The Meaning Of Life

https://biblehub.com/nkjv/genesis/1.htm

David is fleeing from Saul, and he stops by a known priest. There has been great discussion over and over about whether or not David should have eaten the bread given to him by the priest. The bread was once the Holy bread, for the priests to eat once it has served its symbolic purpose. But here’s is what I assume; if the anointed was fleeing for his safety and was hungry, would Jesus have said, “Sorry, you can’t have this bread because it is Holy”. I highly doubt that; Jesus would have been able to take that loaf and feed 5,000 David’s. And yes, David had been anointed the King of Israel, he just hadn’t been installed yet.

And David is without a weapon, so he asks the priest for a weapon, and it just so happens the priest has Goliath’s sword, the sword David killed Goliath with.

But here’s where I start to have questions. David technically lied to the priest, telling him that he was on a mission from the king. Then David fled to Gath, in Philistia, the hometown of Goliath, and he was recognized, so he started pretending he was a madman so they would evict him rather than kill him. Was David being deceitful? Yes. Was it warranted? Maybe.

On one hand, you can say the deception was warranted because they might have killed David otherwise. Then again, did David lose faith that he had God’s protection? He certainly had faith when he squared off with Goliath, so what happened to his faith now?

All I can say is, sometimes when I read the Bible, I have in my mind these Biblical characters talked about in church, and sometimes my mind kind of looks at them as literary characters, when in fact they are historical characters. David has God on his side, but he didn’t have supernatural powers, he was simply a man of flesh, a human, a mortal, and he had mortal human thoughts and emotions, and just like today when Satan can, at a minimum, cloud our thoughts and processes, David would have been subject to the same.

One minute David is the youngest of his family, our herding the flock, enjoying nature and playing his harp to the animals, and now in a very short time period, he has been taken away from all of that, anointed as King of Israel without seeking the throne, and he is now fleeing from the incumbent who has the King’s Army on his side and wants to kill you. Even with God on my side, it would be a challenge to stay focused, especially when you’re still a young man without having too much life experience behind you.

All that said, while David was with the priest, one of Saul’s friends, an Edomite, was there too, and reported David to Saul. David was aware of this, and that is when he wrote Psalm 52, admonishing Doeg, or so it appears, then finishing by a praise of God. Most psalms, while they may address specific events, are a praise of God; that is their purpose. https://biblehub.com/nkjv/psalms/52.htm. And just to be clear, my preferred version of the Bible is the King James version, but the links I share take you to a page that has many different interpretations and translations you may choose from.

Then after David had to pretend to be mad to escape Gath, he wrote Psalm 34, https://biblehub.com/nkjv/psalms/34.htm, and while Samuel does talk about David’s faith, Psalm 34 indicates that David did seek the help of the Lord when he was in Gath. And again, put yourself in David position. You walk into the hometown of the giant you recently killed, carrying his sword, the sword you beheaded him with. David had to be desperate to go there in the first place, hoping he could stay incognito, but the sword was likely a give-away.

Now once again I note, there is language in the scripture about “fearing God”. Many people take this literally, as if we should cower in the darkness, shaking, fearful that if we sin, the old tyrant in Heaven is going to kill us. That is certainly not the case. Another definition of the word “fear”, translated from Hebrew, was “awe”, so when I see the phrase “fear God”, to me it always means, “to be in awe of God”, and yes, we should be in awe of God’s power, and mostly, of His love which I can’t begin to fathom. I often say the Glory of God is so bright that likely, many of us will not be righteous enough to withstand. But I have no doubt that a great portion of that bright Glory, the same Glory that made Moses’ face glow, was love, love so bright and intense and powerful that we, as simple humans, cannot wrap our brains around. And I hope that, not only can I withstand that bright Glory, I pray that some day God will wrap me in it.

And finally, Psalm 56 written by David, was written when he was briefly captured in Gath, before he started acting as a madman. If you read, David had to start scratching on the town’s gate and slobbering as those he was mad, which made the king evict him rather than kill him. And you have to give some credit to King Achish of Gath because he could easily have just killed David rather than evict him…after all, David had killed one of Achish’s most fierce warriors and beheaded him in front of the entire Philistine Army. Then again, maybe Achish was a wise man who knew the powers of this “God of Israel”, and knew better than to mess with David.

https://biblehub.com/nkjv/psalms/56.htm And again, most psalms are very poetic, wonderful praises to God, recognizing his love and goodness and mercy, and that is what David is saying in Psalm 56.

Stay in God’s word. Trust me, it can bring you comfort. I’ve had some trying times lately; my adopted one is having some health issues now, and all three suffer from “behavior disorders” and this week, they are reminding me of that. There are times when my patients and endurance reaches near the end, but I open God’s word and He comforts me, and He will comfort you too.