the wilderness. Selah
(8) I would hasten my escape From the windy storm and tempest.”
As I was reviewing this in my notes for teaching I experienced something very similar. Three days after our air conditioning was supposedly fixed the unit stopped cooling again. Immediately the enemy came in with worry, anxiety, concerns of the company dodging any responsibility.
I have discovered in times like these I sometimes have a flight mentality. It is easy to want to ignore and avoid, but that is not what fixes problems or settles conflicts.
It takes a certain type of courage to face the difficulties of life and what is hard for one person is easier for someone else and the other way about. So no one is exempt.
There are personalities who are more like bulls in a china shop and react quickly, decidedly and sometimes with unnecessary force and rudeness in the face of difficulties. This has the external illusion of strength, but in reality is simply another manifestation of weakness, immaturity and even cowardice. The ability to face a situation over which you have no natural power, calmly and with peace is only the result of God’s intervention in the heart of one who seeks Him first and trusts in Him.
A businessman who has both authority and control can be calm and peaceful due to their belief and assurance in their position and control. But when something happens which is outside of their control like a strike or a viable lawsuit against their business and the shareholders begin to look with blame at the same man, they find their position far less safe and peaceful. This is all the more true in regard to our personal lives.
There is no shortcut to a relationship of knowing and trusting God. One has to begin wherever they are and if they turn to God in honesty, humility and vulnerability looking to Him as their only answer, they will find that God is very gracious.
We under the New Covenant are instructed to look to God. We are told to pray for our would-be enemies. To bless and not curse. To ‘commit ourselves to God as to a faithful Creator’ [1 Peter 4:19], rather than seeking to vindicate ourselves.
“Be anxious for nothing” is the command – and it IS a command and one that can only be accomplished if there is a safe place to which our souls can retreat and the only sure place of safety is found in God. In His person, not just in what He can provide.
“(9) Destroy, O Lord, and divide their tongues, For I have seen violence and strife in the city.”
You remember I told you that David had sought God on the Mount of Olives. There he asked God to turn the counsel of Ahithophel into foolishness as is recorded in 2 Samuel 15:31.
If this Psalm is about the treachery of Ahithophel, then this seems to be what is means here when he says, but “Destroy, O Lord, and divide their tongues, For I have seen violence and strife in the city” in verse 9.
Psalm 55…
“(10) Day and night they go around it on its walls; Iniquity and trouble are also in the midst of it. (11) Destruction is in its midst; Oppression and deceit do not depart from its streets. (12) For it is not an enemy who reproaches me; Then I could bear it.
Nor is it one who hates me who has exalted himself against me; Then I could hide from him.
(13) But it was you, a man my equal, My companion and my acquaintance. (14) We took sweet counsel together, And walked to the house of God in the throng.
(15) Let death seize them; Let them go down alive into hell, For wickedness is in their dwellings and among them.
(16) As for me, I will call upon God, And the LORD shall save me. (17) Evening and morning and at noon I will pray, and cry aloud, And He shall hear my voice.
(18) He has redeemed my soul in peace from the battle that was against me, For there were many against me. (19) God will hear, and afflict them, Even He who abides from of old. Selah.
Because they do not change, Therefore they do not fear God.
(20) He has put forth his hands against those who were at peace with him; he has broken his covenant. (21) The words of his mouth were smoother than butter, But war was in his heart; his words were softer than oil, Yet they were drawn swords.”
Again continuing with our assumption That this is about Ahithophel’s rebellion then this verse is likely in reference to part of what happened which we read about in 2 Samuel 16:23.
It says,
“Absalom followed Ahithophel’s advice, just as David had done. For every word Ahithophel spoke seemed as wise as though it had come directly from the mouth of God”
And in an odd way It’s very possible That His words did come from God. Not and that they were directly inspired But that This advisor clearly had been given wisdom by God as gift that he might serve as an aid to the king. And immaterial gifts such as these, once given are rarely, if ever taken away by God Who gave it. Solomon is a great example of this and that Nowhere do we hear that his wisdom was taken from him. Nevertheless Solomon did not regulate his life within the council of this gift of wisdom though he possessed it his whole life through.
This is yet another example of God placing people in positions of authority or giving them certain Gifts or powers of discernment and yet not controlling how they use it. So that what God gave for the purposes of good and godliness, might still be used for selfishness and evil purposes.
Nevertheless, like 2 Samuel 16 says,
“… every word Ahithophel spoke seemed as wise as though it had come directly from the mouth of God”
And so it is in this way his words were “smoother than butter, But war was in his heart; His words were softer than oil, Yet they were drawn swords.” as verse 21 said.
Psalm 55…
“(22) Cast your burden on the LORD, And He shall sustain you; He shall never permit the righteous to be moved.
(23) But You, O God, shall bring them down to the pit of destruction; Bloodthirsty and deceitful men shall not live out half their days;
But I will trust in You.”
Psalm 56:1-13,
The superscription of this Psalm places the events in it as happening just before those in Psalm 54.
Immediately following David’s meeting with Ahimelech the Priest who gave him Goliath’s sword, he fled to Gath. This is recorded in 1 Samuel 21:10-22:1,
“(10) So on that day David arose and fled from Saul. He went to King Achish of Gath.
(11) The servants of Achish said to him,
“Isn’t this David, the king of the land? Isn’t he the one that they sing about when they dance, saying, ‘Saul struck down his thousands, But David his tens of thousands’?”
(12) David thought about what they said and was very afraid of King Achish of Gath.
(13) He altered his behavior in their presence. Since he was in their power, he pretended to be insane, making marks on the doors of the gate and letting his saliva run down his beard.
(14) Achish said to his servants, “Look at this madman! Why did you bring him to me? (15) Do I have a shortage of fools, that you have brought me this man to display his insanity in front of me? Should this man enter my house?
So David left there and escaped to the cave of Adullam.
When his brothers and the rest of his father’s family learned about it, they went down there to him. ”
Psalm 56…
“(1) For the music director; according to the yonath-elem-rekhoqim style; a prayer of David, written when the Philistines captured him in Gath.”
The literal meaning of this phrase is “silent dove, distant ones”, and may refer to a particular style of music, a tune title, or a type of musical instrument.
“Have mercy on me, O God, for men are attacking me! All day long hostile enemies are tormenting me.
(2) Those who anticipate my defeat attack me all day long. Indeed, many are fighting against me, O Exalted One.
(3) When I am afraid, I trust in You.
(4) In God – I boast in His promise – in God I trust, I am not afraid. What can mere men do to me?
(5) All day long they cause me trouble; they make a habit of plotting my demise.
(6) They stalk and lurk; they watch my every step, as they prepare to take my life. (7) Because they are bent on violence, do not let them escape! In Your anger bring down the nations, O God!
(8) You keep track of my misery. Put my tears in your leather container! Are they not recorded in Your scroll?
(9) My enemies will turn back when I cry out to You for help; I know that God is on my side.
(10) In God – I boast in His promise – in the LORD – I boast in His promise – (11) in God I trust, I am not afraid. What can mere men do to me?
(12) I am obligated to fulfill the vows I made to You, O God; I will give You the thank-offerings You deserve, (13) when You deliver my life from death.
You keep my feet from stumbling, so that I might serve God as I enjoy life.”
Psalm 57:1-11,
“(1) To the Chief Musician. Set to “Do Not Destroy.” a Michtam of David When He Fled from Saul into the Cave.
This almost certainly is in reference to the cave we just read about in 1 Samuel 22:1 when David feigned insanity before King Achish of Gath who he suspected would have turned him over to Saul. So he pretended to be crazy and was allowed to leave. When he left, we are told he fled to the cave of Adullam to hide from Saul.
There is another possible cave this Psalm may be referring to and that is found in 1 Samuel 23. Though it fits somewhat chronologically as does our first option, I believe it is less likely.
This occasion happened just after time when Saul was called away from his pursuit of David to deal with the Philistines. After that incursion Saul was told that David was in the Wilderness of En Gedi. As it turns out, Saul entered the very cave where David and his men were hiding out, deeper in the cave.
David’s men encouraged him to take advantage of this opportunity to do to Saul whatever seemed good to him. This is the occasion when David waited until Saul was asleep and cut off a corner of his robe – for which his heart troubled him – and he would not allow his men to take advantage of the situation against Saul.
“Be merciful to me, O God, be merciful to me! For my soul trusts in You; And in the shadow of Your wings I will make my refuge, Until these calamities have passed by.
“(2) I will cry out to God Most High, To God who performs all things for me.
(3) He shall send from heaven and save me; He reproaches the one who would swallow me up. Selah.”
It is uncertain how David came to know the God of Israel as a personal God. Being the youngest of eight sons and so far as we can tell, spending much of his time tending sheep – he had a lot of time on his hands to think and contemplate.
I imagine that, by the Holy Spirit’s suggestions, David had not just focused upon the commands and demands of the law, but on the nature of the relationship of the Lawgiver with the patriarchs.
Nothing in the Torah suggests that God loved the patriarchal fathers better than all other men, nor that His choosing of them was due to arbitrary factors. So I think that David must have seen the relationship of Abram, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, the levites, Caleb, Joshua, Phinehas and perhaps Job, the judges and the prophets and concluded that God drew near to those who drew near to Him.
This is all fanciful thinking of course. We don’t know how David arrived at the conclusion that God was a personal, not just a national God – but we know for a fact that he did draw near to God and God reciprocated as He always does!
But beyond this David was the type of person who paid attention to that relationship – and that is a special attribute indeed. It is one thing to draw near to a personal God for the protection and provision He can offer, but to pick up on the nuances of what pleases Him is another issue altogether!
Here in verses 2-3 we see a wisdom David had in regard to God’s character and motivations. He knew that if his soul expressed genuine trust in God that it not only pleased God, but that it biased God’s heart towards acting in power for David’s good.
Consider the words we so easily read over and past and let them settle on your soul and percolate up in your meditations.
Like some of you have expressed, I too love to learn the backstories behind the Psalms. To learn of the situations which were going on in the life of the composer… those things which instigated the thoughts and heart responses to write praises, laments, prayers and poetry regarding God and the way He manifests Himself in our lives is very instructional.
But I am encouraging you to be like David and let those stories tell you more than what inspired him to write, but to pay attention to what type of situations the writer was in when their minds went to God rather than towards worry and anxiety alone.
My suggestion to you is that many of us today might find ourselves more contemplative and engage with God in our day-to-day lives if it were not for the allowances we make for overbusiness and distractions.
I think these stories illustrate pretty clearly that it isn’t because our lives are somehow more difficult than theirs. Such is an uneducated excuse we often allow ourselves. No – they were just more determined.
David did not have a radio or TV. He had no books for they had not been invented – he did not even have a copy of the law, for that was written on large scrolls and were exceedingly few in number.
What David DID have was time… time, sheep, a mind filled with the words of God and an ancient version of a harp.
In other words David’s thoughts were largely his own.
In today’s world we have a constant and steady stream of music, entertainment and teaching coming into us, but I think very few spend time mulling over the scriptures for themselves and letting what is within come out.
It is said so often that teachers learn more from their teaching than their students ever will and I know this to be true personally.
In the same way as Jesus told the Pharisees that it is not what goes into a man that defiles him, but what comes out of a man. I suspect the same is true about what purifies a man. It is not what comes into us that establishes relationship and intimacy with God, but what comes out of us.
The sons of Korah suggested the same truth in Psalm 49:1-4 when they said…
“(1) Listen to this, all you nations! Pay attention, all you inhabitants of the world! (2) Pay attention, all you people, both rich and poor!
(3) I will declare a wise saying; I will share my profound thoughts. (4) I will learn a song that imparts wisdom; I will then sing my insightful song to the accompaniment of a harp.”
As always, the instruction begins with Shema – Listen with the intent of obedience with reverence.
Then the psalmist says they will declare a wise saying and share profound thoughts.
Then in the first line of verse 4 they speak like a student who is learning a song of wisdom from a sage or mentor.
They then take this wisdom and mull it over in song – a type of meditation if you will.
The idea being that the resulting insightful song came to them as they mused or meditated on the words.
You and I understand this process well from the New Testament. By giving our minds to the words of God, the Holy Spirit causes understanding.
A more clear rendering of this statement is “I will turn my ear to a wise saying, I will open [i.e., “reveal; explain”] my insightful saying with a harp.”
These things CAN happen in a busy environment, but usually begin in private.
Until you train your mind to stay focused upon the words of God, they will wander aimlessly from thing to thing. But as you draw away and make God and His words the focus of respectful and considerate attention, you learn over time to stay focused so that this discipline can be achieved and utilized even in environments which contend for your attention.
At any rate, David came to know God as personal and came to know what things God responded to with pleasure and those things which displeased Him. It was from this that David gained confidence in God, knowing God would respond as his deliverer and save him.
To drive this point home – and you may have learned this from hearing it from David, but has your heart come to a settled awareness of it through personal interaction with God yourself?
You cannot walk where others have walked just because you hear about them doing it – you have to go walk it out and prove it as true in your own life and experiences. This is what the Bible refers to as experiential knowledge.
James says it’s the difference between a hearer and a doer. The one who is just a hearer convinces themselves that they possess a wisdom which can truly only be gained by doing. The doer however Is practicing true religion and will be blessed.
This isn’t book knowledge, it is knowledge gained by engaging with God one-on-one.
Again beginning in verse 2…
“(2) I will cry out to God Most High, To God who performs all things for me.
(3) He shall send from heaven and save me; He reproaches the one who would swallow me up. Selah.”
God shall send forth His mercy and His truth.
(4) My soul is among lions; I lie among the sons of men Who are set on fire, Whose teeth are spears and arrows, And their tongue a sharp sword.
(5) Be exalted, O God, above the heavens; Let Your glory be above all the earth.
(6) They have prepared a net for my steps; My soul is bowed down; They have dug a pit before me; Into the midst of it they themselves have fallen. Selah
(7) My heart is steadfast, O God, my heart is steadfast; I will sing and give praise.
(8) Awake, my glory! Awake, lute and harp! I will awaken the dawn.
(9) I will praise You, O Lord, among the peoples; I will sing to You among the nations. (10) For Your mercy reaches unto the heavens, And Your truth unto the clouds.
(11) Be exalted, O God, above the heavens; Let Your glory be above all the earth.”
Blessings!
Tri
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