Safe with the Shepherd

Good morning. This morning we're thinking about safety and refuge. At some point in all of our lives, we recognize we need to find refuge in the midst of fear, trouble, difficulty. Why and where we find refuge says a lot about us. Some reasons you might be actually wanting refuge and safety, financial problems, health worries, relational conflict or confusion. There's a number of different fears that would drive us to refuge. And well, then the other issue is where. A lot of folks find refuge in a substance, to numb. Some in isolation, some in busyness, some entertainment. Let's just face it, we all have coping mechanisms. Some of them are just healthier than others. This morning we're looking at the one true refuge, Jesus Christ. If you're wanting a one summary statement of the passage, find safety in the good shepherd. Find safety in the good shepherd. The Lord is at work and his work is for our good. We're going through 1 Samuel, if you're new with us here. You can turn there in the Pew Bible, and please take that with you if you don't have a Bible. We want to walk through the book and sort of catch us up where we've been. God has brought judgment on Eli and his house because he did not discipline his sons. God's holy things were being handled by what the Bible calls worthless men. They weren't leading people in worship. They were being selfish. God raises up Samuel, where the word of the Lord was rare, and then with Samuel, the word of the Lord went all throughout Israel. Samuel was a judge, a prophet, even functions as a priest in some ways. The people then tell Samuel, we want a king like the nations. And this is clearly them rejecting God as their king. And so God gives them Saul, and Saul is confirmed in chapters 9 through 11. The people are called to repent, and then Saul is rejected in 13 and 15. Saul is a man who will not listen to God, he will not obey God, and therefore God rejects him. We then see this turning point in the story. David and Goliath. David slays the giant, and then the Spirit of the Lord comes upon David. The Spirit of the Lord leaves Saul. We see a changing in the guard in the private anointment, in the private anointed one of God, but Saul still reigns. He still has all the power. You start seeing this conflict. Saul against David. Last week we saw Jonathan was for David, Saul's son. Saul was against David, and then Saul's anger even burned against his own son. He sees Saul getting more and more out of control because he does not submit to the Lord. Finally, Jonathan tells David to flee because it's clear his father wants to kill him, and that's where we pick up. If you're looking for an outline, there are three basic sections. David flees, that's 21.1 through 22.5. David flees, that's one clear response when there's conflict. And we see him actually flee a number of times. He keeps moving about. Chapter 22, verse 6 begins a second main section. Saul fights. Saul fights. And then we finally see David as faithful. David flees. Saul fights. David is faithful. Look at Chapter 21, verse 1. David came to Nob. Nob is a section of Jerusalem. This is where the high priest would make sacrifices. This is where the tabernacle is. He came to Nob to Ahimelech, the priest. And Ahimelech came to meet David trembling. Why is the priest trembling as David approaches? We just heard read from chapter 22, verse 15, that David came often. Why a trembling? Well, we might see the clue here in verse one. Why are you alone and no one with you? Now David has some friends with him, but David is a man of war. David is actually a commander of God's armies, and typically when David would come to the priest, he probably would have a royal guard with him. He would have the trappings of royalty because he's being sent by the king on a regular basis, and so when Ahimelech sees David coming along, he's trembling. What's wrong? Why are you coming alone? It seems to be the main difference. David said to Emelech the priest, the king has charged me with a matter and said to me, let no one know anything of the matter about which I send you and with which I have charged you. I have made an appointment with the young men for such and such a place. Now then, what do you have on hand? Give me bread. We gotta wrestle with this for a moment. We need to take a break and kind of step back and ask, what is David doing? He's fleeing the king who wants to kill him, and now he just told Ahimelech he has been sent on charge of the king. This looks like a lie, because it is a lie. Now, let's just take a break, step back and think about this. We're not looking at Scripture for all the great moral examples. We're looking at Scripture that's actually pretty real and raw about the sinfulness of man and the graciousness of God. David isn't a perfect man. Yes, he's a man after God's own heart, but that's because he responds properly. Now another question is, is David actually condemned in Scripture for this life. It's not clear. We don't have a whole lot of God speaking into the story until the very last fleeing, where the prophet Gad comes to David and says, go back to Judah. People all over the place with this declaration. Some say it's not a lie. Because David could honestly say in his own way, the king charged me. because he does refer to God as his king. Now, another problem with that is that, by the most basic definition, it's misdirection, because Ahimelech obviously is thinking he's referring to Saul. And you can see kind of the way he's squirmy. You know, the king has charged me, and no one needs to know, all right? Children, anytime somebody says, keep this secret, go tell your parents. It's such a, such a place. to do such and such a job. All right, it's already squirmy. Some will say he's not lying because he's doing a good word and it even looks like he's trying to protect Ahimelech, who he knows Saul's going to rage against if he finds out he's conspiring with him. But he's also clearly misdirecting. I leave the judgment up to you as to how you wrestle with this particular misdirection. We're also gonna see him here in a moment act crazy just to get out of danger. Is he a man of faith? Is he fleeing? His fleeing is obviously rational. He's not forthright. Let's go back to our story. And David said to him, look, the priest, the king has charged me. I have made an appointment with a young man for such and such a place. Verse three, now then, what do you have on hand? Give me five loaves of bread or whatever is here. Okay, so David is coming to the priest, and he's coming because the priest would be a safe place to go, because he knows the Himalayac, and he wants provision. Well, there's a problem. The priest answers, I have no common bread on hand, but there is holy bread. If the young men have kept themselves from women, and David answered the priest, truly women have been kept from us as always when I go on an expedition, The vessels of the young men are holy even when in his ordinary journey. How much more today will their vessels be holy? So the priest gave him the holy bread, for there was no bread there but the bread of the presence, which is removed from before the Lord to be replaced by hot bread on the day it is taken. All right, so God, in his teaching us, declares certain things holy. We need to recognize and remember that those things are not holy in and of themselves. It's bread, just like other bread. But what God does is he says, this bread is to be set apart and to be marked off for a special purpose. We usually think of holiness and reverence as just having boundaries. There are boundaries when it comes to things of holiness because God wants to teach us about reverence. But usually holiness also has a purpose to it. God calls out for a purpose. And this bread was to symbolize, there were typically 12 loaves, they were in a holy place, and they recognized the 12 tribes, and they're only to be eaten by the priests. David is of the tribe of Judah. He's not a priest. How is it that David gets to eat the holy bread? Thankfully, we can turn to Matthew 12 and we can see Jesus actually references this story. If you recall, the Pharisees who really emphasized holiness and its boundaries, not the purposes, they're upset because the disciples are taking grain on the Sabbath. And the Lord says, do you not read? You realize how offensive that has to be for a Pharisee, right? Do you not read the books you pretend to be masters of? David, he took the bread that was unlawful for him. It's supposed to be out of bounds. And then he gives this declaration. Mercy is more than sacrifice. Mercy is more to be desired than sacrifice. Something better is here. It seems like what Jesus is saying is, I am here as the Lord of the Sabbath, something even better than the temple, and because of the purposes for which I've come, these things are good. Yes, we're crossing a boundary, but God's purposes are in place, and David is a unique king, who is also a king priest, and he is going to come in, and the need for mercy allows him to participate in the purposes of the bread. Jesus excuses it, so therefore we understand he's not wrong in taking it. So we've got a fleeing David, a trembling priest, and then we got David eating holy bread. This is already kind of an entertaining, interesting story. Verse seven. Now a certain man of the servants of Saul was there that day, detained before the Lord. His name was Doeg the Edomite, the chief of Saul's herdsmen. Now, if this were a movie, as this is playing out, the camera would just kind of land on Doeg. Maybe some eerie music, maybe an unusual facial expression. It would make sure he stands out just in our memory. He's there. If you remember who the Edomites are, they're children of Esau. Jacob, I have loved, the descendants of the promise line. Esau, I have hated, not the chosen lineage. Edomites have been opposed to Israelites, and that's very important for our context and what's going to come up next. But here, verse seven is introducing us to a problem. Doeg, the Edomite, he's there. Remember that. Then David said to Ahimelech, then have you not here a spear or a sword at hand? For I have brought neither my sword nor my weapons with me because the king's business required haste. And the priest said, the sword of Goliath, the Philistine, whom you struck down in the Valley of Elah, behold, it is here wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod. If you will take that, take it, for there is none but that here. And David said, there is none like that, give it to me. Now this is going back to 1 Samuel 16. Remember, David is a sling man. And Goliath's sword might be as tall as David. This isn't a weapon fit for him, but he's going to take it. He needs a weapon. I kind of just ponder here for a second. What was supposed to happen in 1 Samuel 16 is Saul, the king who's taller than everybody else, was supposed to go out and fight the giant who's taller than everybody else and defeat him. And the trophy of that defeat is a sword. Why is a sword hidden behind some stuff in a temple? It's because David killed him, Not Saul, right? If you have a palace and you killed Goliath, where would you put the sword? I'm gonna hang it over the kitchen table so that everyone who comes sees it and asks me to tell the story again. It's a symbol of the mightiness of God and the heroic, courageous faith. But because it wasn't Saul, it's David, this very important relic or icon, it's hidden away. So we see David coming to a friend, he gets provision, he gets armed, and then we keep fleeing. He is a man on the run. He goes to Gath. Verse 10, second flight. David rose and fled that day, from Saul and went to Akish, the king of Gath. The servants of Akish said to him, is this not David, the king of the land? Did they not sing to one another of him in dances? Now it is interesting they're calling him king, because Israel's not yet declaring him king, even though they love him and honor him. And the song that Saul heard and was angered by has even come to the Philistines. Saul has struck down his thousands, and David his ten thousands, and thousands of whom? Philistines. David hears it. David took these words to heart and was much afraid of Achish the king of Gath because he now knows that David is the one who has been killing large quantities, his own people. He's been fighting the Philistines and now he's in danger. So he changed his behavior before them and pretended to be insane in their hands and made marks on the doors of the gate and let his spittle run down his beard. And then Akish said to his servants, behold, you see the man is mad. Why then have you brought him to me? Do I lack madmen? Have you brought this fellow to behave as a madman in my presence? Shall this fellow come into my house? David's fleeing. He's pretending to be something he's not so that he can get away because he's in danger. He is a man on the run and he continues to flee. Third flight, David departed from there and escaped to the cave of Adullam, which that word means refuge. And when his brothers and all his father's house heard it, they went down there to him. Why would his family come to him? They're in danger too. If there's an enemy, the friends of the enemy are your enemy, and his family would be now an enemy of Saul, would be in danger against Saul, and so they're fleeing with David. Verse four, and he left them with the king of Moab, another flight. And they stayed with him all the time that David was in the stronghold. So here we see David has fled, and he's fled, and he's fled, he's gotten armed, he's gotten bread, he's protected himself by acting the way he's not. Interesting there in the cave here, verse two, everyone who was in distress, and everyone who was in debt, and everyone who was bitter in soul, gathered them. Saul is receiving the rascals of Saul's kingdom. Those who are unhappy with Saul, those who are in debt to Saul, those who are in danger of Saul, David is receiving them and he is now becoming their king. What do we make of this flight and what David's doing? It appears at best interpretation, trying to think the best of David, David's pattern is protect, protect, protect. It seems like he's protecting Ahimelech. He's protecting himself. And now he's protecting those who are bitter, those who are in debt, his own family. David's a shepherd. One of the jobs of a shepherd is to protect. Now let's turn to Saul, who fights. We have a complete change of scene. We've been tracing David, who's been fleeing, fleeing, fleeing, and now we have a new scene. We have a whole new camera angle. Saul heard that David was discovered, verse six of verse 22, and the men who are with him, and notice where Saul lives. He's back at Gibeah. This is his hometown. Saul is a Benjaminite. And just to refresh our history, Gibeah is not a place with a good reputation. Gibeah is the place where the men raped a concubine to death and brought a civil war to Israel. This is where Israel got their king from, that they chose, that they desired a king like the nation. He's back in Gibeah, under the tamarisk tree, in the hideout with a spear in his hand, and all his servants were standing about him. And Saul said to his servants who stood about him, he's here with his people and his hometown as king. Here now, people of Benjamin, will the son of Jesse give every one of you fields and vineyards? Will he make you commanders of thousands and commanders of hundreds? that all of you have conspired against me. Okay, first question, he's throwing an accusation. You all have conspired against me with the son of Jesse. I'm a Benjamite, you're a Benjamite. If I'm in power, will I not help you, my people? Why would you help the son of Jesse, someone from Judah? He's asking a question, accusing them of working against him when he's saying, I can help you if you help me. He continues, no one discloses to me when my son makes a covenant with the son of Jesse. Did they know? The covenant with Jonathan and David seemed to be somewhat of a private friendship. He's accusing everyone of knowing this great problem and not talking to them and even making it a great problem. Keep going. Verse eight, continuing in verse eight. None of you is sorry for me or discloses to me that my son has stirred up my servant against me to lie and wait as at this day. Well, this is a royal pity party. Poor Saul the king. Everybody is against me. No one discloses to me. All of you are trying to help the one who's lying in wait. Now notice how many lies are in here. David's not lying in wait for Jonathan. David is not lying in wait for Saul. Jonathan is not conspiring against his own father. He's simply committed to God's anointed one. He's in his own mind creating this narrative that's me against the world. He's a big victim. Left alone, this is where our minds go. We see a really kind of sad pity party. You don't feel sorry for me? You're not helping me? And notice, none of the servants answer. What are you supposed to say at this point? He's just accused you of working against him and conspiring against him. His servants are all quiet. And then someone speaks. Who is it? Doeg the Edomite. Then answered Doeg the Edomite, who stood by the servants of Saul, I saw the son of Jesse coming to Nob, to Himaluk, the son of Ahitub, and he inquired of the Lord for him, He gave him provisions, and he gave him the sword of Goliath, the Philistine. Okay, those things are all true, but notice what he's left out. Saul and Dovecq, they're very similar. Well, let's actually go back for a moment. What did Saul leave out of his sob story? I did throw my spirit, David, three times we know of. I did try to kill my own son, Jonathan, and try to throw the spear at him. I was actually confronted by Jonathan, who asked me, what has David ever done to me? And I said, actually, nothing. He should live. Okay, forget that. Forget that I've been angry at him and jealous of him because of this song. Doeg, the Edomite, he makes it sound like there's this great conspiracy between Ahimelech and David. He's feeding Saul's lie. He doesn't mention that Himelech actually was afraid. He doesn't mention that David came and said, I'm on a secret mission from the king. He didn't say Himelech didn't know about the conspiracy. He makes it look as if Himelech is conspiring against him. Verse 11, then the king sent to summon Himelech, the priest, the son of Ahitub, and all his father's house and the priests who were at Nob, and all of them came to the king. And Saul said, hear now, son of Ahitub. And he answered, here I am. The priest seems to be answering with a clear conscience. He seems to not be afraid. He doesn't mention anything about terror. He had to know something was up with David, and now that all they're being called, there's probably some suspicion, but he seems to have a clear conscience. Notice Saul's first words, verse 13. Why have you conspired against me? That's not the helpful first question. The first question shouldn't assume guilt. The first question should ask, what happened? Tell me about this meeting with David. But he's already loaded the whole statement You, why? Not have you, but why have you? Guilt is already declared. Why have you conspired against me, you and the son of Jesse, and that you have given him bread and a sword and have inquired of God for him so that he may rise against me? Ahimelech answers. It's hard to answer that kind of question. when there was assumed guilt already, but Ahimelech answers, and notice how similar his answer is to Jonathan. When Jonathan talks to Saul about David, he says, what has he done? He's a guiltless man. Ahimelech first defends the honor of David. Who among all your servants is so faithful as David? He's not conspiring against you. He's not lying in wait for you. Who was the king's son-in-law and captain over your bodyguard and honored in your house? The previous chapter, the reason David got in so much trouble is he wasn't at the dinner table. You have to be a very special guest. You're either born to eat at the dinner table or you're adopted into the dinner table. Only those who are honored with the king get to eat at the king's table. He's reminding him, you have given your daughter to him. You have commanded him over your own bodyguard. You've honored him in your own house. What are you talking about? Then verse 15, it's today the first time I've inquired of God for him. You send him to me all the time to go out on missions and I'm regularly interceding for him to go on your missions. This isn't the first time. Let not the king impute anything to his servants or to all the house of my father. for your servant has known nothing of all this, much or little. That's a pretty reasonable defense. David's your own servant, you've appointed him the leader of your bodyguard, you've given him your own daughter, you let him eat in your own house, and now you're bringing this charge against me? I knew nothing of it? That's very reasonable, right? Wisdom from below isn't reasonable, according to James 3. We see the king has already declared the story, he's declared the narrative, it doesn't matter what the facts are, he's got the narrative, he's already decided there has to be guilt, he is raging, somebody has to die. The king said, verse 16, you shall surely die, Ahimelech, you and all your father's house. Why have you conspired against me? No answer was even helpful because there's no way to convince him otherwise. Now verse 17 stands out. And the king said to the guard, his own personal guard, those whom he trusts his life with, those who've been with him, his closest servants and friends, and kill the priests of the Lord, because their hand is also with David, and they knew that he fled and did not disclose it to me. But the servants of the king would not put out their hand to strike the priests of the Lord. There's a lot right here. First we can see his own servants aren't buying this. They're reasonable. They're not wrapped up into this anger, this selfishness. They just heard his pity party and couldn't answer all that. Now they don't know what to do because they're being commanded to do something that's impossible. It's treason not to obey this command. Also notice this explicit, specific declaration, they wouldn't strike the priest. They have a reverence for the position. That's a motif that starts right now. The motif is do not touch God's anointed. The next section's gonna be loaded with this because David could take Saul's life over and over again but refuses to because he has a reverence for God and his anointed. We see his troops have a reverence for God and his anointed. We see no reverence for Saul because he's so worked up in his own selfish rebellion. He has reverence, but it's only for himself. The servants would not put out their hand. So now we've got a dilemma. This is actually a wonderful moment for Saul to stop, reassess, take inventory, and think about his actions. His own guard is refusing. This is an opportunity to maybe reconsider what's going on But he can't stop here. And so he turns, verse 18, the king says to Doeg, the Edomite, you turn and instruct the priest. Doeg, who has no reverence for God, like his king, Doeg, who has no reverence for the Israel people, or the priest, like the king, obeys the king's order. Doeg the Edomite turned and struck down the priest, and he killed on that day 85 persons who wore the linen ephod. And Nob, the son of the priest, he put to the sword both man and woman, child and infant, ox, donkey, and sheep he put to the sword. Now, we gotta remember something. Saul is rejected three times. Once in chapter 13, once in 14, once in 15. The 15 is the final rejection. 15's rejection is because Saul is commanded by God directly and explicitly to go wipe out the Amalekites. To kill man, woman, child, ox, donkey, camel, sheep. Remember what happened? Saul said, no, I'm gonna keep some of those sheep. and make them sacrifices. I'm gonna be super spiritual. Instead of obedience, I'm gonna figure out a way to be super spiritual. I'm gonna find a way to excuse God's word. He will not go obey God in the most simple, direct order regarding God's enemy, but now think about this. He's a king like the nations. He just empowered the Edomite, a man from another nation, to wipe out his own people. them to absolute destruction. Saul is about himself and it's about his own business. He is the opposite of a king. He's not seeking to protect others. He's not seeking to promote others. He's not seeking to help others. He's about me, me, me, and whatever he wants to believe in whatever lies he's told himself. And he's found this foreigner to be his help. It's remarkable. How did Saul get here? Lots of little foolish decisions. This didn't just happen all of a sudden. He's not this wicked all of a sudden. It's regularly not obeying the Lord, regularly not having a reverence, not being patient, not trusting the Lord, and now we see he is fully invested in his rage and he must continue and commit to his own narrative. It's amazing to see how he will not obey God, but he'll obey his own passions. The opposite of a king. There's something else here that actually makes it even more complicated. We know from the next little section here, verses 20 through 23, there's one survivor, Abiathar. In 1 Samuel chapter two, 31 through 33, God sends a prophet to Eli. And the prophet warns Eli, you have not corrected your sons, you've not disciplined your sons, you've allowed your sons to continue to abuse the people and take from the sacrifices. Therefore, Eli, you will not have an inheritance, you will not have a lineage. You'll have one survivor from your household. That's interesting. God warned Eli, decades before, your entire clan will be wiped out. Saul, in his evil rage with an Edomite, just fulfilled God's prophecy. Does that make sense? That's complicated. That's kind of difficult. I want us to see the most basic observation God is still sovereign over evil. He does not commit evil. What man intends for evil, God uses for good. God is bringing about his good and right purpose. And even Saul in this rage is still under God's hand in his limits in what he does. We see Saul being just like a king of the nations. He's raging against God's anointed. God laughs. God derides him and mocks him. they can't do anything outside of God's power and even what he does do fulfills God's own prophecy. It helps us recognize and while we can sing, be still my soul, even in the midst of what appears to be absolute evil, absolute chaos, God's hand is still powerful and in control. We've seen David flee. We've seen David misdirect. We've seen David gather himself a bag of rascals and a gang of rascals. He's a commander, he's protected his family, and now he's going back to Judah. Saul has wiped out an entire city of his own people. And now we see David is faithful. But one of the sons of Himalek, the son of Ahitub, named Abiathar, he escaped and fled after David. Notice how David is the refuge. And Abiathar told David that Saul had killed the priest of the Lord. And David said to Abiathar, I knew on that day. Referring back to chapter 21, verse seven, when Doeg is first introduced. I knew on that day, when Doeg the Edomite was there, that he would surely tell Saul, I have occasioned the death of all the persons of your house. Stay with me, do not be afraid, for he who seeks my life seeks your life. With me, you shall be in safe keeping. There's two things David does here that I believe stand out. One in 22, one in 23. After he hears of it, he takes whatever responsibility he can for what happened. I have occasioned The second thing is he promises refuge. Stay with me, I will make a promise, I will keep you safe. Let's look at that occasion. What does that mean that David says I have occasioned the death? He clearly is not taking personal, culpable responsibility for the murder because he himself did not order it, Saul did. He himself did not execute it, Doeg did. What does it mean to occasion death? this kind of sin. He's taking responsibility for playing a part. He has participated. He is the one who set up the occasion. And he's recognizing it with grief and remorse. I find this helpful because there's typically occasion behind sin. We think of a parent who enables a child, a parent who does not discipline a child, a parent who does not teach a child a sense of right or wrong. He continues to give them money and privileges. They bless their disobedience. And then when the child acts out and sins in a way that causes damage and danger, the parents aren't culpable for the actions of the child, but they are part of the occasion. Now, there was a movement in the 70s and 80s that wanted everybody to blame their parents for everything that was wrong with them. That's not what this is. You have to take responsibility for your actions, but realize that the relationships we have, we are oftentimes an occasion for something like this. The opposite's true if a parent is exasperating a child, if always teaching them and hounding them and overburdening them. When the child's rebellious against all authority, the parent's the occasion. This happens in not all affairs, but some or most. A spouse finds eyes for another. They find another more delightful than their own spouse, and the occasion may be neglect. The neglecting spouse isn't responsible for the person's sin, but they are responsible for their own neglect. It's an occasion. I think we have to think about this well. You're not culpable, but there's some responsibility there. We do affect others in the way they perceive us and themselves and their actions. When you realize there's effects. And see here the humility of David. He wants to take any and all responsibility he can. He cannot say I caused their death, but he's the occasion. It's a helpful category to have. Unlike Saul, who's just a victim, poor me, don't you feel sorry for me, David is a man, he's a king, he takes responsibility. The second thing we see with David is he promises safety. This is a big promise. I've got 400 troops, the king hates them too, he hates me, we'll keep you safe. That's a big promise in front of a big obstacle. David makes this big promise, and the reason he's able to make this promise is what we saw last week. The Lord was with David. The Lord was with David. The Lord was with David. The Lord made David successful. We see, I believe, some faith here. Unlike Saul, David is trusting God. Unlike Saul, who is raging against his own people, David is protecting His people, He is clearly the good King. Let's move to some application. In every passage we need to consider what sin or what fallen condition is being revealed and what is the Christ's solution. Those are two good categories to always be thinking about in a story like this. And the sin is pretty clear, it's Saul. He's selfish. and therefore angry, and therefore rebellious. That threefold sin is all related, the selfishness, the anger, the rebellion, the lack of reverence for God has had him so reverent for himself that he's just gone crazy himself, not acting like David, but in true rebellion. It's a warning. First person I think we need to actually think about if we identify with in the story is Saul. How do we create these own little narratives in our mind when we leave ourselves to a lack of correction? How easy is it to come up in our own minds this kind of, it's just me and everybody's against me, and it just raves up and it stirs up. When we leave ourselves to ourselves, We're left in our sin. It's a warning. Over and over again, we see in scripture, if you just do what seems right in your own eyes, you are committed to your own destruction. There's a selfishness. It's about me. There's an anger. How come nobody else is about me? Isn't that funny? If you want to help people to God, there's actually rejoicing. If you want people to be about you, there's always disappointment, because nobody else is about you the same way you're about you. Or at least me about me. As we consider these sins, Philippians 2 is a helpful gospel correction. Paul says if there's any encouragement in Christ, have the same mind as Christ. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility consider others more important than yourself. He's using Christ as the model. Christ who did not Claiming equality with God is something to be grasped, but Christ who poured himself out, Christ who humbled himself to the point of death, even death on the cross, he is the true king who dies for us. How can we boast in selfish ambition when we profess salvation in such a saving? James 1.19, be slow to anger. because human anger does not produce the righteousness of God. There's a wonderful category and a wonderful warning. We can see here with Saul, human anger does not produce the righteousness of God. There's something horribly wrong when the person in charge has a tantrum. When a child has a tantrum, the parents are there to guide, correct, love. When the parent has a tantrum, when the one in charge has a tantrum, everybody's hurt. It's destructive. It's damaging. We realize how painful and how dangerous our sin is and how it really is fed from our lack of reverence for God and only a reverence for us. Believer, be warned. Establishing patterns of selfish ambition, selfish thinking, me-centeredness leads to this kind of toxic destruction. That's the warning. Now here the Christ solution. David is functioning like a good king. He's a good shepherd. He receives, he protects, he provides. He is foreshadowing Christ who is the good shepherd. We can think of John 10 here, where Jesus says, I am the good shepherd. I know my sheep. They know me. I call them out by name and they come to me. It's personal. There's a intimate, personal love that Christ gives to each one who comes to him. He knows our tendencies, he knows our histories, he knows our sin, and yet he still says, I will love you. I will take care of you. The most important act that Jesus does as our good shepherd is he lays down his life for us. Because the biggest problem we have isn't any kind of sin or anger out there. The biggest problem we have is a sin and anger in here. We're not like Abiathar. Abiathar, he's running away from Saul's anger. We're coming to Jesus to be protected from our own anger. Jesus says, I've come to die for you. When He dies on the cross, He provides forgiveness. He provides healing. He sends His Holy Spirit to actually do a work in us so that we actually start putting on kindness and putting off anger. The gospel call of the Good Shepherd is, come to me. I'll help you. I'll keep you. I'll forgive you. I'll heal you. I'll heal you of your own sin. I've done a Christian this morning, that is the call. It's not the dangers out there that need to be worried about, it's the dangers in here that just, they torment us, there's no control of them. Christ says I'm greater. The good shepherd, he rounds us up. Rascals with debt, rascals with bitterness. all who are far off, all who are in trouble, he says, come to me. The woman accused of adultery, he helped her. She found safety in Jesus. The woman in the city judged by the scribes who was weeping at Jesus' feet, she found safety and peace with Jesus. The woman who had a lifelong bleeding, she found safety with Jesus. The man whose daughter was dying, he found safety with Jesus. Lazarus, who was dead in the grave, when Jesus called him, found safety in Jesus. There's not a problem he can't help you with. But you have to trust him. Now I was hoping for time to have a bonus sermon. Members meeting vote. Everybody turn to Psalm 52 real quick. I'm just gonna point you there. Page 474. This is important only because this is David's psalm reflecting on the day that Doeg conspired with Saul against him. Why do you boast of evil, O mighty man? The steadfast love of God endures all the day. He's speaking of Doeg. Why do you boast of evil? Why put lies on your lips? Why have this conspiracy? Why have this internal lie? Why work up against God? The steadfast love of God endures all the day. I'll leave the rest of it for you to read. But just capture the contrast. Commit yourself to sin and your own destruction? Trust the steadfast love of God. that endures all the day. We all need refuge. Why are you seeking refuge? Where are you seeking refuge? Turn to Christ and find safety in the Good Shepherd. Will you pray with me? Father, we thank you, Lord, for your kindness We thank you, Lord, that you have given us your steadfast love that endures all the day. We thank you that you have given us your word that gives light into the darkness of our own minds. You speak truth into our world of lies. You give us good friends who will help correct us. Help us, Lord, to not trust in our own power, which will lead to our own destruction. Help us, Lord, to trust you. Thank you that Jesus is our good shepherd. Thank you that Jesus has come to provide us the refuge we need. Help us turn to him. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.