Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 1 Samuel 30:6
And David was greatly distressed; for the people spoke of stoning him, because the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his sons and for his daughters: but David encouraged himself in the LORD his God.
6. spake of stoning him ] Cp. Exo 17:4; Num 14:10. They laid the blame on him, because he had left no force to guard Ziklag.
was grieved ] Was exasperated, lit. “was bitter.” Cp. 1Sa 22:2.
encouraged himself ] Strengthened himself. Cp. 1Sa 23:16; Eph 6:10; and many of the Psalms, e.g. Psa 18:2, Psa 27:14, Psa 31:1 ff., Psa 31:24, &c.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
1Sa 30:6
David encouraged himself in the Lord his God.
David encouraging himself in God
I. Davids distress.
1. David was greatly distressed, for he had been acting without consulting his God. Perhaps some of you are in distress in the same way: you have chosen your own path, and now you are caught in the tangled bushes which tear your flesh. You have carved for yourselves, and you have cut your own fingers; you have obtained your hearts desire, and while the meat is yet in your mouth a curse has come with it. You say you did it for the best; ay, but it has turned out to be for the worst.
2. Worse than this, if worse can be, David had also followed policy instead of truth. The Oriental mind was, and probably still is, given to lying. Easterns do not think it wrong to tell an untruth; many do it habitually. Just as an upright merchant in this country would not be suspected of a falsehood, so you would not in the olden time have suspected the average Oriental of ever speaking the truth if he could help it, because he felt that everybody else would deceive him, and so he must practise great cunning. The golden rule in Davids day was, Do others, for others will certainly do you.
3. Yet was his distress the more severe on another account, for David had sided with the enemies of the Lords people.
4. Picture the position of David, in the centre of his band. He has been driven away by the Philistine lords with words of contempt; his men have been sneered at–What do these Hebrews here? Is not this David? What do these Hebrews here? is the sarcastic question of the world. How comes a professing Christian to be acting as we do?
5. At the back of this came bereavement. His wives were gone.
II. Davids encouragement: And David encouraged himself. That is well, Davids He did not at first attempt to encourage anybody else; but he encouraged himself. Some of the best talks in the world are those which a man has with himself. He who speaks to everybody except himself is a great fool. I think I hear David say, Why art thou cast down, O my soul, and why art thou disquieted within me? hope thou in God; for I will yet praise him. David encouraged himself. But he encouraged himself in the Lord his God, namely, in Jehovah. That is the surest way of encouraging yourself. David might have drawn, if he had pleased, a measure of encouragement from those valiant men who joined him just about this particular time; for it happened, according to 1Ch 12:19-20, that many united with his band at that hour. If you are in trouble, and your trouble is mixed with sin, if you have afflicted yourselves by your backslidings and perversities, nevertheless I pray you look nowhere else for help but to the God whom you have offended. When He lilts his arm, as it were, to execute vengeance, lay hold upon it and He will spare you. Does he not, Himself say, Let him lay hold on My strength? I remember old Master Quarles has a strange picture of one trying to strike another with a flail, and how does the other escape? Why, he runs in and keeps close, and so he is not struck. It is the very thing to do. Close in with God. Cling to Him by faith: hold fast by Him in hope. Say, Though He slay me, yet will I terror in Him. Resolve, I will not let Thee go. Let us try to conceive of the way in which David would encourage Himself in the Lord his God.
1. Standing amidst those ruins he would say, Yet the Lord does love me, and I love Him.
2. Then he went further, and argued, Hath not the Lord chosen me? Has He not ordained me to be king in Israel? Do you need an interpretation of this parable? Can you not see its application to yourselves?
3. Then he would go over all the past deliverances which he had experienced.
III. David enquiring of God.
1. Observe, that David takes it for granted that his God is going to help him. He only wants to know how it is to he done. Shall I pursue? shall I overtake?
2. It is to be remarked, however, that David does not expect that God is going to help him without his doing his best. He enquires, Shall I pursue? shall I overtake?
3. David also distrusted his own strength, though quite ready to use what he had; for he said, Shall I overtake? Can my men march fast enough to overtake these robbers?
IV. Davids answer of peace. The Lord heard his supplication. He says, In my distress I cried unto the Lord and He heard me. Trust in the Lord your God. Believe also in his Son Jesus. Get rid of sham faith, and really believe. Get rid of a professional faith, and trust in the Lord at all times, about everything. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
David encouraging himself in God
I. He encouraged himself in the Lord his God–that is what he is said to have done.
1. In the Lord, observe. The first step towards real comfort in real sorrow is to feel it must come from God, and the next is to raise up our minds to God; to get them above the things which are distressing us.
2. The Lord, observe again–Jehovah, as the capital letters in our Bibles indicate; the self-existent, everlasting, unchangeable, unlimited, all-sufficient God.
3. But a material point to be noticed here is Davids connection with this high Being. It was the Lord his God, in whom he encouraged himself. It implies clearly an acquaintance with God, some previous intercourse with him, and a connection formed between him and the soul.
(1) What he did is opposed to two things–first, to despondency in trouble, to a giving of ourselves up in it to inaction and despair.
(2) And this conduct of David is opposed also to a torpid waiting in affliction for comfort. He did not stand still, observe, for God to encourage him, he set about encouraging himself in God.
II. Now let us look at the difficult circumstances under which David did what is here ascribed to him. The text itself draws our attention to these. But David encouraged himself in the Lord his God; he did so notwithstanding the circumstances in which he was placed.
1. Notwithstanding his great sorrow and distress. We sometimes think that soldiers have not hearts, but we cannot read this chapter and think so. The men on their return to their desolated homes were overwhelmed with grief. The loss of their wives and children completely unmanned them.
2. David encouraged himself in the Lord notwithstanding his sinfulness. We are not told so, but there must have been a voice there which said, All this is my own doing. It is all the fruit of my own folly and sin. Had I but trusted my God and remained in Judah, or even had I stayed here in Ziklag, this would not have come to pass. He did not simply make an effort to encourage himself, he actually encouraged himself, found encouragement for himself, in the Lord his God. It must have been in some such moment as this that he first felt, if not said, I know, O Lord, that Thy judgments are right, and that Their in faithfulness has afflicted me. (C. Bradley, M. A.)
The secret of courage
Now the first thing I notice is
I. The grand assurance which this man gripped fast. It is not by accident, nor if it a mere piece of tautology, that we read the Lord his God. For, if you will remember, the very keynote of the psalms which are ascribed to David is just that expression, My God, My God. So far as the very fragmentary records of Jewish literature go, it would appear as if David was the very first of all the ancient singers to grapple that thought that he stood in a personal, individual relation to God, and God to him. And so it was his God that he laid hold of at that dark hour. Now I am not putting too much into a little word when I insist upon it that the very essence and nerve of what strengthened the king, at that supreme moment of desolation, was the, conviction that welled up in his heart that, in spite of it all, he had a grip of God a hand as his very own, and God had hold of him, I would not go to the length of saying that the living realisation, in heart and mind, of this personal possession of God is the difference between a traditional sad vague profession of religion and a vital possession of religion, but if it is not the difference, it goes a long way towards explaining the difference. The man who contents himself with the generality of a Gospel for the world, and who can say no more than that Jesus Christ died for all, has yet to learn the most intimate sweetness, and the most quickening and transforming power, of that Gospel, and he only learns it when he says, Who loved me, and gave himself for me.
II. The sufficiency of this one conviction and assurance. Here is one of the many eloquent buts of the Bible. On the one hand is piled up a black heap of calamities, loss, treachery, and peril; and opposed to them is only that one clause: But David encouraged himself in the Lord his God. God is enough: whatever else may go. The Lord his God was the sufficient portion for this man when he stood a homeless pauper. So for poverty, loss, the blasting of earthly hopes, the crushing of earthly affections, the extremity of danger, and the utmost threatening of death, here is the sufficient remedy–that one mighty assurance: The Lord is my God. For if He is the strength of my heart he will be my portion foreverse He is not poor who has God for his, nor does he wander with a hungry heart who can rest his heart on Gods; nor need he fear death who possesses God, and in Him eternal life. You never know the good of the breakwater until the storm is rolling the waves against its outer side. Put a little candle in a room, and you will not see the lightning when it flashes outside, however stormy the sky, and seamed with the fiery darts. If we have God in our hearts, we have enough for courage and for strength.
III. The effort by which this assurance is attained and sustained. The words of the original convey even more forcibly than those of our translation the thought of Davids own action in securing him the hold of God as his. He strengthened himself in the Lord his God. The Hebrew conveys the notion of effort, persistent and continuous; and it tells us this, that when things are as black as they were round David at that hour–it is not a matter of course, even for a good man, that there shall well up in his heart this tranquillising and victorious conviction; but he has to set himself to reach and to keep it. God will give it, but he will not give it unless the man strains after it. He strengthened himself in the Lord, and if he had not set doggedly about resisting the pressure of circumstances, and flinging himself as it were, by am effort, into the arms of God, circumstances would have been too many for him, and despair would have shrouded his soul. In the darkest moment it is possible for a man to surround himself with Gods light, but even in the brightest it is not possible to do so unless he makes a serious effete. That effort may consist mainly in two things. One is that we shall honestly try to occupy our minds, as well as our hearts, with the truth which certifies to us that God is, in very deed, ours. If we never think, or think languidly and rarely, about what God has revealed to us by the Word and life and death and intercession of Jesus Christ, concerning Himself, His heart of love towards us, and His relations to us, then we shall not have, either in the time of disaster or of joy, the blessed sense that He is indeed ours if a man will not think about Christian truth he will not have the blessedness of Christian possession of God. There is no mystery about the road to the sweetness and holiness and power that may belong to a Christian. The only way to get them is to be occupied, far more than most of us are, with the plain truths of Gods revelation in Jesus Christ. If you can never think about them they cannot affect you, and they will not make you sure that God is yours. There is another thing which we have to make an effort to do, if we would have the blessedness of this conviction filling and flooding oar hearts. For the possession is reciprocal; we say, My God, and He says, My people. Unless we yield ourselves to Him and say, I am Thine, we shall never be able to say, Thou art mine. We must recognise His possession of us; we must yield ourselves; we must obey; we must elect Him as our chief good, we must feel that we are not our own, but bought with a price. And then when we look up into the heavens thus submissive, thus obedient, thus owning His authority, and His rights, as well as claiming His love and His tenderness, and cry; My Father, He will bend down and whisper into our hearts: Thou art My beloved son. Then we shall be strong, and of a good courage, however weak and timid, and we shall be rich, though, like David, we have lost all things. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)
Features of Davids faith
I. The reality of Davids faith. It proved its reality by its power to enhearten him. It inspired him with courage; it rallied the scattered, prostrated powers of his soul; it opened a pathway of hope for him; it braced him for the necessities of the occasion.
II. This leads us to remark upon the sufficiency of Davids faith. You may have a strong impression that in certain you shall be helped, delivered, but the impression may be all a delusion, the baseless fabric of a vision, a hallucination of the mind. Davids faith was real subjectively, because it was sufficiently well-grounded objectively. He encouraged himself in the Lord his God. Faith separated from an adequate object is powerless; inspired by such an object–there is but One–it is mighty, puts heart into the weak, puts enthusiasm into the hopeless, laying hem upon God it is omnipotent.
III. Another feature of Davids faith is its activity, its energy. David bestirred himself to appropriate the strength which the Object of his faith, and his faith in that Object, were calculated to inspire. He encouraged himself in the Lord his God. What a blessed art this of self-encouragement in God. There is an attitude of faith which is passive. The language of its triumph then is the meek, Thy will be done. But faith is active, lively. This is its characteristic feature.
IV. Let us not forget the practical character of Davids faith (from 5:7). It was no time to lie upon the earth; there was something to be done, and done at once. Davids faith gave shape and force to his action. He calls for the ephod, enquires of the Lord, obtains a favourable response, pursues the Amalekites, rescues the captives, inflicts a crushing blow upon the captors. Application:–Nil desperandum! We may encourage ourselves and one another in the Lord our God. He is ours if we will but accept Him. In Jesus Christ He is our Lord and our God. And if we are thus to encourage ourselves, we should maintain a spirit of calm equanimity. (Joseph Morris.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 6. The people spake of stoning him] David had done much to civilize those men; but we find by this of what an unruly and ferocious spirit they were; and yet they strongly felt the ties of natural affection, they “grieved every man for his sons and for his daughters.”
David encouraged himself in the Lord] He found he could place very little confidence in his men; and, as he was conscious that this evil had not happened either through his neglect or folly, he saw he might the more confidently expect succour from his Maker.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
The people spake of stoning him, as the author of their miseries, by coming to Ziklag at first, by provoking the Amalekites to this cruelty, by his forwardness in marching away with Achish, and leaving their wives and children unguarded.
In the Lord his God, i.e. in this, that the all-wise and all-powerful Lord was his God by covenant relation, and special promise, and true and fatherly affection, as he had showed himself to be in the whole course of his providence towards him.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
6. David was greatly distressedHehad reason, not only on his own personal account (1Sa30:5), but on account of the vehement outcry and insurrectionarythreats against him for having left the place so defenseless that thefamilies of his men fell an unresisting prey to the enemy. Under thepressure of so unexpected and widespread a calamity, of which he wasupbraided as the indirect occasion, the spirit of any other leaderguided by ordinary motives would have sunk;
but David encouraged himselfin the LORDhis GodHis faith supplied him with inward resources of comfortand energy, and through the seasonable inquiries he made by Urim, heinspired confidence by ordering an immediate pursuit of theplunderers.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And David was greatly distressed,…. Partly for the loss of his two wives, and partly because of the mutiny and murmuring of his men:
for the people spake of stoning him; as the Israelites did of Moses and Aaron, Nu 14:10; the reason of this was, because, as they judged, it was owing to David that they went along with Achish, and left the city defenceless, and because he had provoked the Amalekites by his inroad upon them, who took this opportunity of avenging themselves. Abarbinel is of opinion that it was his excess of sorrow for his two wives, and his remissness and backwardness to take vengeance on their enemies, that provoked them, and put them on talking after this manner:
because the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his sons and for his daughters; as well as David; and they were very desirous of recovering them if possible, and of taking vengeance on those who had carried them captive:
but David encouraged himself in the Lord his God; took all patiently, and exercised faith on his God; he encouraged himself in the power and providence of God; in the promises of God, and his faithfulness in keeping them; in a view of his covenant relation to God; in remembrance of the grace, mercy, and goodness of God, and his former experiences of it; hoping and believing that God would appear for him in some way or another, and work salvation for him. The Targum is,
“he strengthened himself in the Word of the Lord his God;”
in Christ the Word of God, and in the power of his might, and in the grace that is in him, Eph 6:10.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(6) For the people spake of stoning him.Probably the discontent and anger of the people had been previously aroused by Davids close connection with Achish, which had entailed upon these valiant Israelites the bitter degradation of having had to march against their own countrymen under the banner of the Philistine King of Gath; and now, finding that David had neglected to provide against the Amalekite raid, their pent-up fury thus displayed itself. Then David, we shall see, threw himself, with all his old perfect trustfulness, upon the mercy of his God.
But David encouraged himself in the Lord his God.He encouraged himself in prayer, thus casting himself and his fortunes on the God who, years before, had chosen him to be His anointed. It was this trust, as we have before seen in his own case, in the case, too, of Jonathan, as it had been in old days with all the heroes of Israelthis perfect, childlike, implicit trust in the Glorious Armwhich had been the source of the marvellous success of the chosen people. When they forgot the invisible King, who for His own great purposes had chosen them, their fortunes at once declined; they fell to the level, and often below the level, of the surrounding nations. We have many conspicuous examples of this; for instance, in the lives of Samson and Saul, how, when with weeping and with mourning, they returned to their allegiance, and again leaned on the Arm, success and victory returned to them. This is what happened now to David at Ziklag, while about the same time Saul, alone and distrustful, fought and fell on the bloody day of Gilboa. David, with the help of his God, on whose mercy he had thrown himself, obtained his brilliant success over Amalek, and restored his prestige not only among his own immediate followers, but through all the cities and villages of Southern Canaan.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
6. The people spake of stoning him They may have thought at first that David’s readiness to go to the war with Achish was unwise, and now as they felt their loss, they blamed him as the cause of all, and in the emotion of the hour were ready to mutiny. This was not strange when we consider the antecedents of many of these men. See 1Sa 22:2.
David encouraged himself in the Lord Betook himself to prayer, and through the ephod of the priest, as narrated in the following verses, received counsel and promise from Jehovah. Happy he, who in the hour of trouble knows how to encourage himself in Jehovah, for such a man shall surely triumph over all foes.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
DISCOURSE: 309
ENCOURAGEMENT IN GOD
1Sa 30:6. But David encouraged himself in the Lord his God.
IN seasons of prosperity the superior happiness of a Christian is not visible to all, but in adverse circumstances he has a manifest advantage over others. The ungodly, when the cisterns from whence they draw their water are broken or emptied, have no comfort left: but when every stream is dried up, the godly have still access to the Fountain itself. This was experienced by the Church of old [Note: Hab 3:17-18.], and it is beautifully exemplified in the history before us. David was in great trouble, being suspected by the Philistines, plundered by the Amalekites, and threatened by his own soldiers: but in the midst of all he encouraged himself in God.
We shall shew,
I.
What reason he had to do so
Though reduced to the greatest extremities, David derived encouragement,
1.
From the perfections of God as revealed in the word
[He was no stranger to the character of God as it was revealed to Moses [Note: Exo 34:6-7.], or to the unnumbered illustrations of it which the history of his nation afforded him: consequently he knew that there was nothing too hard for God to effect, or too great for him to give.]
2.
From the experience which he himself had had of God
[The lion, the bear, the Philistine giant, and the murderous rage of Saul, had given him abundant proofs of Gods superintending providence [Note: 1Sa 17:37; 1Sa 18:11; 1Sa 19:10-11.]: these he called to mind in this season of trial and distress [Note: Psa 42:6; Psa 77:10-11.], and wisely judged, that, with such a Friend on his side, he had no cause for fear [Note: 2Co 1:10.].]
3.
From the covenant which God had made with him
[God had covenanted with him to give him the throne of Israel; hence he was assured that his life should be spared till this promise was accomplished. It was in this view that he was enabled to call God IIIS God; and the thought of this relation to God added ten-fold confidence to his soul.]
While we admire the conduct of David in this particular, let us consider,
II.
What reason we have to do likewise
Certainly the grounds of Davids encouragement are equally calculated for our support
[God is still the same almighty and gracious Being as ever: his arm is not shortened, nor is his ear heavy with respect to us. We may also see much of his goodness in our own experience. Wonderful have been the ways in which he has dealt with us for the awakening, preserving, and sanctifying of our souls. He has also covenanted with us that he will never leave us nor forsake us [Note: Heb 13:5.], nor shall one jot or tittle of his word ever fail. Are not these then grounds of encouragement to us as well as to David?]
But we have far greater reason to encourage ourselves in God than David had.
We have seen more stupendous displays of Gods power
[David had read of the wonders wrought in Egypt and the wilderness: but what were these wonders when compared with the victories gained over all the passions and prejudices of the world by the preaching of a few poor fishermen?]
We have beheld more astonishing exercises of his love
[The history of the Jews records many instances of Gods love towards them: but what were these when compared with the gift of his dear Son to die for us, and of his Holy Spirit to renew us? These things are as much beyond any thing that David had ever seen, as the substance is beyond the shadow.]
We have experienced more abundant proofs of his faithfulness
[How many promises, made to the Church at large, have been accomplished by the mission of Christ, and the gift of the Holy Spirit! And all the members of the Church, from its first establishment to the present moment, have found the promises of the Gospel fulfilled to them in their season! In proportion therefore as Gods faithfulness has been tried and ascertained, our confidence in him must be increased.]
Application
1.
Let us endeavour to secure God as our God
[Unless God be ours, we can have but little reason to encourage ourselves in him. Let us then look to Christ, that through him we may find acceptance with God; so shall God be our Friend, our Father, and our eternal great Reward [Note: Gen 15:1; Joh 1:12; 2Co 6:18.].]
2.
Let us encourage ourselves in God
[We must expect to meet with many difficulties and troubles: nor can we find any grounds of encouragement in ourselves, but in God there is all that we can either need or desire. Are we then discouraged by outward difficulties or inward corruptions? let us direct our eyes to him, as our compassionate, almighty, and ever faithful Friend. Let us, like David, chide our unbelief [Note: Psa 43:5.]; and henceforth say with him, In the day of my trouble I will call upon God [Note: Psa 86:7.].]
Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)
(6) And David was greatly distressed; for the people spake of stoning him, because the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his sons and for his daughters: but David encouraged himself in the LORD his God.
The affliction now was grown to its height. David, for whom, like another Jonah, the storm is induced, is to be the greatest sufferer: else wherefore stone him more than the rest. Reader! I know not what your views of this history are. But to Me, I confess, that I think the whole was so arranged and ordered by the Lord to bring back the heart of David again, (which I fear had for a long time been cold towards the God of his mercies), to a sense of his sin, and a longing to be restored once more to the Lord. And if I am right in my conjecture, what a blessed issue did the Lord bring this affair to? David encouraged himself in the Lord his God. Yes! the Lord his God, properly so called. For notwithstanding all David’s unworthiness and undeservings, God was still his God in covenant. Reader! do not overlook this whatever else you lose sight of in this sweet scripture. There may be, and no doubt there is, much unworthiness, much undeserving, in the best of saints. There will be changes in God’s people, like the ebbings and flowings of the tide. But there is no change in the covenant security of God’s love. The efficacy of this is eternally and everlastingly the same. God in Christ is an ocean that never dries, never lessens, never abates. He is a rock, his work is perfect. Lord! give me grace, that whatever leanness or barrenness there may be in me, I may, like David, encourage myself in the Lord my God.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
1Sa 30:6 And David was greatly distressed; for the people spake of stoning him, because the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his sons and for his daughters: but David encouraged himself in the LORD his God.
Ver. 6. And David was greatly distressed. ] So that he knew not which way to look, but heavenward. See 1Sa 30:3 .
For the people spake of stoning him.
Because the soul of all the people was grieved.
But David encouraged himself in the Lord his God.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
1 Samuel
THE SECRET OF COURAGE
1Sa 30:6
David was at perhaps the very lowest ebb of his fortunes. He had long been a wandering outlaw, and had finally been driven, by Saul’s persistent hostility, to take refuge in the Philistines’ country. He had gathered around himself a band of desperate men, and was living very much like a freebooter. He had found refuge in a little city of the Philistines, far down in the South, from which he and his men had marched as a contingent in the Philistine army, which was preparing an attack upon Saul. But, naturally, the Philistine soldiers doubted their ally, and he was obliged to take himself and his troops back again to their temporary home.
When he came there it was a heap of smoking ruins. Everything was gone; property, cattle, wives, children-and all was desolation. His turbulent followers rose against him, a mutiny broke out-a dangerous thing amongst such a crew-and they were ready to stone him. And at that moment what did he do? Nothing. Was he cast down? No. Was he agitated? No. ‘But David encouraged himself in the Lord his God.’
Now the first thing I notice is
I. The grand assurance which this man gripped fast at such a time.
Now I am not putting too much into a little word when I insist upon it that the very essence and nerve of what strengthened David, at that supreme moment of desolation, was the conviction that welled up in his heart that, in spite of it all, he had a grip of God’s hand as his very own, and God had hold of him. Just think of the difference between the attitude of mind and heart expressed in the names that were more familiar to the Israelitish people, and this name for Jehovah. ‘The God of Israel’-that is wide, general; and a man might use it and yet fail to feel that it implied that each individual of the community stood by himself in a personal relation to God. But David penetrated through the broad, general thought, and got into the heart of the matter. It was not enough for him, in his time of need, to stay himself upon a vague universal goodness, but he had to clasp to his burdened heart the individualising thought, ‘the God of Israel is my God.’
Think, too, of the contrast of the thoughts and emotions suggested by ‘My God,’ and by ‘the God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob.’ Great as that name is, it carries the mind away back into the past, and speaks of a historical relation in former days, which may or may not continue in all its tenderness and sweetness and power into the prosaic present. But when a man feels, not only ‘the God of Jacob is our Refuge,’ but, ‘the God of Jacob is my God,’ then the whole thing flashes up into new power. ‘My sun’-will one man claim property in that great luminary that pours its light down on the whole world? Yes.
‘The sun whose beams most glorious are,
Disdaineth no beholder,’
I would not go the length of saying that the living realisation, in heart and mind, of this personal possession of God is the difference between a traditional and vague profession of religion and a vital possession of religion, but if it is not the difference, it goes a long way towards explaining the difference. The man who contents himself with the generality of a Gospel for the world, and who can say no more than that Jesus Christ died for all, has yet to learn the most intimate sweetness, and the most quickening and transforming power, of that Gospel, and he only learns it when he says, ‘Who loved me , and gave Himself for me .’
So do not let us be content with saying, ‘the God of Israel,’ and its many thousands, or ‘the God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob,’ who filled the past with His lustre, but let us bring the general good into our own houses, as men might draw the waters of Niagara into their homes through pipes, and let us cry: ‘My Lord and my God!’ ‘David encouraged himself in the Lord his God.’
II. Now note, secondly, the sufficiency of this one conviction and assurance.
So for poverty, loss, the blasting of earthly hopes, the crushing of earthly affections, the extremity of danger, and the utmost threatening of death, here is the sufficient remedy-that one mighty assurance: ‘The Lord is my God.’ For if He is ‘the strength of my heart,’ He will be my portion for ever.’ He is not poor who has God for his, nor does he wander with a hungry heart who can rest his heart on God’s; nor need he fear death who possesses God, and in Him eternal life.
So, brethren, in all our changing circumstances, there is more than enough for us in that sweet, simple, strong thought. The end of sorrow that is to say, the purpose thereof is to breed in us the conviction that God is ours, to drive us to Him by lack of all beside; and the end of sorrow that is to say, the termination thereof is the kindling in our hearts of the light of that blessed assurance, for with Him we shall fear no evil. You never know the good of the breakwater until the storm is rolling the waves against its outer side. Light a little candle in a room, and you will not see the lightning when it flashes outside, however stormy the sky, and seamed with the fiery darts. If we have God in our hearts, we have enough for courage and for strength.
I need not remind you, I suppose, how this darkest moment of David’s fortunes was the moment at which the darkness broke. Three days after this emeute of his turbulent followers, there came a fugitive into the camp with news that Saul was dead and David was king. So it was not in vain that he had ‘strengthened himself in the Lord his God.’ Our ‘light affliction which is but for a moment’ leads on to a manifestation of the true power of God our Friend, and to the breaking of the day.
III. And now the last thing to be noted is the effort by which this assurance is attained and sustained.
That effort must consist mainly in two things. One is that we shall honestly try to occupy our minds, as well as our hearts, with the truth which certifies to us that God is, in very deed, ours. If we never think, or think languidly and rarely, about what God has revealed to us, by the word and life and death and intercession of Jesus Christ, concerning Himself, His heart of love towards us, and His relations to us, then we shall not have, either in the time of disaster or of joy, the blessed sense that He is indeed ours. If a man will not think about Christian truth he will not have the blessedness of Christian possession of God. There is no mystery about the road to the sweetness and holiness and power that may belong to a Christian. The only way to win them is to be occupied, far more than most of us are, with the plain truths of God’s revelation in Jesus Christ. If you never think about them they cannot affect you, and they will not make you sure that God is yours.
But we cannot occupy ourselves with these truths unless we have a distinct and resolute purpose running through our lives, of averting our eyes from the things that might make us lose sight of them and of Him. David had his choice. He could either, as a great many of us do, stand there and look, and look, and look, and see nothing but his disasters, or he could look past them; and see beyond them God. Peter had his choice whether he would look at the water, or whether he would look at Jesus Christ. He chose to look at the water; ‘and when he saw the wind boisterous he began to sink’-of course, and when he looked at Christ and cried: ‘Lord, save me!’ he was held up-equally of course. Make the effort not to let the sorrowful things, or the difficult things, or the fearful things, or the joyous things, in your life, absorb you, but turn away, and, as the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews says, in another connection, ‘look off unto Jesus, the Author and Finisher of faith.’ David had to put constraint upon himself, to admit any other thoughts into his mind than those that were pressed into it by the facts before his eyes; but he put on the constraint, and so he was encouraged because he encouraged himself.
There is another thing which we have to make an effort to do, if we would have the blessedness of this conviction filling and flooding our hearts. For the possession is reciprocal; we say, ‘My God,’ and He says, ‘My people.’ Unless we yield ourselves to Him and say, ‘I am Thine,’ we shall never be able to say, ‘Thou art mine.’ We must recognise His possession of us; we must yield ourselves; we must obey; we must elect Him as our chief good, we must feel that we are not our own, but bought with a price. And then when we look up into the heavens thus submissive, thus obedient, thus owning His authority and His rights, as well as claiming His love and His tenderness, and cry: ‘My Father,’ He will bend down and whisper into our hearts: ‘Thou art My beloved son.’ Then we shall be ‘strong, and of a good courage,’ however weak and timid, and we shall be rich, though, like David, we have lost all things.
Fuente: Expositions Of Holy Scripture by Alexander MacLaren
soul. Hebrew. nephesh. App-13.
grieved = embittered.
every man. Hebrew. ‘ish. App-14.
encouraged = strengthened.
the LORD. Hebrew. Jehovah. App-4.
God. Hebrew. Elohim. App-4.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
was greatly: Gen 32:7, Psa 25:17, Psa 42:7, Psa 116:3, Psa 116:4, Psa 116:10, 2Co 1:8, 2Co 1:9, 2Co 4:8, 2Co 7:5
the people: Exo 17:4, Num 14:10, Psa 62:9, Mat 21:9, Mat 27:22
grieved: Heb. bitter, 1Sa 1:10, Jdg 18:25, 2Sa 17:8, 2Ki 4:27, *marg.
David: Job 13:15, Psa 18:6, Psa 26:1, Psa 26:2, Psa 27:1-3, Psa 34:1-8, Psa 40:1, Psa 40:2, Psa 42:5, Psa 42:11, Psa 56:3, Psa 56:4, Psa 56:11, Psa 62:1, Psa 62:5, Psa 62:8, Psa 118:8-13, Pro 18:10, Isa 25:4, Isa 37:14-20, Jer 16:19, Hab 3:17, Hab 3:18, Rom 4:18, Rom 8:31, 2Co 1:6, 2Co 1:9, 2Co 1:10, Heb 13:6
Reciprocal: Gen 32:9 – Jacob Exo 5:22 – returned Jdg 2:15 – greatly Jdg 20:22 – encouraged 1Sa 22:2 – discontented Neh 6:9 – Now therefore Psa 18:18 – but Psa 21:7 – For the Psa 118:5 – called Psa 131:2 – quieted Pro 31:6 – of heavy hearts Isa 33:18 – heart Isa 50:10 – let Lam 3:24 – therefore Jon 2:2 – I cried Jon 2:7 – I remembered Joh 10:31 – General Act 27:22 – I exhort Act 28:15 – he thanked 2Co 7:10 – the sorrow Phi 4:6 – in 1Pe 5:7 – Casting
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
1Sa 30:6. The people spake of stoning him As the cause of this calamity, by coming to Ziklag at first, by provoking the Amalekites so grievously as he had done, and by his forwardness in marching away with Achish, and leaving the town, their wives and children unguarded. But David encouraged himself in the Lord his God Who had never failed him in his greatest distresses; and in whom he still had confidence. He encouraged himself By believing that this all-wise and all-powerful Lord was his God by covenant and special promise, and fatherly affection, as he had showed himself to be in the whole course of his providence toward him. It is the duty of all good men, whatever happens, to encourage themselves in the Lord their God, assuring themselves that he both can and will bring light out of darkness.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
30:6 And David was greatly distressed; for the people {d} spake of stoning him, because the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his sons and for his daughters: but David encouraged himself in the LORD his God.
(d) Thus we see that in trouble and adversity we do not consider God’s providence, but like raging beasts forget both our own duty and contemn God’s appointment over us.