Dave's Diary

Daily Readings: 1 Samuel 21 and Psalm 67

It is easy to miss the spiritual significance of this encounter between David and Ahimelech at the tabernacle. We fully understand the strain and anxiety David was labouring under. We do not stand in judgment of him, because we know that we might have done the same in his shoes. But we do need to identify that when David lied to Ahimelech and embelished his story to convince the priest to give him consecrated bread to use for his own hunger, David was not acting as a “man after God’s own heart”. He had fallen to the temptation of trusting in worldly ways for his safety and provision, rather than in God.

Nowhere is this clearer than in his acceptance of Goliath’s sword. Rather than taking the sword, perhaps he should have asked Ahimelech to pray for his faith to be strengthened. After all, he had slain Goliath with a sling and stone because of his faith in Almighty God. Faith would have served him far better in this instance too.

From the tabernacle, David’s path led to Gath (Goliath’s home town) where he seemed to think he would find refuge but was captured by the Philistines. In Psalm 56 (which he wrote during his captivity there) David recorded how he turned back to God in faith once more and boldly declared in v.3-4, “When I am afraid, I put my trust in you. In God, whose word I praise – in God I trust and am not afraid. What can mere mortals do to me?” Out of that place of trust, God gave David the “crazy” plan of “acting crazy” which ultimately led to his deliverance. Often, God’s craziest-seeming plan is wiser than the best laid plans of humanity.

Heavenly Father, help me to trust in You and not in the ways of the world for my safety, provision and security, even when Your ways seem crazy to everyone around me. Amen.