Let me have you turn in your Bibles to 1 Samuel 26, the passage that Pastor John read for our Scripture reading. And if you guys can go ahead and pull up the maps, we'll be looking at those from the beginning here this morning. So having had the passage read already, let's ask the Lord to help as we come before the Lord in the hearing and the preaching of His Word. Let's pray together. Our Father God, it is our desire that the Lord Jesus have first place in our hearts and our lives. So as we come before Your Word to hear it preached this morning and to preach it, we pray, Lord, that we would see Christ, that we would sense the work of the Holy Spirit through the Word, both to encourage and to convict We pray that you would teach us not only what the passage means, but how to apply it and live it in our lives and incorporate it into our relationship with you. We pray, Lord, that you would teach us, and especially today, Lord, that you would teach us how to live by faith when the trial just doesn't end. We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. I know for some of you, the last time that you were here under the sound of preaching here at Arbor, David was just getting anointed. And there's a lot that's happened since then. Now, I also want us to be able to see a little bit of what's going on in 1 Samuel. And so we're going to be looking at some key things, and it'll be a good reminder for all of us here this morning as well. So a couple of key cities before we even begin to review is you remember that Saul is actually from Gibeah. David is from Bethlehem. And then, although it's not on the map, probably right about in here is Ramah, where Samuel was from. And so those are some of the key cities that we see along the way. Now, way back on April 30th, which was toward the end of the school year for some of you last year, in 1 Samuel 16, we see Samuel the prophet anointing David as the future king. with the Holy Spirit coming upon David as a young man in a way that he had not previously. And that anointing took place in Bethlehem, as we just saw. And then the first couple of weeks in May, in 1 Samuel 17, that some of you were here for, we looked at that classic account of David and Goliath, where David really is introduced to Israel and thrust into the limelight. And I believe, now we've had some of our people go to Israel before, I have not, so if any of you need to help me out after the service, feel free to do so. But I believe that in general, we're looking at the Valley of Elah off to the west a little bit, where that battle was fought between Israel and the Philistines, but really it began with the standoff between Goliath and Israel, and then eventually David and Goliath. Well, then we continued on in the summer. 1 Samuel 18 was key because David and Saul's son Jonathan became really good friends, we saw. And of course, you're familiar with much of this narrative from Scripture. But instead of loving David like Jonathan did, his father, Jonathan's father, Saul, became really jealous of David. And a distressing spirit from God came upon Saul for the first time that we know of because of Saul's rejection of God and his habitual sins of defiance and rebellion against God's clearly revealed will. So by the end of chapter 18, David has married Saul's daughter Michal, but Saul had offered her to David in order to try to get rid of David. And we see something of Saul's nefarious purposes at that point. Well, from that point forward in 1 Samuel, Saul starts coming after David to kill him. In chapter 19, Saul's daughter Michal, who David has just married, helps David to escape. And in chapter 20, Saul's son Jonathan helps David to escape. And it's at that point, you remember, that exchange between David and Jonathan out in the field where David realized he no longer had a place left at the seat of the king's table. It was time for him to run for his life. So starting with chapter 21, each of my sermon titles has begun with the term, man on the run, because at that point he became a fugitive. So we've seen David gather a band of men and evade Saul and his men on numerous occasions. There was the destruction of the city of Nob with all of its priests and their families when they were murdered because of Saul's rage. And along the way this summer, we actually also took a couple of Sundays to look at Psalm 52, which David wrote in the context of the massacre at Nob. Really makes some of those Psalms come to life when you remember what David was going through as he's writing them. Now more recently, Saul has been chasing David through the wilderness area, where David could have taken Saul's life in a cave where Saul was relieving himself. And so a lot of the action now heads south as David is running away from Saul, and that particular account, when David cut off the corner of Saul's robe, took place in a cave in En Gedi. And so, as we move forward in 1 Samuel, the activities move from the cities where the men are from down to where Saul is pursuing David into the wilderness, probably somewhat periodically, not necessarily all day every day, but it keeps happening. Now, last week, we saw the account of harsh and evil Nabal and his wife Abigail, who was a woman of good understanding and beautiful appearance, quite the contrast. And with that account, we're actually even heading farther south. In fact, the wilderness of Paran would be probably off the map somewhere to the south, and so a lot of what's happening there is to the south of En-Gedi, as David continues to run from Saul. We also have the significance of the city Carmel that we looked at last week, where much of last week's account took place. Well, we saw that Abigail stopped David from killing Nabal and all of the men of his household, which would certainly have weighed on David's conscience and tarnished his reign all of his days. And in kind of an unusual, somewhat unusual series of events, at the end of chapter 25, after Nabal had been struck of the Lord and died, David actually takes Abigail, Nabal's widow, to be his wife. And then the scriptures tell us, totally out of the blue, oh, by the way, he also took Ahinoam of Jezreel to be his wife, too. And there's a significant verse at the end of chapter 25 that tells us that Saul had given Michal, his daughter, David's wife, to Palti, the son of Laish, who was from Galim. And we don't know all that's going on there, but you have to imagine how excruciatingly difficult some of those circumstances were for David. The wife that he'd been given from Saul, who was his father-in-law, had been taken from him and given to another man. And that account is given to us in the text at the same time that David is taking Abigail and Ahinoam to be his wives. And you have to wonder just what is going on in David's mind as he does this. And I think it's one of those places where we can be careful not to rush past how real this is, how excruciating this was for David to go through things like this. I think sometimes there's a tendency with the familiarity of these accounts to just treat it like a character in a movie or something. It's not that real, not that significant to us. But this is a good time to just kind of stop and say, David was a real guy. He could be sitting in here worshiping with us. Same kind of humanity. And yet he's going through these kinds of things, being pursued by his own father-in-law, having his wife taken away by his father-in-law and the king of Israel. being constantly pursued to death. I mean, that didn't happen, but that was Saul's intent. I have said, and I guess it's kind of a little bit humorous, but I really am not joking, if you ever wanted to make the case of somebody in the Old Testament that likely might have had symptoms of what we now call PTSD, I think David would be a candidate for that with all that he had been through. This was real. Well this morning, today is the last man on the run message. Because in chapter 27, which is next time, David and his 600 men and their families move to Gath of the Philistines to try to settle down for a while, and Saul actually quits chasing him. So after the event of today, which is back in the wilderness of Ziph, so kind of back up in this area again, After the events of today, David and his men head to Gath, and you notice on this map it's actually got a couple of possibilities with question marks, but we know that it's going to be somewhere to the south and west, into the land of the Philistines. And so really, this is the last time we see David on the run as a fugitive. I guess in a sense, after this, he's more like an exile. He takes his wives, he takes his 600 men, all of their families, moves to the land of the Philistines, and lives there. And the Scriptures say at least a year and four months. So it's kind of like a short military stint. But they did live there for a time, and he's not just running through the woods with his wives at that point. So today, we're looking at man on the run, waiting for God when the trial doesn't end. And a question that I would have, and we've talked about some of these kinds of things along the way because so much of what is happening to David is applicable to us in going through significant trials in our own lives. But especially today, what's on my mind from the Scriptures is, David's been at this for a while now. He's had to learn to live with this ongoing trial that, for now, Jehovah has decided is going to keep on. It's not going to stop. And so I wonder, as we begin today, if you have a trial in your life that just won't end. Now, there are some trials we have you could say that we know are not gonna end, but maybe they've sort of, you know, petered out a bit. You know, you think about maybe somebody has a relationship with their dad that's really bad and eventually he passes away. And so maybe some of the heat of that is not there anymore, but you still kind of have the scars of that memory of all that that, you know, meant while it was in place. Others of us have very active tribulation that's ongoing and relentless and is not letting up. And you know, David, at this point, actually, to me, seems very familiar with this trial. You know, even his interactions with Saul, you almost have this tone of, we've been here before, Saul. I'm gonna say similar things that I've said to you before. I have absolutely no hope whatsoever, Saul, that you are being legit or honest or genuine or that you've really changed. I have no hope in that. Maybe David could say, I'm praying for that, but he had no hope for that. His hope was so clearly at this point in the Lord alone and not in Saul or Saul's men or any of that, or circumstances changing. He's so familiar. And I wonder how many of you have had a trial long enough that you'd say maybe somewhat sadly or unfortunately from a human perspective, you're really familiar with the circumstances of that trial. Maybe it's a bad relationship that you don't actually have the ability to change. Maybe it's a chronic illness or an ongoing struggle with depression that just won't stop. Or some sort of a scar that you're never going to get rid of in this life. You know, the result of something you did even, or a sin, or something somebody did to you. God can certainly redeem and heal, but there are some things, you know, let's say you have a car accident and you lose a limb. That limb will not be a part of you again until the great resurrection, where I believe it will be. But for the rest of this life, you'll be without that limb. Maybe there's some dark providence that you've asked the Lord to remove, like Paul did, the thorn in the flesh. but God has decided that it's actually best to leave it there, perhaps for purposes currently known only to Him. So if God is good, and we believe that He is, and God is omnipotent, and we believe that He is, then what do we do when the trial just won't end? Well, in the first six verses of our text, We see what you might call the setting. The situation is laid out before us. Pastor John has read that. You have an introduction to a number of key people here in the beginning of chapter 26. You have the Ziphites, and we've actually seen them before in chapter 23, where they did essentially the same thing that they're doing here. The Ziphites lived in that wilderness area, and I'll use this one more time, and then I'll let you guys take this down. The Ziphites live in this wilderness area in here. In fact, I'll go to this next one now that you see about where it is. All right, this is a blow up of the area where we are now, and you'll notice that Ziph and Maon, these are towns and also areas of the wilderness that are named after them. So in Gedi was where David cut off the corner of Saul's robe, and now we're back in this area here where the Ziphites have gone up to Gibeah, they've sent a coalition up to Gibeah to say to Saul, David's back. He's here again. Do you want Him? We'll help you. Alright, you guys can take that down. Thanks. So very similar to what happened in chapter 23, the Ziphites come to Saul at Gibeah saying, is David not hiding in the hill of Achela opposite Jeshimon? You have to imagine that when David was in that area, he probably had a spot that he liked to stay with his men. There was probably a place there that just kind of fit. And if he had to run or hide, I don't know for sure, but a lot of times we go where we know, where we've been before, where we know maybe there's some measure of safety or something working for a camp, for a military outpost. And the Ziphites come back up to Saul and say, once again, he's here. We also have a couple of key people here in the text that are a major part of this account. You have Abner, who was a relative of Saul. Some say cousin, some say uncle, but he's a relative of Saul. And it's interesting, you can get a sense of how close some of the families of Israel were with each other, because there are a lot of relatives working together on both sides here. because Abner is actually acting as the commander-in-chief of Saul's army, and he's a relative of Saul, whereas Abishai, the one that ends up going down into the camp with David to go get close to Saul, was actually one of David's three nephews by his sister, Zeruiah. Abishai was one of those sons, and Joab was one of those sons of David's sister, so these are David's nephews. that are mentioned. Now his nephew Joab was the more experienced general in David's army, sometimes called captain of the host. But Abishai, another nephew by David's sister, was one of David's key military men, as you can see here in the text. He's kind of a let's go do this thing kind of a guy. And he's the one who ends up going with David into Saul's camp. So Saul takes 3,000 choice men, which, if you do the math real quick, is five times the size of David's army, and he heads out from Gibeah, coming south, trying one more time to kill David. And he sets up near where David and his men are said to be hiding. Well, David and his men are hiding in the wilderness, and through the use of spies, David confirms that Saul had indeed come. Probably saw the host come in or heard them, but then wanted to confirm that, yeah, this is Saul, and make sure that he knew who this was. So David checks out Saul's camp and he sees that Saul is lying in the middle of his men with Abner, or at least they're setting it up to be that way. And I don't know if perhaps he went at dusk or later in the day when he could still see, but somehow this intelligence is that Saul is in the middle of the camp with Abner, the commander of the army, right nearby in order to protect Saul. And we're not given all of the details, but you can imagine if this were a task you or I were faced with, we might try to get close while it was light enough to get a sense of what's going on so that we can make plans for after dark. However it happened, David confirmed the sleeping arrangements of Saul's camp. He wanted to know where Saul was. And I think even by the way the men conducted themselves and by the way they positioned themselves, you could kind of tell this is the king, this is the one guarding the king, they're in the middle of all of these men of Saul's army. So David asks Ahimelech and Abishai for a volunteer to go with him down into Saul's camp that night. And while I don't see any reason to criticize Ahimelech here, it seems like Abishai is the one who quickly says, I'll go down with you. And so it ends up being David and Abishai. Now for the rest of this chapter, you really have three different men that make up, I guess you could say the outline or whatever. You have in verses 7 to 12, David and Abishai, go do their thing. Verses 13 to 16, David and Abner have an exchange, essentially David yelling at Abner. And then in verses 17 to 25, David and Saul, and that's how the account is given. So David and Abishai then, and this is the exciting part, this is the life-threatening part, really both ways. I mean, Saul's life was in danger, David's life was in danger. If somebody were to wake up, both of those guys could have been immediately killed. Abishai is gonna try to convince David to take Saul's life. So there's a lot at stake here. So David and Abishai head into the camp, where Saul lay sleeping, ooh, this is a detail, and you hear this several times throughout the narrative here, Saul's spear. You know, if Saul were in a game where you needed a playing piece, he would be represented by a spear. If Saul were an avatar, it would be a spear. That would be the symbol in his coat of arms. If it wasn't, it should have been. I mean, this spear. He's always got it, holding onto it, throwing it at David. It's always there with him. Even when he's under the tree and he's talking to his men about an upcoming military campaign, he's there with his spear. And here he is sleeping with the spear stuck in the ground by his head. What do you put your trust in, Saul? Saul's general, Abner, was sleeping near him with the army all around, six, or I'm sorry, 3,000 men all around sleeping as well. Now, what follows here in the text sounds very similar to the time when David cut the corner off Saul's robe in the cave. There are some similar things happening here because it's a similar series of events. Abishai, essentially, to David, and because of the context, I don't know if he says this before they get into the camp or if he's just wildly playing charades to keep it quiet in the dark. He says to David, let me kill him. God has delivered your enemy into your hand, David. I'll do it with his own spear. The spear he threw at you. The spear that never leaves his side. David, what a story that would be. One blow with his own spear and this is all over. Once again, we see David with considerable temptation. But he says, no. David is committed to what he believes is righteousness, what God has commanded. He says, we will not attack Jehovah's Anointed. There's no need for discussion here. Doesn't matter how passionate you might be about sinning. we're not going to go against what God has clearly revealed. And it's not about Saul's character here. It's about the fact that God anointed him, and Saul is God's representative for now, whether we like it or not. And it just seems to me in this text that David is growing in his trust in the Lord. His theology seems to be deepening. his practical relationship with the Lord. When you contrast this exchange with the one at En-Gedi in the cave, where David almost seems like he could be tempted, here you see him saying this, as the Lord lives, the Lord shall strike him, or his day shall come to die, or he shall go out to battle and perish. The Lord forbid that I should stretch out my hand against the Lord's anointed. But please, take now the spear and the jug of water that are by his head and let us go. I mean, David is interacting with the events. He is going to try to make a case to Saul that he could have taken Saul's life and Saul needs to wake up and do the right thing and stop being such a fool. He's going to try to get his attention. But he will not raise his hand against the Lord's anointed. So they took the spear and the jug of water and left. And we are told in the text that God had caused them to sleep deeply for David's safety and Abishai's as they head in. Now, I don't know if you'd call this miraculous or just providential. Maybe they'd eaten something that just, oh man, made them go to sleep. It definitely seems to be a part of God's providence here in keeping them asleep while they went and did this. So David and Abishai. Verses 13 to 16, David and Abner. And it's, again, similar to the En Gedi cave incident. Once David is a safe distance away, he calls out to Saul's camp. Do you not answer, Abner? Abner. Who are you calling out to the king? David. Okay. This right here, what David's about to say, just seems to me to be some sort of sanctified trash talk. Listen to what David says to Abner at this point. Are you not a man? You can hear that out on the basketball court with seventh graders. Trash talk. And who is like you in Israel? You're supposed to be the commander and chief. You're the general. Are you a man? Do you know what just happened? Why then have you not guarded your Lord the King? For one of the people came in to destroy your Lord the King. This thing that you have done is not good. As the Lord lives, you deserve to die because you have not guarded your Master, the Lord's anointed. And now see where the King's spear is and the jug of water that was by His head. You see, we're having a little fun with it, but in that culture, if it was your responsibility to guard the king and you didn't succeed, it could mean your life. David is really trying to make a point here, I think, to not really just Abner, but I think to Saul. You know, in an effort to turn aside Saul's pursuit, David this time not only addresses Saul, which he'll do in a minute here, but first he addresses the thing that Saul trusts in. It wasn't Jehovah that Saul trusted in. It was his spear, and it was Abner, and it was the army. And the safety that Saul found in Abner and the army and the spear was for the moment completely decimated. So here we have David calling out, holding up the spear and the jug of water that had been lying right by Saul's head. And in order to get there, David and Abishai had to make their way through all of the men of the army, get close enough to Saul to grab that spear where they could have easily killed him, right where Abner should have been protecting the king. Everything about Saul's trust in these things was obliterated with David calling out like this. And I think David is essentially saying here to Saul, Saul, if Jehovah is on my side, you can't stop me. Your best man can't stop me. And your host can't stop me. Now, I'm not saying David was saying that in a personal agenda kind of a way, but David was saying, you can't kill me if Jehovah's on my side and He wants me alive. You're not going to be able to kill me, so quit fighting Jehovah and stop trying to kill me. And this is where he turns his attention to Saul in verses 17 to 25. And again, a similar exchange to that which they had in the En Gedi cave incident. Once again, David asks things like this, why does my Lord thus pursue his servant? For what have I done or what evil is in my hand? Saul, if you really want peace, we can work toward peace. God has provided a way for us to do that. If I've sinned against you and the Lord has stirred you up against me, then I will offer a sacrifice to Jehovah and I will make things right with you and we can live in peace. How have I sinned, Saul? Tell me. How have I sinned? Give me something that I can deal with. Give me something that I can address. If you think that I have sinned, tell me and I'll address it before God and with you. But Saul, if it's Your people who are stirring You up against me. May they be cursed before the Lord, for they have forced me out of the promised land. They have driven me out from sharing in the inheritance of the Lord. I'm not allowed to be a part of my own family, my own tribe, my own country, in the very worship of Jehovah. I am not allowed to come and worship in the tabernacle with my people. You have essentially cut me off from Israel and Israel's worship and left me to live the life of a pagan away from my people as if I were a Gentile serving other gods. If it's your people who are stirring you up, Saul, with that result, May a God's curse be on them for their lying and their deception and their wickedness if you can't produce something wrong that I have done. I'm not a threat to you, Saul. I've never lifted my hand against you to hurt you or kill you. Stop listening to lies. Don't let my blood fall to the earth before the face of the Lord. You are chasing a flea, Saul. You're hunting a partridge. I'm not a threat to you. Once again. Because David is. A man who has righteousness on his side and truth. Saul doesn't have a whole lot to say. He just his life was just in danger. All that he trusted in had just been exposed. And he knows that David is telling the truth. So he responds saying, I have sinned. I have played the fool. I have erred exceedingly. Return, my son David. Because you spared my life when you could have killed me today, I will seek to harm you no more. And this is another one of those cases where the words coming out are right. But now history has shown us that there's really no legitimate reason for David to trust anything that Saul says. And so, David essentially says to Saul, when Saul says, return to me David, David says, thanks, but no thanks. You can go ahead and send someone over to get your spear, but Saul, I am looking to the Lord for my deliverance. I certainly can't trust your words or put my faith in your promises. Verse 23, may the Lord repay every man for his righteousness and his faithfulness, for the Lord delivered you into my hand today, but I would not stretch out my hand against the Lord's anointed. David is essentially saying, I am trusting the Lord to repay me or to deal with me according to my right relationship with Him and my acts of holiness before Him and my faithfulness to Him. I'm trusting the Lord, Saul, at this point, not you. I'm trusting myself into Jehovah's hands. And you know part of what's in David's mind is today, as much as I wanted to end all of this. Saul, your life was valued much in my eyes, but I have given up being able to trust you, Saul. Now what's interesting at this point is you would expect at this point where David says to Saul, Saul, I have valued your life today. What would you expect David to say to Saul next? Wouldn't we expect him to say, now Saul, I want you to value my life? That would make sense, right? Wouldn't it be wrong to say that? But that's not what David says. He's so far beyond that at this point. What he says is, Saul, I have valued your life today. Now I am praying that my life would be valued much in the eyes of Jehovah. And let him deliver me out of all my tribulation. I commit myself to Him and entrust myself to Him for comfort and safety. No offense, King Saul, but I'm done with you as far as expecting any kind of righteousness or right response. Now, you know what's ironic at this point in the account is that the last recorded words of Saul to David Because this is really the last exchange we see now between David and Saul before Saul ends up dying at the end of 1 Samuel. The last recorded exchange between Saul and David is Saul blessing David. And even though you have to wonder anything that comes out of Saul's mouth, you know that the words certainly would ring true. And so before parting ways, Saul says to David, may you be blessed, my son David. You shall both do great things and also still prevail. That was true. That was true. And it's ironic that hearing it come from the mouth of Saul. So how do we wait for God when the trial doesn't end? How are we instructed from David's example? Well, I think it's clear from the text, we've already alluded to this, that we must have an unwavering commitment to faithful obedience. So everything that I'm going to say actually from here forward is kind of with the assumption that God calls us to faithful obedience. But what else does God's Word say about what we should believe and how we should live as we're trying to continue on in faithful obedience when the trial just doesn't end? And what I'm about to say is firmly rooted in the concept of Jesus Christ being our boast, our strength, our joy, our hope, our plea. You know, sometimes when we're singing on a Sunday morning with these wonderful songs, I just have to keep saying, Joel and Caleb, you guys do an amazing job picking songs that fit what we're about to take a look at. And there are times that I honestly wish that I could preach the message, and then we could sing those songs so that we could be singing them with these truths in our ears. But what I want us to remember, when we sing on a Sunday morning, those songs like the ones we sang this morning, it's not like, okay, now we're singing the songs of the new covenant, and we're worshiping about Jesus, and then Pastor Steve's gonna preach in 1 Samuel, and we're gonna go back to the old covenant, do something kinda separate, kinda different, you know, good, but different. This is so related. That's why I have numerous times come back to the thing that we learned when we studied Romans. How we were told by Paul that both Abraham and David had some sense of imputed righteousness. Because this is completely related to the songs that we sing on a Sunday morning. They didn't have all the details. There was a lot of mystery still to be revealed. But David was a believer because he trusted in the coming Messiah. And David was given the righteousness of a coming Christ. I believe we can say that that great exchange that we talk about was a reality for Abraham and David as well as us. That they end up being clothed in the righteousness of Christ with their sins being cleansed because of the work that Christ would still come to do. And so when we look at these principles then, and we think about what it means to continue on when the trial doesn't end, part of that foundation of faithful obedience and the Christian walking by faith is that I am continually fighting to remember that my biggest hope and joy and strength and plea and confidence is in Jesus Christ and Him crucified. And the fact that I have been cleansed of my sin because of Christ's atoning grace, and I have been clothed in His righteousness, I've been made acceptable in the courtroom of a holy God because of that theology that we call justification. And that is really at the foundation of the things that we're looking at here. So on that foundation of Jesus Christ crucified and my identity in Him, on that foundation realizing that we're called to faithful obedience, what are some specific things that we're called to? Number one, faithful obedience and patient meekness. Now if you remember, men like Moses were called meek. It's not weakness, but rather meekness is strength under control. Or you could actually say, strength under the control of the Holy Spirit. Meekness doesn't mean that we're being weak, but rather that we're willing to endure for the sake of faithfulness even when the trials come. I'm being motivated by a desire to see God's kingdom advance, and I'm being guided by God's clear revelation of Scripture, so I don't respond. We've seen David actually kind of go both ways on this one. I don't respond out of vengeance, or uncontrolled passion, or selfish ambition, but I'm willing even to give up my rights Rights that are legally mine in order to see God glorified and His purposes realized. So what does this look like? I brought a couple books to share with you this morning, and they encouraged me. Some of you may have seen me, I think I posted this one earlier in the week, but I thought that this one was really helpful. This is from Eugene Peterson. Concerning this idea of living a life of faithful obedience, along with patient meekness, he relates this back to what David is going through here in this chapter. He says, the reticence that David displays in these incidents of disciplined waiting is something of the quality that Jesus blessed in the meek who will inherit the earth, Matthew 5.5. Meekness designates the controlled strength that turns its back on self-aggrandizing opportunism. and stands patiently firm while waiting for God's day, God's timing. In honoring Saul as God's anointed, David honors God who works his will in history when and where and how he wills. Did David have an opportunity to push his own agenda? Did David have an opportunity to really be somebody there? Well, in a certain sense, you could say it sure looked like that. And again, if your only way of discerning God's will is the open door method of discerning God's will, Saul would be dead again. But what we see is that even when David had opportunity, he said, I will not yield when it comes to what I believe God has clearly shown me. And so I'm going to continue on, even though it hurts me, even though it hurts my family, even though I can't be a part of Israel right now, I'm not going to compromise, I'm going to continue on. And you could say, in a sense, it took more moral strength for David to walk away with the spear than if he would have used it. So for us, even in my suffering, I'm not a victim, but I'm patiently waiting on the Lord. And in His grace, I'm doing what is right, living in obedience, and I'm waiting upon Him for deliverance, whatever that might mean. Now I'm not saying no one is ever a victim in the eyes of the law or that no one ever sins against you or takes advantage of you. What I'm saying is we need to be careful about a mentality that says there's nothing I can do, I'm a victim, woe is me. When the example we see from David is even while he's waiting, he's trying to live a life of principled obedience even when it's really difficult. So faithful obedience, and patient meekness. Number two, we're gonna have four of these, faithful obedience and imaginative trust. Verses nine and 10, when David is talking to Abishai, who wants to kill Saul, David says, do not destroy him, for who can stretch out his hand against the Lord's anointed and be guiltless? And then verse 10 is where I want us to think about imaginative trust. David says, as the Lord lives, the Lord shall strike him, or his day shall come to die, or he shall go out to battle and perish. In other words, David is starting to think, instead of being frenetic, like he looked a little more that way in the cave, he's actually pondering the ways that God could deliver him. And he's thinking to himself and saying to Abishai, I know, I'm firmly convinced that God does not want me to raise my hand against the anointed, so I'm going to operate according to righteousness here. But at the same time, as I consider God's possible deliverance, how is this gonna end? It could be that Jehovah is actually going to strike Saul dead. And you have to wonder if he's thinking that way because of what just happened to Nabal now. Since what happened at the cave in En-Gedi, he had seen Nabal struck of the Lord and die because of Nabal's wickedness. Or he's just gonna die, it's gonna be his day, providentially, however, maybe natural causes. Or he'll die in battle. But however the Lord chooses, I'm not going to disobey. And it looks like David's active trust in God is deepening as he considers various ways that God could deliver him if and when he chooses, as opposed to being frantic, running around all helter-skelter because he's scared and troubled by the trial. He's actually thinking about the ways that God could deliver him. Now I'm gonna do something a little different here. I wanna read a few excerpts from this book. This is from Dale Ralph Davis. And this is what made me meditate on this idea of imaginative trust this week. So I have a number of short excerpts that I wanna just walk you through briefly this morning to give you a sense of the counsel that I got from him this week when it comes to this idea of imaginative trust. considering, meditating on the ways that God could deliver even while I'm committed to obedience. He says the important matter is that Yahweh will handle Saul's destiny. Note that faith sets imagination to work. Many contemporary believers would do well to let their imaginations run riot in regard to the adequacy and sufficiency of God. So what he's proposing here is a way of meditation. Let your brain go nuts with how many ways could God deliver me if he chose. It reminds me of Daniel and his friends. You remember, it's like, we trust in Jehovah who could deliver us, but if not, dot, dot, dot, we're gonna still trust him? One might say that faith needs imagination to pull out all the stops if it is even to begin to grasp the grandeur, majesty, and ability of Yahweh. Surely God is praised when His people ask, who can guess how He will work here? Who can guess how He will work here? You see how this is a manifestation of faith? When we wonder to ourselves, when we meditate, even pray to the Lord, Lord, how are you going to handle this situation? Although David did not know how providence would work, he knew what obedience required. Any believer will face predicaments in which he does not know how God will bring relief, but does know what is or is not God's will for him. So what he's saying is, we often don't know how God's going to address a trial, but we often do know something of what God desires of us as he's revealed it in his word. And he gives a good example here. He says, for example, a Christian cannot guess how Christ will bring resolution to a marital problem, But he does know that he must not commit adultery against his wife. God's ways will frequently baffle us, but God's will is sufficiently clear to lead us in the meantime. So in other words, do what you know is right to do even as we wait upon God for deliverance. Last thing, he says, we may wait for God's providence, but we already have God's law, and that is all we need for the moment. I was encouraged by this because sometimes it's hard to grapple with this concept. What does it actually mean to live by faith in the midst of a trial? And one of the ways being proposed by Davis is consider the various ways God could deliver while you're waiting for that deliverance. And I thought, wow, how could that happen for us? You know, take the situation that you're facing. Maybe some are dealing with chronic illness, and so you could say to yourself, well, the Lord could simply heal me by his power. The Lord could use some healthcare practitioners, some doctors to bring a course of action that will make a real difference. The Lord could use some advice from a friend or, really, the website, the internet. I mean, how many ways could God deliver if he so choose to do that? Somebody comes up with a discovery that hasn't been made yet. And as I'm meditating on this, I would have to include if this is God's will that all of my days involved chronic illness, then delivery for me might be death or when he comes back. And I'll still have all of eternity without that illness, even if he calls me to have it all the days of my life here. But you see, when we think this way and we ask, how might God work? It's a manifestation of faith where we consider the various ways God has worked in the past, ways that God could work in the future, yet at the same time submitting ourselves to Him and saying, but Lord, if you choose to leave that thorn, then let it do its work. Let it do the work that you clearly think is necessary at this point. And then we'll be briefer with these. Number three, faithful obedience and a satisfied conscience. As we've seen, David struggled with sin and lack of faith at times, but he keeps coming back to Jehovah for forgiveness. I mean, we've seen David's sin. We've seen him about ready to obliterate Nabal. We've seen him back and forth living righteously and then living stupidly sometimes. And it's going to continue. He's human. He's passionate. He struggles. His faith is not always consistent. His actions are not always righteous. But he does ask Saul here to tell him if he sinned so that he can address it. And he says, if sin is not the issue, then I am going to take confidence in entrusting myself into Jehovah's hands and waiting on Jehovah for vindication and possible deliverance. So for you and for me, I think what we're taught here is that our ongoing need in the midst of a trial that will not end is to live a life of repentance. To continue repenting, turning from sin. To continue renewing our faith in God and in His promises. And to keep short accounts with those around us. So that if there is offense that we're aware of, we do what's necessary to address the offense. You know, one of the reasons why this is really important is because unending trials are often accompanied by many doubts. And we can feel condemned. So we want to know that if God chooses to allow a trial to continue, that we're not pushing forward in rebellion and unbelief. And one of the major purposes of trials is that we do feel our sin. So it's important for us to live a life of repentance and faith and returning to God, to commit ourselves to a lifetime of returning. And then number four, faithful obedience and growing dependence. I think you see this especially in verses 22 to 24. David is seen here in the text with complete dependence on Jehovah. And again, I'm not saying now it's perfect for all time. Again, David is human. It kind of comes and it goes sometimes. But he is a good example of wrestling to depend upon Jehovah here, and certainly we see it in the text. He's not trusting in human resources. He's not trusting in Saul to change. He's not trusting in circumstances, but he's exercising faith in Jehovah. And this is where I said, you know, I think sometimes as you live life long enough or you deal with a trial long enough, you can actually become familiar with it. I don't know if you want to say comfortable, but you're familiar with it. You know it. It's been around a long time. You're quite familiar with that trial or that difficult providence. And there's a sense here in which David doesn't really even seem to care that much what Saul is saying or thinking. He thinks so little of it, he just doesn't seem to care what the words coming out of his mouth, like blah, blah, whatever Saul, I'm trusting in the Lord. because I know I can't trust you. And in a sense, that's really sad. We could kind of talk about how we shouldn't be like Saul, where he has lost so much trust that David is just like, whatever, Saul, I'm trusting in God. That is sad. He's the king of Israel. He was David's father-in-law. That's really sad. But for David, he has taken hope in the Lord and in trusting himself into the Lord. He has learned to cast himself upon the Lord. So maybe some of those things are worthy of your meditation, that God calls us to faithful obedience and patient meekness, imaginative trust, satisfied conscience, and a growing dependence. And I think we see all of those illustrated in this text here today. Now if you don't know the Lord, then of course where it begins is to quit the life of Saul trusting in yourself and your own resources and your own way, and embracing the faith of David in trusting Jehovah to forgive you of your sins. to cleanse you from unrighteousness, and to be placed into a right relationship with God as one of His adopted sons or daughters. And that's where it begins for all who are outside of Christ. And if you don't know Jesus today, I would encourage you so that we could say of you that your hope is firmly resting in Jesus Christ alone as your only hope. Let's pray. Our Father God, As we consider the circumstances of our own lives and of our own hearts, we pray that you administer to us the truths of this text to live lives of faith as we see exemplified here by David. Lord, teach us to walk faithfully with you. Even in the midst of trials that just won't end, Lord, teach us what it means to live by faith when you've called us to endure certain things that may never go away as long as we live these days on this earth. Even if you choose to radically change certain circumstances, maybe they're here for now for a reason. We know they are. And we pray, Lord, that you would help us to respond in faith and even with joy, that we would count it all joy, knowing that you are good, that you are omnipotent, and that you are at work in the midst of those difficulties. You're not absent. You see us, you hear us, and you're working in us. That you've called us to believe those things by faith. through the Word that You've given to us. Lord, help us to do that. We pray in Jesus' name, Amen.