Well we're continuing in our series in the life of David if you're new to these Bible studies this evening. We've been looking at David's life. There is more written in the Old Testament about the man David than I believe any other character and therefore that's for a reason. David's experiences will mirror the experiences in the Christian life. We battle with a great enemy. His enemy was Saul and in many ways Saul pictures the devil, Satan, a fierce enemy. A fierce enemy that would have David's life and Satan would come and he would devour whom he may. Now we come this evening to 1 Samuel 22 and in some ways I'm just going to pause and hesitate and reflect on just the first two verses. We shall have a few comments about the rest of the chapter, which is a little bit more about Saul. But what we have here is a metaphor, a picture, cave, a dullum. It is, and it's been taken down through the years, as a representation of the struggles and the darkness and the difficulties that we will have from time to time in the Christian life. David's on the run. He's gone from place to place to place. He should have stayed with the prophet Samuel, but he's run. He's gone from here to there. He's seeking refuge, he's sought help in the wrong places, from the wrong people, but now he comes to the cave. He shouldn't have been there. He should have trusted the Lord. But, be that as it may, he finds himself in the cave. So our title tonight is, With David in the Cave. I want us to go there, almost literally. It's a place as we shall see that there's a great deal of archaeological evidence to support that we know where it is and the evidence that has been discovered fits exactly the text as it always does and so we want to go to the cave and we're going to see in David he's had a bad chapter so to speak he'd fallen into sin He'd been dishonest, he'd lied, he'd deceived, he'd acted, he'd pretended, he'd fibbed. But we see him here and the Lord meets with his servant. David, the one who is going to become the King of Israel. But he's serving his apprenticeship. It's a long apprenticeship. He'll first become king of Judah and then king of all of Israel. So let's just look at these two verses. David therefore departed. He departs from Gath and Achish. And Achish was the king. And he comes to this cave. He's on the run. It says he escaped to the cave of Dullam. This is a dark, dark place. This is one of the low points of David's life and I don't know about you, some people have many low points in their life. Some great sadness in the family, some great illness, some terrible news. David is there and he's got a great enemy. Three times the javelin has been picked up by Saul and he's managed to dodge the arrow as it's landed in the wall and David now finds himself at rock bottom. He escapes to the cave And somehow, I think it's the providence of God, his brothers and his father's house, his mother and father, they hear about it. Saul doesn't initially find out where David is, but his family does. The network was working for his favour and against Saul. And so it says down in verse 3, we'll come back to verse 2, David went thence to Mizpah, he leaves the cave and he goes to Moab and he asks the king of Moab who's obviously not an Israelite, he's not one of his own, will you look after my father and mother? Well, I think there's even a parallel with Christ there. When Christ was on the cross, who did Christ especially make provision for? His own mother, we believe. Joseph had died by then, but Mary was entrusted to John, the disciple that Jesus loved. And here David is going to be in the middle of his great battle. the enemy Saul is after him. We'll see further evidence of that later on. But David pauses, his whole frame of mind seems to have changed and he says to the king of Moab, let my father and my mother, I pray thee come forth until I know what God will do for me. He's trusting again. He was faithless and fearful, but now he's waiting on the Lord. Until I know what God will do for me. I want you to look after. Why Moab? Well, those of you that remember us looking at Ruth, Ruth was a Moabite. And David, therefore, his great-grandmother, if I've got the generations right, his great-grandmother was Ruth and Moab was a place that he was drawn to. It seemed like a suitable place for his parents to be out of the heat of the battle and David takes care for them. That's very instructive, isn't it? We have got responsibilities to our parents, to relatives, One of the distinctive qualities of the Christian life is we take those responsibilities seriously. In other cultures, the oldest son or oldest child has the specific responsibility to make provision. David is the youngest child. But he's the one that takes provision for his parents. The other thing that's interesting, verse 1, we come back to that. His brethren and all his father's house come to him. The last time we heard about them, how did his brothers treat him? Little David, the youngest brother. He's come to watch the battle with the Philistines. No, he hadn't. He'd come in faith. and he would defeat Goliath. Their whole attitude now has changed. He's the anointed king, the crown prince. He has got the Spirit of God upon him, the special unction of the Holy Spirit. He's got power. Yes, he's been through a bad patch. the Holy Spirit is still upon him and it seems like the family are respectful and they are wanting to be with David they go to the cave that's very significant but let's move on this cave where's the location well you can read about a dullum Genesis 38 verse 1 that's the first mention and then you can read again in Joshua 15 35 a dolom is a place mentioned several times in the Word of God and we believe scholars have identified a dolom with a place called aid elmar 13 miles southwest of of Bethlehem in the same valley of Elah where Goliath was killed. Near to Bethlehem it all fits the biblical narrative. There are limestone hills and in those hills there is an enormous network of caves. The limestone is soft and they could have chiseled through and made caves. Why am I laboring this point? Because it says in verse 2 that with David there was 400 men. 400 men in a cave. Must have been a big cave or a big series of caves. But this area not far from Bethlehem the area of Judah as we would call it in Bible times has been found and the network of caves are still there some of them large enough huge caverns to hold hundreds of people just exactly as the Word of God says Whenever archaeology discovers something, it fits perfectly with the biblical narrative and the skeptics are made to be fools. The word Adulam means refuge or retreat. So it was a cave of refuge. But what we shall see is the refuge isn't really the cave. The refuge is the Lord. because the Lord met with them in the cave. And David's whole attitude, we shall look at a couple of Psalms, his whole attitude turns round. He's no longer looking to solve his own problems. He's no longer running away. He's standing still in the cave looking to the Lord. So there he is in the cave, the cave of Adullam. They've actually found pottery in some of these caves that fits the Canaanite and then the Judean era, and so it seems to fit so well the Word of God. Now this cave was more than just a place of retreat. David, as the song had gone that they sang, was captain over thousands, and he killed his tens of thousands, but now he's got just 400. 400 men. This is going to be the basis of his army. These are going to become mighty men and David who's going to go forth and conquer is going to have these men. Now the striking thing here is look at how they're described. Everyone that was in distress, in debt and discontented. The word discontented means literally bitterness of soul. You can imagine somebody they've been unwilling to forgive. Or they didn't have a child and they were bitter about it. Or something happened to them and they've not let it go. Bitterness of soul. If you were going to choose 400 for your army, is this the sort of people that you would choose? When you think of the 12 disciples that the Lord Jesus chose. Fishermen, dishonest tax collectors, I don't think they would make my team. I don't know whether they would make yours. And yet when you look at the church, would we be in it? If we chose who should be in the team, who would we choose? And yet David here is surrounded by indebted people, distressed people, and discontented people that can't give up on some past issue they're distressed and bitter in their soul how instructive look what it says they gathered themselves unto him this is the gospel buried here in 1 samuel 22 2 david is a type of christ It's not the David of 1 Samuel 21. This is a different David. David has met with the Lord again. He's looked to the Lord for help. His eyes are on him. And gathered around him are all the motley crew, the renegades. Imagine going around Bedford tonight and picking up the people whose lot is the hardest who's fallen on hardest times the lame the drug addicts the drunkards and that's something of what you've got in this cave it's extraordinary and he became a captain over them what's the lord's name the captain of our salvation the One who leads, the One who shapes, the One who reforms, the One who pays our debts, the One who takes away our distress, our discontent, He removes the bitterness of soul and that's what David does here. in the middle of a dark, dank cave. Cave of Dullam. 400 were there with him. This is a turning point in David's life. He's being shaped and moulded. He's being prepared to lead the whole of Israel. Not yet. Judah first in a few years' time, then Israel. But before then, the Lord has got to work with him. and shape him and give him a responsibility over a few and then it will be more and more and more until it will be the whole nation. Everyone that was in distress, everyone that was in debt, everyone that had bitterness of soul gathered themselves to him. He became a magnet Isn't that like Christ? Didn't Christ say that he would draw all men to himself? He doesn't draw the proud. He doesn't draw those that don't need his help or don't think they do. He brings those who know they've got a debt. know that they've got distress and he lifts them up, he points them to Christ, he shows them the right way, he becomes the captain over them. Oh what a wonderful picture that is. How long was he there for? The honest answer is we don't know. I've read nine months, I've read just a few weeks, It doesn't seem too long because he goes from cave a dullum and then it mentions the stronghold. That's a word normally used of some fortification rather than an underground cave. But, you get to verse five, the prophet Gad, he's talking to the prophets again, not the king of the Philistines. He says to him, this is the word of God that is delivered to David, they didn't have the Bible in those days, God spoke through prophets, and Gad is the prophet who's sent to David, and he says, don't stay in the hole, depart, and get thee into the land of Judah. Ah, he's going home. David departed and he came into the forest of Harath. That's where he'll stay for a bit longer. The Lord is watching over him. The Lord is protecting. He's got his eye upon him. None will touch the apple of the Lord's eye. David is under the Lord's care now. He's seeking help from the right places. He's listening to the Word of God and he's following it. Are you doing that tonight? Is there some part of your life that you're not allowing to come under the light of the Word of God? You're a little bit running here and there, looking for help in the wrong places, and Saul gets to hear about where David is. look at the description there verse six saul hears about david the network begins to work in his favor after david had been protected and he's there under a tree with his spear in his hand doesn't sound very nice does it he's still angry he's still jealous he's still bitter and he's got all his servants with him and then he goes looking for seeing how he can find him but i want to turn just for a few minutes to a number of psalms look at psalm 142 we just look very briefly at this this is david speaking directly from his heart in the cave i i presume he was there for a few months because there's a number of psalms and they're very thoughtful and they speak of the change that's going on here look at psalm 142 i cried to the lord he didn't do that before with my voice i made my supplication i asked the lord to guide me verse 2 i showed him my need my complaint I showed him my trouble, he knew it already. The Lord doesn't need to be told anything, but that's prayer. We lay out our issue, our matter before the Lord. My spirit was overwhelmed. Ah, the pride has gone. He's humbled. Thou knewest my path. In the way wherein I walked, they've laid a trap for me. David now feels absolutely bereft. Have you ever felt like this? I looked on my right hand and beheld there was no man that would know me. David's all alone. He's solitary. Refuge failed me. I tried here. I tried there. No man cared for my soul. David was wrong. The Lord cared for him. His family cared for him. He had friends, maybe not the ones he would have chosen. The church members in the cave were people a bit different to David, but they seemed to care. Verse 5, I cried to the Lord and it wasn't the cave that was his refuge. Thou art my refuge and my portion in the land of the living. Verse 7, bring my soul out of prison. I feel trapped, chained. I've got my great enemy Saul, he's all around me, but thou wilt deal bountifully with me. Isn't it wonderful that every experience that's known unto man is expressed in the Psalms. All the things that we go through. You think of the variety of issues that are dealt with in the Psalms. our parents get old when our parents betray us when a friend lets us down when we feel in the darkest places there's a psalm for all of those turn to psalm 57 and this is another psalm written from the cave the inscription is to the chief musician when he fled from saul in the cave again this is quite a short psalm but there's a number of things that we can pick out here verse one see david's heart be merciful unto me oh god be merciful unto me for my soul trusts in thee David, you were trusting your own wisdom a few minutes ago. In the shadow of thy wings will I make my refuge, until these dark clouds and calamities be overpassed. David's now behaving like a believer. He's putting his faith in the Lord. When the dark clouds are coming, he's trusting in the Lord. That's a humble heart. That's step number one to blessing, isn't it? There's no blessing for the proud. No blessing for the self-sufficient. Verse 2, here's a prayerful heart, a humble heart, a prayerful heart. I will cry unto God, Most High, unto God that does perform all things for me. Oh, he's asking for help and he believes that this God, his God, can do anything. Verse four. My soul is among lions. That's what he felt. He felt Saul was like a lion. I lie even among them that are set on fire, even the sons of men whose teeth are spears. They're biting words. And arrows and their tongue a sharp sword. But he's realistic. knows there is dangers. Verse 6, Thou hast prepared a net for my steps. My soul is bowed down. They've digged a pit. This is poetry. He's using pictures and metaphors. Into the midst whereof they are fallen themselves. Do you know Saul is going to plan his own death. Saul is going to run into the battle. He will eventually destroy himself. It's like a It's a firework that explodes and destroys itself. That's what Saul will be like. What about verse 11? Be thou exalted, O God, above the heavens. Let thy glory be above all the earth. He's looking at the long term. This is all about God's glory. We shouldn't be surprised that we have enemies. If we're on the Lord's side, we will have enemies. David knows he's got an enemy, but he knows that his God must be lifted up. He's above the heavens, and his glory should be above all the earth. These struggles that David is going through. There are other Psalms, we haven't got time to look at them tonight, but that's just a glimpse with the change of attitude that goes on from before the cave, in the cave and after the cave. Where are you tonight? Are you in the cave? Is anyone in the darkness? Look to the Lord. I had some difficulty a couple of years ago, nothing to mention tonight, but I remember speaking to another pastor and he just very simply said something I've said to others, but it came to me just in the right time. Just look to the Lord, he'll be your help, he'll be your guide, he'll show you the right way. Sure enough, Within a day the problem had been solved. David is now looking to his God. So let's look at some lessons briefly in the short time that we have. First lesson is this. God often trains his servants in hidden places. Saul didn't know where he was. David's in training. He's got 400 men to care for. That's a reasonable-sized church, isn't it? But when you consider all the problems amongst the 400, how much care and counsel and pastoring those 400 would need. He's in the classroom for character, and he's going to need the lessons that he's learning. In the cave, David says elsewhere, before I was afflicted, I went astray, but now I keep thy word. Secondly, isolation sometimes can be the best preparation. When we're in the crowd, Lots of people around, it's a bit easier, isn't it? But sometimes when we've got time aside and we're cut off, we're a little bit isolated, we have that opportunity for intimacy, nearness to our God. Thirdly, God draws the broken to the broken. What is a church? It's a place where broken people come to be mended. Sometimes we have it all wrong, don't we? We think that people will walk through the door and there'll be ready-made deacons and ready-made Sunday school teachers and it's just not like that. The church is an A&E department quite often. That cave was the emergency room. where many gathered that needed bandages and wound care. And David would administer it, the broken caring for the broken. And that's what we are, isn't it? We're all broken. But the Lord is putting us back together again. Have you got patience for the broken? Have you got compassion for those who've mucked up? Because we all have. Have you got a concern for those that come in that need help? We can't really help them. We're just channels. We're pointing, we're signposting to the Lord. But God draws the broken. What a picture of that. That verse is just astonishing when you consider the group that are gathered. Fourthly, leadership is forged in difficulty, not in comfort. The best leaders very often have come through the furnace. They've come through that refining process. They've had a difficulty, they've had a trial. And now they know how weak they are, how frail they are. Their pride has been stripped away and they've got resilience because now they depend on the Lord in everything. Not just when they need help. You know the prayer that people pray just before exams and they don't pray any other time. No, we've learned to pray always. And there's another lesson. God's presence is our refuge. not a place this building isn't a holy building what happens here is we seek the presence of almighty god and we know that presence through the word of god do you know it's astonishing when we go i keep mentioning the prison it seems to happen every week this man said it again this week he said when you speak I hear God's voice to my heart. That's the presence of God. It's not me. It's God speaking through his word. That's what happens in this place. It's what happened in the cave. God spoke to them. He drew near. The cave is not the end. That's the sixth lesson. It's the beginning. It's a new start. It's a turning point. The old is past. The new has come. and David's heart is being reshaped there will be other slips there'll be other falls but he's now being prepared for the next chapter 1 peter 5 10 after you have suffered a little while God of all grace will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast. Another lesson and we draw to a close. The cave teaches us the value of worship in suffering. Sometimes I hear people say, oh you know I wasn't feeling that well today pastor, I wasn't, I've been having a tough time so I stayed away. That's when you need to come. You need it most of all. You need to be with the Lord's people in the Lord's house. You need to be with the Word of God and under it. And there they are in the cave. And those Psalms that we've read indicate it wasn't just David singing and praying. They looked unto him. and they were lightened and the Lord's face shone upon them. I want to go back to 1 Samuel 22 and the final verses. We've skipped over the dreadful act of Doeg, Saul, an Israelite, gets an Edomite to kill 80-odd priests. Astonishing. Isn't that amazing? Saul had said, verse 7 that son of jesse doesn't even call him david he's so derogatory that son of jesse he won't give you fields i will give you everything i'll give you vineyards i'll give you fields that's the voice of satan i'll give you everything to please you but doeg in the absence of saul's servants killing the priest saul raises up this edomite to destroy the priests. But look down at verse 23. One of them has escaped, Abiathar. He goes and tells David that the Lord's priests have all been killed in a vile act of murder. But here's David's words, and I hear the voice of Christ in this verse. Abide thou with me, says David to Abiathar. Fear not, for he that seeketh my life seeks thy life, but with me thou shalt be in safeguard. That's a prophetic word of the ministry of Christ. Fear not, if you're with me on the Lord's side, none can touch you. If you're with me, I will be your shelter. David found the Lord in the cave. And from now on, David will be a shelter to the Lord's people. What a beautiful ending to a difficult chapter where there's bloodshed and where there's darkness. And yet the Lord has reshaped David, prepared him for the future and drawn near to him. at one of the darkest phases of his life. Well may the Lord help us to understand and apply these things. I'm going to have our final...