Learning to Trust

We ask your blessing upon this evening.

We just thank you for what sent your Holy Spirit to come do a mighty work in our lives this evening. We want to start a revival to come in this place, Lord God. We invite your Holy Spirit to come do a mighty work. I'm going to take a quick minute and get switched over to the keyboard here. So just give me one hot minute here.

I pray that you would come and be our Prince of Peace. In the midst of all that's going on in our lives, Lord God, people here that may be hurting, stressed out of their minds, Lord God, the stresses of life, Lord, I just pray that you'd come and be our Prince of Peace. And this evening, Lord, as Pastor Ryan comes, I just pray that you would speak mightily through him, Lord, and let your Holy Spirit come and move mightily in this place, Father. We love you, Father. We praise you and we thank you.

All God's people said. If you'd open up in your Bibles to the book of 1 Samuel, chapter 21. 1 Samuel, chapter 21.

The title of the message tonight is Learning to Trust. The last time that we read the Bible, we left David. Difficult times had just come upon him in a really quick amount of time. He had gone from being the hero of Israel to the enemy of Saul. And he had talked to his friend. He talked to Jonathan and said, Hey, I think things are going to go really bad for me with your dad.

I think he wants to kill me. And Jonathan's like, that's crazy talk. I don't know what you're talking about. He said, well, why don't you see if you can figure it out for me? And so sure enough, Jonathan figured it out. Not only did Saul want to kill him, he ultimately even tried to kill his own son, Jonathan. He told David, he said, you're going to have to run.

And I don't know how long this is going to be, but when you become king, you should remember me and my family. And so they made a covenant together. And so tonight, David begins a journey that will take quite a few years of his life to get to the place where he's going to become king. And he's going to learn a lot of lessons. And he's going to have to learn some of these lessons more than once

because that's kind of what we have to do. Sometimes we learn a lesson, and we think, I've got this figured out. And then we have to learn it again because we didn't have it figured out as well as we thought we did. And you would think if anybody knew how to trust the Lord, it was David. After all, he trusted in God to defeat the giant when the giant was standing right in front of him.

And yet he's now going to have to learn once again what it looks like to really trust the Lord under different circumstances. And so we pick up in chapter 21, verse 1, and it says this. Then David came to Nob, to Ahimelech the priest. And Ahimelech came trembling to meet David, and he said to him, Why are you alone, and no one is with you? Now, before we get to what takes place with Ahimelech

and kind of some mistakes that David makes, I want to talk about the thing that David does first that's really, really important. Now, we're told here that Ahimelech is a priest. Now, the place where the priest would be is what we would call the place of the tabernacle. The tabernacle, which is, if you will, the house of the Lord, had been established in Nob at this particular point in time because David hadn't moved it to Jerusalem yet.

That will take place later. But David finds himself running to the place exactly where he should go. He runs to the sanctuary of the Lord. He runs to the house of the Lord because he knew that that would be the place where he could find some sort of rest. And I think that that creates for us an amazingly good example of the way that we are supposed to be. That we are supposed to live our lives.

That when things get really hard for us, we should run to the house of the Lord. We should run to the sanctuary of the Lord. And each of you, I think, has kind of learned that because you're here this evening. You know, when we have those difficult times come up, it's interesting what happens to us. When hard times begin to come into our lives, the first thing that we think is,

I just need to be by myself. I need to be all alone. I just need to kind of deal with my thoughts. But that's actually the last thing that you need at that point in time. When difficult times come into your life, what you really need to do is you need to find yourself in the house of the Lord. Because this place, the house of the Lord, is ultimately supposed to be

your greatest place of sanctuary. And that's what we want to create here is we want to create a place that is a sanctuary for anybody that finds themselves in the place where difficult times have happened in their lives and they can find someone who can wrap their arms around them in the hug that they need, who can greet them with a welcoming smile, who can greet them with a listening ear. They can find truly a place of sanctuary. And brothers and sisters, I want to speak to two different groups of people here tonight.

If you're one of the people that's hurting, I want you to know that this is your place of sanctuary. This is the place where you can truly be yourself. This is the place where you can truly bring all of your hurts. And hopefully everybody that's in this room, whether it be tonight or on a Sunday, Sunday morning would be the place where you could ultimately find some sort of shelter.

So if you're here tonight and you're hurting, just know that this is a safe place for you. This is sanctuary. And if you're here tonight and you're not hurting, you are the sanctuary for other people. And I don't know if you ever view it that way when you show up to church on a Wednesday night or a Sunday morning, but you don't just show up to church so that you can fill up a seat.

You don't just show up to church so that you can hear a message. Those are all important things. You don't just show up to church to worship. You show up to church so that you can create a place of sanctuary for the hopeless and the hurting. So that you can be the person that offers a hug around the neck or you can offer a smile to the person that needs it or a listening ear to the person that needs it.

A place of sanctuary and acceptance to those who feel like they don't fit in anywhere else in the world. And so you are either here because you need sanctuary or you are here because you are creating sanctuary. But we need to start looking at the house of the Lord like this. And that's exactly where David found himself. He said, the only place I know to go right now

is to the house of the Lord where I can find sanctuary. And so he shows up to Nob, to Ahimelech the priest. And Ahimelech sees David. And you can tell that there's something not right with David, right? Like if you've ever been through a really hard time, a lot of times you wear that all over your face. And I think David was one of those people that couldn't hide his emotions very well.

If you've read the Psalms, you know that. Like he was just an out there sort of person. He was sort of a guy. He sort of wore it all out on his sleeve. And maybe his face was a little dirt stained. Perhaps his hair was a little disheveled. I know all about that. Perhaps everything about him just looked a little bit funky and everything just looked a little bit off about him.

And he showed up by himself and he's one of the king's greatest generals. And so when he shows up, Ahimelech kind of goes, hey, how are you, buddy? He says, why are you all alone and no one's with you? And David has a choice at this point in time. David has a choice because he's come to the right place. He's come to the place where ultimately he can be himself.

He's come to the place where ultimately he can find sanctuary, where he can ultimately find himself in the house of the Lord and be able to lay out all of his garbage so that Ahimelech, the priest, can minister to him. But what does he do instead? We're going to find that instead of him being honest, instead of him being transparent, instead of him just laying out exactly what's going on in his life, he lies. Notice what he says.

David said to Ahimelech, the priest, the king, has commissioned me with a matter. And has said to me, let no one know anything about the matter upon which I am sending you and with which I have commissioned you and have directed the young men to a certain place. Now, therefore, what do you have on hand? Give me five loaves of bread or whatever can be found.

The priest answered David and said, there's no ordinary bread on hand, but there is consecrated bread on hand. If only the young men have kept themselves from women. And David answered the priest and said to him, surely women have been kept from us as previously when I set out. The vessels of the young men were holy, though it was of the young men, though it was an ordinary journey, how much more today will their vessels be holy?

So the priest gave him consecrated bread. There was no bread, but the bread of the presence, which was removed from before the Lord in order to put hot bread in its place when it was taken away. So Ahimelech says, why do you hear all about your own bread? Why do you hear all about your onesies, right? You should have an army with you because that's usually how you travel.

Why are you here by yourself looking all disheveled and whatnot? And David goes, I'm on a clandestine mission. I can't tell you anything about it. I'll have to kill you otherwise, right? He says, I got some guys with me. They're kind of over the hill, right? They're sort of back there hiding out. And he's just telling them lie after lie. Is he on some sort of a special mission for the king?

I mean, I guess so, because the king's about to kill him and that's kind of secret. And he's on a mission to get away from the king. So I guess, maybe he could justify it like that. But he just lies to him. He doesn't tell him the truth. I don't know why at this point in time when he needs a place of shelter, when he needs a place of sanctuary, because everything's going wrong in his life

and he shows up and the priest is there who is ready to minister to him, who is ready to love on him and ready to be there for him. He doesn't just say, I got a serious situation I'm dealing with right now. Why isn't he just honest? Same reason you're not honest. Same reason why when you show up to church and somebody says, hey, how are you doing? I don't know why I feel like

maybe you're going through a hard time right now and you say, no, I'm fine. Same reason you're not honest. Because it's really hard to be transparent. Because sometimes it's really hard to let our guard down and say, this is the junk I got going on in my life. This is what I've really got happening even though the people sitting around you right now have all been through things before too.

Even though the people sitting around you right now absolutely can relate to what you're going through. Absolutely. It's still hard for you to let your guard down because it's hard for you to not only trust people, but it's hard for you to trust God. Now, had David seen God do fantastic things? Absolutely. Had David seen God do miraculous things? Absolutely.

So why is he scared now? Because he's still not perfect yet. Because he still has growing to do, just like you still have growing to do. And we should be patient with David just like we need to be patient with ourselves. And he shows up and he tells him this lie. He says, but listen, I'm really hungry, okay? And so I need some bread. Do you have any bread here?

Maybe like five loaves. That's just a specific number, five. I don't know why. I don't think there's anything to that. I just found it odd that he said, do you have like five loaves of bread? Maybe next to you with a vasper, two fish. I don't know. Anyway, so he says, do you have like five loaves of bread? And he goes, the only kind of bread that I've got here

is the consecrated bread. If you don't know what that is, let me explain it to you. In the temple or in the tabernacle, there was to be a table and it was called the table of the Lord. It was called the table of showbread. And it was always to have fresh hot loaves of bread on it, 12 of them. And they were always supposed to sit out there because they represented something fantastic.

The bread of the presence that was always supposed to be in the tabernacle represented God's fellowship with man. Because God wanted it to always be like this. His desire is just to sit and to have a meal with us. So he says, do you have any bread? So he left this bread out there and the only ones that were allowed to eat the bread were the priests. And isn't it interesting that the only bread

that was at the tabernacle at that point in time was some leftover bread of the presence. The leftover bread from the table of showbread, five loaves of it, is what was left. And so what David is now going to be able to eat is the bread of fellowship with the Lord. And isn't it so amazing that God in his graciousness, even though David, was lying about why he was there, even though he was not being fully transparent, God still made himself known as the God who wanted to have fellowship with David.

Friends, I want to remind us of the fact that God put us on this earth for a purpose. God created you for a purpose. Yet you were created to serve God and that's a really important thing. But the main purpose that God put you on this earth, the main purpose why God created you is so that you would have fellowship with him. He didn't create you because he needed someone to serve him.

He didn't create you because the world needed another you. He didn't create you for any of those reasons. He created you for the simple purpose of you having fellowship with him. He said, I want to know you and I want you to know me. So I'm going to make you so that you and I can be best friends. That's why God created us. That's why the entire world is restless right now

is because they are trying to understand us. They are trying to find purpose in everything other than the one purpose for which they were created and that's to know God. That's why when you come to Jesus as your Lord and Savior, you finally say, I have finally found rest because you finally find purpose. And you realize why you were put on this earth. And you realize that your time on this earth

is not an end to be achieved. It is the beginning of what God has always intended and that is to know God. And that's what God creates. That's what God presents to David right now. Even in the midst of his failures, even in the midst of his sin, even in the midst of the fact that he struggles to trust God, God says, but I still want to have fellowship with you.

Isn't that great? Because I don't know about you, but I still kind of struggle with sin. I still kind of struggle to trust God. I still kind of struggle to be transparent. And yet God still wants to have fellowship with me. And so he says, listen, the only breath that's here, is what's called the breath of the presence. And as long as you guys are, he said,

kept from women, because that's the idea of being ceremonially pure. As long as you're ceremonially pure, you can have this. And David goes, man, yeah, we're good. I've been gone for three days now. Everything's good. I've definitely kept myself from women. And the other guys, they don't exist. They're fine too, right? And so he says, yes, we're fine. Now, if we were to jump all the way into the New Testament,

we would find that Jesus will use this exact same story to show us something. You see, one day, Jesus and his disciples were walking through the grain fields on the Sabbath day and they were picking heads of grain and kind of rubbing them together in their hand and tossing the grain into their mouth and chewing on it because they were a little bit hungry on the Sabbath day. And the Pharisees are like, why are you doing that? You're harvesting, you're threshing, you're doing all these things.

You're doing what you're not supposed to do on the Sabbath day. And do you remember what Jesus said? Jesus said, don't you remember the story of David and the sheep? David ate the bread that only the priests were supposed to eat. And yet it was completely allowed because human needs supersedes the law. Because God cares more about human need than he does religious ceremony.

But too many people put religious ceremony way up here and they put what's actually needful for people down here. And they say, oh, but we have to keep this ceremony. We have to keep this ritual. And God's like, but I have an even higher law for you than ceremony in a ritual. It's called the law of love. That you would love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul,

with all your mind, with all your strength. And that you would love your neighbor as yourself. You see, if you'll fit everything that you do into those two laws, then all of the religious ceremony, all that stuff takes care of itself. And so David receives this bread of the testimony. He receives this bread of the presence. And then it goes on in verse 17. Now, one of the servants of Saul was there that day,

detained before the Lord. And his name was Doeg, the Edomite, the chief of Saul's shepherds. Now, this Doeg guy is gonna cause some problems. As a matter of fact, two different commentators that I read said, we could actually just pronounce Doeg's name, dog, because he acts like a dog. And he was kind of gonna be a snoop for Saul. So he's sort of like Saul's snoop dog.

I did not come up with that on my own. Another commentator said it, and I thought it was hilarious. So I rolled with it. And given the fact that snoop dogs went all over the Olympics, it felt like the right time to bring that out. So Doeg the Edomite is there. We're gonna find out in just a little bit that he's actually gonna cause a great deal of problems for David.

So just kind of put that in your back pocket for right now. So it says in verse eight, David said to Ahimelech, Now, is there a spear or a sword on hand? For I brought neither my sword, nor my weapons with me, because the king's matter was urgent. And the priest said, Well, the sword of Goliath, the Philistine, whom you killed in the valley of Elah, behold, it is wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod.

If you would take it for yourself, take it, for there's no other except it here. And David said, And there is none like it. Give it to me. And then David arose and fled that day from Saul and went to Achish. King of Gath. Now, it is kind of interesting that David now is going to use a sword that belongs to the Philistines. The Philistines oftentimes in the Old Testament

represent the flesh, or that part of us that still likes sinful things. And so he has now chosen at this point in time to use a weapon of the flesh in order to try to win his battles. See how David's having a really hard time trusting the Lord right now? God's still at work. God's still being patient with him. God is still moving. But David himself, kind of having a hard time trusting right now.

And so he has this sword of Goliath, the Philistine. And while he wears this sword of Goliath, the Philistine, and continues to flee from Saul, did you take note of where he went to? He went to Achish, king of Gath. Now, does the name Gath ring any bells for you? Where was Goliath from? He was from Gath. So David is going to go walk into Goliath's home, wearing Goliath's old sword,

trying to fight battles the way that he's supposed to. Do you think he's going to get noticed? I think he does. So he goes on to say, David arose and fled that day from Saul and went to Achish, king of Gath. But the servants of Achish said to him, Is this not David, the king of the land? Did they not sing of this one as they danced, saying, Saul has slain his thousands,

and David his children? Ten thousands? And David took these words to heart, and he greatly feared Achish, king of Gath. So he disguised his sanity before them, and he acted insanely in their hands, and scribbled on the doors of the gate, and let his saliva run down into his beard. And Achish said to his servants, Behold, you see the man behaving as a madman.

Why do you bring him to me? Do I lack madmen? Do I lack men? Have you brought this one to act like this in my presence? Shall this one come into my house? How far has David fallen at this point in time? He is the one who had defeated the hero of Gath, and now while in Gath has to act like a madman in order to escape. He's not acting the way that a man after God's own heart would act.

He's not carrying the weapons of a man of God, and he has found himself in a place he never should have been. Have you ever found yourself in that situation? Have you ever found yourself in a situation where, even though you're a child of God, you don't act like a child of God, you're not carrying the things of a child of God, and you're in a place you never should have been? And the only way out is to do some drastic things.

And that's what David does. Can you imagine here this child of God finds himself in a place where he has to act like a madman? He literally acts like he's insane in order to be set free. Now again, I want to remind you that just because he's doing things that he's not supposed to do, just because he has found himself falling into the things of the flesh, does not mean that God is done with him.

As a matter of fact, in the margin of your Bible, you might write Psalm 34. Psalm 34. You should go back and read it. Because Psalm 34 is David's own journal of when he acted like a madman. It even says it in the title of the psalm. When David acted like a madman to flee from Achish, king of Gath. Psalm 34 will take you through the process of David learning to trust the Lord.

When he found himself not acting like a child of God, not carrying the weapons of a child of God, and not being able to do anything. In that place, he never should have been. Because God was still at work. And his heart was still tender to the things of God. Well now as we jump back into the story in chapter 22, I would like for you to take note of what it says.

So David departed from there, and he escaped to the cave of Adullam. And when his brothers and all his father's household heard of it, they went down there to him. And everyone who was in distress, and everyone who was in debt, and everyone who was discontented gathered to him. He became captain over them. And there were about 400 men. Now David has found himself in a place of repentance.

And actually chapter 22 I have entitled, David Gets Back on Track. Because David finds himself, and again if you'll read Psalm 34, I would highly encourage you to do it. If you read Psalm 34, you will see how David finds himself in a place of repentance. Where he finally gets back to believing that God is the one who can take care of him. Where he comes back to the place of believing

that God is his shelter. Where he comes back to believing that God is his refuge. And because of that, he finds himself no longer in the place where he has to seek the weapons of man in order to fight spiritual battles. He gets out of the place that he never should have been, and he starts acting a whole lot more like a child of God. A whole lot more like the leader

that God had called for him to be. And he finds once he does that, he ultimately becomes the place of refuge for everyone else. Because did you notice who gathered to him? He finds himself in this place called the Cave of Adullam. And again, there's another psalm that goes along with this. The psalm that goes along with this is Psalm 57. Psalm 57. You might write that in the margin of your Bible,

Psalm 57. He finds himself at the Cave of Adullam. And people kind of start hearing about David and the fact that he's finally back on track. And so what starts to happen? A band of men gathered themselves to David. Only this band of men was not who you think would gather themselves to David. Let's read the description of who these guys are. They're everyone who was in debt,

everyone who was discontented, and everyone who was in distress gathered themselves to David. Let me put that into one word for you. All of the outcasts gathered themselves to David. The people nobody else wanted, they found themselves in debt. They found themselves in debt. They found themselves gathering to David. And I remember earlier this year when we read through this in our devotional time,

when we read through this as we were doing our Through the Bible reading, I thought, what a beautiful picture of our Savior. What a beautiful picture that David gives us here now, now that he's back on track. What a beautiful picture that he gives to us of Jesus. Because there Jesus is, and he's willing to accept everyone who is in distress, everyone who is indebted, and everyone who is discontented.

He is willing to accept everyone who is in distress, and he accepts all of the outcasts, and they gather themselves to him. Only when we find ourselves gathered to Jesus, he no longer allows us to be the outcasts of the world. He changes everything of who we are. Because I want to tell you something about these 400 men that gather themselves to David. They don't hold on to that title of the distressed,

the indebted, and the discontented. No, they gain for themselves a new title. You know what title they gain for themselves? They gain for themselves the title of David's mighty men. As a matter of fact, if you get into, I believe it's 1 Chronicles, might have been 1 Kings. It tells of the exploits of David's mighty men. And these were like Jason Bourne on steroids, right?

They're John Wick on steroids, right? That's who these guys are, because they're taking on armies all by themselves. And no longer are they the outcasts of Israel. Now they are the most famed warriors in all of Israel, all because they gathered themselves to the right leader. And may I bring you to the next chapter, and may I bring this point out again, that when we come to Jesus with all of our discontentedness,

all of our distress, all of our indebtedness, all of the outcasts of who we are, he doesn't leave us that way. He changes our identity. And he takes the identity of one who is an outcast, and he turns us into a child of God. And he makes us a brand new person. That's exactly what happens when these guys gather themselves to David. And so David has his army,

now his army of 400 mighty men. It says in verse 3, And David went from there to Mizpah of Moab, and he said to the king of Moab, Please let my father and my mother come and stay with you until I know what God will do for me. Then he left them with the king of Moab, and they stayed with him all the time that David was in the stronghold. Now, this is one of those moments where we can find ourselves going, so why did David go?

Why did he go to Moab? Why would he have sought shelter in a foreign king? Why would he have sought shelter in a foreign land? Is David struggling to trust God again? No, David's not struggling to trust God again. He had to find people that he could trust. But why Moab? Well, I want to remind you of where the Moabites fit into David's life. You see, earlier we went through this book called Ruth.

And if you remember who Ruth was, Ruth was a Moabitess, Ruth was a descendant of Moab. And when Ruth came back to the nation of Israel and she got married, she married the great-grandfather of David. And so when he took them to the people of Moab, he wasn't taking them to a foreign land. He was taking them to his family because he knew that he could trust his family.

And so he took them to Moab so that they could be protected from Saul because everybody knows that if you want to get to an individual, the best way to do it is through their family. So he wanted to make sure that his family was taken care of. And so it says in verse five, the prophet Gad said to David, don't stay in this stronghold, depart, go to the land of Judah. And so David departed and he went into the forest of Herod.

And there's another beautiful play on words that takes place here. David was in this stronghold. David was in a place where he felt like he was secure, where he felt like he could be safe. But the prophet Gad comes along and Gad says, David, I have a word for you from the Lord. Don't stay in this stronghold. Go to the land of Judah. Now the word Judah literally means praise.

He told him what I want you to do, what God wants you to do, is he wants you to go to the land of praise. Because in the land of praise is where you will ultimately find your greatest safety. And if I can draw another little bit of a conclusion, I think that's important for us to pay attention to. The world that we live in right now, where sometimes we just want to find ourselves sheltering in place, running from all of the danger that we see around us.

Instead, find yourself in the land of praise. Instead, find yourself living in a place where you're constantly praising God for who he is, not living in fear of what might be. Start praising God for what he has done instead of living in fear of what might happen. Because too many people in the world today are living in a place where they're not living in fear of what might happen.

And it's time for us to stop living in fear and start living in praise. It's time for us to stop living in terror and start living in worship. And the best place that we can be is in the place of praise. I'm going to tell you right now, what you fill your mind with, what you fill your heart with, is ultimately what will come out of you and will reflect the most in your attitude.

And if you are in that place of, I need a shelter in place and just hide away from everything in the world so that nothing gets to me, then that's the answer. That's the answer. That's the answer. That's the attitude that's going to reflect in you all the time. But if you're in a place of saying, you know what, if I'm living in a land of praise and I'm as safe as I can ever be,

then your attitude will reflect that. What comes into your mind the most? What do you occupy in your mind the most? What fills you more than anything else in the world? I would tell you that whatever it is, it's probably what's coming out of you right now. If what's coming out of you right now is praise, then you're probably living in the land of praise. But if what's coming out of you right now

if what's coming out of you is fear, if what's coming out of you is anger, if what's coming out of you is frustration, if what's coming out of you are evil things, then I would start to ask yourself, what land am I living in and what am I taking in the most? God said, David, God wants you to go back to the land of praise. So David, because he's in a place of trusting the Lord now, goes back and dwells in the forest of Herod. Well, Saul is not, not done looking for David.

Meanwhile, back in the land of Saul, verse six, then Saul heard that David and the men who were with him had been discovered. Now Saul was sitting in Gibeah under the tamarisk tree on the height with his spear in his hand. Dude's always got a spear. And all of his servants were standing around him, undoubtedly fearful that he was going to throw a spear at them.

I had it that far. It's not in there. Saul said to his servants who stood around him, hear now, O Benjamites, will the son of Jesse, will he also give to you all the fields and vineyards? Will he make you all commanders of thousands and commanders of hundreds? For all of you have conspired against me so that there is no one who discloses to me when my son makes a covenant with the son of Jesse.

And there's none of you who is sorry for me or discloses to me that my son has stirred up my servant against me to lie in ambush as it is this day. Saul's really feeling sorry for himself. Oh, here comes Snoop Dogg, though. Verse 9. Then Doeg the Edomite, who was standing by the servants of Saul, said, I saw the son of Jesse coming to Nob, to Ahimelech, the son of Ahitab.

He inquired of the Lord for him, gave him provisions, and even gave him the sword of Goliath, the Philistine. Dude, what a dog, right? Like, that's terrible. How are you going to go and rat a guy out like that? Then the king sent someone to Ahimelech, the priest, the son of Ahitab, and all his father's house, and the priests came who were in Nob. And all of them came to the king.

And Saul said, Listen now, son of Ahitab. And he answered, Here I am, my lord. He said, Why have you and the son of Jesse conspired against me in that you have given him bread and a sword and have inquired of God for him so that he would rise up against me by lying in ambush as it is this day? And Ahimelech answered the king and said, Who among all your servants is as faithful as David?

Even the king's son-in-law, who is captain over your guard and is honored in your house. Did I just begin to inquire of God for him today? Far be it from me. Don't let the king impute anything to his servant or to any of his household, for your servant knows nothing of all this whole affair. Now we see that the lie that David told comes back to haunt, not David, but Ahimelech.

Because now, he's lying to the king without even realizing it. Because when we are dishonest, it affects everybody else around us. It says in verse 16, The king said, You shall surely die, Ahimelech, you and all your father's household. The king said to the guards who were attending him, Turn around and put the priests of the Lord to death, because their hand is also with David, because they knew that he was fleeing and did not reveal it to me.

But the servants of the king were not willing to do so. They were not willing to put forth their hands to attack the priest. The king said to Doeg, You turn and attack the priest. Doeg the Edomite turned around and attacked the priest, and he killed that day 85 men who wore the linen he fought. And I would just like to point out again, did God forgive David for his failure?

Yes, he did. Were there still consequences for the lie that David told? Yes, there were. One of the things that I want to say and one of the things we have to realize is God is a God who forgives. God is a God who covers our sin with the blood of Jesus. There are always unintended consequences to sin. There are always unintended consequences that we have to weigh out,

that we have to realize that when we start to walk in the flesh, sometimes other people pay the price for it. And in this particular case, Ahimelech and 84 other of the priesthood all paid the price. For what David did. It says in verse 19, And he struck now the city of the priest with the edge of the sword, both men and women, children and infants, also oxen, donkeys, and sheep.

He struck with the edge of the sword. But one son of Ahimelech, the son of Ahitab, named Abiathar, escaped and fled after David. Abiathar told David that Saul had killed the priest of the Lord. And David said to Abiathar, I knew on that day when Doeg the Edomite was there that he would surely tell Saul, I have brought about the death of every person in your father's household.

Now, I appreciate what he does here. Because as men and women of God, we have to realize something. Consequences of sin are always there. Unintended consequences come about. All we can do is own up to our sin and accept responsibility for it. Because I think that that probably went farther with Abiathar. Who will become Abiathar the priest than just about anything else in the world.

And David owned up to what he did there. And notice what he says. Verse 23. Stay with me. Don't be afraid. For he who seeks my life seeks your life. For you are safe with me. There was only one move that David had left. And the one move that David had left was to protect now Abiathar the priest. And it's going to be interesting because we're going to find that

this priest is going to stay true to David his entire life. As a matter of fact, when we get into 2 Samuel and we find that David's own son turns against him, Abiathar the priest is going to be the one who sticks by his side. Now as we close up here tonight, I want you to go one more place with me in scripture. Because there's one other psalm that goes along with this entire story.

Again, you might write it in the margin of your Bible and we'll turn there because I want to read it. And it's Psalm 142. Psalm 142. And if you would turn there with me because as we close out here, I just want to read Psalm 142 to you as we are reminded that David had to learn this lesson of trusting in the Lord. And as he learned this lesson, it was not an easy lesson

for him to learn. And it took crying out to God to get there. But he did eventually learn it. So look over at Psalm 142 with me. It says in the title, Psalm 142, a mascal of David, when he was in the cave, that would be the cave of Adullam. And it's a prayer. It says, I cry aloud with my voice to the Lord. I make supplication with my voice to the Lord. I pour out my complaint before him.

I declare my trouble before him. When my spirit was overwhelmed within me, you knew my path in the way where I walk. They have hidden a trap for me. Look to the right and see for there is no way out. There is no way out. There is no way out. There is no one who regards me. There is no escape for me. No one cares for my soul. I cried out to you, O Lord. I said, you are my refuge,

my portion in the land of the living. Give heed to my cry, for I am brought very low. Deliver me from my persecutors, for they are too strong for me. Bring my soul out of prison so that I may give thanks to your name. The righteous will surround me. For you will deal bountifully with me. Doesn't it add so much when you know the story behind a psalm like that?

When you know that he was running for his life from Saul and he made incredibly bad decisions to get to the place where he was now and all he had come to realize was there's only one place I can find safety. There's only one place that I can find shelter. There's only one hope that I have. And it's not in my own wit. It's not in my own cunning. It's not in the weapons of the world.

My one hope is found in God. And so as he's there in that cave, knowing the mistakes that he's made, and now knowing the men that have gathered around him, he ends this psalm and says, I cry out to the Lord with my voice. I cried out to you and said, you're my refuge and my portion in the land of the living. Bring me out of prison so that I may give thanks to your name.

The righteous will surround me, for you will deal bountifully with me. I think if I want to close with one thought, I want to close with this. Cry out to the Lord wherever you are, whatever place you find yourself in, whatever place you find yourself, whether you're trusting God with all of your heart, continue to cry out to him. If you're having a hard time trusting him, continue to cry out to him because he is truly one place of shelter, one place of refuge that we have in this life.

Amen. Let's pray. Father, we come before you. And Lord, I thank you that we have, we have these stories. And Lord, I thank you for the Psalms that we have that go along with them, where we can see the prayer of the man of God, who though he found himself making all kinds of mistakes, was in the place of learning that you are the only one who not only redeemed those mistakes,

but you are the one place of refuge and shelter that we have. And so Lord, I pray that for each person that's here tonight, we would find that place of refuge, that we would find that sanctuary, that we would find that place of refuge and shelter here in this place. And Lord, I pray that for each person that's here tonight, that we would find that place of refuge and shelter as a body of Christ together, that we would find that place of refuge and shelter in you, and that we would find that place of true fellowship with you, Lord, because it's what we were created to do. And so Father, lead us and guide us as we go out from here.

And Lord, would you keep our hearts close to you. And Lord, would you help each person that's here, Lord, to know exactly what it looks like to cry out to you with whatever's going on in their lives, knowing and understanding that you are the God who hears and answers every question. Every cry in our heart. Father, we thank you and we praise you. In Jesus' name, amen.

Be blessed.