… (WHEN HE “FAILS” ME)
What do you do when all your hopes are dashed?
What do you do when your hopes and dreams which you placed in God’s hands peter out?
What do you do when the One who is reputed to never fail His own, appears to either permit your failure, or shows Himself incapable of stopping your failure, or appears not to care that you fail?
Is that appearance the reality?
In 1 Samuel 16 through 1 Samuel 21, we meet a man who was described as “a man after [God’s] own heart”.
This man took God at His word and paid the high price of deep disappointment. That man’s story is the story of which kings are made, and he did become a king – the greatest king ever, throughout the history of his people – but the process of attaining to the promised throne… that is the focus of our conversation today.
King David was not born into a royal household. After all, he was only the second king of Israel – the first, Saul, became king in David’s lifetime. David was the last of seven sons of his father. Being the last, his big brothers (in the pecking order), did not consider him a person worthy of honour. Indeed, his own father set no store by him, for when he was told that one of his sons would be anointed king, he did not think it worth the trouble to pull David from his duties of tending the family sheep.
From this abject position, David was suddenly elevated when he was anointed by the revered prophet/judge Samuel to be king of Israel, before his family.
There is no record of David strutting about with his new-found importance. Indeed, even after he was anointed, he continued his duties as shepherd; and when all the men of note in Israel went to war against the Philistines, his only use was as an errand boy sent to deliver supplies to his brothers who were engaged in the noble cause of fighting for Israel.
In short, he was small in his own eyes, just as he was in the eyes of those closest to him: his family.
But the favour of the Lord by whom he was anointed, was made manifest through a series of happenings: he killed Goliath the Phillistine giant, and became an instant hero among his people; he went into service at the court of the king and found himself accompanying the men of war into battle. In no time he became the captain of the king’s army. From there his road to greatness appeared to be paved by a lifelong friendship with the crown prince Jonathan; and to crown it all, he became the king’s son in law.
Everything looked great for David.
It was clear that he was on his way to great things, as even the crown prince recognized that David would be the next king of Israel (just as the Lord had promised).
But suddenly, the bottom fell out, for worse than his life as a shepherd in the wilderness, was his life as a fugitive from the king.
In his distress, as King Saul sought to kill him (and set the nation’s army against him), David ended up in the land of the Philistines in the court of Achish the Philistine king at Gath. But in the place where he sought refuge, he found his life in danger when he was recognised as the man who had killed Goliath the Philistine.
In this hard place, David, to escape death, had to feign madness, resorting to abasing himself just to save his life.
This is the story at this point in the life of David: from the bush to the palace, and then to …nothing?
Yet, it was at this time of great disappointment – when the promise that he would be king appeared to be a lie – that he wrote (or sang) Psalm 34.
Just imagine…how could a man whose hopes had been raised so high (a king in waiting, no less) but had been so disappointed in the way his life had turned out, say about God (or sing): “Those who look to him are radiant; their faces are never covered with shame… Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the one who takes refuge in him.”
The secret of David is the secret of one who believes that God is good.
In Psalm 27, David cried out: “I would have lost heart, unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.”
That is “the bottom line”: the foundational, unchanging truth.
To be sure, an understanding of the goodness of God is what will allow you to look beyond the pain of your disappointments and keep your head up, in the firm assurance that because He is good, disappointing circumstances do not tell the whole story.
So, when your life seems to go in the opposite direction of the promise in His word (which you have believed), your confidence in His goodness will enable you to trust that that unlikely road is a purposeful detour which will get you to the promised place of rest. In other words, on that unlikely road, hope will keep you going, until you see the goodness of God in the fulfilment of His promise.
James 1:13 tells you that God is not the author of temptation, and He tempts no-one, but He does permit the testing of your faith. Thus, James 1: 2-4, enjoins you to: “Count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.”
God is good…and God is sovereign.
Because He is sovereign, He chooses the best way to achieve His goodness, and that way may not be what you would choose for yourself. You choose based on your experience; He chooses based on His knowledge.
God is good, and sovereign…and faithful.
These three attributes of God are what should keep your eyes on Him and fill your heart with hope.
While you may be bewildered by His choice of the road (on which you travel), believe in His goodness and wait, until He takes you to the destination He has promised.
On that road, you will find Him near. When your heart is breaking, that is when He comes close.
As David found in his time of distress in his flight from Saul, and escape from Achish,” “The Lord is close to the broken-hearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.”
Listen to the man whose life was one disappointment after another (after God had promised him a throne): “Wait on the Lord; Be of good courage, And He shall strengthen your heart; Wait, I say, on the Lord” (Psalm 27: 14)
So…Wait for Him. Know that He is good and faithful to His promises. He will not fail you.
Wait!
