It’s time for the roll call of the weary and the harassed. Silently acknowledge “here” if you’ve ever been mistreated, abused, misunderstood, hounded, lied about, cheated, fired, pursued. And silently acknowledge “present” if you’ve ever felt all alone because of the above. 

 

In our scripture text, David felt all of this, plus some. He was being pursued by King Saul and his army. And our text says it was unrelenting: “Saul sought him every day…” You can feel the pressure mounting. David felt cornered, tired, defeated. I remind you that this was no game. Saul had tried to kill David, had hired people to kill David and had even killed others who gave refuge to David. Truly, David was running for his life.

 

The area we called The Holy Land has a ridge of mountains, like a spine, running down the middle of it. Ziph was a rocky region south of Hebron. David knew his only chance of surviving was to resort to guerrilla tactics. Saul was in pursuit, going around one side of the mountain as David crept around the other. And Saul would have captured him, but was called back to fight the Philistines. And that place was called…guess what? “The Rock of Escape.” What a close call!

 

David, the songwriter-poet, wrote about it. Turn in your Bibles to Psalm 18. Notice the superscription above the text: “To the leader. A Psalm of David the servant of the Lord, who addressed the words of this song to the Lord on the day when the Lord delivered him from the hand of all his enemies, and from the hand of Saul. He said: And then the scripture, vv. 1-2: ¹I love you, O Lord, my strength. ²The Lord is my rock, my fortress, and my deliverer, my God, my rock in whom I take refuge, my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold. ³

 

The Hebrew word for fortress in v. 2 means “strong place, castle.” The words take refuge (KJV, to trust) mean “to confide, have hope, protection.” Think of the hymns and choruses we sing to celebrate this truth of God’s sheltering, protecting care: “He Hideth My Soul”, “Rock of Ages”, “Jesus Is A Rock In A Weary Land”, “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God”, and many more.

 

I read one woman’s testimony of a childhood experience. Her dad had taken her boating on the river. Without warning, a storm came. Lightening streaked the sky, as if looking for children in a metal boat. “Lie down,” shouted father. Dad guided the boat to the shore. He pointed to a rocky cliff and they climbed to a cave in the side of a rock formation. There, they huddled in safety till the storm passed. [Judith Fulp-Eickstaedt, from The Upper Room].

 

Sometimes, life’s storms come quickly, without warning. And all we can do is hide in God’s love and care. Oh, sure, some of our pain is self-inflicted. Some is not. But guess what? God doesn’t wait for us to get perfect before He cares for us. God doesn’t wait for us to have our act together, to reach perfection before He offers shelter and care. He doesn’t wait for a 100% score on all our tests before He seeks a relationship with us.

 

Think of the humiliation David experienced. Right when he was rising as a young star, he was suddenly being hunted down like a scared rabbit. When we’re being pursued and hounded, brought to nothing by humiliation, our life reduced to hiding in caves, we can’t waste our energy on self-pity, on resentment and revenge. We need to spend our energy finding God’s guidance through it. Charles Swindoll wrote, “When the sovereign God brings us to nothing, it is to reroute our lives, not to end them.”

 

During a crisis, it’s so easy to look backward (how good life used to be, or bemoaning our mistakes); or to look forward (with dread, fear or the hope of revenge). But instead of looking back or looking forward, why don’t you first try to look up? That’s what David did. And you can, too. Experience the sheltering love of God!