1 SAMUEL 21 THOSE WHO PURSUE GODS HEART STILL FAIL SOMETIMES2017 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

Teaching Transcript: 1 Samuel 21 Those Who Pursue Gods Heart Still Fail Sometimes

You are listening to FerventWord, an online Bible study ministry with teachings and tools to help you grow deeper in your relationship with God. The following message was taught by Jerry Simmons in 2017.

Well, we're going to be in 1st Samuel chapter 21 this evening, continuing to look at the life of David and the pursuit of God's heart, because David was a man after God's own heart, and that was God's declaration about David, and so we're learning about that as we continue to consider his life, and

Here in chapter 21, it's kind of a shorter chapter than we've been looking at recently. And so I want to begin this evening by just reading through the whole chapter, and then we'll come back and jump into the message that God has for us. So 1 Samuel chapter 21, and we'll begin in verse 1. It says, Now David came to Nob, to Ahimelech the priest. And Ahimelech was afraid when he met David and said to him, Why are you alone and no one is with you?

So David said to Ahimelech the priest, the king has ordered me on some business and said to me, do not let anyone know anything about the business on which I send you or what I have commanded you. And I have directed my young men to such and such a place. Now, therefore, what have you on hand? Give me five loaves of bread in my hand or whatever can be found.

And the priest answered David and said, There is no common bread on hand, but there is holy bread, if the young men have at least kept themselves from women. Verse 5. Then David answered the priest and said to him, Truly, women have been kept from us about three days since I came out, and the vessels of the young men are holy, and the bread is in effect common, even though it was consecrated in the vessel this day. Verse 6.

So the priest gave him holy bread, for there was no bread there but the show bread, which had been taken from before the Lord in order to put hot bread in its place on the day when it was taken away. Now a certain man of the servants of Saul was there that day, detained before the Lord, and his name was Doeg, an Edomite, the chief of the herdsmen who belonged to Saul. Verse 8, And David said to Ahimelech,

Is there not here on hand a spear or a sword? For I have brought neither my sword nor my weapons with me, because the king's business required haste. So the priest said, The sword of Goliath the Philistine, whom you killed in the valley of Elah, there it is, wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod. If you will take that, take it. For there is no other except that one here. And David said, There is none like it. Give it to me.

Then David arose and fled that day from before Saul and went to Achish, the king of Gath. And the servants of Achish said to him, Is this not David, the king of the land? Did they not sing of him to one another in dances, saying, Saul has slain his thousands and David his ten thousands? Now David took these words to heart and was very much afraid of Achish, the king of Gath.

So he changed his behavior before them, pretended madness in their hands, scratched on the doors of the gate, and let his saliva fall down on his beard. Then Achish said to his servants, Look, you see, the man is insane. Why have you brought him to me? Have I need of madmen that you have brought this fellow to play the madman in my presence? Shall this fellow come into my house?

Here in 1 Samuel chapter 21, we are picking up the account with David as he is on the run. We've seen that things have changed dramatically for David, where at one time he was there in the presence of Saul and playing the harp, and he was a soothing presence for Saul, that Saul's heart has turned against David to a great degree. And

And several times already, Saul has attempted to kill David. And in this last episode, there was spears thrown at David once again. And then there was an attempt that Saul was planning to kill David at this feast that we talked about last week in chapter 20. And so now David is on the run. He's fleeing for his life. And as he does, he comes to the priests here in chapter 21. And here in this chapter, and

David is a man after his own heart.

And so as we look at this, we contrast Saul and David, and we see how David pursues the heart of God while Saul was not pursuing the heart of God, and there's many great examples. And yet, in the midst of that, we also see that David did not always do the best thing, the right thing. He did not always pursue the heart of God. And so I've titled the message this evening, Those Who Pursue God's Heart,

Still fail sometimes. This is an important, really an important lesson for all of us to grasp hold of and take to heart. As we endeavor to be like David and to be men and women who pursue the heart of God, as we seek after God and we want to be those who pursue the heart of God, we also need to come to terms with this reality that we, despite our very best efforts,

will still sometimes fail and make bad decisions and do dumb things and have these kinds of issues in our lives. And so this is an important lesson for ourselves and for the weaknesses that we experience and the weaknesses that we face. And it's a good reminder for us so that when we have these failures and these moments of weakness, that we don't give up because...

Well, I messed up, you know, I made a mistake, I did something really dumb and it, you know, costs greatly and lots of people were hurt and there is the temptation at that time for us to give up and to take ourselves out of the race, to take ourselves out of the pursuit of God's heart because of our spectacular failure. But David here shows us that you can fail spectacularly

and still come back and be one who pursues the heart of God. And so it's an important lesson that we learn so that when we fail, we don't give up. But also it's an important lesson for us to learn to help us to remember to be diligent to continue to pursue God's heart.

And to be diligent even in perhaps what we might think of as little matters and little decisions that we have to make, that we would pursue God's heart on those decisions, on those little issues or those little matters in our lives because of the potential cost. And we'll see there was great cost there.

For the things that David did here in this chapter, there was significant cost for the course of action that he took. And so in his failure, in his bad decision, there were many people who paid greatly as a result of that. So it's an important lesson for us as we look at this example of David and the failure that we see here. But I would also go on to say it's an important lesson about faith.

our leaders. It's an important lesson that we need to take to heart and recognize for those that we have in our lives that God has placed there as authorities and influences and those that God has placed in our lives and we have the tendency to look up to them and sometimes exaggerate their pursuit of God's heart and their godliness and their character and their nature. And we need to be reminded from time to time

that the people that God has placed in our lives that have been a huge influence and a great blessing and all of that, they're also, just like the rest of us, weak and human. And even though they pursued the heart of God, even though they are men and women after God's own heart, they still fail sometimes. And that's part of the reality of this life and this condition that we have. I mean, we have David here that...

Kind of the showcase of those who pursue God's heart. God says, look, here's the man after my own heart. The best example of a man after God's own heart. Here it is. It's David. And David, well, he failed.

He did dumb things. He made bad decisions sometimes in these moments that we'll be looking at this evening. And there's many more throughout his life as well. But we get the idea here that it's important for us to remember and to keep in mind and to keep in heart those that God has placed in leadership and authority in our lives, recognizing that they fail too. And so that we're not

completely devastated and shocked whenever something happens, whenever there is an issue, but also so that we remember to support and to pray for those that God has placed in authority over us. I like this quote from F.B. Meyer. It's short but sweet. There's a large measure of humanity in all God's saints. There's a large measure of humanity in every one of God's saints.

In David, in Abraham, in Paul, in Peter, in James, you know, in all of the saints and all of the people that God used throughout all of history, we still see, and as you read through the scriptures, you see there's still a large measure of humanity. They're still human and they still make history.

Common mistakes, you know, like it tells us in Corinthians, that we face temptations that are common to man, that we all face similar pressures and similar testings and similar temptations and struggles. And that is true of every one of us. And so we need to remember that as we, you know, have people in our lives, but also for our own selves, that this is part of the reality of pursuing the heart of God. And that is sometimes we don't.

Sometimes we fall short. And how we deal with that is just as important as how we deal with the times of victory and the good decisions that we make in our lives. And so those who pursue God's heart still fail sometimes. There's three points that we'll look at this evening. Starting here in verses 1 through 7, we have point number one, and that is some failures hurt other people greatly.

This can be a hard truth for us to learn, but here's the reality. Sometimes we still fail, and in those failures, other people suffer. Verse 1 and 2, we begin to see how this comes about. In verse 1, it says, Now David came to Nob, to Ahimelech the priest, and Ahimelech was afraid when he met David and said to him, Why are you alone and no one is with you?

So David said to Ahimelech the priest, the king has ordered me on some business and said to me, do not let anyone know anything about the business on which I send you or what I have commanded you. And I have directed my young men to such and such a place.

Here as we are beginning the chapter, David has left Jonathan at the field. Remember they had the whole meeting set up and the sign of the arrows, you know, demonstrating, yes, Jonathan said, you are in danger. My dad's going to try to kill you. And so you must run now. You cannot come back home. And so David has fled from there now. And now he has arrived at the tabernacle.

And the tabernacle is set up here at Nob, and here is Ahimelech the priest. And so he comes to the priest, and we don't know all of the details about what David's plan was, but we could assume that he thought this is a safe place, right? To go to the tabernacle, maybe I can get just a little bit of supplies, and then be on the run and be on my way. And so he comes to Ahimelech the priest, but Ahimelech immediately is a little bit suspicious about what's going on.

Because here's David. Remember, he was put in charge. He was set as a captain in the army. He's also the king's son-in-law. He's married to Michelle, Saul's daughter. And so Ahimelech is primarily suspicious because David's all alone.

He's a captain in the army, or he's got this charge of men that he would be with, that he would be traveling with, and yet here he is alone. Or he's this important guy who's married to the king's daughter, but here he is, he's all alone. And Ahimelech doesn't know anything about the situation. He doesn't know about the attempt on David's life.

the feast or, you know, all of those things that we've been reading about that we're privileged to. But he sees David by himself and he says, hmm, this is a little bit interesting. And so he's a little bit fearful. He's a little bit cautious about the situation. And so David sets him at ease. How does he do it? He tells him a complete lie. He says in verse two, the king has ordered me on some business and said to me, do not let anyone know about the business on which I send you.

What does David do? You can understand, and we can easily relate to David in this situation, right? He is on the run for his life. He's had spears whizzing by his head. I mean, he's had serious attempts on his life several times already. And so he's really threatened. He's scared. He is on the run.

And so now as this challenge comes, you know, I think we could all imagine being in that spot to some degree, right? And your heart begins to beat and your mouth is dry and you're like, you know, okay, how are we going to get out of this? And there's this panic, you know, this tension, this anxiety that is rising up within David. And in all of that, he decides to tell this story to Ahimelech.

that he is on a secret mission for King Saul. And that Saul has sent him on this mission and demanded secrecy. And the reason why he's all alone, he says, is I've directed my young men to such and such a place. And I like that.

It's such and such a place. You know, so many times in the Bible, we have very specific locations. These guys are here. There's all these, you know, and even though we don't even know where a lot of the cities and locations are that are mentioned in the passages, but this one's just a complete falsehood. It doesn't even matter. So the author doesn't even bother to put the exact location. They're just in some place, you know, whatever, because it's just a story that David is making up. He is all alone. He's on the run for his life. And

In the moment of panic, as he's being challenged by Ahimelech, he makes up this story to try to put Ahimelech at ease and get the things that he needs from him. Verse 3 tells us, he says,

And so David now makes his request. Okay. All right. Do you buy that story, Ahimelech, that I'm all by myself because I'm on the king? Okay. It looks like you're buying. Okay, good. Now, do you have any bread? I'm really hungry. I'm going to be gone for a couple of days. I need some supplies. You know, what do you have on hand? Do you have any bread that I can have for me and the guys? In verse four, the priest answered David and said, there is no common bread on hand.

But there is holy bread if the young men have at least kept themselves from women.

And so Ahimelech the priest says, well, I don't have any normal food. I only have what is holy food. Now, to review this or to get caught up on this, remember we're talking about the tabernacle here. And the tabernacle is still the way that God has set it back in the book of Exodus. The Ark of the Covenant is not in here at this time, but the tabernacle is still set up.

and the priest is there serving at the tabernacle. And so if you were coming to the tabernacle, you would have the altar where the sacrifices would be made. You would have the laver where the priest would wash. And in that outer courtyard area is where the people would come, and this is probably where David is with Ahimelech as this conversation is happening. But then you have the inside of the tabernacle.

And that's where only the priests could go. And inside the tabernacle you had the lampstand, which would be burning and lighting the room. You had the altar of incense, where they would be burning the incense before the Lord. And then you had the table of showbread. Now,

There would be further, you know, the curtain and then the Holy of Holies, and normally that's where the Ark of the Covenant would go. But here, as one of the main furnishings of the tabernacle was this table of showbread.

And this table wasn't big, but it would have 12 loaves of bread that were placed on it continually. And every week they would take off the previous week's loaf of bread and they would put on fresh hot bread on the table. And that was to be a perpetual process.

you know, thing before the Lord. And it was a sign of the presence of God and the fellowship that the people of Israel had with God. And you can read more about this in Leviticus chapter 24, as God lays out all of the instruction for the showbread. But they would change it weekly. Now, once the bread was changed out, then God gives instruction in Leviticus 24 that the priests and

were then allowed to eat of that showbread, the week old showbread. They would be able to consume that. But God says it's holy. And so it was to be set apart. It was to be distinct and not used, you know, just to feed the birds or whatever. That it was, you know, meant to be used in a specific way because it was a holy offering to the Lord and signified the fellowship that they had with God.

And so we're talking about something that is located within the tabernacle. We're talking about something that God has given some instruction about and it's a serious thing, this bread that they are discussing. And so Ahimelech says, well, I don't have normal bread.

But I have the show bread. We just took it off and we put on the fresh bread. And so that's what I have. That's all that I have. And so I suppose I could make an exception and give it to you guys if you guys have been kept from women for three days. And so he's talking about this ceremonial purity.

And so as long as you guys are ceremonially clean in that way, then perhaps I could make an exception. In verse 5, David answered the priest and said to him, truly, women have been kept from us about three days since I came out, and the vessels of the young men are holy, and the bread is in effect common, even though it was consecrated in the vessel this day.

And so David keeps along with the story. Yeah, oh yeah, our guys, you know. And time-wise, he's probably, you know, right. He's not lying. It has been about three days since he left his home with Michelle. And remember, she snuck him out the window. And so he was out and then there was the feast. And he came back on the third day of the feast. And that's when Jonathan sent him away and said, my dad is out to kill you. So time-wise, you know, he's alive.

Pretty accurate still. He's not, you know, making up some crazy time. But again, just going along with the story, you know, that he's got his young men with him. And then he makes this argument that the bread is in effect common because it has been removed from the table of showbread. And so verse 6 says,

So the priest gave him holy bread, for there was no bread there but the show bread, which had been taken from before the Lord in order to put hot bread in its place on the day when it was taken away. And so this week old bread is given to David and he goes about his way. Well, in just a minute, he'll go about his way. But it's interesting that David does the interpreting of God's heart.

regarding the showbread. And it's interesting, and just to reflect on this, and not so much that there's a huge point here, but just to reflect on this, that later on in Matthew chapter 12...

Jesus refers back to this event and essentially says this was the right call. That it was okay for David and his men, it was okay for Ahimelech to give the bread to David and his men who were in need in this kind of situation. And Jesus says that was the right call for Ahimelech to make. But it's David who does the interpreting for him. He says it is in effect common there in verse 5. And he comes to the conclusion. And so here you have David

David interpreting God's heart regarding the showbread and in that he's accurate and Jesus agrees in Matthew chapter 12 but at the same time that's all wrapped up in this lie that David is in the process of telling and continuing and perpetuating here before Ahimelech and again it just shows the humanity of

God's people, that we, even when we understand and know God's heart and are accurate on some things, we can still be involved in things that are not what God wants us to be involved in and not in the pursuit of God's heart. Well, the issue from this lie really comes about because of the next verse. In verse 7, it tells us,

Now a certain man of the servants of Saul was there that day, detained before the Lord, and his name was Doeg, an Edomite, the chief of the herdsmen who belonged to Saul.

And so this really becomes a big issue because after David is gone, this guy Doeg is going to report to Saul what David has done, that David has come here. And Saul is going to come against Ahimelech the priest and his family and his whole city as a result.

And so you have this guy, Doeg, who is there, and it mentions it here. Now, next week in chapter 22, we'll see in more detail what happened. But just to kind of jump to the highlights, in verse 18 of 1 Samuel chapter 22, it says,

It tells us, the king says to Doeg, you turn and kill the priest because nobody else would. So Doeg the Edomite turned and struck the priest and killed on that day 85 men who wore a linen ephod. So as a direct result of David's encounter with Ahimelech here, Saul comes to Ahimelech and has him and all of his family, 85 men, executed. Now again,

The point is, some failures hurt other people greatly. I think you can see the hurt and the greatness of it. That a whole family, 85 men, are executed as a direct result of this encounter that David has with Ahimelech.

In the next verse of 1 Samuel 22, verse 19, it tells us, So if it wasn't bad enough that 85 men were executed, but now the whole city is executed. And even...

The children and the nursing infants and the animals, there is a great slaughter that happens. Now, this is not all of David's fault in the sense that Saul is evil and wicked at this point and Doeg, his now executioner, is wicked and evil and they will be dealt with on the day of judgment as a result of that. But David played a part in this.

And this is going to be on his conscience. In verse 22 of 1 Samuel 22, David says to Abiathar, the one surviving priest, he says, I knew that day when Doeg the Edomite was there that he would surely tell Saul, and notice what he says, I have caused the death of all the persons of your father's house. I caused that, David said.

Now, it could have been, I mean, if you want to play the theories in your mind, if David had gone to Ahimelech and told the truth, that the same event still happened, right? But it would have been Ahimelech's choosing for him to participate in the whole thing. And the responsibility would not have been on David in the same way as it was for David

Where David is there and he put Ahimelech in this situation because he is lying to him about the situation at hand. And so David now, well, not now, but later on, he's saying, that's my fault. I caused the death of those persons of your father's house. He says to this lone survivor, this guy who's mourning, you know, his family that has just been executed, and he says,

David is saying, I'm sorry. I really blew it. I really messed up. And he'll work to make things right. And we'll see that in the next chapter. But can you imagine carrying that? Can you imagine you making a mistake, telling a lie?

Now on the surface, I mean, as you read about this interaction between David and Ahimelech, I think we could all relate to David. We could all recognize and easily understand why David said what he said, why he gave the impression that he gave. We can all understand, we can all sympathize, we can all relate. And in a lot of ways, we can look at that and think, that's not that big of a deal. I mean, Harvey did worse than that like five times yesterday. Just kidding.

I mean, we could see that, right? That it's not that big of a deal. And we could easily entertain similar types of situations or things in our own mind and not realize that even little, things that we would esteem as little in our minds, issues that, well, it's just a little white lie or it's just a little, you know, it's not that bad. But the thing I would ask us to consider this evening is that

Sometimes those things that we esteem as very little can bring an amount of hurt that we would have never anticipated or imagined or understood. And again, this is why it's an important lesson for ourselves so that we remember to be diligent to pursue the heart of God.

That there would be a fervency. As I've talked about pursuing God's heart, I've often described it as, you know, not like a casual just kind of following, but a pedal to the metal, you know, sirens blaring, you know, you're going as fast as you can, you're doing everything you can. Like that's what it means to pursue God's heart, to seek after, to know God. And it needs to be that all out kind of pursuit. And it's so easy for us to become kind of lax and casual in our pursuits because we

We kind of wane in our passion. We wane in the fervency, you know, as Harvey was sharing about that fervor of asking from the Lord. It's easy. That fades over time. And it needs to be stirred up again. And we can fade in our pursuit of God and not be so conscious of the potential cost for when we make those decisions that are not in line with God's heart.

when we engage in those activities that are not pleasing to God and part of God's will for us, some of those things can be incredibly costly and destroy whole families. And I'm not just exaggerating. I'm not just saying, you know, this is like, you know, worst case scenario, hypothetical, but it never actually happened. But actually, families are destroyed regularly over moments of

of failure. It doesn't necessarily have to be a, you know, I'm going to run from God and rebel against God and fight against God and, you know, then the result is the family is destroyed or people are hurt greatly. But part of the reality of sin and the consequences of sin and the issues that we face is sometimes it's

Something we thought very little about. It wasn't an intentional, I'm going to run away and rebel against God. But sometimes it's just what we did in the situation. And then the result is great hurt. There is a need for us. There's an urgency for us to be pursuing God's heart because even some of our simplest and littlest issues can sometimes bring about great harm and hurt.

It is something important. Now, God is so gracious and merciful that every time we lie, you know, 85 people don't die. It's not that this happens every time, but that there is the potential. And sometimes it does happen. This is an important lesson to learn so that we maintain that diligence of pursuing God's heart because some failures hurt other people greatly.

There is no sin that just affects ourselves. It affects the people around us. It affects the church, the people in our lives, and sometimes to a great degree. But it's also an important lesson to learn, not just so that we maintain diligence, but it's also an important lesson to learn so that we don't give up when we've made this kind of mistake and when the price has come in and it is a great cost.

We'll see it again next week in chapter 22. Can you imagine being David and bearing the weight, bearing the understanding that I brought about the death of your family? And it would be reasonable, we would recognize it would not be like real strange if David said, I don't deserve to be king. I don't deserve to have any part in your life. I don't, you know...

But David says, no, stay with me. I'm going to protect you. I'm going to take care of you. And he doesn't give up on life. He doesn't give up on pursuing God. He doesn't give up on what God has called him to or what God has promised him. He doesn't give up, but he presses on it. And that's why this is an important lesson for us as well. That even when you failed and other people have been hurt greatly by it, that's not the end.

You still need to pursue God's heart. God still has things in store for you. And those promises that God has given to you, He's still going to do. It's not that that's changed. But some of those failures that brought great harm, they are part of the process and they're part of the lessons. But they're not the end of God's plan for you. And so those who pursue God's heart still fail sometimes. And sometimes we're going to hurt people greatly sometimes.

But it's not over. It's not the end. And David still is described by God as the man after God's own heart because of how he continued to pursue God's heart even though he had failed and messed up and caused this great harm to this family. Well, moving on to verses 8 through 15, here we have point number two, and that is, some failures humiliate us completely.

Some failures hurt other people greatly, and some of them, boy, are they humbling and humiliating and just mortifying for us to consider. And we see that happen in David. In verse 8 it says, David said to Ahimelech, Is there not here on hand a spear or a sword? For I have brought neither my sword nor my weapons with me, because the king's business required haste.

So the priest said, So now David's got the bread and he says, I need a weapon.

And he continues the story, the king's business, it required haste, you know, he set me up real fast, I didn't have time to go home and get my sword, so do you have a sword here or a spear or something I can defend myself with because I really need it on the king's business. And so Ahimelech says, I don't really have any weapons here, you know, it's a tabernacle, not an arsenal, but there is the sword of Goliath.

And notice that the Lord reminds him here through the priest, the sword of Goliath the Philistine whom you killed in the valley of Elah. And I see here is this is an opportunity that God is giving David to repent. And God is really faithful about doing this. He does this so often. He gives us these opportunities to turn back and these reminders. Here is David face to face with

With a good reminder of this time where he was face to face with a huge impossible situation. But he went into the midst of that battle trusting God to deliver him. And here's David in the midst of, well, it's just as an impossible of a situation.

Different details. You know, it's not Goliath after him, but it's Saul after him. And so it's different circumstances slightly, but similar type of impossibility. But here's David not trusting God like he did back when he faced Goliath. And here he is face to face with this reminder. And I would say this is an opportunity where God set before him, you're holding this sword in your hand.

You're thinking about the victory that has been accomplished before, the way that you used to trust in the Lord, the way that you used to walk. And it was an opportunity for David to change right then and there his heart in regard to the situation that he was in. I mean, think of the contrast. David, when he fought Goliath and he went out against Goliath with just a sling and a few stones,

And he said, you come at me with the sword and spear, but I come at you in the name of the Lord of hosts. And he went with boldness to honor the Lord and trusting in God. But now David is fleeing from Saul. And it's not that David was supposed to fight Saul, but that he was still supposed to trust God. He was still supposed to trust God. We can tell that he's not trusting God because in the previous verses that we read, he's making up stories and telling lies and

in order to try to escape. He's trying to manipulate and accomplish things in his own efforts. God probably still wanted him on the run. But David is not seeking the Lord and trusting the Lord for the guidance and the direction in the midst of the situation that is at hand. And that's further demonstrated in verse 10.

And so now David flees away from Nob. So he was with Jonathan. He runs now to the priest. Then he runs to Gath. Now Gath is one of the primary cities of the Philistines.

And so Achish, he was a king. He was one of the lords of the Philistines. He was one of the bigwigs as far as the Philistines were concerned. And there in Gath, one of their key cities in Philistine territory, that's where David runs to. He runs to enemy territory, to this major enemy city, and he is going to try to hide out there amongst the enemies of Israel, specifically the enemies of Saul. And you could imagine in David's mind, this makes sense.

where is it going to be safer for him to be there in the midst of Israel where Saul can attack him or in the midst of the Philistines where Saul is too afraid to cross over he's already demonstrated several times in his life Saul is not willing to really attack the Philistines and so he thought it's a safe place he goes and later on in his life he's going to repeat this mistake

We'll see in a few chapters, he decides, you know, it'd probably be safer for me if I go stay with the Philistines and live in Philistine territory. And so he'll do that again later on. But here he is heading out to Gath. Verse 11, the servants of Achish said to him, is this not David, the king of the land? Did they not sing of him to one another in dances saying, Saul has slain his thousands and David his 10,000s.

So now David, he goes and I would imagine that his hope was he could kind of just disappear in the crowd. You know, he was just hoping I could just, you know, go be in this big city and nobody's going to really pay attention or notice. But that's not what happens. They recognize David. This is the guy.

I mean, they think David has slain his 10,000s and Saul has slain his 10,000s. This is the famous warrior of Israel. They recognize David. And so they take him and they bring him before the king. Verse 12, it says, Now David took these words to heart and was very much afraid of Achish, the king of Gath.

So he changed his behavior before them, pretended madness in their hands, scratched on the doors of the gate, and let his saliva fall down on his beard. David hears that they've recognized him. And as he's brought before the king, he decides to take a pretty drastic course of action. He realizes, oh, I thought I could be anonymous. They recognize me. And in his moment of terror, he

He changes his behavior and pretends madness. And he really carries it out. I mean, he's selling this, you know, to them. He's scratching on the doors of the gate and letting his saliva fall down on his beard. Now, you know, scratching on the gate, that doesn't sound so bad. Letting this, you know, he's drooling basically. But

But what it's picturing for us here is that David actually carries out, he puts on this show. And some of the things we don't always get because of the cultural differences, but in their culture, for the beard to be affected by things was a serious issue. It was a serious issue of their honor and their dignity. Later on in David's life, when he is king, you might remember this account from 2 Samuel 10.

He sends some messengers to a fellow king who is mourning, you know, their dad has died. And so now they've become king and he sends messengers to, you know, just say, we're with you. We're sorry. You know, we heard you lost your dad. And that new king and his advisors say, you know, hey, he's trying to spy out the land. He's going to come in, you know, and pretending that David had malicious intent in sending these messengers. But really, he just wanted to send messengers.

Get well wishes, you know, kind of thing. Comfort. But so what they did is they shaved half of their beards.

And that was a humiliating thing for them. That was humiliating in their culture. And so much so that David says, you guys stay at Jericho and wait for your beards to grow back before you come home because I don't want you to be shamed. I mean, it was shameful to have the beard affected in that way. And so that's why I don't shave. No, I'm just kidding. I'm just lazy. But so for him to be drooling down his beard...

One commentator said, it's no wonder that Achish supposed him insane. Such an indignity, whether done by another or oneself to the beard, is considered in the East an intolerable insult. So again, we may miss a little bit of the gravity of it in the cultural context. But as you look at the situation, understand that David here is humiliated.

He is humbled. He is emptied to come to this point where here in front of the king of Achish, he is pretending to be absolutely insane. He's acting like an absolute crazy person who has gone mad and drooling all over himself and scratching at the gates and, you know, just completely insane. Verse 14, Then Achish said to his servants,

Look, you see the man is insane. Why have you brought him to me? Have I need of a madman that you have brought the fellow to play the madman in my presence? Shall this fellow come to my house? And so Achish says, this guy's crazy. And the plan works. So David has to be completely humbled. But the plan works. And he's sent out. He goes from here to the cave of Adullam. And we'll see that in chapter 22. It works. Now it's interesting. Bible scholars are divided.

Was this God's plan that God told David, okay, David, now what you need to do is pretend to be crazy. And so David was following God's instruction and God's prompting and being, you know, like a crazy person. Or was this David kind of like with Ahimelech, just trying to come up with his own plan and carry that out. And great men of God can discuss it and argue it back and forth both ways.

But regardless of whose idea it was and whose ultimate plan it was, the bottom line is not so much that it worked. The bottom line is that it was a humbling situation for David. There was a humbling that is taking place in his heart. There is a humbling that is going on within him through this process.

I would ask you to consider Luke chapter 14, verse 11, where Jesus says, whoever exalts himself will be humbled and he who humbles himself will be exalted. Now we read that and oftentimes we'll think about exalting ourselves as like, you know, pronouncing, hey everybody, I'm so great. But what we need to understand is that it's an issue of pride for us to not seek God's will. David runs to Achish and

He runs to Gath. He runs without... Later on, in the very next chapter, we're going to see David ask God, God, should I go here? Because he's learning his lessons. Lord, is this where you want me to go? Lord, is this what you want me to do? And he will see that for the next few chapters. He becomes very active in seeking God. God, what do you want? Do you want me to go here? Do you want me to go there? Do you want me to go there? And he's constantly checking with God. He's seeking God's heart on what God wants for his life.

And it is a matter of pride for us to not do that. It's an issue of pride for us to not check in with God and say, God, this is what I think, but what do you think? And we may think of exalting ourselves as some thing that we don't do because I'm not there telling everybody how awesome I am on Facebook. I don't post selfies, and so I'm not exalting myself. But sometimes we exalt ourselves just by doing

Thinking that we don't even need to check in with God. We just do what we think is best. We do what we think is right. And it's an issue of pride. And in that, well, the promise is, whoever exalts himself will be humbled. There will be a humbling that corresponds with that pride. Not seeking God's direction directly,

is an exaltation of ourselves. It's a trust in ourselves instead of trusting in God. And we need to give God opportunity. Now, there are some times where God doesn't tell us exactly what to do, but that's not so much that God tells us every little detail about our lives, but that we consistently and continually come back and give Him opportunity to tell us every little detail about our lives.

And that we invite him to give us opportunity or to give us direction. And we give him that opportunity to redirect us and to lead us and to tell us where he wants us to go. And so some failures hurt other people greatly. Some failures humiliate us completely. Now this is an important lesson.

Because in our weakness, and when we trust ourselves, and we don't bother to check in with God, and we don't get God's direction, and we go do something, and then we come crawling back, and we're just absolutely humiliated. It can be very tempting. It can be very difficult to get back up into the pursuit of God, to seek after God. Don't give up on yourself because you've made a mistake, because you've been completely humbled and humiliated.

But then also, it's a reminder to be diligent, to give God opportunity. I know the ladies are looking at Galatians chapter 5, and Kim and I talked about that, walking in the Spirit. And I always like to picture walking in the Spirit. That's kind of a vague idea, but taking each step and giving the Holy Spirit, okay, this step, Lord, do you want to tell me something? Do you want to lead me in some way? Do you want to give me some direction? And that's challenging for us.

Because we get caught up in the day. We get caught up in our decisions. And we do things because we got to do things. And we got to do things. And we know what to do. And we don't need to check in with God. But that can result in some serious humbling that is needed. And to bring us back to the point, like David will be brought to the point where he goes and he checks in with God. Lord, do you want me to go this way? Do you want me to go over here? What do you want, Lord? And that needs to be the direction and the manner of our life. Humble yourself and seek God.

Don't just trust in your own thoughts and ideas and your own directions. Look to God for those things. It gets an important lesson for us and our weaknesses. Well, I want to finish up point number three by looking at a couple of Psalms that David wrote out of this situation that we're in. And we're not going to look at the whole Psalms, but would you turn with me to Psalm chapter 56?

And we'll start there. And the third point is get back to pursuing God's heart after failure. And so what we see demonstrated in David here, again, he's a man who is in the pursuit of God's heart, but he fails. But here as he writes these Psalms, we see that he comes back. And so even though he's failed, he comes back to the Lord. He calls out to God and he picks himself up and he gets back involved in the pursuit of God's heart.

And so in Psalm chapter 56, it tells us at the beginning of the psalm, the occasion in which this psalm was written. It says, This is where David is in Gath. He's been captured. He's been taken before the king. He pretends madness. And in that context, David writes in verse 1,

Be merciful to me, O God, for man would swallow me up, fighting all day he oppresses me. My enemies would hound me all day, for there are many who fight against me, O Most High. Whenever I am afraid, I will trust in you. At this moment, at this point, David comes back to, Oh Lord, I haven't been trusting in you. I've been afraid, but I haven't trusted you.

And I've come up with my own solutions and I've, you know, lied to this priest and I've run to this place out of my own thoughts and my own opinions, my own ideas. And I have these enemies and the enemies are real. Oh, but Lord, I haven't been trusting you. And so he says, be merciful to me, oh God. He's asking God for mercy.

David Guzik points out, in other Psalms, David asked God to take up his righteous cause against his opponents. Here, David knows that his own sinful fears and choices brought him to this place. So he simply and wisely asked God for mercy. This is where we need to start. Get back to pursuing God's heart. We will have these failures. And sometimes it's going to hurt people. And sometimes it's going to humiliate and humble us completely.

But we need to come back to God and ask God for mercy. Ask God for him to work in our lives even though we've messed up, even though we've blown it, even though we've put ourselves in this mess. Well, now would you jump with me to Psalm 34?

In Psalm 34, we have another psalm, and it seems like Psalm 56 was kind of the turning point, and probably that's something David wrote in his own mind, in his own heart, in the midst of being in the courtyard with the king, and in the midst of that turning and faking madness, and all of that, that was in that situation. And then Psalm 34 seems that it was written after David.

He has escaped and been sent out of the presence of the king. It tells us at the beginning, it's a psalm of David when he pretended madness before Abimelech who drove him away and he departed. In verse 1 it says, I will bless the Lord at all times. His praise shall continually be in my mouth.

My soul shall make its boast in the Lord. The humble shall hear of it and be glad. Oh, magnify the Lord with me and let us exalt his name together. I sought the Lord and he heard me and delivered me from all my fears. David, in responding in fear to the situation with Saul, has told these lies and worked out these things and run to this situation and

Because he allowed these fears to push him in these ways and did not trust in the Lord. But now, as he's turned back, he's asked God to be merciful. He's called out to the Lord. And the Lord has delivered him from the Philistines. He's been delivered from Achish, the king of Gath. And he says, I will bless the Lord. And notice, again, remember I talked about

from what Jesus said that those who exalt themselves will be humbled and those who humble themselves will be exalted. Here David is recognizing that. He says, my soul shall make its boast in the Lord. The humble will hear it and are glad. He says, magnify the Lord. Not my plans, not my stories, not my manipulation, not my schemes, not my, you know, not me. But magnify the Lord. And why? I sought the Lord.

And he heard me. And here David is just over the top in joy. Because here God has delivered him from the mess that he put himself in. Going back to Psalm 56. That's God's mercy. God has been merciful. David deserved to be in that situation. He put himself. He made the decisions that got him there. He made the mistakes. But God showed mercy and brought deliverance as David called out to him. And so like David, we...

Well, we will mess up. We will fail. We will fall short. And there will be that moment or maybe moments or even season of us being very tempted to give up in the pursuit of God's heart. To give up, as Harvey was bringing up, in the asking God to fulfill His promises and to fulfill, you know, what God has set before us. And we can talk ourselves out of it and say, I don't deserve it and I'm not worthy and, you know.

And David could have been there, but he instead shows us what it's like to pursue God's heart after you've failed. And he gets back up and he asks God to be merciful. He asks God to work in spite of his failures and his frailties and the hurt and the harm that he's caused. In verse 17 here of Psalm 34, it says, The righteous cry out, and the Lord hears and delivers them out of all their troubles. The righteous cry out. That's what we need to do.

After we've failed, after we've messed up, after others have been hurt and harmed by our, you know, mistakes and issues and difficulties, we need to come back and once again engage in the pursuit of God's heart, calling out to Him, crying out to Him. And God's faithful. He will cleanse us. He will wash us. He will begin to work again. He will begin to work out His promises and begin to do the things that He wants to do in our lives. God is so faithful.

Don't let that moment of failure and that shame and that humiliation and that hurt that we've caused others and the burden and the guilt, don't let that keep you from pursuing God's heart. God still has great things in store for you. And again, I would remind you of the quote I started with from F.B. Meyer. There is a large measure of humanity in all God's saints. These things that we're looking at, they're true of David. That's David Burnt sitting in the back there. David Burnt.

The future king of Israel, they're true of all of us, all God's saints. There's a large measure of humanity in us. We're still going to make mistakes. We're still going to fall short. We're going to do things that we all would understand and relate and say, oh yeah, that's not that big of a deal. But you know, it ends up hurting people greatly or bringing great humbling or humiliating in our lives because there are moments of not pursuing God's heart, not seeking to please God, not trusting in God.

And after that happens, we need to get back up and get back in the race, pursuing, get back in the work of pursuing God's heart, even though we failed, asking him for mercy and inviting him to work and to bring deliverance and to do miraculous things in our lives. And so we need to learn that example from David. It's an important lesson for us to remind us to be diligent, to pursue God's heart and

So whether or not you have some big failure that you're lamenting this evening, if you do, it's time to get back up and get back involved in the pursuit of God's heart. But if not, then let it be a reminder of the urgency and the need, the importance of really putting God first in your life and seeking Him with all of your heart and soul and mind and strength. Because those little moments that we might not think very much of can sometimes be

devastate families, neighborhoods, communities, nations. There's a lot at stake and there's not an opportunity for us to just do what we want to do and think about what we want to think about and pursue the things that we want to pursue. No, we need to pursue God's heart. There's much, much, much at stake. So let's begin that this evening and close out. Kim's going to lead us in a time of worship and I would encourage you during this time to just recenter yourself and your mind and your heart and

Come back to the place. If you need to, you know, and there's been a failure, there's been an issue, and you need to come back and get back involved in pursuing God's heart, then there's an opportunity to do that. Or if not, to keep ourselves in that place of being focused on and consumed with

the will of God and being pleasing to God. And as always, we want to give you opportunity to minister to one another. So at any time during the song, if you want to pray with one another and encourage each other from the scriptures or ask for prayer, whatever it might be, feel free to minister to one another and seek the Lord together in that way. So let's worship the Lord and pursue His heart together. Amen.

We pray you have been blessed by this Bible teaching. The power of God to change a life is found in the daily reading of His Word. Visit ferventword.com to find more teachings and Bible study resources.