"And David was greatly distressed; for the people spoke of stoning him, because the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his sons and daughters but David encouraged himself in the LORD his God." I Sam. 30:6
David was reaping the harvest of his sinful relationship with Achish. God had just providentially spared him the horror of fighting against his own nation, Israel with these heathen Philistines (read chapter 29), but now it was time for a wake up call. It's sad that God must bring us to a place like this to cause us to turn to Him, but what grace it is that He does so. In our text, David and his men had returned to Ziklag only to find their homes burned and their loved ones taken captive. If this wasn't enough grief for David, the people, now blaming him, are talking of killng him.
I've had some bad days in my life, but I cannot even approach this! There are times in this life when there seems to be no hope and no way out. Believers do not float through life with their hands humbly folded and a religious smile on their faces. David was "greatly distressed" but still was enabled by his gracious God to encourage himself in the Sovereign One to Whom this trial was a trifle. God was simply using this to bring His precious child to His loving side. Therefore thou deliveredst them into the hand of their enemies, who vexed them: and in the time of their trouble, when they cried unto thee, thou heardest them from heaven; Neh 9:27.
Even while David and the people "lifted up their voice and wept, until they had no more power to weep" (vs.4), God had already purposed and was arranging the events necessary to restore unto them all their losses. When we are at our rope's end, if we are God's child, we are as much in His tender care as when we are on easy street. Our King has all things under His sovereign control, doeth all things well and loves us in Christ, as much as He loves Himself. No wonder David could say by real experience, "the Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?" Ps. 107:19
Does this encourage you?
