MONDAY, AUGUST 27

Psalm 56:1-13

1 Samuel 21:10-15

“… Be ye therefore wise as serpents,

and harmless as doves.”

SNATCHED FROM THE TIGER’S MOUTH

“When the Philistines took him in Gath,” in the heading of Psalm 56, gives us the occasion of this Psalm. It seems Psalm 34 is penned to express the gladness of deliverance after that event, while Psalm 56 centres on the anxiety before the deliverance. This is another of those instances when David, being cornered in a tight spot, surrounded by enemies on every side, had nowhere to turn but to the sky. He simply had to look up for help from Above. He could encourage himself only in the Lord.

David, having come to find shelter in Gath from Saul’s pursuit, suddenly realised he was enclosed, as it were, in a prison, for the Philistines had practically put him under house arrest. To pluck himself out of the fire, David acted the fool (1 Sam 21:13). In his heart, however, there went up a hundred pleas to God Almighty for deliverance.

“O soul, are you weary and troubled? No light in the darkness you see? There’s light for a look at the Saviour, And life more abundant and free.Turn your eyes upon Jesus, Look full in His wonderful face, And the fear of men will grow strangely dim,In the light of His glory and grace.”-- adapted from Helen H. Lemmel (1864-1961)

How did David encourage himself in the Lord while he pitted his wits against his plotters who were waiting to pounce on him (Ps 56:6)? It was by His Word (Ps 56:4, 10). God’s Word is not only “a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path” (Ps 119:105), but also a source of wisdom that helped David to outwit his enemy (Ps 119:98). His feigning madness was a means whereby God delivered him from the Philistines of Gath. This trial of wits in Gath reminds of David’s earlier outwitting of Saul by scaling out of danger through a window in the night. To fool his captors, Michal (David’s wife) took a statue and laid it in bed. She added a bolster of goats’ hair and covered the resemblance of her husband asleep in bed with a cloth.

THOUGHT: Man’s responsibility and God’s Sovereignty.

PRAYER: Lord, lead me to do what I need to do as I look up to Thee.