1 Samuel – Chapter 22

And David spoke to the Lord the words of this song on the day when the Lord delivered him from the hand of all his enemies, and from the hand of Saul. 2 Samuel 22:1 – Commentators are torn on when to attribute this song to David life. Was it later in his life looking back at all the ways God provided for him or was it a song he sung earlier in his life right after God defeated Saul? The reason it’s thought to be earlier is because this chapter is almost identical to Psalm 18, a psalm supposed to be written early in David’s life. While the question is a legitimate one, the answer I fall into is both. When David was younger and he saw how the Lord provided, he sang this psalm of praise and glory to the Lord. Then as he is much older and is able to look back on all the many ways God took care of him, he sings this psalm of praise and glory to his God again. My prayer is that we too will sing our song of praise and glory to our God again and again. That our time of praising God isn’t just something we did when we were younger, say at a summer camp. Or that our praise is only isolated as something we’ll do when we’re older. God is worthy of our praise now and again tomorrow and even again the next day. What David said of the Lord is so true in our story as well. He is our rock, He is our fortress, and He is the one that makes our darkness come to light. Praise God from whom all blessing flow. Praise God all creatures here below. Praise Him above all heavenly host. Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. If God has saved you, redeemed you, and brought you out of darkness into His light, then He is worth praising again today. I love you, but Jesus loves you more – Mac – Daily DEVO 3041

1 Samuel 22 Daily DEVO And the king said to the guard who stood about him, “Turn and kill the priests of the Lord, because their hand also is with David, and they knew that he fled and did not disclose it to me.” But the servants of the king would not put out their hand to strike the priests of the Lord. 1 Samuel 22:17 – It is sad how far away we can let our hearts get from following after God. It was not that long in our readings that Saul was clinging so tightly to the robe of the priest Samuel for help that Saul ended up tearing a piece off because he couldn’t stand to see Samuel walk away. Now though, this same Saul is commanding his servants to kill an entire family of priests. What changed? Sin got in the mix of Saul’s story. It’s sad how we play it off that sin isn’t really that big of deal and doesn’t impact our lives in any big way. Thankfully God has given us the full-life stories of people like Saul in scripture to see how sin in peoples lives, even if it starts out as simple envy and worry, ruins everything for them. I challenge you with the sin your battling to zoom out on your life. Yes, maybe in 5 minutes the effect of that sin won’t have much of an impact on you or anyone else, but what if you continued that for 5 years? How would that sin impact you, the people around you, and your story in the long term? Begin to look further at the long term hurt this sin brings. Sin is all about immediate pleasure and long term pain. You know this, so let’s begin together to see the sin in our story with long term views. I love you, but Jesus loves you more – Mac – Daily DEVO 422

And David said to Abiathar, “I knew on that day, when Doeg the Edomite was there, that he would surely tell Saul. I have occasioned the death of all the persons of your father’s house.” 1 Samuel 22:22 – Today’s takeaway, don’t be a Doeg. For a lot of reasons as we see in this passage, but especially for what we see David say here. Just seeing Doeg around David knew Doeg was going to only add trouble to the situation. For us, how do people think of us when we’re in a situation? Are they grateful we’re there because we add good thing like peace and joy or frustrated because we only add negative things like worry and fear? We see Jesus everywhere He went adding to the lives of people. Adding to the joy, strength, understanding, peace, and love. Let’s seek to be known for that too. If we typically are the one to add fear and worry, what can you change to stop that? What’s a gathering of people you’ll be with today and what’s something good you can add to it? Let’s be the type of people that other’s long to have close by. For when we are close we can share with them the source of where we get our joy and strength, Jesus. I love you, but Jesus loves you more – Mac – Daily DEVO 1647

And everyone who was in distress, and everyone who was in debt, and everyone who was bitter in soul, gathered to him. And he became commander over them. And there were with him about four hundred men. 1 Samuel 22:2 – David is on the run. Saul is paranoid that all those around him have betrayed him, he thinks his own son had conspired against him, and he even commands a city of priests to be slaughtered because he believed they helped David. David was hiding in a cave alone, unsure of what’s to come and where to go next. Yet somehow word got to his family and to many who were in need as to where David was, and they came to him in the cave. About 400 men came to him and surrounded him. They were those in distress and bitter about what was happening in the kingdom, so they came to walk along David and eventually became mighty soldiers for him. While these men likely weren’t the valiant soldiers David fought with in the kingdom, they were the men that showed up when he was alone in the cave. We too may not have the people we assumed would show up for us actually show up but let us embrace and be thankful for the people that do show up when we are in our times of need. Yes, it can be hard when the people we think should show up for us don’t, but when the Lord still provides a helping hand, let’s take it and be grateful. Often it’s in our hurt in the “cave of Adullam” where we find out who truly cares and truly is willing to walk alongside us. Instead of rejecting the hand of someone because they aren’t the one you hoped would show up, embrace it and thank the Lord that He saw you in the cave and provided. I love you, but Jesus loves you more – Mac – Daily DEVO 2899