David went to the priest Ahimelech at Nob. Ahimelech was afraid to meet David, so he said to him, “Why are you alone and no one is with you?”

David answered the priest Ahimelech, “The king gave me a mission, but he told me, ‘Don’t let anyone know anything about the mission I’m sending you on or what I have ordered you to do.’ I have stationed my young men at a certain place. Now what do you have on hand? Give me five loaves of bread or whatever can be found.”

The priest told him, “There is no ordinary bread on hand. However, there is consecrated bread, but the young men may eat it only if they have kept themselves from women.”

David answered him, “I swear that women are being kept from us, as always when I go out to battle. The young men’s bodies are consecrated even on an ordinary mission, so of course their bodies are consecrated today.” So the priest gave him the consecrated bread, for there was no bread there except the Bread of the Presence that had been removed from the presence of the Lord. When the bread was removed, it had been replaced with warm bread.

One of Saul’s servants, detained before the Lord, was there that day. His name was Doeg the Edomite, chief of Saul’s shepherds.

David said to Ahimelech, “Do you have a spear or sword on hand? I didn’t even bring my sword or my weapons since the king’s mission was urgent.”

The priest replied, “The sword of Goliath the Philistine, whom you killed in the Valley of Elah, is here, wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod. If you want to take it for yourself, then take it, for there isn’t another one here.”

“There’s none like it!” David said. “Give it to me.”

1 Samuel 21:1–9

Was David wrong in lying? Probably, although he could have been doing it to give Ahimelech plausible deniability (although that plan backfires, as we’ll see in the next chapter).

The boy who went up against the giant with just a sling and 5 smooth stones is now lying through his teeth to get 5 loves of bread and reclaiming the giant’s sword for protection.

One lie almost inevitably leads to another.

Though ingenious falsehoods may seem to promote present security, they ensure future disgrace.

A.W. Pink

N.O.B. = Not Overly Brilliant

David fled that day from Saul’s presence and went to King Achish of Gath. But Achish’s servants said to him, “Isn’t this David, the king of the land? Don’t they sing about him during their dances:

Saul has killed his thousands,
but David his tens of thousands?”

David took this to heart and became very afraid of King Achish of Gath, so he pretended to be insane in their presence. He acted like a madman around them, scribbling on the doors of the city gate and letting saliva run down his beard.

“Look! You can see the man is crazy,” Achish said to his servants. “Why did you bring him to me? Do I have such a shortage of crazy people that you brought this one to act crazy around me? Is this one going to come into my house?”

1 Samuel 21:10–15

And the academy award goes to…

Quite a turn of events, isn’t it? The anointed one is now the insane one.

What in the world is going on inside David’s mind and heart during this time? And how does this rather strange passage relate to us on this New Year’s Day, 2023?!

This is where we have a bit of an advantage in the study of David’s life… He was also the primary author of the Bible’s own prayer book, the book of Psalms. Not all of them, but a lot.

And sometimes, the note at the beginning of the Psalm tells us what was going on in his life when he wrote it, and there are two Psalms specifically that pertain to this story.

The first one is Psalm 56, turn there with me.

1. Run toward God rather than away from Him.

David still went to God for help from the trouble that he had gotten himself into.

The marker of those who understand the gospel of Jesus Christ is that, when they stumble and fall, when they screw up, they run to God and not from him, because they clearly understand that their acceptance before God is not predicated upon their behavior but on the righteous life of Jesus Christ and his sacrificial death.

Matt Chandler, The Explicit Gospel

This requires a conscious decision to run toward Him, because if you don’t make a conscious decision, you’ll subconsciously be moving away from Him.

One of the most striking evidences of sinful human nature lies in the universal propensity for downward drift… People do not drift toward holiness. Apart from grace-driven effort, people do not gravitate toward godliness, prayer,
and obedience to Scripture, faith, and delight in the Lord.

D.A. Carson, For the Love of God

Be honest with God

Notice how David doesn’t beat around the bush:

Be gracious to me, God, for a man is trampling me;
he fights and oppresses me all day long.
My adversaries trample me all day,
for many arrogantly fight against me…

They twist my words all day long;
all their thoughts against me are evil.
They stir up strife, they lurk,
they watch my steps
while they wait to take my life.
Will they escape in spite of such sin?

Psalms 56:1–2, 5-7a

Ever had an argument with your spouse over something ridiculous, and then later on realize that what you were apparently fighting about was not even remotely related to what you were actually fighting about?

I’m a little slow, but after 14.5 years of marriage, I’m starting to understand that a lot of the time, there’s some deeper issue going on that what’s on the surface.

What good does it do you to hide what’s really going on?

The only result is a strained relationship that’s not as
strong or as close as it could be.

How much more true is that of our relationship with God, who already knows what’s truly going on in our hearts, even more than we know ourselves.

  1. Run toward God rather than away from Him.

2. Preach the truth to your own heart.

When I am afraid,
I will trust in you.
In God, whose word I praise,
in God I trust; I will not be afraid.
What can mere mortals do to me?

Psalms 56:3–4

David begins by acknowledging the fear. The danger, the trial, the fear is real.

What you fear most may be exactly where Satan is targeting you most. He preys on insecurity, anxiety, and distress. He pours the gasoline of lies on our fears—trying to persuade us that God is powerless, indifferent, or distant.

Marshall Segal, Desiring God

You yourself have recorded my wanderings.
Put my tears in your bottle.
Are they not in your book?
Then my enemies will retreat on the day when I call.
This I know: God is for me.

In God, whose word I praise,
in the Lord, whose word I praise,
in God I trust; I will not be afraid.
What can mere humans do to me?

Psalms 56:8–11
  1. Run toward God rather than away from Him.
  2. Preach the truth to your own heart.

3. Invite others into your story.

How do we know about what happened to David in Gath? David told people what had happened to him, even though it was embarrasing.

In fact, if you look at the first couple verses of chapter 22, you see where David
first told this story, maybe the first people to hear this Psalm:

So David left Gath and took refuge in the cave of Adullam. When David’s brothers and his father’s whole family heard, they went down and joined him there. In addition, every man who was desperate, in debt, or discontented rallied around him, and he became their leader. About four hundred men were with him.

1 Samuel 22:1–2

Robin Hood’s Band of Merry Men in Sherwood Forest

FAMILY: “What happened? Where have you been?”
DAVID: “Well, that’s quite a story, better sit down for this one…”

Didn’t hide anything, didn’t mind making himself look bad because it made God look all the more gracious… plus, it’s reality!

Psalm 34 is the other Psalm that is specifically connected to these events, this time after God had been faithful and delivered him.

Demonstrate Repentance, Make Disciples

You can imagine that they were hanging off every word, especially the kids. Which I imagine is part of why he says this in verse 11 of Psalm 34:

Come, children, listen to me;
I will teach you the fear of the Lord.
Who is someone who desires life,
loving a long life to enjoy what is good?
Keep your tongue from evil
and your lips from deceitful speech.

Psalms 34:11–13

“Listen, kids, what I did wasn’t right.”

  1. Run toward God rather than away from Him.
  2. Preach the truth to your own heart.
  3. Invite others into your story.

4. Worship Him for all He’s worth.

Our worship is centered on the truth of who He is, all He is worth to us.

Don’t miss the fact that David’s still hiding out in a cave. He’s facing a thousand more problems in his future, but that didn’t keep him from celebrating the grace of God for this answered prayer, for this deliverance.

The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous,
and his ears are open to their cry for help.

Psalms 34:15

No matter what happens to you in 2023…

The Lord is near the brokenhearted;
he saves those crushed in spirit.

Psalms 34:18

How do I know this is true for me in 2023?

One who is righteous has many adversities,
but the Lord rescues him from them all.
He protects all his bones;
not one of them is broken.

Psalms 34:19–20

The Jews didn’t want these criminals to still be on the cross during the Passover Sabbath, so they requested that Pilate have his soldiers break their legs so they’d hurry up and die already.

When they came to Jesus, they did not break his legs since they saw that he was already dead. But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once blood and water came out.

John 19:33–34

Why’s that important, John? What’s the point of that detail?

For these things happened so that the Scripture would be fulfilled: Not one of his bones will be broken. Also, another Scripture says: They will look at the one they pierced.

John 19:36–37

How do you know for sure that everything David said about God’s faithfulness to Him will also apply to His faithfulness to you in the coming year? By looking at the one who was pierced for your transgression, crushed for your sins.

We’re going to face some struggles in 2023, no doubt. Financial, relational, mental, spiritual…

Young lions lack food and go hungry, but those who seek the Lord will not lack any good thing.

Psalms 34:10

That is the weak, wounded, and invinsible song of Psalm 34.

Marshall Segal, Desiring God

We may have many advesaries this year, both inside and out. But there is one, the Son of David, whose bones were not broken, but whose side was pierced so that he might rescue us from them all.

If there is one verse I pray would be our verse for 2023, it’s this:

Taste and see that the Lord is good.
How happy is the person who takes refuge in him!

Psalms 34:8

Oh, church family, my deepest desire for us this year is that we would cherish this promise, that we would point it out to each other, and that we would proclaim it to our neighbors.