Leaning On The Everlasting Arms
For
today’s blog I am going to open us with a set of lyrics. The song is
“Leaning on the Everlasting Arms:”
VERSE 1:
What a
fellowship, what a joy divine,
Leaning on
the everlasting arms;
What a
blessedness, what a peace is mine,
Leaning on
the everlasting arms.
(Refrain)
REFRAIN:
Leaning, leaning,
Safe and secure from all
alarms;
Leaning, leaning,
Leaning on the
everlasting arms.
VERSE 2:
O how
sweet to walk in this pilgrim way,
Leaning on
the everlasting arms;
O how
bright the path grows from day to day,
Leaning on
the everlasting arms.
(Refrain)
VERSE 3:
What have
I to dread, what have I to fear,
Leaning on
the everlasting arms?
I have
blessed peace with my Lord so near,
Leaning on
the everlasting arms.
(Refrain)*
David Among the Philistines
Let’s look
at the words of this song compared to David’s thought process here. By
now you should realize that as long as we will be studying David we will be
constantly flipping between times of praise for David’s good choices and times
of dismay at his bad choices. This is what makes David such an
interesting and important Bible character. David – like us – always seems
to struggle with staying on the path of righteousness for any great length of
time.
This
chapter opens with David saying “Now I shall perish at the hand of Saul.”
Um, hello? It’s not going to happen, David! God has anointed you king of Israel!
Yes, it is
really easy for me to say that from my hindsight perspective of 3,000+ years!
But as easy as it is for me to say that, there is a lesson here. As we
learned yesterday when we looked at Saul towards the end of the blog, poor
choices always begin with human thoughts and human logic. Good choices
happen when we are aligned with God’s will. David is convinced in his
human logic that he will die in Israel. He may not say it in words, but
his actions tell us that he is convinced that God cannot save him in
Israel. So he takes matters into his own hand and goes among the
Philistines.
Now, what
does David do when he gets there? The first thing that David does is get
the king of Gath to give him Ziklag. Now not only is David living among
Philistines, he is leading a town full of them! David’s lack of trust in
God puts him not just among the Philistines but in a position of
authority. Now he can’t hide himself, he must lead them and honor their
expectations and their ways.
Of course,
look at what else this gets David. In order to provide for all of his
men, David has to go out and raid other towns. What is David doing when
he does this? David is killing every person alive that he finds on these
raids. He has to kill everyone so that nobody among the Philistines will
be able to figure out that it is David who is responsible for these acts.
Now David is not only living among the Philistines and acting like a
Philistine, he is also lying, stealing, and killing innocent people while doing
it!
Some
people will want to argue that these were Canaanites and they deserved
it. Some may want to argue that had they turned to the Lord and trusted
in his ways then David wouldn’t be attacking them. But does God give us
carte blanche when interacting with “Gentiles?” Does God tell us that we
can treat harshly those people who don’t believe in Him as their God?
Does God tell us that we can steal, murder, and lie to people so long as they
aren’t a believer in God? No. I’m pretty sure that all over the
Bible we are told to do things like love our enemies, treat the sojourner in
our midst with hospitality, and in kindness win over to God the hearts of those
who don’t believe in God.
Oh, how
David has fallen. He has fallen because he has learned to lean on his own
arms rather than the everlasting arms of God. What is David missing out
on by leaning on his own strength? Well, the song tells us that he is
missing: joy, fellowship, love, peace, blessedness, a bright daily path, and a
freedom from fear. I think it is fair to say that the David we see in 1
Samuel 27 is missing all of these things from his life.
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*Copyright Information:
Text: Elisha A. Hoffman
Tune: SHOWALTER
Meter: 10 9 10 9 with Refrain
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