1 Samuel 23

David was a man on the run, a man without a home. Yet he found His resting place in the Word of the Lord. When the Lord told him to rescue the city of Keilah from the Philistines, he obeyed.

That was fine for David, but how would he be able to lead others who did not have an ear for the Lord's voice or a heart for God's ways? Yet the Lord enabled David's strange band of men to follow this leader to victory.

Saul heard that David had come to Keilah, and he made a plan to trap him there and to destroy him. But David had something that Saul did not have, the voice of the Lord. He soon knew that Saul would come to Keilah to get him and that the people of the town would not protect him. These conclusions were not his own. The Lord revealed these facts to him, and David escaped before Saul arrived.

David's numbers grew. He lived in the wilderness. Though Saul was vigilant in his pursuit of the man that he supposed to be his enemy, God was David's help. He would not give David into Saul's hand.

King Saul was a formidable adversary, but he did not inspire every man's confidence. His own son Jonathan continued to believe in David. He visited David and strengthened his hand in God. What a gift of God to have a friend who will stay closer to you than a brother, a man who will strengthen your faith with his own as he looks to God to be your Deliverer!

Jonathan's faith was strong in the Lord and in God's true anointed, David. He expected great things from the Lord, trusting that Saul his father would not be able to destroy him, and that the two men would be together throughout David's reign. This was not to be, at least not in this life. Yet this lack of predictive perfection does not change the marvel of this good man's faith. He saw in David the man that God had chosen to lead Israel, and he could not imagine himself anywhere other than at his side as his companion and friend.

Meanwhile Saul was speaking in the Lord's name to David's enemies as if they would be doing a most holy service to hand over David to be killed. God knows how to save His anointed. The one whom He holds in the palm of His hand He can also hide in the shadow of a mountain. He can bring news to an adversary that creates a Rock of Escape for the man He loves.

There is no God like Jehovah. These life experiences of David prepare us for the Lord's protection of His Son until the time of the cross had come. But after that cross and resurrection, the Lord of David, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, has continued to watch over those who are called by His Name. As one of David's psalms says, “Blessed are all who take refuge in Him.”