Year 1, Week 32, Day 4 Bible Reading Observations

Year 1, Week 32, Day 4

I have a brief observation for today’s reading of 1 Samuel 28-29; Psalm 63.

Today’s reading unfolds what is occurring in the lives of Saul and David. David has fled the land of Israel so that Saul might relent from trying to kill him. Therefore, today’s reading records the developing events of Saul’s and David’s life separately. 1 Samuel 28 describes Saul’s desperate attempt to make contact with Samuel, who is dead, by utilizing the services of a witch. Through Saul’s foolishness is raw disobedience; but through it he does learn what will be unfolding: “Moreover, the LORD will give Israel also with you into the hand of the Philistines, and tomorrow you and your sons shall be with me. The LORD will give the army of Israel also into the hand of the Philistines” (1 Samuel 28:19). Meanwhile, 1 Samuel 29 describes some of the complications that David has got himself into by linking up with the Philistine, Achish. David has been drafted into the service of the Philistines as they go to war against Israel (see 1 Samuel 28:1-2). This puts David in a hard place as he would be called to go into battle against his own people; but the LORD providentially works through the reactions of the Philistine commanders, who reject him: “Send the man back, that he may return to the place to which you have assigned him. He shall not go down with us to battle, lest in the battle he become an adversary to us” (1 Samuel 29:4b). Psalm 63 is a Psalm of David with an ascription or title setting it in a time that David was in the wilderness. While this could also reflect David’s experience while on the run from his son, Absalom, it seems also fitting that it reflects David’s experience while living in the land of the Philistines.

One of the things that struck me from today’s reading, is how the LORD worked through the events of both Saul’s and David’s life, but with much different outcomes: “But those who seek to destroy my life shall go down into the depths of the earth; they shall be given over to the power of the sword; they shall be a portion for jackals” (Psalm 63:9-10). Saul is in a bad place; the LORD would answer him: “The Philistines assembled and came and encamped at Shunem. And Saul gathered all Israel, and they encamped at Gilboa. When Saul saw the army of the Philistines, he was afraid, and his heart trembled greatly. And when Saul inquired of the LORD, the LORD did not answer him, either by dreams, or by Urim, or by prophets” (1 Samuel 28:4-6). Hearing that the LORD won’t answer Saul is hard to grasp in light of what we know to be true about the LORD’s patient mercy. But this is not unfair treatment, but just silence: “Then they will call upon me, but I will not answer; they will seek me diligently but will not find me. Because they hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of the LORD” (Proverbs 1:28-29). So Saul resorts to a medium to call Samuel back from the dead. Saul’s plan worked; Samuel grumpily returns. The Mosaic Law was clear as to what should have been done to mediums: “A man or a woman who is a medium or a necromancer shall surely be put to death. They shall be stoned with stones; their blood shall be upon them” (Leviticus 20:7). The description of the effectiveness of using mediums is shocking. It is important to remember that the LORD’s will against using mediums is not due to the notion that they don’t work, they do; but that the LORD has forbidden their use. Ironically, death will come to Saul and the announcement came through a medium who should have been put to death. 

David is not in a good place either. He had entangled himself with the Philistines and was on the verge of being drafted to fight for the Philistines. But the LORD who rules over even mediums, also rules over Philistine commanders. Through the medium, Saul learns of what the LORD would have done to Saul. Saul departs from the medium late at night (1 Samuel 28:25). Through the rejection of the Philistine commanders, David is exempted from military service on behalf of Achish. David awakens and departs early on a new day (1 Samuel 29:11). David has put himself in a difficult mess to get out of; but the LORD has spared David from something that would have greatly harmed his service as Israel’s king. Achish is blind to David’s ultimate loyalties and as he listens to his commanders, he sends David away. The LORD was quietly working in ways that no one immediately recognized.

Perhaps it is with the bind that David found himself in, that he cried out to the LORD: “O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water” (Psalm 63:1). David is desperate in his desperate situation. Will he suffer the tragedy of going to war against Israel? Perhaps David understood that through the rejection of the Philistine commanders, he had been rescued by the LORD: “So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary, beholding your power and glory. Because your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise you.

So I will bless you as long as I live; in your name I will lift up my hands” (Psalm 63:2-4). Not every choice that David has made has been a proper decision, but David is acutely aware that he is in the LORD’s hands: “for you have been my help, and in the shadow of your wings I will sing for joy. My soul clings to you; your right hand upholds me” (Psalm 63:7-8). Such a recognition has life altering outcomes.

What struck you in today’s reading? What questions were prompted from today’s reading?

Pastor Joe