Desperado

 

For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.  --1 Corinthians 1:18

 Many stories in the Old Testament read like a Hollywood action movie script.  One such story is found in 1 Samuel chapters 21 and 22.  Let me set the scene for you.

Young David works in the court of King Saul, but Saul is very jealous of him.  Saul vows to kill David.  Saul's son, Jonathan, warns David of his father's intentions.  David escapes with only the clothes on his back.  He runs to an outpost in a village called Nob and meets the priest there.  The priest comes to meet David, but is afraid because David is travelling alone--no one in the king's court would travel without an army or an entourage of some kind.

David lies to the priest, saying that the king has sent him on a secret mission, but he has no supplies--no food, no weapons.  He asks the priest for bread, and the priest gives him the bread off the altar.  David also asks for a weapon of some kind, for he has no spear or sword of his own with which to defend himself.  The priest probably suspects that something is up.  He says the only weapon he has is the sword from Goliath, whom David had killed in battle (and the most likely reason that Saul is jealous of him).  One of those going in and out of the place of worship there is a man named Doeg, who is an ally of Saul.

David flees to the country of Gath, where Goliath was from.  He seeks asylum from the king of Gath, but someone in the king's court recognizes David.  "Isn't this David who works for the king of Israel?" he asks. "In Israel they sing, 'Saul has killed his thousands, but David his ten thousands'."  They fear that David has come with an advance army to make war against Gath and defeat them, making the nation a vassal state of Israel.

David sees that they aren't going to help him, and that fleeing there was probably a mistake.  He can't sneak away, so he starts drooling, and making marks on the doors of the king's gate, and acting all crazy.  The king of Gath sees his behavior, does not believe he is a military threat, but doesn't want to welcome him into the court or grant him asylum, either.  "Don't I have enough madmen around me?" he asks.  "Why have you brought this madman into my presence? Get him out of here."

So David escapes from there and makes camp in a cave near a region called Adullam.  When word gets out, David's brothers and all his father's house come to meet him there (remember they were the ones who had made fun of David when he arrived at the battlefield where Goliath had threatened Saul's army).  Not only did David's family show up there at the cave, but so did 400 other desperate men and women.  "Everyone who was in distress, and everyone who was in debt, and everyone who was bitter in soul, gathered to him."  Like Robin Hood, David attracted those who had been disenfranchised by the king.

Meanwhile Saul get's word that David has escaped.  He gathers his people around and demands intelligence from them. Doeg says that he saw David with the priest at Nob.  Saul sends people to kill the priest, and David sends his mother and father to Moab to be safe.

Thrilling couple of scenes, right?  Would work right into an action film; with the right director and cast, it would make people sit on the edge of their seat.  So how does this fit in with our current study of the Psalms?  I'll tell you.  Psalm 34 has a preamble that cites this passage, indicating that David wrote it with these events in mind.  In fact, Psalm 34 may have been a song composed right there in the cave off Adullam, and sung to the 400 desperate followers to teach them of the Providence of God.  The psalm was written as an alphabet acrostic, meaning that each verse starts with a different letter of the Hebrew alphabet, and was presented in alphabetical order.  This was likely done so that they could remember the lessons more easily.

Desperate People Need a Savior

Let's look at the first lesson David gave to the people.

I sought the Lord, and He answered me and delivered me from all my fears.  Those who look to Him are radiant, and their faces shall never be ashamed.  This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles.  The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear Him, and delivers them.  Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good!  Blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him.  Oh, fear the Lord, you His saints, for those who fear Him have no lack.  The young lions suffer want and hunger; but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing.  --Psalm 34:1-10

Winston Churchill once said, "History is written by the victors."  Indeed, many of history's great leaders wrote glowing accounts of all their victories and all their accomplishments.  But Solomon wrote, "Unless the Lord builds the house, the builders labor in vain.  Unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchmen stand guard in vain." (Psalm 127).  We all know the poem Ozymandias where Shelley wrote, "...And on that pedestal, these words appear:/ 'My name is Ozymandias, King of kings;/ look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!'/  Nothing beside remains.  Round the decay/ of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare/ the lone and level sands stretch far away."

David did not magnify himself.  He did not share the story of how he fled from Saul, and escaped the king of Gath by relying on his wits and quick assessment of the situation.  Instead he magnifies the Lord, giving Him glory.  The people fled to David because they thought that he could save them from their situation.  David reminds them that God is their refuge.  David compares himself to a young lion, who was left hungry and in want.  In his desperation, he cried out to God, and God delivered them.  The people who were so desperate that they fled King Saul and his house to meet David in a cave in the wilderness also need to cry out to God, for He alone can save them.

Desperate People Need to Repent

Let's look at David's next lesson to the desperados in that cave.

Come, O children, listen to me; I will teach you the fear of the Lord.  What man is there who desires life and loves many days, that he may see good?  Keep your tongues from evil and your lips from speaking deceit.  Turn away from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it.  The eyes of the Lord are toward the righteous and his ears toward their cry.  The face of the Lord is against those who do evil, to cut off the memory of them from the earth.  When the righteous cry for help, the Lord hears and delivers them out of all their troubles.  The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit.  --Psalm 34:11-18

Proverbs 9:10 says, "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom."  David imparts wisdom borne of experience when he shares these words to the people.  We all desire a long, fulfilling life; we all want good for ourselves and our family; we all want peace and prosperity.  To do that, we must repent; we must turn from evil and do good.  Evil men will be cut off, but the Lord gives grace to the humble.

Jesus told a parable about a pretty desperate fellow in Luke 15:17-24.  You remember the story of the Prodigal Son.  This guy found himself in dire straights, and he repented.  He went from feeding pigs, and being so hungry that he was starting to eye the scraps and husks in the pig's trough, to deciding to go to his father and humbly ask for a position as a household servant.  You remember the father's reaction?  When he saw the son afar off, he ran to greet him.  The father restored him as a son and an heir, and clothed him with a new robe and put new sandals on his feet.  The father threw a banquet in honor of the son who was so desperate that he came home humbled.  This is the idea of "The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit."

Desperate People Need to Remain Faithful

David was not promising a panacea.  Good people see their fair share of evil.  Let's look:

Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all.  He keeps all his bones; not one of them is broken.  Affliction will slay the wicked, and those who hate the righteous will be condemned.  The Lord redeems the life of His servants; none of those who take refuge in Him will be condemned.  --Psalm 34:19-22

Taken to its logical conclusion, we might miss the point of David's lesson.  If bad people get bad things and good people get good things, then all we have to do is be good and we will get good things always, right?  We all know better than that.  Good people will see sickness and sorrow and sadness.  That's life.  The good news is that we have a Savior who will ultimately come through for us.

Jesus is our Savior.  He remained faithful unto death.  We must look to Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, "who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.  Consider Him who endured such opposition from sinful men, that you will not grow weary and lose heart." (Hebrews 12:2).  Jesus is our model and our guide, not David, not any man.

I want to quickly point out one thing about this passage, when it mentions not one of his bones will be broken.  This is a Messianic verse, prophesying how Jesus is our Passover Lamb.  You may recall that in Exodus, when God gave Moses instructions on preparing the Passover, the people were to prepare unleavened bread and roast the lamb whole.  They were specifically instructed not to break any of the lamb's bones.  When Jesus was crucified, the Roman guard was instructed to break the legs of the men on the crosses that day, to speed along their deaths.  When the guard came to Jesus, he saw that Jesus was already dead--Jesus did not need to have His legs broken, because He was not clinging desperately to life.  He gave up His life willingly so that we might be saved.

Desperate men need Jesus.  I hope you will forgive the image of the movie poster above--no, Antonio Banderas is not a messianic figure.  It just reminded me that David was a desperado; he was a warrior, and had weapons to use, but he also had a musical instrument.  David's instrument was a harp, not a guitar, but you get the point.  David composed and sang songs of desperation.  And this reminded me of the Eagles hit song written by Done Henley and Glen Frey.

Desperado, why don't you come to your senses?
You've been out ridin' fences for so long now
Oh, you're a hard one
I know that you got your reasons
These things that are pleasin' you
Can hurt you somehow

Don't you draw the queen of diamonds, boy She'll beat you if she's able
You know the queen of hearts is always your best bet
Now it seems to me, some fine things
Have been laid upon your table
But you only want the ones that you can't get

Desperado, oh, you ain't gettin' no younger
Your pain and your hunger, they're drivin' you home
And freedom, oh freedom well, that's just some people talkin'
Your prison is walking through this world all alone

Don't your feet get cold in the winter time?
The sky won't snow and the sun won't shine
It's hard to tell the night time from the day
You're losin' all your highs and lows
Ain't it funny how the feeling goes away?

Desperado, why don't you come to your senses?
Come down from your fences, open the gate
It may be rainin', but there's a rainbow above you
You better let somebody love you
(Let somebody love you)
You better let somebody love you before it's too late

David the desperado sought shelter from those who would hurt him; instead of kingly riches he sought the heart of God.  The desperate men and women who joined him in that cave were motivated by their pain and hunger.  David's song to them was that God could turn their rain into a rainbow if they would let Him love them.