1 Samuel 22:1-2 (KJV)
David therefore departed thence, and escaped to the cave Adullam: and when his brethren and all his father's house heard it, they went down thither to him.
And every one that was in distress, and every one that was in debt, and every one that was discontented, gathered themselves unto him; and he became a captain over them: and there were with him about four hundred men.
In His pronouncement against King Saul God had said,
1 Samuel 13:14 (KJV)
But now thy kingdom shall not continue: the LORD hath sought him a man after his own heart, and the LORD hath commanded him to be captain over his people, because thou hast not kept that which the LORD commanded thee.
The chapter we have before us provides the occasion of the making of that king.
After faithfully serving under King Saul for something like four years, and having suffered abuses at the hands of Saul, Saul’s anger had finally reached a point where it was no longer safe for David remain with him.
He first goes to Nob, the city of the priests, where he picks up some supplies and a weapon (he also gets spotted by an enemy)
He then goes to Achish, the king of Gath – you know, the home of Goliath whom David had killed.
His venture into Gath was short-lived though.
Achish did not trust him. David pretended to be crazy long enough to throw the Philistines off guard and escape, back into Israeli territory and the cave, Adullam.[1]
Right here I want you to turn to,
Psalms 142 and notice the phrase in the superscript…
Maschil of David; A Prayer when he was in the cave.
The word, Maschil means instruction.
This is a poem written by David and meant for use in instructing and teaching others.
Notice when it was written, “…when he was in the cave.”
Scholars believe he wrote this poem at this critical point in his life.
I think we can divided the Psalm into at least three parts:
His Supplication
Psalms 142:1-2 (KJV)
I cried unto the LORD with my voice; with my voice unto the LORD did I make my supplication.
I poured out my complaint before him; I shewed before him my trouble.
His Separation
Psalms 142:3-6 (KJV)
When my spirit was overwhelmed within me, then thou knewest my path. In the way wherein I walked have they privily laid a snare for me.
I looked on my right hand, and beheld, but there was no man that would know me: refuge failed me; no man cared for my soul.
I cried unto thee, O LORD: I said, Thou art my refuge and my portion in the land of the living.
Attend unto my cry; for I am brought very low: deliver me from my persecutors; for they are stronger than I.
His Solution
Psalms 142:7 (KJV)
Bring my soul out of prison, that I may praise thy name: the righteous shall compass me about; for thou shalt deal bountifully with me.
David was in a terrible strait.
· He could not stay with Saul
· He could not stay with the priests in Nob
· He could not stay with Achish in Gath
This was a man who had been anointed king by the true and living God.
Yet here he finds himself cut off from anybody he loved and everybody else was, apparently, and enemy.
What does he do?
He begins to pray.
In this overwhelming situation he rehearses to God, (and to himself) that:
· God knew his path and knew his trouble
· He sought refuge in the Lord and
· He asked the Lord for help
And it was at this point in his life that God give him those who were the first citizens of his kingdom.
In verse seven David calls them “the righteous” but that is not what 1 Samuel 22 calls them.[2]
Let’s return to 1 Samuel 22 where we find God assembling the kingdom of Israel under King David.[3]
Notice that first of all their came to David,
I. THE INTIMATES
1 Samuel 22:1 (KJV)
David therefore departed thence, and escaped to the cave Adullam: and when his brethren and all his father's house heard it, they went down thither to him.
This was no short visit. The Bible says in 1 Samuel 22:3-4 (KJV)
And David went thence to Mizpeh of Moab: and he said unto the king of Moab, Let my father and my mother, I pray thee, come forth, and be with you, till I know what God will do for me.
And he brought them before the king of Moab: and they dwelt with him all the while that David was in the hold.
We have here what I think is the only reference to David’s mother.
We do not know her name or anything else about her.
But, if David wasn’t safe in Israel, neither would be his parents and brothers.
Remember that David’s great grandmother, Ruth, was a Moabite. He probably thought his parents would be safer there than living on the run with him.
The king of Moab was at war with King Saul.
He likely thought that his mother and father would be safer there. David’s brother may have remained with him, among the 400.
We never hear from his parents again but after David was crowned king of all Israel he fought with the Moabites and inflicted upon them one of the harshest punishments described in the Bible.[4]
The old Jewish scholars believed it was because the Moabites had betrayed David’s trust and abused or killed his parents.
When I read 1 Samuel 22:3-4, I am reminded of John 19:26-27 (KJV)
When Jesus therefore saw his mother, and the disciple standing by, whom he loved, he saith unto his mother, Woman, behold thy son!
Then saith he to the disciple, Behold thy mother! And from that hour that disciple took her unto his own home.
In the middle of His greatest pain Jesus card for his mother.
And then there came to him
II. THE INHABITANTS
1 Samuel 22:2 (KJV)
And every one that was in distress, and every one that was in debt, and every one that was discontented, gathered themselves unto him; and he became a captain over them: and there were with him about four hundred men.
There are two things about this passage that are remarkable in my opinion:
A. The number
Personally, I would be thrilled with a congregation of four hundred people.
The average Independent Baptist Church, they tell me, is under 100.
· There are a few mega-church Independent Baptists, but not very many of them.
· There is a handful more that average in attendance between three hundred and four hundred. But most are far less.
· The greatest number of them are under 100.
Years ago I hosted an evangelist in our church who was used to preaching in those mega church settings. We had a great meeting with him that week. I learned a number of things from him that profoundly influence my thinking still today.
One thing he said is that there is “something very bad” that happens to a preacher whenever he stands before a congregation larger than 400 people.
I have now preached to congregations much larger than 400. I think it is unhealthy for the man’s ego.
But David was not a pastor.
He was a king.
And kingdoms are generally A LOT bigger than that!
B. The sort
David said that, in answer to his prayer God would surround him with the righteous.
What he got were those who were
In Distress
The word here is one that means being confinedor in a narrow place.
· What do you do when your king won’t obey God?
· What do you do when everything in you says the direction your leaders are taking you is wrong?
These were the people of God but they were being led by an administration that had abandoned the Word of God.
Their distress was a spiritual one.
They were being withheld from worshiping God according to the dictates of their own conscience. AND IT WAS DISTRESSING TO THEM.
What do you do?
In their case the answer was pretty simple.
God had provided for them a King after God’s own heart.
This was not a matter of rebelling against Saul. This was a matter of obeying God rather than men.
The world is filled with people who live is distress because they will not leave where they are to go where God is.
For these people:
· God wasn’t in the biggest thing
· God wasn’t in the richest thing
· God wasn’t in the most popular thing
God was in a small cave with a man who loved the Lord more than he loved comfort.
In Debt
Strong’s Concordance says that this word, which means to “to dun for debt”[5]is perhaps identical[6]as a word that means, “to lead astray, to delude or to seduce.”
This speaks volumes to me.
The majority of the people of this world have been deluded and led astray.
2 Corinthians 4:3-4 (KJV)
But if our gospel be hid,[our Bible says] it is hid to them that are lost:
In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.
The only cure for that sort of delusion is for a piercing light of truth. It is shocking, almost painful, when we are first confronted with it.
But afterwards it points out a clear path to the Lord.
Discontented
This word means a bitter or pained soul.
If you had been prevented from coming to the living God and pressed to walk away from God, you might also be pained in your soul.
These are not bad people.
David had it correct. God surrounded him with the righteous.
There came to him finally.
III. THE ECCLESIASTICS
1 Samuel 22:5 (KJV)
And the prophet Gad said unto David, Abide not in the hold; depart, and get thee into the land of Judah. Then David departed, and came into the forest of Hareth.
1 Samuel 22:20-21 (KJV)
And one of the sons of Ahimelech the son of Ahitub, named Abiathar, escaped, and fled after David.
And Abiathar shewed David that Saul had slain the LORD'S priests.
David had in his camp both a prophet and a priest.
· The one to proclaim the Word
· The other to minister to the Lord on behalf of the people
The pastor today is, in many respects, both the prophet and the priest.
· He preaches the Word of God and
· He ministers to the souls of people
The Bible says that every Christian has been made of Christ kings and priests.
· We serve as priests today as ambassadors of God to men
· We will serve and kings with Christ to oversee in the 1000 year reign
But I also think that, in a sense,
· Gad represents the pastor, whose job it is to minister in the Word and in Prayer and
· Abiathar represents the deacon, whose job it is to minister to the needs of the people of God in the church.
Conclusion
I want to finish the message this morning by reading to you once again Psalms 142:1-7 (KJV)
I cried unto the LORD with my voice; with my voice unto the LORD did I make my supplication.
I poured out my complaint before him; I shewed before him my trouble.
When my spirit was overwhelmed within me, then thou knewest my path. In the way wherein I walked have they privily laid a snare for me.
I looked on my right hand, and beheld, but there was no man that would know me: refuge failed me; no man cared for my soul.
I cried unto thee, O LORD: I said, Thou art my refuge and my portion in the land of the living.
Attend unto my cry; for I am brought very low: deliver me from my persecutors; for they are stronger than I.
Bring my soul out of prison, that I may praise thy name: the righteous shall compass me about; for thou shalt deal bountifully with me.
When we are after the heart of God we can expect opposition, difficulties and trouble.
But you don’t want to give up on God’s heart. What you do is:
· Pray and bring your supplications to God
· Look and be real about the difference between yourself and the world and then
· Praise God’s name and trust him to supply right answers for your needs
[1]1 Samuel 22:1
[2]I am of the understanding that Samuel wrote the first 24 chapters of First Samuel and that the rest of First Samuel and Second Samuel were written by the prophets Nathan and Gad and perhaps some of it by David himself. 1 Chronicles 29:29 (KJV)
Now the acts of David the king, first and last, behold, they are written in the book of Samuel the seer, and in the book of Nathan the prophet, and in the book of Gad the seer,
[3]I am reminded of Zechariah 4:10 (KJV)
For who hath despised the day of small things? for they shall rejoice, and shall see the plummet in the hand of Zerubbabel with those seven; they are the eyes of the LORD, which run to and fro through the whole earth.
[4]2 Samuel 8:2 (KJV)
And he smote Moab, and measured them with a line, casting them down to the ground; even with two lines measured he to put to death, and with one full line to keep alive. And so the Moabites became David's servants, and brought gifts.
[5]I might use the word “hound.” To make repeated and insistent demands to pay a loan.
[6]H5377 and H5378 They are both spelled in English, nasha. The differences, if any, which might exist in the Hebrew spellings, are imperceptible to me.
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