6th May 2026

6th May 2026


Pray (ACts)


Read (1 Samuel 26 focus v5-16)


Message (Alan Burke)


The fight-or-flight response is a physiological reaction to perceived threats, preparing the body to either confront or flee danger. It involves the sympathetic nervous system activating changes like increased heart rate and adrenaline release. For David, the flight-or-flight response would have been in overdrive, yet he stays even with the arrival of Saul and his army. David takes a course of action that seems like utter madness. He chooses to go on a covert operation. This is like something that you’d have heard the SAS, Special Air Service, get up to, heading into the enemy camp, against insurmountable odds, something that you need to have a special kind of courage for, knowing that there is a chance you’re not going to make it back alive. But David trusted in the LORD in all that he faced, and here we see that David trusted in the LORD and his ways. 


They make it to Saul at the centre of the camp, surrounded by his three thousand men, and there they stand over him, with his spear stuck in the ground near his head, lying sleeping; his life was once more in the hands of David. While it seems impossible, verse 12 helps us to see that this was the LORD who had caused them to fall into a deep sleep. Even without this insight, all of this leads Abishai, just like the men in the cave at En Gedi, to understand that what was taking place was the Lord’s doing. Once more, the Lord had delivered Saul into his hands, and just like the men in the cave, Abishai makes it clear to David what he thinks should be done: that they should put an end to Saul. 


But David knew that the LORD’s anointed were not to be harmed in spite of their sin (See Genesis 20:6–7, 66:11, 1 Chronicles 16:22; Psalm 105:15). David understood this; while he had the opportunity to kill Saul where he slept, he knew that it was not for him to decide. It was the LORD, and after Nabal, he had been reminded of the LORD’s sovereignty in life and death, how the LORD was in control. After what had happened with Nabal, David knew this to be true: that it was in the LORD’s timing and according to his way that the LORD would act. He could have brought the end to Saul’s reign, but he knew that that was the LORD to do. He was trusting in the LORD and his ways. David’s ability to trust God with his life was one of the dominant characteristics of David’s life; sometimes it is easier to try to help God make things happen rather than trust his timetable; David showed grace, he had grown in grace, and he showed his faith in the LORD. 


David and Abishai made it in and they made it out, heading to higher ground; David then with a piercing cry in the night, David shouts across “aren’t you going to answer?” (14). They had come hunting for David, and they had themselves been found by David. He could have killed their king if he had desired, but he had effortlessly pilfered their camp. And what is clear above all is that Saul’s power is gone. Nothing could keep David from obtaining the kingdom, and this was evident to all. The LORD God is the one who brings encouragement. He did it too for David. He does it for us. For his servants in the midst of discouragement, he gives some plain token, some small evidence that he is still God and that he does not forget those who are his. We needn’t go around looking for royal spears or a jar of water for encouragement. 


The Lord knows what we need and when we need it and will provide encouragement to us, helping us even though we may not even know it or understand that that is what He is doing. David had trusted in the LORD. He trusted Him with what he faced, trusted in His way, and he trusted in His deliverance. David understood that in a temporal sense, but he also understood it in an eternal sense, that he would be delivered from death itself. For that is why Jesus came. Since the children have flesh and blood, Jesus too shared in our humanity so that by His death, He might destroy Him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil— and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death (Heb 2:14–15).


Pray (acTS)


Sing


WSC
Q60 How is the Sabbath to be sanctified?
A. The Sabbath is to be sanctified by a holy resting all that day, even from such worldly employments and recreations as are lawful on other days; and spending the whole time in the public and private exercises of God’s worship, except so much as is to be taken up in the works of necessity and mercy.
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