10th April 2026

10th April 2026


Pray (ACts)


Read (1 Samuel 23:1-14 focus v14)


Message (Alan Burke)


Today we’re just going to focus on one verse, v14. Remember what is going on: David had intervened to save the people of Keilah from the Philistines. If Saul knew about their plight, he didn’t do anything about it. David, though, did; that was only after he inquired of the LORD before he went out against the Philistines, and the LORD told him to go, and he did. Through David, by the LORD’s leading, the people of Keilah were saved. The only thing was that because of it, Saul became aware of where David was, and he saw it as a God-given opportunity to finally put an end to David. He called up all his forces; remember, David had four hundred men when he entered Keilah, who were a motley crew of those who were in distress or in debt or discontented (1 Sa 22:2). He left Keilah with six hundred men, but Saul had three thousand; that’s a five-to-one advantage. Again, David inquired of the LORD, and it led him to leave Keilah and move from place to place. 


When Saul heard that David had escaped from Keilah, he searched for David, and it is the words “but God did not give David into his hands” that should stick out to us. David faced insurmountable odds against Saul, and the Lord saved David from the hand of Saul. In all that was unfolding, the Lord was sovereignly in control of all that was unfolding; David’s destiny was in the hands of the Lord. They had been led by the LORD himself.  Saul was king, but he wasn’t fit to be king; consumed by paranoia and hatred for David, he would have been unable to see that David was being protected by the LORD, that the LORD was at work even in the midst of all that was unfolding, that he was sovereignly directing all. For David, he had looked to the LORD, he had trusted in the word of the LORD, he had been saved by the LORD who was sovereignly at work in the midst of it all, but his life was far from rosy. He was a hunted man by a king who was consumed by paranoia and hatred. While David was the LORD’s anointed, he was king elect, yet he faced much hardship; do not miss this. 


Jesus taught his disciples, “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you (Jn 15:18-19). David was a man of faith in the LORD through his promised Christ, and he faced anything but a life of ease. The Lord who numbers the days could have returned Saul to dust, but he didn’t, and through it all, David grew and grew in his relationship with the LORD, seeing that he needed to rely on him above all, inquiring of him in all that he faced. David was saved from Saul by the sovereign LORD, but David was saved for all eternity through his greater son. You know we can look at David, we can hold him up in this passage as an example, but the message of scripture and this passage is not to look to David; David made a right mess of many things. We must look to Christ Jesus, David’s greater son. The one in whom we are saved, not from the hands of Saul but from death and the pains of hell. For all who trust in the Christ, the word incarnate, they will know the LORD’s salvation.


Pray (acTS)


Sing


WSC
Q 38 What benefits do believers receive from Christ at the resurrection?
A. At the resurrection, believers, being raised up to glory, shall be openly acknowledged and acquitted in the day of judgment, and made perfectly blessed in the full enjoying of God to all eternity.