265. You will be safe with me: Keep me safe, my God.

2 May 2022

Saul threatening David, by José Leonardo

Jusepe Leonardo • Public domain

“You will be safe with me.”

1 Samuel 22

23 “Stay with me; don’t be afraid. The man who wants to kill you is trying to kill me too. You will be safe with me.”

Psalm 16

A miktam of David.

1 Keep me safe, my God,

    for in you I take refuge.

Have you been in serious danger?

David the King of Israel lived through danger.

David was in his youth when he faced Goliath.

1 Samuel 17 NASB

33 But Saul said to David, “You are not able to go against this Philistine to fight him; for you are only a youth, while he has been a warrior since his youth.”

Earlier he was anointed by Samuel to be the next king of Israel.

1 Samuel 16

13 So Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the presence of his brothers, and from that day on the Spirit of the Lord came powerfully upon David. Samuel then went to Ramah.

David finally became king when he was 30.

2 Samuel 5

4 David was thirty years old when he became king, and he reigned forty years. 

5 In Hebron he reigned over Judah seven years and six months, and in Jerusalem he reigned over all Israel and Judah thirty-three years.

It is said that David waited for about 15 years before he finally became king after the death of King Saul. 

Through those years, he lived in danger because of the jealousy of King Saul who became his father-in-law.

1 Samuel 18

6 When the men were returning home after David had killed the Philistine, the women came out from all the towns of Israel to meet King Saul with singing and dancing, with joyful songs and with timbrels and lyres. 

7 As they danced, they sang:

“Saul has slain his thousands,

    and David his tens of thousands.”

8 Saul was very angry; this refrain displeased him greatly. “They have credited David with tens of thousands,” he thought, “but me with only thousands. What more can he get but the kingdom?” 

9 And from that time on Saul kept a close eye on David.

10 The next day an evil spirit from God came forcefully on Saul. He was prophesying in his house, while David was playing the lyre, as he usually did. Saul had a spear in his hand 

11 and he hurled it, saying to himself, “I’ll pin David to the wall.” But David eluded him twice.

12 Saul was afraid of David, because the Lord was with David but had departed from Saul.

Through those years, King Saul tried to kill David.

"But why did God decide to choose David to be the next king? The answer is that God did not choose him because of his age, but his heart was completely devoted to Him. This challenges us to be totally devoted to God in our hearts.

But the LORD said to Samuel, “Do not look at his appearance or at the height of his stature, because I have rejected him; for God sees not as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance,  but the LORD looks at the heart.” 1 Samuel 16:7  (NASB)" From neverthirsty website/bible-qa/qa-archives/question/how-old-was-david-when-samuel-anointed-him-king/

No matter what the danger, we are safe in God's hand.

We can read through the Psalms and imagine the many danger David went through and his heart's cry to the Lord for help.

King Saul who had the upper hand did not need help from God and this hardened his heart.

dan·ger

/ˈdānjər/

noun

the possibility of suffering harm or injury.

"his life was in danger"

Definitions from Oxford Languages

I have been through serious financial harm which later coupled with physical harm in the form of severe depression. I was out of work at a time my children were to start college. I went bankrupt, my fear was that I would not see my eldest daughter graduate college.

My life was in real danger; I opened up my heart to God, I had wordless groans unable to utter anything particular (Romans 8:26).

That was more than 18 years ago, I became a Christian and gave testimony to God's amazing grace.

Then 4 years later I was down with Stevens-Johnson Syndrome due to severe allergy to antibiotics. I had to take steroids, my liver and kidney were affected due to medication overload. I developed severe anxiety.

Bout with Stevens-Johnson Syndrome

I struggled with my prayers. It was that time that I would ask my wife to pray over me during anxiety attacks, also my son, who I would later ask to read to me from the Book of Psalms. In my lonesome, at my lowest point, I uttered,

Into your hands I commit my spirit; deliver me, Lord, my faithful God (Psalm 31:5).

Healing was very slow, yet I fully recovered by God's grace.

God's grace is indeed amazing, He even allowed me to see my children's children (Genesis 48:11).

""One thing I ask from the Lord,

    this only do I seek:

that I may dwell in the house of the Lord

    all the days of my life,

to gaze on the beauty of the Lord

    and to seek him in his temple.

For in the day of trouble

    he will keep me safe in his dwelling;

he will hide me in the shelter of his sacred tent

    and set me high upon a rock.

My heart says of you, “Seek his face!”

    Your face, Lord, I will seek.

I remain confident of this:

    I will see the goodness of the Lord

    in the land of the living" (Psalm 27:4-5, 8, 13). Lord, God of David, I put my trust in You, in Jesus' name. Amen.

5 April 2018"

May you be blessed with God's Word.

Maraming salamat.