The God who Delivers

The God who Delivers
1 Samuel 30:1-8

After his triumphant victory over Goliath, David entered the wilderness. Not a wilderness of barren land but the wilderness of a desolate soul. Everywhere he turned, life seemed to go against him. When the people celebrated David’s victory, Saul became jealous (18:8). Fueled by his envy, Saul began to fear David, and he began to turn against David (18:12). The more Saul despised David, the more David seemed to grow in popularity with the people. Soon Saul’s jealousy turned to hatred,  so Saul sought to take David’s life. It is estimated that Saul would spend the next 8-9 years pursuing David. During this period, David wrote Psalms that reflected both his fear and anxiety as well as his trust in God (See, for example, Psalms 34 56,57, 142). Everyone would turn against him, and David would feel rejected. When the Priests at Nob helped David, Saul responded by having them all put to death (ch 22). Finally, in chapter 23, David delivered the city of Keilah from the destructive invasion of the Philistines. Unfortunately, rather than protecting David and honoring him for his help, they betrayed David to Saul. As a result, he would be forced to flee south into the wastelands of Israel, where he would hide among the caves. Then David’s close ally Samuel died. As David grieved, he almost stumbled in rashly threatening revenge for someone who wronged him. Only the intervention of a woman of wisdom prevented David from committing an act of murder (chapter 25). In the end, David would be forced to flee to the sworn enemies of Israel, the Philistines. The only companions that David was able to gather were a group of rebels and malcontents.
During this time, David kept his faith in God. But then the final and ultimate test would come. The Amalekites invaded the area and took captive all the men's wives and children and David's two wives (30:1-6). At that point, even his friends turned against him, and the men following David threatened to stone him. It was one of the lowest points in David’s life. The word “distressed” used to describe  David’s emotional state refers to a strong emotional response when circumstances press in upon a person, and they feel they have nowhere to turn. The word conveys the same idea of our figure of speech, ‘between a rock and a hard place.”  It suggests circumstances of life that are pressing upon the person. It would have been easy for David to throw in the towel. It seemed as if everything and everyone was conspiring against him.  
Amid the turmoil he was experiencing, David did the one thing that had characterized his whole life; he strengthened himself in the Lord his God. The word means to make oneself strong and hard. When David was between a rock and a hard place, he made himself strong as a stone. But the strength did not come from himself; it came from his faith in God’s deliverance. When life became hard, David did not abandon his faith; instead, he sought direction from God. (vs. 7-8). Throughout David’s life, amid all the adversity and despair of the wilderness, David learned the faithfulness and power of God to deliver him. Even when allowed to slay Saul, he refused because he trusted God's timing and purpose (26:9-11).  
Before David became the King of Israel, God took him through the wilderness to learn what it means to rely upon him. We often look at adversity as times when God is absent and distant. We fail to realize that when God seems absent is the time when God is most active. He stands behind all the circumstances we face in life, protecting and delivering us so that we might learn to trust him. In the end, David recognizes that the victory was not achieved by their strength but by the power of God (30:23,26). He will protect us and guide us no matter how dark the circumstances are, for he is a God who delivers his people.