I. David’s Source Of Discouragement
A. David Had Been Chosen By God To Be King
1. He did not seek that position; he did not try to have King Saul removed.
2. David had been a victorious warrior: against Goliath & against the Philistines.
3. David had won the hearts of the people, not by trying to, but by obeying God.
B. God Decided To Replace Saul
1. King Saul had disobeyed the Lord too many times.
2. God rejected Saul as King, and chose David to replace Saul.
3. Saul became insanely jealous of David, and sought to kill him.
4. He chased David like an animal throughout the wilderness.
C. David’s Uprightness
1. David had had opportunities to kill Saul, but didn’t kill him.
2. Up to this point, David had been trusting God with this unfair situation.
3. It was unfairness that led to David’s discouragement.
II. Giving In To Discouragement
A. Discouragement Starts In The Heart V. 1a
1And David said in his heart…
1. David thought too much about his life and struggles. Too self –focused.
2. I can’t say that I blame him. He had a lot going on.
3. He allowed emotion to move him, instead of God’s promises, and a clear recollection of how God had been faithful.
4. It doesn’t appear that David said this out loud to anyone, but “…in his heart…”
5. If we allow ourselves to talk to ourselves in a negative way, we can be moved in the wrong direction.
6. If we talk to ourselves in a positive way, we can recover, and go in the right direction. (Not human based pep talk, but reminding self re. God)
7. Psalm 42:5 Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God, for I shall yet praise Him. For the help of His countenance.
8. Also, how valuable it is to have someone to talk to.
a. It does not appear that David shared his feelings with anyone
b. Perhaps he is afraid of seeming weak to his comrades.
c. He is, after all, the leader. (Leaders aren’t supposed to be weak) )c:
d. It can be embarrassing to share your fear with someone, when you know that your fears don’t line up with God’s promises, and yet your emotions are driving you so hard you feel overwhelmed with them.
e. Galatians 6:2 Bear one another’s burdens…(David’s burden was Saul)
f. I have verbalized thoughts & emotions of defeat to loved ones.
g. They have reminded me of God’s faithfulness & promises
h. Sometimes when you hear yourself say these things, it disarms the emotion. It is a release to simply speak to another person who cares.
i. Having someone respond in love and truth can undo the power of emotionally driven thinking.
B. David Allowed Discouragement To Shape His Thoughts V. 1
“Now I shall perish someday by the hand of Saul…
1. David speaks is if he knows the future. That wasn’t true, he didn’t know that.
2. His so called “knowledge” of the future is based upon emotions, not upon fact
3. We must realize that our imaginations can lead us to think we know what the future holds for us. We can be completely wrong.
4. James 4:13-16 13Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit”; 14whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. 15Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.” 16But now you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil.
5. Instead, think about whatever is true…
Philippians 4:8, 9 8Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things. 9The things which you learned and received and heard and saw in me, these do, and the God of peace will be with you.
C. Discouragement Shaped David’s Plan V. 1
1. Saul is going to kill me eventually. (He is forgetting about God)
2. There is nothing better for me than to live among my enemies. (There were a lot of things better than that)
a. Psalm 63:3 Because Your lovingkindness is better than life, my lips shall praise You. (Written while in the wilderness in Judah)
3. Saul will get tired of trying to find me.
a. David would grow tired living among the Philistines
b. Saul wouldn’t despair, David would.
c. Saul would be glad, David would be sad.
d. Saul could never drive David to the Philistines.
e. If Saul were to tell David, “You must leave the people of God and go live among the Philistines,” David would never bow to it.
f. Discouragement & despair were more powerful enemies than Saul was.
g. Discouragement and despair will drive David to do something that Saul could never make him do.
h. Spurgeon– “Always be afraid of being afraid. Failing faith means failing strength. Do not regard despondency as merely a loss of joy, view it as draining away your spiritual life. Struggle against it, for it often happens that when faith ebbs sin comes to the flood. He who does not comfortably trust God will soon seek after comfort somewhere else.”
4. So I shall escape out of his hands. (He forgot that God had been delivering him)
True– David would be away from one enemy, but living among another enemy.
III. The Consequences Of David’s Decision
A. Initially…It Worked V. 4
1. David allowed himself to become a man who was goal oriented.
2. His goal was to escape Saul; whatever would bring that result became acceptable
3. We are not to be goal oriented, pragmatic men.
4. We are to be obedient, not leaning on our own wisdom, walking in God’s ways.
B. Eventually, Negative Consequences Came
1. David had previously feared being driven away from among God’s people.
a. Read 1 Samuel 26:19
b. By his own choice, he finds himself in the position that he tried to avoid.
c. The fact that David had previously verbalized this shows that he had considered this for some time.
2. David ends up taking his 600 men, and their households.
a. When we do not deal w/our discouragement & despair, we will not only look for comfort from the enemy, we will subject our loved ones to that same experience.
b. We model & teach people to look for comfort from the enemy.
3. NOTE– We escape the innocent tribulation (Saul’s pursuit), & put ourselves in tribulation we become guilty of creating (submitting to a Philistine King).
4. There is no record of David writing any Psalms during this period.
a. Spiritually unfruitful during this season of living among his enemies.
b. He probably sang & played, but there was no divine inspiration coming forth from his heart.
5. David is no longer fighting for God’s honor, but for profit.
a. He has to murder every inhabitant in order to cover up the lie that he regularly tells Achish.
b. He pretends to be fighting against Israelites.
c. David has put himself in the position of trusting the world for protection.
d. He has to be a liar and a murderer to accomplish this.
e. David is forced to live the lie he has started with Achish.
f. V. 12– David gains himself a new reputation. Look how far he has fallen.
6. David is no longer representing God. This season of life will last for 16 months.
a. God will bring him out of it, but there is a price that David will pay.
IV. Recovering From Discouragement
We need to deal with discouragement, or it will drive us to do things we never imagined.
Being private re. discouragement does not strengthen us, but drains away our strength.
We need to have discouragement conquered by returning to the “mind of Christ”.
By returning there with the help of friends, or simply with the help of God.
Philippians 2:5 Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus,…
Chapter 29– God intervenes, and keeps David from fighting against his own people.
Chapter 30– David is living in Ziklag, has been the whole time: a border town.