8th May 2026

8th May 2026


Pray (ACts)


Read (1 Samuel 26 focus 17-25)


Message (Alan Burke)


At Youth Fellowship a couple of weeks ago, I asked those there to write down five things, five of the most important things in their lives, and the answers were, well, they were some intriguing and some hilarious, but they took them quite seriously. If you were to make a list, what would be on it? Would there be a pig? That was one of the answers at Youth Fellowship. What about a tractor, books, football? Those were just some of the answers, and surprisingly enough, one of the adults in the room didn’t put his wife or his children on the list, which everyone was aghast at. What are your five things? You don’t need to list them for me in the comment section, yet if we did collate a list of random people in the street, I’d say it would be hugely varied. Family, friends, possessions would all be near the top; maybe if people were honest, there would be some sinful behaviours that would be listed, but what would be on yours? 


We come to the end of this passage where, to an extent, history has repeated itself and this interaction between David and Saul. Saul awoke from his slumber, and as he recovered his wits, he was the first to recognise the voice of David. Once more, Saul, just like in chapter 24, calls David his son as he was reminding him of the injustices he had caused by his hand. Once more, David asks what he has done to deserve this. He wanted to know; for David, he understood that either the Lord had stirred up Saul in judgment against David or more likely that Saul had heard the voices of his advisors, he had listened to the world, and the sin that had gotten its claws into Saul. 


But even if there is the remotest possibility that David is at fault, he wants to know; he wants to know if this is the LORD who has brought this upon him to help him. Look at v19 and to what David says: “…If the LORD has incited you against me, then may he accept an offering. If, however, men have done it, may they be cursed before the LORD! They have now driven me from my share in the LORD’s inheritance and have said, ‘Go, serve other gods.’” What is breaking David’s heart in all that has happened is not that he has been separated from his family; he is a hunted man on the run, that he’s no place to call home, which would likely break our hearts; it is that David has been driven from the worship of the LORD, his share in the LORD’s inheritance. They have driven him away from Jerusalem. Yes, David knew that the LORD is omnipresent; he, through the Spirits leading, penned Psalm 139 where he said: 7 Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? 8 If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there (Ps 139:7–9). So why is he cut up then? Well, it is that he cannot join in the worship of the LORD with his people; he cannot come together with the saints. 


What was on your list? That night at Youth Fellowship, I was encouraged by how many of those young people had put worship before anything else, and because of that, I asked them to take the list from five down to two, and some of them even left family off the list but kept worship. Oh, how I pray, and you should pray that that remains the same for them and they walk with the LORD all the days of their lives. But what about you? Does it give you a second thought when you can’t meet with the people of God, when you can’t come together to worship? Sadly, it doesn’t take being hunted by an enemy; all it takes is sport on a Sunday, or the summer holidays, or some other more entertaining option to keep us from the worship of the Lord. And you know it is what you need: the ordinary means of grace— the word read, preached, prayer, and the sacraments— that is what God has given us, and David was distraught that he couldn’t join with the people to worship the LORD, are you? Paul in Hebrews warns: “ Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching (Heb 10:24–25).” Meeting together is something I need, and you need; we neglect it at our peril. 


Pray (acTS)


Sing


WSC
Q62 What are the reasons annexed to the fourth commandment?
A. The reasons annexed to the fourth commandment are, God’s allowing us six days of the week for our own employments, his challenging a special propriety in the seventh, his own example, and his blessing the Sabbath day.