So, we turn to 1 Samuel chapter 26. Our text will be the entire chapter. 1 Samuel chapter 26, page 317 in your pew Bibles. Hear God's word for us. Then the Ziphites came to Saul at Gibeah, saying, Is not David hiding himself on the hill of Hakilah, which is on the east of Jeshimon? So Saul arose and went down to the wilderness of Ziph with 3,000 chosen men of Israel to seek David in the wilderness of Ziph. And Saul encamped on the hill of Hakilah, which is beside the road on the east of Jeshimon. But David remained in the wilderness. When he saw that Saul came after him into the wilderness, David sent out spies and learned that Saul had indeed come. Then David rose and came to the place where Saul had encamped. And David saw the place where Saul lay, with Abner the son of Ner, the commander of his army. Saul was lying within the encampment while the army was encamped around him. Then David said to Ahimelech the Hittite and to Joab's brother Abishai, the son of Zeruiah, who will go down with me into the camp to Saul? And Abishai said, I will go down with you. So David and Abishai went to the army by night. And there lay Saul, sleeping within the encampment, with his spear stuck in the ground at his head. And Abner and the army lay around him. Abishai said to David, God has given your enemy into your hand this day. Now, please, let me pin him to the earth with one stroke of the spear, and I will not strike him twice. But David said to Abishai, Do not destroy him, for who can put out his hand against the Lord's anointed and be guiltless? And David said, As the Lord lives, the Lord will strike him or his day will come to die or he will go down into battle and perish. The Lord forbid that I should put out my hand against the Lord's anointed. But take now the spear that is at his head and the jar of water and let us go. So David took the spear and the jar of water from Saul's head and they went away. No man saw it or knew it, nor did any awake, for they were all asleep, because a deep sleep from the Lord had fallen upon them. But David went over to the other side and stood far off on the top of the hill with a great space between them. And David called to the army and said to Abner, the son of Ner, saying, Will you not answer, Abner? Then Abner answered, Who are you who calls to the king? and David said to Abner are you not a man who is like you in Israel why then have you not kept watch over your lord the king for one of the people came in to destroy the king your lord this thing that you have done is not good as the lord lives you deserve to die because you have not kept watch over your lord, the lord's anointed, and now see where the king's spear is and the jar of water that was at his head. Saul recognized David's voice and said, is this your voice, my son David? And David said, it is my voice, O my lord, O king. And he said, why does my lord pursue after his servant. For what have I done? What evil is on my hands? Now therefore let my Lord the king hear the words of his servant. If it is the Lord who has stirred you up against me, may he accept an offering. But if it is men, may they be cursed before the Lord. For they have driven me out this day that I should have no share in the heritage of the Lord, saying, go serve other gods. Now therefore let not my blood fall to the earth, away from the presence of the Lord. For the king of Israel has come out to seek a single flea like one who hunts a partridge in the mountains. Then Saul said, I have sinned. Return, my son David, for I will no more do you harm, because my life was precious in your eyes this day. Behold, I have acted foolishly and have made a great mistake. And David answered and said, Here is the spear, O king. Let one of the young men come over and take it. The Lord rewards every man for his righteousness and his faithfulness. For the Lord gave you into my hand today, and I would not put out my hand against the Lord's anointed. Behold, as your life was precious this day in my sight, so may my life be precious in the sight of the Lord, and may he deliver me out of all tribulation. Then Saul said to David, Blessed be you, my son David. You will do many things and will succeed in them. So David went his way, and Saul returned to his place. We are, in many ways, shaped by the events in our lives. Some of you may know that I spent my high school years in Montana. And that probably explains why I enjoy country music and drive a pickup truck, for good or bad. Without those experiences, I might not. Many of my attitudes and outlooks on life can be traced back to those formative years. And yet, events don't always shape us in the same way. My wife and I, we love the outdoors. We like to go hiking and backpacking. And so we take our family out to do that. And we hope that that love rubs off on our kids. But I'm often afraid that they see this more as a forced march than an enjoyable experience. Well, one element in our lives that very much shapes who we are is suffering. We all face it in various forms. We have health struggles. There are mean kids at school. We have financial problems. There may be mistreatment by parents, by a spouse. The list could go on and on. And suffering can lead to many different outcomes in different people. If you're bullied at school, it can lead to a life of anger and bitterness. Or maybe it can lead to a patient, enduring spirit. A loss of a job can lead to despair, or it can renew your prayer life. suffering it both forms our character and it very often shows our character how we react in the crucible of life and in our text today that's where we find David in the midst of suffering David the future anointed king of Israel is being hunted down by the present king Saul And what we see here is David showing his developed dependence on God as he does this daring demonstration of protection for Saul, the Lord's anointed. And so those will be the two main points, this developed dependence and then that daring demonstration. And as we think of David and this story about David, It's very much focused on character. Because we could say that the question the book of Samuel is answering for us is, what kind of king does Israel need? And they certainly do need a king. We only need to read the book of Judges to find that out. But we can also see in the book of Samuel itself that the wrong king is actually worse than no king. Saul shows us that very vividly. And so when we read about David, we're told that he is a man after God's own heart. But what does that mean? What does that mean to be this man after God's own heart? And that's where the story comes in. It shows us this character of David as we read about his life. And one place we really learn about David is during this time of intense suffering before he becomes king. It's a very formative time developing and showing us his character. But what we see in our passage is not David at the beginning of this process, but closer to the end. As Paul tells us in Romans 5, 3-4, suffering produces endurance. Endurance produces character, and character produces hope. And David in our text exhibits this developed dependence, this patience, endurance, and hope that has only come through time. And so when we look at our passage, we'll see this most clearly as we compare it with an earlier time that David had spared Saul, the first time in chapter 24, so we'll mention that. But before we get there, we need to sketch out a little bit David's life to this point. What is this situation that he's in? And so we know he starts out as that young shepherd boy, anointed by Samuel to be king, and then he's brought into Saul's service, first to play the harp. before Saul whenever he needed his spirit to be soothed. And Saul loved him, we're told. Saul in many ways took him as a son into his service. And David then displays great courage and faith in the Lord as he defeats Goliath, maybe the story you most know. And so what does Saul do? Well, he now makes him his military commander. and sends him out with the men. And he even then gets joined with the royal family as Saul gives David his daughter for a wife. So David, that shepherd boy, he's now married to the daughter of the king, prospering in everything he does. But really it's at that time that his life started to unravel. For Saul became jealous of David as those women would sing of David's ten thousands and only Saul's thousands. And so Saul decides to kill him. David's adopted father throws a spear at him, attempting to pin him to the wall. Saul has now made himself David's enemy. David has to flee. He has to escape out the window of his own house at night to save his life. He's a fugitive. And he asks again and again, what have I done that Saul now hates me? What did I do to wrong him? And it's not just Saul, but it's even other Israelites. Those Israelites David was fighting to protect from the Philistines. They're now turning on him now that he is a fugitive. And we see that in our passage as these men of Ziph are very willing to turn him over to Saul. David has nowhere to go. Even when he hides in the desert, Saul comes after him. He has gone from the palace of the king to the rocks of the wild goats. And as much as I like hiking and backpacking, imagine having to live out in the wilderness, Searching for your food, for your water. And that's not the worst of it. That would be hard enough. But now imagine somebody is out there chasing you. Every time you camp, you have to think about who's behind you. Where they're coming from. Where they might attack. You're constantly on the watch, on the move. That is David's life. And eventually, right after our text, he flees to the only place Saul can't come after him. He actually goes to the Philistines. To the enemies of Israel, he's forced to live like a traitor to his own people amongst the Philistines. As we think about that, it's not hard to imagine how this undeserved suffering could make David bitter. Make him mad, not only at Saul and other Israelites who have turned on him, but even God himself. And as we read the Psalter, we do see David's questions to God. We see him often crying out to God. But we don't find that bitterness and anger. Instead, what we find is this growing dependence, this developing dependence upon God. When God strips away the comforts in our lives, when he removes what had seemed to be our ability to control our own destiny, when he places us in situations that seem desperate according to our own powers, we're confronted with that choice. Do we give in to despair? As Job's wife said, curse God and die. Or do we develop? Does that suffering develop character, dependence upon God? Do we finally realize what has been true all along? God is in control, and we have to look to him for every breath, every meal, every paycheck, every step. That doctrine of God's providence, it isn't some abstract concept, but it's a very real source of comfort and hope. You realize that when all life seems to have turned against you, God has not. He is still there, still your sovereign heavenly father. That is what David has learned, this developed dependence upon God. And we see it in our text in this daring demonstration. Our passage begins very similar to earlier stories in David's flight from Saul. Saul hears where David is, and he comes out and pursues him. And this is even the second time that these people of Ziph had turned him over to Saul, told his whereabouts. But as we read in our text, we quickly see a difference. Elsewhere, David has always been running, hurrying away, hiding out in a cave when Saul comes. But here, David comes to Saul. He comes to find Saul. David is the one who sends out the spies. David is the one who finds where Saul is camping, and he comes to him. What is David doing? We might think that the roles have been switched. The hunted is now becoming the hunter. But that's not quite right. Because as we read on, we see David isn't sneaking up on Saul to kill him. No, he wants to show Saul something. Maybe even more so, he wants to show Saul's men, his own men, something. It is this daring demonstration of his innocence with regard to King Saul. And so David, he recruits another man for this mission, a Bishai, eagerly volunteers, and together they do the unthinkable. They walk through the entire camp that is all around Saul right in the middle. They walk past row upon row of soldiers, all sleeping, to get to Saul right in the middle. And how is this possible? How can it be that they could sneak up like that? Well, we're told in verse 12. What is it? Well, right at the end there, because a deep sleep from the Lord had fallen upon them all. God had provided this deep sleep. David was trusting in God just as he had with Goliath, God was providing for him. And so David and Abishai, they come to Saul and Abishai says, let me kill him. I'll take that spear, that spear that he threw at you trying to pin you to the wall. I'll pin him to the ground. It'll only take one stroke. And this is God's doing. He's allowed us to get here. He's the one who has placed your enemy, Saul, into your hand. And as we read these words, if we would have read a few chapters earlier, we're reminded this isn't the first time we've heard something like this. Back in chapter 24, David and his men, as they're running from Saul, were hiding in a cave. They were in the back of the cave, and Saul just happened to stop by and he needed to use the restroom. And so he goes in the cave. And David's men say, look, God has given your enemy into your hand. So David sneaks up on Saul, probably with his sword or his knife in hand. He doesn't end up killing him, but he cuts off a piece of his robe. Now we're not told what he was thinking. Whether he debated killing Saul or not, but it seems likely because it tells us that his conscience struck him. He knew that he had wrongful intent in what he was doing, even though he ended up just cutting off his robe. And so after that, he swears to his men that he can't stretch out his hand against God's anointed king. This was really David's temptation. Here he was, the one anointed to be king, and there was one who stood in his way, King Saul, and he was right there before him. And Saul was an evil and unjust king. Saul was trying to kill him. Israel would be better off if Saul were dead. Why not just strike him and be done with it? especially since God seemed to be making it so easy, bringing him right before him in that cave. And yet David realized in that cave, he knew that God had made Saul king. He was God's anointed. It was only God who could remove him. David needed to depend upon God and his timing and his way to make him king, not to take it in his own way. And so David is growing in this dependence through that. And right before our story in chapter 25, he also grows in this dependence as he has another situation. In chapter 25, we read about a time when David almost let his anger get the better of him. David and his men had been helping out a shepherd or a wealthy businessman who had other shepherds. We could rather say his name was Nabal. And he had been out with his shepherds watching over their flocks. And so he asked Nabal, can me and my men for our service to you, can we have some meat to eat? Seems like a fair request. But Nabal, he refuses, but not only refuses, he also insults David. And David loses his temper. He says, men, get your swords, we're going out, and we're killing some people tonight. And he heads out for Nabal's house. However, God intervenes. He intervenes through Nabal's wife, Abigail, to restrain David's murderous anger. And later in the story, we see God is the one who actually deals with Nabal. Nabal is struck dead later on, showing David that God will be the one to avenge. And as we read that story, David comes to this conclusion. He sees what's happened. He sees the wrong that he almost committed and what God has spared him from. And he tells Abigail in verses 32 through 33, Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, who sent you this day to meet me. Blessed be your discretion and blessed be you who have kept me this day from blood guilt and from avenging myself with my own hands. Sometimes we learn the most when we contemplate stuff that we almost did. Some action that would have made a train wreck of our lives and we thank God for his restraining providence. Thus David did. And so these are in the background of our text. And thus as we look, we see that David's sparing of Saul's life, sparing of Saul's life. It's repeated here, but it's now different. Saul hasn't just happened to come to David, happened to come to this cave where David was staying. No, here David has come to Saul and David has changed also. He's no longer struggling with whether to kill Saul or not. There's no striking of his conscience, as back in chapter 24, over whether what he's doing is right or not. David came to show Saul and to everyone else, once and for all, that he was no threat to Saul. Instead, he wants to show that he is actually Saul's most faithful and trustworthy servant. And so we see that when Abishai wants to kill Saul, David responds immediately. No, don't kill him. No one is allowed to kill God's anointed king, even if he's ungodly, but God himself. God will be the one to end Saul's life. I won't do this. We see this in verses 9 through 11. David said to Abishai, don't destroy him, for who can put out his hand against the Lord's anointed and be guiltless? And David said, as the Lord lives, the Lord will strike him, or his day will come to die, or he will go down into battle. God will be the one to bring about his death. The Lord forbid that I should put out my hand against the Lord's anointed. But then he shows to all that he's this most faithful servant of Saul. Because he takes that spear, he takes that water jug, and he goes a far distance off, and then he calls to them. We see this in verse 15 and 16. And David said to Abner, Are you not a man who's like you in Israel? Why have you not kept watch over your lord the king? for one of the people came in to destroy the king, your Lord. This thing that you have done is not good as the Lord lives. You deserve to die because you have not kept watch over your Lord, the Lord's anointed. See the king's spear and the jug of water that was at his head. Abner and really all of that army deserved to die because they had failed to protect their king. And so David rebuked them. But what they failed to do, that's what David had actually done. He was the one who was there. He was the one who protected that king when Abishai was ready to kill him. We really need to see that irony there. David protecting the Lord's anointed Saul, even though Saul is trying to kill the Lord's anointed David. And so when Saul speaks to David, when he cries out to him, David emphasizes his innocence, what he wants Saul to see. Verse 18, and David said, Why does my Lord pursue after his servant? For what have I done? What evil is on my hands? And Saul knows that he's in the wrong. He tells that, we can jump up to verse 21. He confesses that guilt. Then Saul said, I have sinned. Return, my son David, for I will no more do you harm. Because my life was precious in your eyes this day. Behold, I have acted foolishly and have made a great mistake. So we get this confession from Saul, but we've also heard this confession before. And so David doesn't entrust himself to Saul. He has heard similar words before. And he doesn't call Saul father. He called him father back in chapter 24, but now he just calls him king, even though Saul still calls him my son. There is this greater distance opening between Saul and David, This great distance of space between them, that's not just this physical divide. Saul has shown himself to be untrustworthy. Saul has shown himself as one that David cannot trust. And yet, he does depend on God. And so that's what we find. Saul says, right, return to me, but that's not what David says he'll do. We look at verse 23 and 24. What does he say to Saul? He says, I will trust in the Lord. The Lord rewards every man for his righteousness and his faithfulness. For the Lord gave you into my hand today, and I would not put my hand against the Lord's anointing. Behold, as your life is precious this day in my sight, so may my life be precious in the sight, not of you, but of the Lord. That's who I depend on. And may he deliver me out of all tribulation. David's trust in and dependence upon God, it had been shown early in his life in that battle with Goliath, but now his faith has grown in its depth, in its understanding during this time of suffering under Saul. He has learned to entrust his life, his future, his hope to God's hand and to his timing. And even Saul sees at such dependence what it will mean for David as it ends with this blessing. This is the last time they see each other and Saul, in a way, sends him away with that blessing. The end verse there, verse 25, Blessed be you, my son David. You will do many things and will succeed in them. But we can mention one last element of David its developed character that we can see in this text. One other new element that we don't see earlier, and that is his assessment of his situation. He describes this time in this, he describes what's most grievous about this time of suffering. What is it that's the worst? Is it that he has to live in the wilderness, away from the comforts of home? Is it that he has to flee, scared for his life each and every day, looking over his shoulder, seeing if Saul's behind him? Is it that Saul, this one who was a father figure, that he has turned on him or that other Israelites have turned on him? No, it's none of those things. Look with me at verses 19 and 20. David says, Now therefore let my lord the king hear the words of his servant. If it is the Lord who has stirred you up against me, may he accept an offering. But if it is men, may they be cursed before the Lord. For they have driven me out this day that I should have no share in the heritage of the Lord, saying, Go serve other gods. Now therefore let not my blood fall to the earth away from the presence of the Lord. For the king of Israel has come out to seek a single flea like one who hunts a partridge in the mountains. In the Israelite theocracy, where church and state were together, David sees and he interprets being driven from Israel as if he's being driven out of the church. He has no place in it. He's being driven out, feels as if he is no longer part of it. Men are telling him, go, find another nation. Follow their gods. Worship those false gods. And David yearns. He desires, he wants, he wants to be in the inheritance of the Lord. He wants to be in that land that God has set apart, where God has chosen to make his presence known. So here we see, as David thinks of his suffering, the worst part of that suffering is that he is, in some way, separated from God. Now, as we think of these things, I hope you've been making connections in your own mind as we go through. We said this story about David is about character. What it means that he is this man after God's own heart. It shows us what kind of king Israel needed. But it's not only Israel that needs a king. We don't just look at this account so that we can say, go and be like David. That wouldn't be the gospel. No, as we see here this character of David, we see what type of king he is. We see also the type of king we need. For the Bible tells us about David, tells us his story, this man after God's own heart, to point us forward. To point us forward to God himself becoming man. God incarnate as our king. pointing us to that greater son of David, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, who was what? The anointed, the Christ, the Messiah. And David was tempted, as we said, like Israel before, like Adam even before that, and like Jesus would be. But unlike Adam, unlike Israel, David passed that temptation. showing us what Jesus would do. Jesus would be tempted by the devil. The devil would take him and bring him and show him all the kingdoms of the world and say, bow down to me and I will give them to you. It'll be a rather easy way to bring about that goal. The devil said, take the kingdoms for himself. And Jesus refused. Instead, he submitted to God's plan, to the Father's will, even as he was praying in that garden of Gethsemane, as those drops of blood were sweating off him. And his suffering, that suffering would involve a greater separation from God than David certainly knew, as he bore his wrath on that cross for us. crying out those words of David from Psalm 22, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? We know, as we read the rest of the story, that David was not perfectly righteous. And yet, he is here shown to us as this righteous sufferer, pursued by Saul for no crime of his own, pointing us to Jesus, the truly innocent one, handed over to Pilate, to die among these. And so, dear people of God, behold your king, the one that David pointed forward to and the one David ultimately depended upon as he entrusted his life to God. In this one is the only place for hope in this world. And as we turn to Jesus in faith, We, like David, we have to learn a developed dependence. We follow David as he points us to Christ. Suffering will come. We will experience it. Suffering is shocking. It will rock you to your core. But in that day, turn to Jesus. He is the creator of all. He is the one come down to suffer for you. Depend upon him. Cry out to him, as David did. Use his psalms. And learn how suffering, as Paul said, produces endurance. Endurance produces character and character hope. For you will not find such a hope anywhere else in this whole world. Let us pray. Dear Heavenly Father, we rejoice in your word, in your truth of the gospel, in its glorious presentation of your love for us. And in this life, we ask for strength. That as we struggle, as we wonder what is going on, that it causes us to look to you, to cry out to you. Even as we bring our questions, may we bring them to you and learn in that to depend upon you, knowing that Christ came to suffer for us. And as we suffer, we participate in that. But knowing that all has been done, that our hope is secure, And so may you each and every day give us that joy in the Spirit that can only come with life in Jesus. And we pray this in his name. Amen.