Reading the story of David is like watching the evening news as calamity after calamity passes before you. David was such a loyal soldier and victorious in battle, yet he was hunted like a wild animal. Forced to live in caves and always on the move, he had no place of safety. Many of the psalms were written in David’s fugitive days when danger lurked round every corner.
Saul’s jealousy drove David into the wilderness. But “through the years of waiting and peril, David learned to find God his comfort, his support, his life” (Education, pg. 152). As David’s dangers increased, he “leaned more heavily upon God” (ibid).
The Lord was his “refuge in times of trouble” (Psalm 9:9). He was his rock, his fortress and deliverer (Psalm 18:2). David knew by experience that God was his “present help in trouble” (Psalm 46:1). He was with him in every calamity and trial. And though David couldn’t see heaven’s angels all around him, he knew they were there. He sang about this wall of protection in Psalm 34:7: “The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear Him, and delivers them.”
David’s strength in those tough days was in the Lord. He relied fully on God’s power to save him out of every trouble. And that reliance must have rested in God’s promises. For he sang from his soul, “In God (I will praise His Word), in the Lord (I will praise His Word).”
David couldn't see what tomorrow might bring. But he exercised his muscles of faith and leaned heavily on Scripture. He probably didn’t have a Bible with him. He had to travel light in those days. Perhaps when he was a boy, he'd hidden God’s Word in his heart as he watched his father’s sheep on the hills of Bethlehem. And those words sustained him in his fugitive years, giving him strength to hold onto Jesus when all he could see was pending danger.
David’s story may not be my story or your story right now. But you may have to learn in the school of sorrow as he did. I think before we all get to heaven, all of us will go through the wilderness like David did. We’ll experience those dry times when we have no other refuge than Jesus Christ. I think the story of David and the book of Psalms is here for that part of our journey. For the Savior wants us to know that even when days are dark and we feel no ecstasy in Christ, we can know in our heart of hearts that God is for us. Because that’s what He says in His Word. We may not feel it, but God is still there.
And “if God is for us, who can be against us?” (Romans 8:31) We have nothing to fear. Nothing can separate us from the incredible love of Jesus. He never leaves us to fight our battles alone. He walks with us through sorrow and adversity. He shields us from danger. And He stops at nothing until He has made us strong and victorious through His Word of grace.
His Word is a boulder we can cling to when hounded by the devil. And there’s nothing stronger that we can hold onto. The very presence of Christ is in His Word. As you seek Him through the Psalms, remember He is with you. He is always there. And there’s nothing that Christ will not do for you! “He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?” (Romans 8:32) For nothing can separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 8:39)!
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