David trusts in God because he knows his character. David knows that God is good so he puts his trust in Him. David knows that God sees him and cares about him so he puts his faith in Him. I’m reminded of another psalm David had written.
And those who know your name put their trust in you, for you, O LORD, have not forsaken those who seek you.
Psalm 9:10 ESV
The more You know God, the more you will trust Him because you will recognize His everlasting goodness and power. This is why I love reading The Knowledge of the Holy by A.W. Tozer so much. I even wrote an ebook from my own thoughts on the topic.
As your trust in God grows, then you will seek Him and call upon Him, which reminds me of another Psalm of David. Psalm 34:4, “I sought the LORD, and he answered me and delivered me from all my fears.”
As you call upon Him, He will answer you, and You will praise His Name.
For this I will praise you, O LORD, among the nations, and sing praises to your name. Great salvation he brings to his king, and shows steadfast love to his anointed, to David and his offspring forever.
2 Samuel 22:50-51 ESV
Psalm 34, Taste and See, Shane and Shane
My soul makes its boast in the LORD; let the humble hear and be glad. Oh, magnify the LORD with me, and let us exalt his name together!
Psalm 34:2-3 ESV
Heavenly Father, thank you for your goodness and mercy towards me. You are the almighty God, the steadfast rock, the refuge for those who seek you. Help me to trust in You, fully and daily. May I not trust in horses and chariots and human wisdom, but in Christ my solid rock on whom I stand. He is the eternal God and King of kings. It is in His holy name that I pray. Amen.
Yesterday when I was shoveling, I was listening to CityAlight on Pandora and was thrilled when this song came up. It’s one of my favorites.
Christ is Mine Forevermore by CityAlight
So today I’m thinking again, where is my treasure? On earth or in heaven?
If earth, why? What joy does earth hold? Good food? Fancy clothes? Fun times with friends? The love of grandbabies and children and a husband? The ecstasy of seeing someone receive the gift of faith and be welcomed into God’s eternal kingdom?
If heaven, why? Do I want to be in heaven so I can be reunited with loved ones who have already been called home, like my Grandma Norma and my babies gone too soon? Or do I want to be in heaven so I don’t have to deal with all the pain and sin that life on earth entails? Or do I want to be in heaven so my faith will finally be as sight and I can enjoy living in the presence of my Savior?
For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.
Philippians 1:21 ESV
Heavenly Father, You are worth it all. What does earth have that compares to the joy of knowing You? Help me to cast off all that sin that clings so tightly. Give me strength to pursue You, to live on earth with eternity and heaven in view. Christ is mine now and forever. ✝️ ♾️ Amen
We live in an area of the U.S. that fully enjoys all four seasons of the year, hot summers and cold winters with beautiful springs and falls in the transition times. It’s actually one of my favorite things about living here. But, the problem is that our area isn’t accustomed to a week of below freezing temperatures and multiple inches of snow. My neighborhood’s streets are still covered with five inches of snow, and there’s no plow in sight. We’re staying home, along with everyone else in our area, and thanking God for a fridge and pantry full of food and a furnace to keep us warm.
This morning my son and I took advantage of the shining sun and a break in the snowfall to shovel our driveway. I used the time to teach him some things I’ve learned about shoveling, but I also used the time to meditate on some lessons God has been teaching me in 2 Samuel.
Trying to move 5-inch-deep snow is hard, back-breaking work, especially when your driveway is practically 100 yards long! The top few inches of snow were light and fluffy, but much of that bottom inch was packed down tight and hard to move. I encouraged my son to do a quick once-over first and move all that top layer off so the sun could do it’s work on that bottom icy layer. Then, when he’d come back ten minutes later, that lower layer would scrape off easily.
I started thinking about how often David (and others in 1-2 Samuel), (and me), hide under layers of white fluff, or under layers of sin. It’s only when that top layer is scraped aside that the sunlight can do its work. As long as we keep hiding, refusing to do the hard work of bringing our sin into the open, that icy hard layer remains.
On the other hand, if we take that first step of sweeping away that fluffy top layer, those easy to confess sins, but we refuse to deal with breaking up and shoveling away that icy crust of hidden sin that we don’t want anyone to know about, all our work is for naught because that lower layer is where the real danger lies. Those deep, hidden sins are what really make us slip and fall, and fall hard.
Heavenly Father, You are a good God and You want to free me from the hard, icy grasp of sin. Help me to bring into the light what I want to keep hidden in the dark. Help me to faithfully shovel away those “respectable sins” of covetousness and gossip that I can bring into the light those hidden sins of pride and deceit and fear and bitterness. In the Name of Jesus Christ I pray. Amen.
Even though Absalom had killed Amnon, David’s oldest son, out of revenge for him raping his sister, and even though Absalom had tried to take his father’s rightful place on the throne, David orders his army captains to deal gently with him during their battle against the Israelites (2 Samuel 18:5) And then when David finds out that Absalom is dead, David cries, “O my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom! Would I had died instead of you, O Absalom, my son, my son!” (2 Samuel 18:33)
That’s how a parent’s love is. It’s unconditional. It’s love with no strings attached. No matter how your child disappoints you or angers you, you keep loving them. As 1 Corinthians 13:8a says, “love never fails.”
“He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.” (John 1:11-13 ESV)
“But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.6 And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.” (Galatians 4:4-7 ESV)
“For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:7-8 ESV)
“How precious is your steadfast love, O God! The children of mankind take refuge in the shadow of your wings.” (Psalm 36:7 ESV)
Heavenly Father, Thank You for Your steadfast, faithful love, love without end, love that never fails. You are good. You are worthy. Make us more like you. Conform us into the image of Jesus Christ, Your perfect Son. It is in His Name that we pray. Amen.
Reading today’s passage I was again encouraged what the Lord has ordained will come to pass. No one can thwart Him. No one can stay His hand. The safest place I can be is in the center of His will. I can trust His goodness and power to accomplish His purposes. Am I fighting for Jim or against Him?
Heavenly Father, I pray that the counsel I give to others will be founded on love and wisdom. Help me to trust You. Help me to walk one foot in front of the other, seeking Your guidance each step of the way. Keep me inside the rail guards that You have established. Help me to be discerning so I can sort out what is Your voice and what is the devil’s, and then give me the desire and strength to obey You. In the Name of Jesus Christ I pray. Amen
At the end of last year we read in 1 Samuel 25:3 that Abigail was both beautiful and discerning (or sensible, intelligent, of good understanding, depending on your translation). Then, earlier this week in 2 Samuel 14:17, the woman of Tekoa flattered King David saying, “my lord the king is like the angel of God to discern good and evil.” Next month we will dive into 1 Kings and read about David’s son, Solomon, who asked God to give him an understanding mind that he might discern between good and evil so he could rightly govern the nation of Israel.
How desperately we need discernment! We are indeed surrounded by so many liars and deceivers, men and women who call light dark and dark light, who call good evil and evil good (Isaiah 5:20). Satan masquerades as an angel of light (2 Corinthians 11:13). As my pastor said two weeks ago when he was teaching through 2 Corinthians 11, Satan disguises in order to deceive, and I might add he deceives in order to devour. (See 1 Peter 5:8)
Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. He disguises himself in order to deceive us. He deceives us in order to devour us. We must be discerning, distinguishing rightly between good from evil.
We must be wise. Not with the wisdom of the world, but with the wisdom of God. Remember Paul’s introductory words in his letter to the Corinthians, “For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written, ‘I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.'” (1 Corinthians 1:18-19 ESV)
“In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to him who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverence. Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered. And being made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him, being designated by God a high priest after the order of Melchizedek.
About this we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing.
For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food, for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.”
– Hebrews 5:7-14 ESV
Let me ask you, when did you first receive Christ?
Last week?
Last month?
Last year?
Last night?
Oh, baby Christian, enjoy the sweet, pure milk on the gospel. It has been given to you to help you grow up to full maturity.
But, sister, were you born again years ago, even decades ago? It’s time to grow up into maturity, training your powers of discernment by constant practice.
In today’s passage, 2 Samuel 16, David isn’t a baby believer any more. He’s a grown man who knows God and the truth of His Word. He knows that he ought to inquire of God. God has proven Himself faithful. David needed to listen to the Holy Spirit’s counsel that he might know the way that he should go and who he should believe … and so do we.
Heavenly Father, Thank You for giving us Your Word and filling us with Your Holy Spirit. Give us wisdom and lead us in the paths of righteousness for Your name’s sake. Help us to discern what is good and right and true that we may run toward it. And help us to discern what is foolish and wicked and false that we may flee from it. In the Almighty, Holy Name of Jesus Christ, our Lord, Savior, and Redeemer we pray. Amen.
Heavenly Father, I don’t want to be like Absalom, rallying people around me and using You as some kind of a tool. My life is Yours. You are the king, and I’m not. Jesus is the King. I’m not. Help me to love You, to worship You, in Spirit and in truth. Keep me humble for my good and Your glory. In the Holy, Almighty Name of Jesus I pray. Amen.
This has to be one of the hardest passages in the whole Bible to read. Human nature at its worst. A man who desires his own sister so much that he rapes her, and then he hates her so much “that the hatred with which he hated her was greater than the love with which he had loved her.” (2 Samuel 13:15 ESV)
Here are some of my thoughts:
The scriptures don’t jump over the tough stuff. Whether in heroes like David or villains like Amnon, the Bible leaves the closet doors open where others might have hidden skeletons.
Lust ain’t love. Amnon didn’t actually love Tamar, he lusted after her, and after he had her, he was done with her. Let this be a warning for single women. Don’t let a guy get you into bed, with sweet words of how much he loves you. True love puts others before yourself. Read 1 Corinthians 13.
Satan is a liar. Satan’s very nature is to lie and deceive. Initially Satan was whispering into Amnon’s ear that he needed Tamar, deserved her, loved her. Then, after taking advantage of her, Satan started whispering new lies. She’s trash. She’s no good for you. What did you ever see in her? We need to be discerning about what voices in our head we’re listening to.
Heavenly Father, You are truth. Every word You say is true. Help me to trust You and listen to Your voice, the voice of true love. I pray that You will protect my children from the schemes of the evil one. Help them to guard their hearts and minds, and to think of others more highly than themselves. For the glory of Your Name I pray. Amen.
In reading 2 Samuel 12, I noticed how quick David was to say, “As the Lord lives, the man who has done this deserves to die,” not realizing that Nathan’s story about a rich man who stole a poor man’s little lamb was about him. How easy it is for me to see sin in others while willingly overlooking it in myself. That reminds me of one of my favorite parts of C. S. Lewis’s book, “Mere Christianity.”
I remember Christian teachers telling me long ago that I must hate a bad man’s actions but not hate the bad man: or, as they would say, hate the sin but not the sinner. …I used to think this a silly, straw-splitting distinction: how could you hate what a man did and not hate the man?
But years later it occurred to me that there was one man to whom I had been doing this all my life — namely myself.
However much I might dislike my own cowardice or conceit or greed, I went on loving myself. There had never been the slightest difficulty about it…
Christianity does not want us to reduce by one atom the hatred we feel for cruelty and treachery. We ought to hate them…. But it does want us to hate them in the same way in which we hate things in ourselves: being sorry that the man should have done such things, and hoping, if it is anyway possible, that somehow, sometime, somewhere, he can be cured and made human again.”
C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity
Heavenly Father, Forgive me for being quick to judge and slow to serve. Forgive me for being quick to see the speck in my brother’s eye while being slow to see the log that is in my own. Help me, please, to labor diligently to dig that log out, so that I can help my brother and glorify You, my perfect king. Help me to heed the words of Galatians 6, that I would restore with gentleness my brothers and sisters who are caught in any transgression, helping to bear their burden with humility and wisdom. Give me wisdom to talk to my Christian sisters and brothers with boldness, compassion, love, and empathy, remembering the words of Titus 3 that I myself was once foolish, disobedient, and led astray, a slave to various passions and pleasures, passing my days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another, that I was not saved because of my own righteous works but according to Your own mercy. Help me to remember that apart from Your incredible grace, I could fall as hard and far and fast as David did. It is by Your grace that I stand and by Your grace that I pray. In the Name of Jesus. Amen.
Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.
Teach What is Good 
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