Sermon Tone Analysis

February 28, 2012

By John Barnett

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Last time we saw that David had a simple focus in the midst of a very complex life.

As we open to Psalm 19, look with me at the last verse.

Here is the cry of David’s heart, right in front of us, and on paper.

David simply said, “I want my life to please YOU.

Every part, seen or unseen, I want my life to please you.”

14 /Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in Your sight, O LORD, my strength and my Redeemer./

There is it, short and sweet, David unabashedly and as a young man laid open his life before the Lord who was watching.

We know from the record in God's Word that David failed: as a husband, as a father, as a worship leader, as King, and as a friend.

But God does not demand nor expect perfection from his chosen ones.

He just asks for us to love Him with all of our heart, soul, mind, and body.

David loved the Lord, and his life should draw us to want to follow and seek the Lord like he did.

As we hold open our Bibles to Psalm 19 we are looking at the first period of David’s life:

*PERIOD 1: DAVID FROM THE LONELY DAYS OF HIS YOUTH WRITES THREE INCREDIBLE PSALMS (8, 19, 23).*

From his hours out in the wilderness watching sheep and the long nights guarding them under the stars as a young shepherd boy, David was inspired (after the Spirit came upon him in I Samuel 16:13), to write the Spirit prompted lessons of his life we have now in the book of Psalms.

Psalm 19: Pleasing God, not pleasing myself.

David broke with the crowd, stopped getting and seeking approval from his peers and went straight to the top.

He wanted God and God alone to be his goal.

And that was still his desire.

Psalm 23: Following the Good Shepherd for all my Life.

David had watched many sheep for much of his life (I Samuel 16:11,19; 17:15,20) walked through life with confidence because it was settled for him, the Lord was David’s shepherd and as one of the Lord’s sheep, David followed God.

Psalm 8: Living for the Glory of His Name not mine.

Note the preface to Psalm 8 talks about the city of Gath, the first verse and last verses both frame the entire Psalm as focusing on Name of the Lord.

As recorded in I Samuel 17:45, David was concerned about defending, honoring, and standing for the Name of the Lord.

Now, as we turn to I Samuel 19, we come to the second great era of David’s life.

1.

We already saw David anointed by Samuel as King in I Samuel 16.

2. Then Goliath is met and killed by a fearless young David in chapter 17.

3.

In I Samuel 18, King Saul asks David to start working for him full time (v.2), and David becomes best friends with Saul’s son Jonathan.

But Saul becomes more erratic, depressed, jealous, resentful, and finally seek to murder David (v.2,9,11).

David stays in touch and walking with the Lord (v.

14), and eventually David becomes the King’s son-in-law as he marries Michal, Saul’s daughter.

The chapter ends with a striking contrast:

I Samuel 18:28-30 Thus Saul saw and knew that the LORD was with David, and that Michal, Saul’s daughter, loved him; 29 and Saul was still more afraid of David.

So Saul became David’s enemy continually.

30 Then the princes of the Philistines went out to war.

And so it was, whenever they went out, that David behaved more wisely than all the servants of Saul, so that his name became highly esteemed.

On that note we enter:

*PERIOD 2: FROM HIS LONELY, STRUGGLING, YEARS AS A FUGITIVE DAVID WRITES TWENTY-THREE DIFFERENT PSALMS (4, 7, 11, 13, 16-17, 31, 34-36, 39-40, 52-54, 56-57, 59, 63-64, 70, AND 141-142).

*

The context of these dark and lonely days puts a beautiful frame around each of these Psalms.

The prayers, the cries for help, and the affirmations of God’s faithfulness are clearer, dearer, and more memorable from those dark and lonely hours in David’s life.

David repeats in as many ways as possible that: “All the time God is good”; and “God is good, all the time”.

Before we read the story, practice with me the message.

I’ll say: “God is good” and you say: “All the time”.

And then I’ll say: “All the time” and you say: “God is good”.

Ready?

All the Time (God is good)

God is good (All the time).

Now, as we read these 24 verses, see if that is really what we would say, if we didn’t know David’s God!

Listen to God speaking about a tragic event over three thousand years ago!

1 Samuel 19:1-24 /"Now Saul spoke to Jonathan his son and to all his servants, that they should kill David; but Jonathan, Saul’s son, delighted greatly in David. 2 So Jonathan told David, saying, “My father Saul seeks to kill you.

Therefore please be on your guard until morning, and stay in a secret place and hide.

3 And I will go out and stand beside my father in the field where you are, and I will speak with my father about you.

Then what I observe, I will tell you.” 4 Thus Jonathan spoke well of David to Saul his father, and said to him, “Let not the king sin against his servant, against David, because he has not sinned against you, and because his works have been very good toward you.

5 For he took his life in his hands and killed the Philistine, and the LORD brought about a great deliverance for all Israel.

You saw it and rejoiced.

Why then will you sin against innocent blood, to kill David without a cause?” 6 So Saul heeded the voice of Jonathan, and Saul swore, “As the LORD lives, he shall not be killed.”

7 Then Jonathan called David, and Jonathan told him all these things.

So Jonathan brought David to Saul, and he was in his presence as in times past.

8 And there was war again; and David went out and fought with the Philistines, and struck them with a mighty blow, and they fled from him.

9 Now the distressing spirit from the LORD came upon Saul as he sat in his house with his spear in his hand.

And David was playing music with his hand.

10 Then Saul sought to pin David to the wall with the spear, but he slipped away from Saul’s presence; and he drove the spear into the wall.

So David fled and escaped that night.

11 Saul also sent messengers to David’s house to watch him and to kill him in the morning [this is the setting of Palm 59!].

And Michal, David’s wife, told him, saying, “If you do not save your life tonight, tomorrow you will be killed.”

12 So Michal let David down through a window.

And he went and fled and escaped.

13 And Michal took an image and laid it in the bed, put a cover of goats’ hair for his head, and covered it with clothes.

14 So when Saul sent messengers to take David, she said, “He is sick.”

15 Then Saul sent the messengers back to see David, saying, “Bring him up to me in the bed, that I may kill him.”

16 And when the messengers had come in, there was the image in the bed, with a cover of goats’ hair for his head.

17 Then Saul said to Michal, “Why have you deceived me like this, and sent my enemy away, so that he has escaped?”

And Michal answered Saul, “He said to me, ‘Let me go!

Why should I kill you?’” 18 So David fled and escaped, and went to Samuel at Ramah, and told him all that Saul had done to him.

And he and Samuel went and stayed in Naioth.

19 Now it was told Saul, saying, “Take note, David is at Naioth in Ramah!” 20 Then Saul sent messengers to take David.

And when they saw the group of prophets prophesying, and Samuel standing as leader over them, the Spirit of God came upon the messengers of Saul, and they also prophesied.

21 And when Saul was told, he sent other messengers, and they prophesied likewise.

Then Saul sent messengers again the third time, and they prophesied also.

22 Then he also went to Ramah, and came to the great well that is at Sechu.

So he asked, and said, “Where are Samuel and David?”

And someone said, “Indeed they are at Naioth in Ramah.”

23 So he went there to Naioth in Ramah.

Then the Spirit of God was upon him also, and he went on and prophesied until he came to Naioth in Ramah.

24 And he also stripped off his clothes and prophesied before Samuel in like manner, and lay down naked all that day and all that night.

Therefore they say, “Is Saul also among the prophets?”/

Are you ready?

*All the Time (God is good) God is good (All the time).*

In First Sam 18-19 David suffers intense loneliness as he faces family conflict, big life changes, and great danger; and from this deep valley of his life writes Psalms 59 and 11.

Think of everything happening here.

David moves away from home (18:2), joins the army and becomes an officer leading troops (18:5), becomes a national celebrity (18:7), draws the jealous rage of King Saul (18:8-9), faces life threatening situations (spear thrown at him (18:11), meets and marries a nationally known girl (18:17-28)

In I Sam 19:11 as Saul tries to murder him, David writes Psalm 59.

These times of danger are from his boss and father-in-law King Saul.

Instead of being eaten up by the intense loneliness he must have felt with job and family pressures all dumped on him at once—he expresses his needs to God.

His prayerful responses to these tough times are captured in the Psalms and show a pathway through loneliness to the One who is closest of all.

In that time of feeling so alone David writes Psalm 59—how to overcome the feelings of loneliness when we are in danger.

David finds an unshakeable trust in God’s protection.

Some key truths from this Psalm are: