I Samuel 18 – 20; Psalm 11; Psalm 59

I Samuel 18 – 20; Psalm 11; Psalm 59

Wow, lots of reading today, but exciting wasn’t it? I just love the historical books of the Bible. Something is always happening.

In today’s lesson, we have David and Jonathan (Saul’s son) meeting for the first time. The Bible says, “There was an immediate bond between the, for Jonathan loved David. We see Jonathan making a pact with David and giving him “his tunic, sword, bow and belt.” This may be an acknowledgement that Jonathan did not expect to inherit Saul’s throne, but had some expectation that David would take over.

David was an exemplary soldier. He did whatever Saul asked of him. Unfortunately, he almost did it too well. When the people burst into song and said, “Saul has killed his thousands and David his ten thousands,” Saul became angry and jealous of David. Saul liked the limelight and didn’t want to share it with David.

Saul’s anger got so bad, he determined to kill David. I find it interesting that a tormenting spirit came upon him a few times and caused Saul to throw his spear at David. When Saul was unsuccessful at killing David, he began to fear him and fear can cause us to do things we normally wouldn’t.

Perhaps, it was Saul’s attempt to kill David by sending him into battle that gave David the idea to kill Uriah the Hittite by doing this. (I know we haven’t gotten to that part yet, but it seemed appropriate to point it out.)

While Saul feared and tried to kill David, his children seemed to love David. Not only Jonathan, but Saul’s daughter Michal, whom Saul gave to David after an almost impossible challenge, loved David. And every time Saul gave David an impossible task to perform, he accomplished the task and became that much more famous as a result. Both Michal and Jonathan help David escape their father, and Jonathan makes another pact of loyalty with David.

I love that we are reading some of David’s Psalms while reading I Samuel. When reading the Psalms as a book, one Psalm after another, it is easy to forget that these were written as a result of events happening in the lives of the authors. David was in need of the Lord’s protection and he recognized that the Lord was watching over him and that the Lord loves justice.

Don’t you love that Psalm 59 says it was written regarding the time Saul sent his soldiers to kill David – the very thing we just read about. This was a real prayer of David and a testimony that God could help him. When David said, “You are my strength; I wait for you to rescue me, for you, O God, are my fortress.” He refers to God as his shield and talks of singing about God’s power, unfailing love and a place of safety and refuge. He knew about this up close and personally.

Tomorrow, it’s I Samuel 21 – 24.

Last night, I went to my sister-in-law Esther’s house and shared dinner with her, Steven, her daughter Dawn, Dawn’s husband Paul, and my great-nephew, Daniel. We had pizza and wings from the new Anthony’s Coal-Fired Pizza and Greek salad from Woody’s. Yum, Yum!

Best, though, was getting to see Dawn and her family. They live in NC so it’s not often I get to visit with them.

Until next time…