PSA Bible Reading Challenge 2023-2024

David begins his reign by bringing the Ark of the Covenant, which for all intents and purposes was the actual presence of God, into Jerusalem. There is a bit of a mishap as it makes its way to Jerusalem which makes David really angry, but not angry enough to leave the ark out of Jerusalem. As it makes its way into Jerusalem David is really, really excited. So much so that he embarrasses his wife. Not a good move.

Chapter 7 is key because it is here where we see God make his covenant with David and it is from this covenant that we know that Jesus was to come. It is from the house of David that deliverance is to come. You may not be able to see all of that in this chapter, but on this side of history we can see the significance of this covenant that God makes with David. It is a covenant that as Christians we hang our hats on. The Messiah, our Savior, the annointed one, the Christ is to come from the line of David, and we know that he did just that in Jesus.

A couple thoughts on the Psalms that we read. They are psalms of victory where the author, supposedly David, is extolling the presence of God in the defeat of his enemies. The remaining chapters of Samuel that we read account his battles and how God gave him detailed strategy that allowed him to overcome his enemies. These celebratory Psalms regale the presence of God and downplay the presence of the soldiers. This is a constant theme.

We see how quickly David consolidates his power once Saul and his son Jonathan die. It does seem like he is a bit of a reticent king. He kills the person who told him about the death of Saul and his son. Granted, the person not only told David about it, but actually killed the King himself. He kills the two who then take out the other son of Saul who was heading up Israel at the time, even though he was never annointed. It really took out all of David’s competition, but David wasn’t pleased with people taking the initiative against people who ostensibly could have been placed there by God. So this reticent annointed king eventually becomes king after all.

He settles in Jerusalem which is then called the city of David. One of the more powerful times that I have had in Israel was when we drove through a tunnel and the next thing we saw was Jerusalem there sitting on a hill. The driver turned on the song Jerusalem and the guide and the driver led the whole bus in song as they celebrated the city. This city of David becomes the city of David because of this Scripture. From then on David is found defending the city.

The story of David’s life continues, and David continues to flee from Saul. He is basically on the run for most of Samuel until Saul dies, which is coming up after our readings today. For a second time David spares Saul’s life and for a second time a peace accord was written. But it doesn’t last long at all as Saul continues to send his soldiers, and he also goes himself, after David. By this time David is tired of staying with Israel and so having to watch his back day and night. So he decides to leave Israel and go to a foreign territory where he knows that Saul would no longer pursue him. He does so and teams up with the king of Gath and they make raids together. This can’t last. David is going to be king one day, but until then, he has to continue to be a warrior, and he does.

At this time Saul finds himself surrounded by Philistines and he fears for his life. He is not able to hear the voice of God because God has left him. So he turns to magic and a medium conjures up the dead Samuel. We aren’t here to say whether this is possibile of not, but I do say that we should never mess with these kinds of things because the realm of that which is outside of our understanding can really mess us up. Don’t ever turn to these types of things because you can’t hear God’s voice. God will come to us, but not through means that are outside of His will. Saul is told that he and his sons will die in the battle that is coming up.

Curiously, David is making his way with his new friends, the Philistines, to battle against Saul, but they force him to go back to his refuge town because they don’t trust him. As he gets back home his women and children have been captured and the town has been burned to the ground. Well, he seeks and receives vengeance and brings all of his people back plus all the massive spoils from the nation that had raided his home town. It is at this point that David’s fame spreads well beyond just the little town of Ziklag.

The story of David continues along. Before we get to I Samuel I wanted to point out the Psalms that we are reading, and especially their prologues which contain the contexts in which the psalms were written. Don’t disregard these prologues. Psalm 34 says that it was written: “Of David, when he feigned madness before Abimelech, so that he drove him out, and he went away.” Psalm 54 states that it was written: “when the Ziphites went and told Saul, ‘David is in hiding among us.” Each of these times in the life of David we saw in our readings for today.

Now back to our readings. David eats the holy bread and Jesus himself brings up this scene as an example of how people of God are able to do that which seems like a breaking of the law. It is a bit tricky, but makes sense, that the law is in place to help us and not to bind us. Look at Matthew 12:3-8 where Jesus makes this argument. We have the tragic story of Saul slaughtering the priests becasue they had helped David. It does seem a bit excessive, speaking as someone who might be considered a priest.

Throughout this whole time David is running from one stronghold to another and trying to elude Saul while Saul is trying to track him down. This all changes when they get to the caves of Ein-Gedi where Saul relieves himself and David cuts his robe to show him that even in his most vulnerable time David would never hurt the king. Saul realizes his mistake and welcomes David back into the fold. Now, David doesn’t go back into Saul’s court, notice, even though ostensibly he should be safe enough to do so. He stays outside. He marries a couple of different wives since Saul gave his wife away while he was away. That’s pretty cold. But that will also change.

We begin our time with David, and it is a really good time. Samuel annoints David and this chapter gives us on one of the most powerful verses in the whole Old Testament. Look at I Samuel 16:7 where we find a reminder that God’s intent is to look upon our hearts and his desire is not all about our appearance. But apparently David had both, the heart and the appearance. The Spirit of the Lord descended upon him. The next chapter we have the great story of David and Goliath. Again, this is proof of what the presence of God is able to do for us. It allows us to overcome all odds. Saul then changes his atitude toward David, another proof that absolute power corrupts absolutely.

I don’t want us to miss the relationship between David and Jonathan. They truly loved each other in a way that brothers love each other. I could see this relationship in a way that brothers might love each other when one parent is looking to harm one of the children and the other child comes to their defense. This is what happens with David and Jonathan. Remember David promised to not hurt the family of Jonathan when he came into power. The fact that David was going to eventually come into power is basically a foregone conclusion by this point. But that wouldn’t be strange, he was, after all, the king’s son in law. Who else would come into power, Jonathan? This is the pretext that Saul gives at the end of these chapters for why he is looking to kill David, so that his own son would be able to take the throne when he is gone.

Psalm 59 is a song about David’s time while he is being pursued by Saul. Notice the end of the Psalm, verses 16-17 where David reminds his audience of the faithfulness of God. God is faithful and will remain faithful forever.

We continue along with the acts of Saul and his victories. But even from the very beginning we see that he doesn’t fully understand the role of Samuel and his role as king in carrying out the commands of the Lord. The first thing he does is that he makes a rash vow that anyone who eats before the battle will be killed. Of course it turns out to be Jonathan who dips his spear an eats honey because he didn’t hear Saul say that no one should eat. Jonathan, Saul’s son, also criticizes Saul because what a terrible strategy that is. Don’t eat until after the battle. How weak the warriors would be.

Then Saul is about to go into battle but he is waiting for old Samuel to come along when he promised he was coming. He became impatient and decided to do the sacrifices to the Lord by himself, which again was strictly forbidden. Samuel does come when he says, just later in the day, and is angry with Saul. In fact, he tells him that the Lord has take the kingdom away from him. This sets the stage for young David to come into the picture. That is going to be the next chapter in this saga. Notice again, people obey until they don’t. Then God finds someone who will obey better.

Israel has request, no demanded, a king, and now they have one. Saul is annointed King by Samuel and he is not quite ready to rule. If there ever were a story of one who never wanted to be king but was made king by God, this would be the story. Even though he is filled with the Spirit of God, there is never a desire on his part to become king. Even to the point when they are having a celebration for him, even the coronation itself, he is hiding by the luggage so that they would not notice him. Saul was someone who absolutely wanted to be kept out of the spotlight, and tried his hardest to stay out of it.

Would this not be one of the most important aspects of a ruler, someone who had no hubris, or at least who didn’t want the spotlight. Someone who believed they actually didn’t deserve to rule and that only by the Spirit of the Lord would they be able to rule. That is something that we look for in church officers, people who are not wanting the position, but rather who get the position because the congregation asks them to take it. We don’t want people who think they deserve to be an officer, but rather people who feel as if they don’t deserve it.

Psalm 150 is a classic. Praise the Lord in as many different ways as possible. Once again, my old Christian Rock preferences are coming out.

O Lord, our Lord how majestic is your name in all the earth. That is a song that I used to loved to sing as I was growing up. Here is a link to it, and it is a direct use of Psalm 8.

The story of Samuel is one that we would do well to remember. We are still in the judges and Eli is still judging. In fact, we read that he judged Israel for 40 years. His sons were evil and did was what evil in the sight of the Lord. It used to be that Judges would say that the people of Israel would do evil in the sight of the Lord, but here it was just two of them. They would steal from the sacrifices and they would sleep with the women who were helping in the temple. It was an all around display of sin in every capacity possible. God has Samuel in mind to take over once Eli dies. Eli dies by breaking his neck from falling over once he hears about the ark of God being captured. He is more upset about that than he is about his sons being killed. That should say a lot. But Samuel is now equipped to do God’s bidding. You also see that the nation of Israel is ready to accept Samuel as the heir to the religious throne for Israel.

There is a repeating line in Song of Solomon that we would do well to listen. “I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, do not stir up or awaken love until it is ready.” That is a great line, because love can absolutely take us and sweep us away. When love is mixed with passion, as this book of the Bible clearly has no problem in blurring those lines, then it takes us to a place where we would have a hard time controlling our emotions and the ardour of our love for each other.

But this book of the Bible also clearly gives us a reading that the love that God has placed within us for each other, for husband and wife, is one that ought to be celebrated and not considered sinful or bad. Many couples have a hard time transitioning from a life of being told to hold back to now where there are no rules or regulations. That is what marriage ought to be, a time of exploring and a time of joy in sexual fulfillment. I pray that couples all across the Christian globe would be willing to love each other and respect each other in love in the way that this book of the Bible demonstrates.

Colossians contains words that are a guide to us in order to understand what we believe and what we think about Jesus. In other words, it is great theology. We find in Colossians we find the supremacy of Christ in 1:15-19. Read it again to understand why Jesus had to die on the cross. We are able to be presented before God on judgment day holy and blameless as a result of Jesus’ sacrifice. We find in 2:12 that in our baptism we were buried with him in his death, only to be resurrected once we have come out of the waters as new person. Jesus gives us life in his life, death on a cross, and resurrection so that we can, in our baptism, be transformed and renewed in Him.

We find in 3:12 a call to live a certain way. This is a great directive and a great check every morning and evening to remind ourselves of how we ought to live and then a check in the evening to see if we were able to live in this way. Finally Colossians 4:6 tell us to season our speech with salt so that we may know how to answer everyone.

The Psalms give us insight into how the people of God were able to escape in the day of trouble. God has always come to the rescue of the people of Israel, and all of His people. That will never change.