1 Samuel 30:4 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

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1 Samuel 30:4

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There is such sorrow. What a test this is going to be, and what a problem! They were utterly distraught, and not surprisingly. They had lost personally their wives and children, their homes, their possessions. This had happened, of course, because these people had been with David, and although David had fled into Philistine territory, they had never been hurt while they had been with David until this moment. They were all riffraff from society, debtors and inadequates, but they had gone to David and there he had them under his command, and Saul had been chasing them before they went into Philistine territory, and always they had been remarkably delivered. Saul had never found them; he never brought them down. So this is shattering, because they have got a sense of superiority about them, and they believe in David; even though he has disobeyed the Lord and he has made a false move, they still believe in him. This man is going to be our king. He is invincible; he is our leader, and now everything has gone wrong, and been completely broken and shattered. David's two wives have been taken along with all the others. He faces the same horror. But for David, there were additional troubles. ‘And David was greatly distressed.’ Now that word distressed translates a Hebrew word which means, David was greatly bound. What it means is that he was hemmed in on all sides as if bound. He didn't know what to do. He has just had a tremendous relief, release from an awful problem, and now his situation is suddenly just as bad. Everything he possesses has been taken: the wives, the families, leaving just a smoking ruined city. So David was hemmed in on every side. The verse says, ‘for the people spake of stoning him.’ They turned against him. They blame him for all their troubles; they wanted him dead. They perhaps thought, why didn’t he kill Saul on either of those two occasions, and end this? Why did he flee to the most dangerous region, when he got into trouble the last time he did that? This is an entirely new experience for the six hundred. From being constantly delivered, they have now lost everything including their families, and they turn against David, ‘because the soul of all the people was grieved’, and the Hebrew word is ‘bitter’. They were bitter and resentful towards him. ‘Every man for his sons and for his daughters.’ They were grieved, not in just a good and understandable sense because of loss, but they were angry and resentful and deeply embittered against him personally. David is being hemmed in on every side. Whatever will he do? He is in a situation from which there is no escape. He cannot restore the families, the homes; he cannot restore the goods and possessions, at least he doesn't believe he can. But that whirlwind, and that tempest was a message from heaven to bring him back to trust and commitment and rededication to his God, and he came back. There is a little clause at the end of verse 6: ‘But David encouraged himself in the Lord his God.’ It brings him back to seek the Lord and to be cast upon him. For the first time in these recent episodes he seeks guidance; it is very important. He ‘encouraged himself.’ The Hebrew is the word ‘strengthened’. David strengthened himself, and it says ‘in the Lord his God’. Some of the modern translations mishandle this, and they say, David received strength from the Lord his God, which sounds much more reasonable. But no, our King James Version in common with all the older versions has got it absolutely right: ‘David encouraged or strengthened himself in the Lord his God.’ That's different from obtained strength from the Lord. He didn't just pray – which he must have done that: ‘Lord help me’ – he also did something to strengthen himself in the Lord. He couldn't have strengthened himself by human reasoning, by drawing upon some human comforts or encouragements. He could only strengthen himself in the Lord, but he followed some procedure. Of course we need the help of the Lord; that is obvious, but the word ‘in’ is important here. It means something like this: he encouraged himself by switching his mind to the mighty power of God. He encouraged himself by remembering the great deliverances that God had given him: from the lion and the bear, in the defeat of Goliath, from Saul's murderous efforts. He encouraged himself in the Lord. He thought; he reflected: ‘God is still with me.’. He took hold of his mind, and, as it were, pulled himself together, reflecting on God's mighty patience with him, the deliverance he had just had from serving in the army of the Philistines, and he rededicated himself to the Lord.

Application

Now this is just where we often go wrong when we are in pieces. We might call on the Lord, but do we know there is a procedure by which we can take steps to get strength in the Lord? Earlier on, David talked with himself, and depressed himself mightily, looking only at the negative aspects of his position. That is chapter 27, when he told himself that his position was hopeless and he was doomed. Now he talks to himself again, but this time with positive things: with the promises of God and the undertakings of the Lord.

When troubles come, even if the troubles are our own fault entirely, there is a way out for Christians with the Lord. There is such a thing as saving faith when we need salvation, and there is such a thing as saving faith when we are saved but we need rescue from some foolish situation we have got into. David took certain steps of faith to re-strengthen himself and get back to where he should have been. These were constructive steps. So he encouraged himself and set about the recovery in the Lord. He remembered obviously the love of God to him. He remembered his anointing to be king. He remembered all the blessings from the past. He remembered his love to God, and the trust he had always placed in him. He remembered the mercy of God, the calling of God. We should remember all those things. Have we done foolish things, and we have put ourselves in foolish situations, and we have slipped away from our walk with God? Faith must be exercised; there is mercy with him. He is ready to have us back and restore us, but we have some steps to take. We don't just stand helpless and say, ‘Lord help me.’ We certainly do that, but we take the steps, and we remember and we encourage ourselves by the way God saved us, and the wonderful things he has done for us and the times when we trusted him completely. We remember his promises: ‘He which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. We remember these things.

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1 Samuel 30:4 Commentary and Bible Study