Tag: A chapter a day

Then he said to Abiathar the priest, “Bring me the ephod!” So Abiathar brought it.

David was heart-broken to discover that his family and his livestock had been captured by raiding Amalekites, and that his hometown had been burned to the ground. I’m quite sure that his sadness turned to anger, and a strong desire for vengenance —a natural response. Yet David calls for the ephod in order to get direction from the Lord.

Although the ephod is not available to us today, the Lord wants to guide and direct our actions and reactions, if we but ask him.

David replied to Abigail, “Praise the LORD, the God of Israel, who has sent you to meet me today! Thank God for your good sense! Bless you for keeping me from murder and from carrying out vengeance with my own hands.”

Abigail intervened on behalf of her husband, for whom she had no respect, and kept David from committing murder.

“Now’s your opportunity!” David’s men whispered to him. “Today the LORD is telling you, ‘I will certainly put your enemy into your power, to do with as you wish.’”

It certainly seemed to David’s men that the message the Lord was sending through this circumstance was clear enough —‘Kill your enemy now while you can!’.

And yet this was not the Lord’s message at all. The Lord’s will is really not discerned through circumstances, which may be favorable or unfavorable, and are usually beyond our ability to correctly interpret anyway. Rather, the Lord’s will is discerned through prayerfully applying His principles to whatever the present circumstances happen to be.

“But God is my helper…”

Life is not meant to be lived “on your own”. It is a blessing to realize that your ship of state needs help – God’s help, not just to save it from shipwreck, but to keep it on the right course.

“Why do you boast about your crimes, great warrior? Don’t you realize God’s justice continues forever?’

Doeg the Edomite slaughtered the eighty-five priests of Nob who, as the scripture points out, were in their priestly garments when the atrocity occurred. No matter that it was done at the king’s command, it was a great evil.

It seems all too often the case that justice is thwarted here on this earth. But the living God is a God of eternal justice. No one gets away with anything.

“You are all I really want in life.”

If this is really where your heart is, then the promises of God are wonderful indeed. For then He promises to watch over you, to direct your steps when you don’t know the way, to protect you when you need protecting, to give meaning and purpose to your daily life.

“I praise God for what he has promised;
yes, I praise the LORD for what he has promised.”

What has the Lord promised that calls for such praise?

Has he promised us a life without problems? No, but is that really the goal —a life with no problems, no difficulties, no challenges at all?

“The LORD is close to the brokenhearted;
he rescues those whose spirits are crushed.”

What other god, ancient or modern, is described like this?

“As soon as David returned from killing Goliath, Abner brought him to Saul with the Philistine’s head still in his hand.”

With blood still dripping from the head of the slain Philistine giant, David stood before the king, victorious.

But it wasn’t his victory; As David himself told the giant, the battle and the victory belonged to the Lord of hosts.

“You prepare a feast for me in the presence of my enemies. You honor me by anointing my head with oil. My cup overflows with blessings.”

When David was just a teenager, Samuel anointed him to be the next king of Israel. He was called in from the fields where he was watching his father’s sheep. This best-known of all the psalms might well have been David’s response.