I will bless the Lord at all times. His praise shall continually be in my mouth. My soul shall make its boast in the Lord. The humble shall hear it and be glad. O magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt His name together. I sought the Lord and He heard me and delivered me from all my fears. (vs. 1-4)
Know the story behind this psalm of David's. It is a crazy one! Literally.
David is being pursued by Saul, who wants to kill him because Saul is jealous of David and does not want him to become king in his place. So David runs to Ahimelech, the priest, where David is given holy bread to eat and the sword of Goliath to fight with. Doeg, the Edomite, Saul's head shepherd, gets wind of David's whereabouts, forcing David to flee the country.
David went to Gath. The servants of the king there, Achish, recognized him and went to their king. "Isn't that David, the king of the land? Isn't he the one everyone sings about having killed tens of thousands while Saul killed his thousands?"
Petrified, scared silly, David decided to act like a madman. Would that be your first disguise? To look like you had lost your mind? Oh, it was convincing. David stooped to dribbling saliva into his beard, pretended not to know what he was saying, scribbled nonsense on the doors of the king's gate - completely humiliated himself in the king's presence.
Achish was impressed, but not in a good way. "Why did you bring this crazy man to me? Aren't there enough madmen that you have to bring this one into my home?" With the wave of the king's hand, David escaped his enemy and hurried away to hide in a cave in Adullam.
Funny, though. When everyone heard that he was back, they all came to David's cave. Not only his family, but many who were malcontents, in debt or in distress. In all, about four hundred men, who understood how desperate one would have to be to slobber like a madman and speak in jumbled jargon in order to escape all that bound them. They became known as David and his mighty men.
So, David sits down to write a song to His God for salvation from Achish and Saul. No wonder he begins with: "I will bless the Lord at all times. His praise shall continually be in my mouth." No more speaking like a crazy man. Words of praise and rejoicing. David had been saved from a petrifying situation. One king after him and another before him - neither of them with kindly intentions toward this would-be king, David. And, of course, when those who had also been oppressed - the humble - heard of his escape, however ignominious it was, they were so excited that they did come to him. Misfit to misfit. A mighty group of outcasts who bonded together over their common fears and misery.
Did God tell David to salivate and rage like a madman? The Bible doesn't say. David was on the run without a plan and the only protection he had was Goliath's sword, which wasn't gonna do much good in his situation in Gath. Here is what I think. David thought up the plan on the spur of the moment. Act crazy. See if they buy it. Humiliating, yes, but it just might work. Why did it work? Because God, horrified as He might have been at the drooling David, king of Israel, blessed the insane idea. Used it to free his child from danger. Further used this silly plan to gain David an army of people that no one else wanted. Brave men with nothing else to lose. Brilliant.
I have done things in my own flesh that have been crazy, too. I might as well have dribbled spit and spoken gibberish. But God, only because of His great love and desire to rescue me, took my ignorance and actually made a plan out of it. Worked around my humanity to inspire it with His glory. Took a mess and mopped it up, leaving beauty instead. No wonder David sings, "O magnify the Lord with me! He delivered me from all my fears!"
Know the story behind this psalm of David's. It is a crazy one! Literally.
David is being pursued by Saul, who wants to kill him because Saul is jealous of David and does not want him to become king in his place. So David runs to Ahimelech, the priest, where David is given holy bread to eat and the sword of Goliath to fight with. Doeg, the Edomite, Saul's head shepherd, gets wind of David's whereabouts, forcing David to flee the country.
David went to Gath. The servants of the king there, Achish, recognized him and went to their king. "Isn't that David, the king of the land? Isn't he the one everyone sings about having killed tens of thousands while Saul killed his thousands?"
Petrified, scared silly, David decided to act like a madman. Would that be your first disguise? To look like you had lost your mind? Oh, it was convincing. David stooped to dribbling saliva into his beard, pretended not to know what he was saying, scribbled nonsense on the doors of the king's gate - completely humiliated himself in the king's presence.
Achish was impressed, but not in a good way. "Why did you bring this crazy man to me? Aren't there enough madmen that you have to bring this one into my home?" With the wave of the king's hand, David escaped his enemy and hurried away to hide in a cave in Adullam.
Funny, though. When everyone heard that he was back, they all came to David's cave. Not only his family, but many who were malcontents, in debt or in distress. In all, about four hundred men, who understood how desperate one would have to be to slobber like a madman and speak in jumbled jargon in order to escape all that bound them. They became known as David and his mighty men.
So, David sits down to write a song to His God for salvation from Achish and Saul. No wonder he begins with: "I will bless the Lord at all times. His praise shall continually be in my mouth." No more speaking like a crazy man. Words of praise and rejoicing. David had been saved from a petrifying situation. One king after him and another before him - neither of them with kindly intentions toward this would-be king, David. And, of course, when those who had also been oppressed - the humble - heard of his escape, however ignominious it was, they were so excited that they did come to him. Misfit to misfit. A mighty group of outcasts who bonded together over their common fears and misery.
Did God tell David to salivate and rage like a madman? The Bible doesn't say. David was on the run without a plan and the only protection he had was Goliath's sword, which wasn't gonna do much good in his situation in Gath. Here is what I think. David thought up the plan on the spur of the moment. Act crazy. See if they buy it. Humiliating, yes, but it just might work. Why did it work? Because God, horrified as He might have been at the drooling David, king of Israel, blessed the insane idea. Used it to free his child from danger. Further used this silly plan to gain David an army of people that no one else wanted. Brave men with nothing else to lose. Brilliant.
I have done things in my own flesh that have been crazy, too. I might as well have dribbled spit and spoken gibberish. But God, only because of His great love and desire to rescue me, took my ignorance and actually made a plan out of it. Worked around my humanity to inspire it with His glory. Took a mess and mopped it up, leaving beauty instead. No wonder David sings, "O magnify the Lord with me! He delivered me from all my fears!"
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