1 SAMUEL 30:6
But David encouraged himself in the Lord his God.
This passage finds David in the throes of great distress and with a troubled heart. Allow me in a few short words, to paint a word picture of what caused this condition. David was relentlessly hunted by Saul everywhere he went, with his life being in danger at all times. While David was away from camp, the Amalekites came, burnt and destroyed it and took captive the wives and women in the camp. This caused a general discontent among Davids followers, and a mutiny set in among the people of the camp. In this setting we find David’s people, his own friends, talking about stoning him. Through all of this, David encouraged himself in the Lord, his God.
He encouraged himself, because he had no one to encourage him. There was talk of stoning him. He was tried of the endless chase on his life. Where could he go, to whom could he talk?
Have you been there? Have you been to this emotional state that David found himself in? Have you had times where you felt it was you alone against mounting odds? I think we all have. If not, believe me, one day it will come to you.
The observation I make upon this is a relationship with God, and the consideration of what is in God, as Lord of promise and peace, as a sufficient encouragement toward us, and all that we need, when mounting pressures of life become unbearable.
The people of God, through ages at one time or another, have been faced with poor conditions, and suffered with many afflictions, temporal and spiritual. But I want you to consider this if you will; this suffering is favor bestowed upon us, that we shall trust, and be given grace to trust, and do indeed trust in the name of the Lord their God.
With this thought in mind, we now understand why the book of James reads:
My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations;
Canadian preacher, theologian, author A.B. Simpson once said:
The battle does us good. The conflict educates us, strengthens us, establishes us. It is necessary that we be grounded and settled and finally approved and rewarded. One of the best results of temptation is that it shows us what is in our hearts. Until temptation comes, we feel strong and self-confident; but when the keen edge of the adversary's weapons have pierced our souls, we have more sympathy with others and less confidence in our own self-sufficiency. We are humiliated and broken at His feet, poor and helpless. This is the best thing that can happen to us. Temptation exercises our faith and teaches us to pray. It puts us under fire and compels us to exercise our weapons and prove their potency. It shows us the resources of Christ and the preciousness of the promises of God. It teaches us the reality of the Holy Spirit and compels us to walk closely with Him and hide continually behind His strength and all-sufficiency. Every victory gives us new confidence in our victorious Leader and new courage for the next onset of the foe, so that we become not only victor, but more than conquerors, taking the strength of our defeated foes and gathering precious spoil from each new battlefield.
The overall goal then should be clear. God allows hardships and even brings hardships to mold us into the person we should be. Those that have played football can easily relate to this. I hated football practice when going though it, but I loved it when game time came, because our coach had made sure we were ready to play the big games through those hard practices.
Are you teachable? Are you learning as you live life or are you just passing though willing to make the same mistakes again? Do you fight this molding by God or do you work though it by submitting your will to God as He sees fit to use you?
There are things in God, that are an encouragement to his people in the worst of times, that they may through the strength of divine grace, as David did, encourage themselves in the Lord their God.
The mercy, grace, and love of our heavenly Father, is just as He proclaims, “the Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, forgiving iniquity, transgression and sin” (Ex. 34:6, 7). Upon this declaration of grace, we all may say as David, “Gracious is the Lord, and righteous; yea, our God is merciful” (Ps. 116:5).
God indeed is full of grace, and gives love and mercy beyond what we can understand. This gives relief to the people of God, when they become aware of their condition. This relieves them in their times of trouble, namely in the declaration of the grace, mercy, and love of God. Just as we face the ugliness of our sin, and see nothing but its vileness, the just demerits of our sins, and timely consequences of them, we also know and understand that we have a God and King that is gracious and merciful and does indeed forgive. We then are encouraged to go and throw ourselves upon His grace and mercy, and say, as the publican did, God be merciful to me a sinner. It is a view of this that encourages the nonbeliever in their first distress of their sin filled soul, to go to God, and throw their whole being upon his mercy.
God is full of mercy, grace, love, kindness and tenderness to his people at all times. This is an encouragement to them to trust in him. In view of this, we may do as David did, encourage ourselves in the Lord our God. In as much as this mercy, grace and love will always continue the same, this should bring much comfort to our souls. The mercy of God is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him. His love to his people is an everlasting love. His loving-kindness never departs from them. Nor can anything separate them from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus their Lord.
We can then as believers be in what ever trouble and distress there can be, if we can but be directed and are enabled to look unto the grace and mercy of God, it will cause us relief in the worst of times.
We can turn to God because God has the power and ability to fulfill all the promises which he has made unto his people. These promises are many, exceeding great and precious. God is of such power, that he is able to supply all our needs, according to his riches in glory, by Christ Jesus, he is able to support them under their greatest trials, and he has promised to do it. He has said, "Fear not, I am with thee; be not dismayed, I am thy God; I will help thee; I will strengthen thee; yea, I will uphold thee, with the right-hand of my righteousness."
And when he puts us underneath His everlasting arms, it is these arms that are sufficient support where we need nothing else. He is able to protect and defend us from all enemies. They that trust in him, as their covenant God, are as Mount Zion, that can never be removed. Just as the mountains in the state of West Virginia are found on all sides of us, so is the Lord round about his people, from this time forth, even for evermore. He is a wall of fire round about them, to preserve them, and to annoy their enemies. He is a glory in the midst of them. They are kept, as in a defense force, by His power through faith unto salvation He is able to build them up, and to give them an inheritance among all those that are sanctified by faith in Christ Jesus. He is able to keep them from falling, from a total and final falling, and present them faultless before the throne of his majesty.
This view of the power in God, and of His ability to do these things, and much more, is sufficient encouragement to the saints in the worst of times. Surely we can be as David, and be encouraged in the Lord our God.