I wanted to share what I learned today from 1 Samuel 27. First some background is needed though. In previous chapters, including the last one, we see that Saul is King in Israel, but God has rejected him and chosen David to be King. Strangely though, God didn't make Saul step down immediately. He let him continue to rule. David wound up serving in the palace playing music to rid Saul of an evil spirit the Lord had sent to harass him. David also served in the army and was an excellent officer and fighting man. Because Saul was sinful and didn't live for God, he became more and more jealous of David and kept trying to kill him. Over and over in the last few chapters we see Saul attempting to kill David (16 times!) and God miraculously intervening to save David (and generally making Saul look foolish). We also see constant prophecies that David will be King and rule with God's blessing and even see God Himself telling David that more then once. That's where the previous chapter ends.
At the beginning of chapter 27, we're given quite a shock. You'd expect David to be praising God still for all the ways He'd saved him and all the great things He'd given him and done for him during this time. After all, he'd just been blessed by Saul, the very person who'd been trying to kill him! Instead though, David was depressed! I couldn't believe it when I read that, and then realized that's often how it happens though. After we've been through a stressful time, even though we came out on top, if we don't take our thoughts captive, we'll often become depressed. Look at how this chapter begins:
1 Samuel 27:1 —But David thought to himself, “One of these days I will be destroyed by the hand of Saul. The best thing I can do is to escape to the land of the Philistines. Then Saul will give up searching for me anywhere in Israel, and I will slip out of his hand.” *
David knew better than that! I kept wanting to yell at him to wake up and smell the coffee. 
On top of that, God had told him to stay in Judah! So after all this time of being obedient to the Lord, of always asking the Lord before he did anything, he lets his feelings rule him and as usual, that leads him into sin. The very next verse tells us that he goes right ahead and carries out his plan. He doesn't talk to the Lord about it or ask any of his trusted advisers either. When he gets there, of course, he has to lie, otherwise the philistine king would have killed him. And he has to continue to lie to him the whole time he's there.
What happened to our hero? To our man who loves the Lord? First, he listened to his feelings and didn't check to see if those feelings agreed with what God had told him. Second, he didn't pray and tell the Lord what he was feeling and ask Him what he should do. Before he'd been in constant communication with the lord and now all of a sudden (or so it seems to us) that stops. That's generally true of us too when we get depressed. We stop reading His Word, studying it and we stop talking to Him too.
Third, he stopped serving God and began to serve himself. Again just like we do when we start feeling sorry for ourselves, isn't it? Fourth, he didn't take his thoughts, feelings and imagination captive and replace them with the Truth. He also focused on "what might have happened in the past" and "what could happen" instead of "what was true right then.
Fifth, when he looked at the past, he focused on only the bad things, he didn't look at the great many good things that had happened, or at any of the great or miraculous things God had done for him. Really, both this and the "fourth" thing both go along with serving ourselves rather then God. When we serve God, our focus is on Him. We see His Hand in everything and know that everything is working for our good. When we serve ourselves though, the focus changes to us and we become self-centered, and often either full of self pity or selfishness. When it gets really bad, we'll even often blame God for the bad and conveniently forget the good or else act like we deserved the good for some reason -as though we'd earned it.
(please know, that when I say "we", I'm really thinking about myself and how I act and have acted in the past. I use "we" only because I know others often have the same problems I've had or have.)
Next, David did something else we shouldn't do when we're in that kind of frame of mind....he made an important decision, and worse, he made it without God. I can't begin to count the times I've done that as well in my life, and looking back, I can see all the previous steps were there as well. This particular episode of David's life, lasted for about 16 months, so it was a significant chapter in his life. I'm so grateful the Lord included this in His Word to teach us. I always learn so much about myself when studying with Him.
When this chapter ends, David is still in this frame of mind and still not communicating with God. We'll discover later that David pays for his sins when the city he's living in with all his men and all his and their wives and children are attacked when they're away and their families are taken captive. Thankfully, instead of becoming yet more depressed, this finally gets David's attention and he turns back to the Lord and he immediately begins talking to Him and asking for help again. I won't give away what all happens as that's for another time. I just wanted to share what I'd learned about how our feelings can betray us and mislead us if we heed them without checking to see if they're in agreement with God's Word.
At the beginning of chapter 27, we're given quite a shock. You'd expect David to be praising God still for all the ways He'd saved him and all the great things He'd given him and done for him during this time. After all, he'd just been blessed by Saul, the very person who'd been trying to kill him! Instead though, David was depressed! I couldn't believe it when I read that, and then realized that's often how it happens though. After we've been through a stressful time, even though we came out on top, if we don't take our thoughts captive, we'll often become depressed. Look at how this chapter begins:
1 Samuel 27:1 —But David thought to himself, “One of these days I will be destroyed by the hand of Saul. The best thing I can do is to escape to the land of the Philistines. Then Saul will give up searching for me anywhere in Israel, and I will slip out of his hand.” *
David knew better than that! I kept wanting to yell at him to wake up and smell the coffee. On top of that, God had told him to stay in Judah! So after all this time of being obedient to the Lord, of always asking the Lord before he did anything, he lets his feelings rule him and as usual, that leads him into sin. The very next verse tells us that he goes right ahead and carries out his plan. He doesn't talk to the Lord about it or ask any of his trusted advisers either. When he gets there, of course, he has to lie, otherwise the philistine king would have killed him. And he has to continue to lie to him the whole time he's there. What happened to our hero? To our man who loves the Lord? First, he listened to his feelings and didn't check to see if those feelings agreed with what God had told him. Second, he didn't pray and tell the Lord what he was feeling and ask Him what he should do. Before he'd been in constant communication with the lord and now all of a sudden (or so it seems to us) that stops. That's generally true of us too when we get depressed. We stop reading His Word, studying it and we stop talking to Him too.
Third, he stopped serving God and began to serve himself. Again just like we do when we start feeling sorry for ourselves, isn't it? Fourth, he didn't take his thoughts, feelings and imagination captive and replace them with the Truth. He also focused on "what might have happened in the past" and "what could happen" instead of "what was true right then.
Fifth, when he looked at the past, he focused on only the bad things, he didn't look at the great many good things that had happened, or at any of the great or miraculous things God had done for him. Really, both this and the "fourth" thing both go along with serving ourselves rather then God. When we serve God, our focus is on Him. We see His Hand in everything and know that everything is working for our good. When we serve ourselves though, the focus changes to us and we become self-centered, and often either full of self pity or selfishness. When it gets really bad, we'll even often blame God for the bad and conveniently forget the good or else act like we deserved the good for some reason -as though we'd earned it.
(please know, that when I say "we", I'm really thinking about myself and how I act and have acted in the past. I use "we" only because I know others often have the same problems I've had or have.)
Next, David did something else we shouldn't do when we're in that kind of frame of mind....he made an important decision, and worse, he made it without God. I can't begin to count the times I've done that as well in my life, and looking back, I can see all the previous steps were there as well. This particular episode of David's life, lasted for about 16 months, so it was a significant chapter in his life. I'm so grateful the Lord included this in His Word to teach us. I always learn so much about myself when studying with Him.
When this chapter ends, David is still in this frame of mind and still not communicating with God. We'll discover later that David pays for his sins when the city he's living in with all his men and all his and their wives and children are attacked when they're away and their families are taken captive. Thankfully, instead of becoming yet more depressed, this finally gets David's attention and he turns back to the Lord and he immediately begins talking to Him and asking for help again. I won't give away what all happens as that's for another time. I just wanted to share what I'd learned about how our feelings can betray us and mislead us if we heed them without checking to see if they're in agreement with God's Word.
