As we open your book, I pray that you would speak to each one of our hearts according to our actual needs and according to your purpose of what you're working to accomplish in our lives. We believe Lord that this portion of David's life has something to speak to us and pray that you would open our ears to hear it and to understand what it is that you're after. We thank you in the name of the Lord Jesus. Amen. All right, gentlemen, let's continue our study through David's life. You can turn to 1 Samuel 19 if you brought your Bible with you. This is a quick review, quick rehearsal. We're spending all the time that we are in David's life. We're not rushing through it. We're going through event by event. And we're taking the time that we're taking because we believe that The Lord chose specific individuals from all of history to use as kind of a template to lay over our lives and to instruct us, to teach us, to train our hearts in basic principles of discipleship. David's life in particular functions this way. All of the Bible characters, Moses, Abraham, you can take any one of the Bible characters that there's any more than a few verses that are dedicated to their lives. They serve this same function, they serve the same purpose. But David in particular, because after Jesus only, David has more verses, more chapters, more material dedicated to the story of his life than any other character in the entire Bible. There's more about David than there is about Paul, than there is about Peter, than there is about Moses, than there is about any other character other than Jesus himself. And so the concept that we should have in the background of our perspective is that the Lord focused extra attention on David for our benefit. So as we go through this, keep in mind that the lessons that David is going through, the circumstances that God custom designs in his life situations are designed to benefit us, to teach us, to train us. So where we're at with the story is this. David has not too far in his past, he's passed through the whole event that he's most famous for, of course, the great victory over Goliath. After the victory over Goliath, he's welcomed with open arms into the king's inner circle, into Saul's inner circle. He's become both the armor bearer and the personal attendant of Saul. He ministers to him in various ways, including playing the harp for him and helping to calm his agitated spirit. As we've seen, there's this beginning of a steady deterioration of Saul's spirit. He Saul is wrestling against what the Lord is after in his life. And there's been this disconnect between the Lord and Saul. And David is being placed right in the midst of that circumstance. And he has a key role in what's happening between the Lord and Saul. And we've seen that David has risen to position of responsibility in the kingdom. He's been assigned a role as a chief in Saul's army and has already won some great victories on behalf of Israel and behalf of Saul. And he's formed this close bond of special friendship with Jonathan, the king's son. It's the kind of friendship that we've talked about. Maybe you will only experience once in your entire life. And if you ever do have this kind of friendship, you're blessed among men. It's the kind of friendship that exceeds any kind of casual relationship. You can imagine it's a brother-to-brother bonding that benefits both David and Jonathan for the remainder of their years together. And we've seen that in just this last study that we did that while Saul has a has a growing hatred for David for no good reason, no rational reason, and is attempting to take David's life that Jonathan steps in between his father's anger and David, who is basically an innocent victim in this circumstance. And he intercedes or intervenes between his father and David. And he makes a godly appeal to his father's heart. And he wins over his father through the power of this appeal, appealing to someone who's in authority, but who is mishandling or misusing the authority that he has. And because of the wisdom of his appeal, he actually restores, not permanently, but for a period of time, he restores peace between Saul and David. So that's the backdrop of where we're at in the story. Let's pick it up. We've already covered the first few verses of chapter 19. We're going to be in the middle section of 19, but I want to read from verse one just to get our context again. This is 1 Samuel 19.1. Now Saul told Jonathan, his son, and all his servants to put David to death. But Jonathan, Saul's son, greatly delighted in David. So Jonathan told David, saying, Saul, my father, is seeking to put you to death. Now, therefore, please be on guard in the morning and stay in a secret place and hide yourself. I will go out and stand beside my father in the field where you are, and I will speak with my father about you. If I find out anything that I will tell you." Then Jonathan spoke well of David to Saul, his father, and said to him, do not let the king sin against his servant David, since he has not sinned against you. And since his deeds have been very beneficial to you, for he took his life in his hand and struck the Philistine. That's referring, of course, to Goliath. When the Lord brought about a great deliverance for all Israel, you sought and rejoiced. Why then will you sin against innocent blood by putting David to death without a cause? And that's the essence of Jonathan's appeal to his father. And the fruit of his appeal is that Saul listened to the voice of Jonathan and Saul vowed as the Lord lives, he shall not be put to death. Now verse seven is where we're going to pick up for today. I'm going to read from seven through to 18 for our next section. Then Jonathan called David and Jonathan told him all these words. And Jonathan brought David to Saul and he was in his presence as formerly. When there was war again, David went out and fought with the Philistines and defeated them with great slaughter so that they fled before him. Now there was an evil spirit from the Lord on Saul as he was sitting in his house with his spear in his hand. And David was playing the harp with his hand. Saul tried to pin David to the wall with the spear. he slipped away out of Saul's presence so that he struck the spear into the wall. David fled and escaped that night. Then Saul sent messengers to David's house to watch him in order to put him to death in the morning. But Michael, David's wife, told him saying, If you do not save your life tonight, tomorrow you will be put to death. So Michael let David down through a window and he went out and fled and escaped. Michael took the household idol and laid it on the bed and put a quilt of goat's hair at its head and covered it with clothes. Then Saul sent messengers to take David. She said, he is sick. Then Saul, sent messengers to see David saying, bring him up to me on his bed that I may put him to death. And when the messengers entered, behold, the household idol was on the bed with the quilt of goat's hair at its head. So Saul said to Michael, why have you deceived me like this and let my enemy go so that he has escaped? And Michael said to Saul, he said to me, let me go. Why should I put you to death? Now David fled and escaped and came to Samuel at Ramah and told him all that Saul had done to him. And he and Samuel went and stayed in Naoth. All right. Where does the story go next? As Jonathan has appealed to his father, his father makes a vow. He listens to his son and he says, all right, I'm going to pay attention to what you've said. You're right. There's no good cause for me to actually put David to death. The appeal temporarily, in a sense, calls Saul back to sanity. calls him back to a rational perspective. And he embraces David again, welcomes him back into his inner circle. And more than that, Saul makes a vow regarding David. And the essence of the vow is what? What does he vow? And what's so significant about a vow? He's vowed not to kill him. And basically saying, look, you know, it's an acknowledgement and a vow. The essence of the vow is that it's in those days when you took a vow, it was something that was done in the sense of I'm making this commitment in the presence of the Lord. I'm committing myself to a specific course of action. Or in this case, I'm committing myself to avoid a certain course of action, which is to put David to death. And essentially he's saying, I'm recognizing that David's righteous. I've been wrong. And I'm returning to welcome David into my inner circle, into my court. And so David returns to his court. And the very next thing that's mentioned that happens here is look here in verse eight. As soon as he returns to Saul's presence and he's in his presence as formally, meaning all that means is David returned to his normal duties, the normal pattern of his relationship with Saul. The very next thing is there was war again that arose. Now it wasn't too long in the past in which there was a war between Israel and the Philistines. And that was the battle that was focused around the challenge of Goliath. Now, David was used by the Lord, as we saw, to win that battle with the Philistines. It was a battle that up until David entered into that circumstance, Israel had no hope of winning because it was a single challenge battle. There were two ways to fight in the ancient world. One was army against army, and the other was single challenge of a chosen champion for each army that would come out in front of the army and would literally challenge the best man on the other side. And whoever would win that single challenge, that would be the declaration of victory for that side. So David won that single challenge and that resolved the problem with the Philistines, but apparently it's not a permanent resolution. warfare is flaring up again with the Philistines. Now in this case, because David's returned to his former position, he's back in charge of the part of the army that Saul had previously appointed him to. And so David now leads that army out again in battle against the Philistines. The details of the battle apparently are not significant because all we're told at this point is that he goes out, he fights with the Philistines, and he defeats them with a great slaughter so that the Philistines flee before him. So this is one more evidence of God causing the reputation of David to grow within the community of Israel. And even outside of the boundaries of Israel, his reputation is growing among the nations around him as he's defeating the nations that rise against the armies of the Lord. Now, as he's returning from the battle, what should he expect in terms of a welcome as he returns home to Israel and as he returns to the court of the king? What should he reasonably expect after the victory of verse eight? Praise, welcome, let's have a feast. This is good stuff. You once again, you know, speaking for Saul the king, David, once again, you have done me a great personal favor. You've led the armies that I'm in charge of and the nation that I'm responsible for to a great and glorious victory. I'm so glad to have you by my side because you are doing my job for me. And that's essentially what's really going on here. In those days, the king was responsible to lead his army into battle. For the king to stay at home when the army is fighting was considered to be a point of great dishonor. We're going to see that same theme played out later in David's life in a moment of weakness. when he sends the army of Israel out to battle. And he makes the mistake for the first time in his life of remaining behind when he should have been on the battlefield and taking his ease when he sends his soldiers to fight. And that opens the door for his heart to be tempted with the whole circumstance with Bathsheba. But here David is doing what he's supposed to be doing, but it's Saul that's actually failing to be responsible where he should have been responsible as king. And of course, that's just one more indicator of where Saul's heart is at with the Lord. He's not in a good place. He's not walking in the responsibilities he should be walking in as a king. But at the very least, even though he's not being responsible to lead as he should have led, You would think that he would be happy that someone's doing the job for him. You would think he'd be appreciative and grateful that at least he's got David to go out and win the battle for him if he's not willing to lead the battle himself. Let's read on from verse nine again then. And now there was an evil spirit from the Lord on Saul as he was sitting in his house with his spear in his hand. and David was playing the harp with his hand. What's noticeable between verse eight and verse nine is just the absence of the interaction between David and Saul. There is no welcome from Saul. There is no note of appreciation. There's no expression of gratitude. There's no celebratory feast like a king would normally throw for a victorious commanding general that's returned from the battlefield on his behalf. There's just nothing, silence, no appreciation whatsoever. Now, one of the lessons we can draw from this for ourselves is there will be times as you serve the Lord, as you are called to do your own assignment, as we've recently been focused on for the last several weeks, both on Friday nights and Sunday morning. in the teaching time, you have an assignment from the Lord. You have your own job to accomplish. And there will be times when you will do your job and you'll do it well. and people around you will recognize the good job that you've done and the work that you're doing is onto the Lord. And they will go out of their way to give you praise, hats on the back, words of appreciation, might even throw a celebratory feast on your behalf or something of that nature. And when that happens, that's icing on the cake and that's a blessing. But the reality is there's going to be times when you do what you're supposed to do and you do it well, like David in verse eight, winning an awesome victory against the Philistines. And nobody says anything. You just do your job. You do it the right way as it ought to be done. And there will be no appreciation coming back your direction. How do you handle that when that time comes? Well, the good thing is we don't see any hint here that David is struggling with the lack of appreciation coming from Saul. And what that should tell us is most likely what's going on in David's heart is at this point he's still in a good, healthy place of faith. Meaning this, that when he does his assignment, he's not doing it for Saul. He's doing it for the Lord. He's winning the battle, not for Saul. He's winning the battle for the name of the Lord. Just like we saw when David ran out to meet the Philistine Goliath in that great battle. What was it that David had to say about that as he was running toward the giant? and as he was answering the giant's challenge. It wasn't, hey, you know, I'm here to win this battle for the sake of Saul and the name of Saul. The whole concern and perspective of David's heart was, you know, you've challenged the name of the Lord by issuing this challenge to the army that represents the Lord. And so his whole concern was the honor, the name, the reputation of the Lord. not Saul. And so in this case, while David receives no appreciation from Saul, it doesn't knock him off course. And the lesson we should draw from that is just keep your heart tracking as you carry out your life assignment from the Lord, that whether you get a pat on the back or not is irrelevant. I mean, it's nice if you get a pat on the back for being the husband that you're supposed to be, being the father that you're supposed to be, doing a good job at the work the practical career work that God has given you to do. Doing the work that God assigns you in the context of church and anything else that represents his assignment for your life. When you do that and you receive the praise of men and pats on the back from people around you, that is a blessing. Don't disregard that. Don't fight against that. But at the same time, don't become addicted to that. so that when it's missing, you're not struggling because you're not getting the kudos from the people around you that you've become so accustomed to or that make you feel so good about yourself. Your sense of satisfaction needs to come not from the king that's sitting there stewing in his juices as you've just done the will of God. Your sense of satisfaction needs to come just from the inner awareness and knowledge that I did the will of God. I did what I was supposed to do. I carried out the work that God gave me to do and I did it for him. And on the final day, I believe he's going to express his appreciation. He takes note of what I've done. He knows whether I've done the right thing or not. And whether Saul acknowledges it or Saul disregards it is not the key issue of what's going on here. It's just a side factor. It's not the primary factor of what's happening. Now, as we go on, we notice again, just that Saul is experiencing what we could call a fit of insanity. At the very minimum, it's irrationality, but it's probably more than this at this point because the text, and this isn't the first time, turn back for a moment and look in a chapter. Let me see if I can find this. I think it's just a chapter before. Yeah, look in chapter 18 for a moment. We'll read, because this isn't the first time this has happened. We'll read from verse six of chapter 18. It says, it happened as they were coming, when David returned from killing the Philistine, that's from the great victory over Goliath, that the women came out of all of the cities of Israel singing and dancing to meet King Saul with tambourines, with joy, with musical instruments. The women sang as they played and said, Saul has slain his thousands and David his ten thousands. And then Saul became very angry for this saying displeased him. And he said, they have ascribed to David ten thousands, but to me, they have ascribed thousands. Now what more can he have but the kingdom? Saul looked at David with suspicion from that day on. Now it came about on the next day that an evil spirit from God came mightily upon Saul and he raved in the midst of the house. while David was playing the harp with his hand as usual. And a spear was in Saul's hand, and Saul hurled the spear, for he thought, I will pin David to the wall. But David escaped from his presence twice. Now Saul was afraid of David, for the Lord was with him, but he had departed from Saul. So now we read this next account in chapter 19. And what we're immediately supposed to be aware of is this sounds familiar. It's an almost identical story. The elements of similarity are in both cases, David has just won a great battle on behalf of the armies of Israel. In both cases, he returns to Saul's court. In both cases, he returns to his normal ordinary duties of being a personal attendant to Saul. In both cases, he starts playing music for Saul. And in both cases, Saul picks up a spear and attempts to pin David to the wall. Now in the first story, we don't have this description, the story in chapter 19, but we're meant to carry forward our understanding from the first account in chapter 18 of the first time this happened. Why does Saul try to pin David to the wall? His actions are irrational, but it doesn't mean he doesn't have a reason for what he's doing. He's jealous and he's fearful. What he's fearful of is he's fearful that David's rising popularity in the midst of the nation of Israel will lead to him eventually being deposed as the king and that he will lose his position of privilege to David. And honestly, he has good reason to be concerned about that because David is, as we've seen from the very beginning of his story, he is marked out by the Lord to one day replace Saul as king. But in another sense, the irrational part of Saul's concern is that the Lord is not going to make David king until he's done with Saul being the king. So where Saul is missing the big picture of what's going on between him and David is David is not ever, ever going to try to take the kingship away from Saul. He's never going to attempt to undermine Saul's position as king. David is trusting the Lord and he's waiting on the Lord. He's heard from years before that God has ordained for him one day to replace Saul as king, but he's waiting on the Lord. And however long that takes, that's up to the Lord. He's not going to ever raise his hand against Saul. And what Saul doesn't understand, the issue is not between him and David. The issue is between Saul and the Lord. That's who he's really upset with is the Lord. And David just happens to be a convenient target for his anger, for his fear. And yes, for his jealousy, jealous that David is becoming more popular and he's actually waning in popularity at the same time. So Saul attempts to pin David to the wall in his fit of insanity. And what we're given is kind of a spiritual description of what's going on here. and that what is identified, and this is kind of a mysterious phrasing. We talked about it a little bit before, but I just wanna make sure no one misunderstands the meaning of this phrase. Look again in verse nine where it says, now there was an evil spirit from the Lord on Saul. Now, when we're thinking in terms of evil spirit, what are we talking about? Was this just like a, a bad mood that Saul had that day? I mean, all of you have, I would imagine, right? You've experienced a moment in your life or two of being in a bad mood. Anyone here ever been in a bad mood before? Would you call that, if you were to try to spiritually describe that, an evil spirit from the Lord is upon you? Would that be appropriate description? No. I don't, I wouldn't describe it that way. So what we're talking about here and what the text is trying to lead us to understand is this is something more than just a bad mood. Saul clearly was in a bad mood, but there was something more than a bad mood going on here. This isn't just an emotional swing. This isn't Saul as a bipolar individual that has a chemical imbalance and he's just struggling with his emotional mood swings. This is something more than that. There's a spiritual element to what's going on here, not just a emotional, mental, or even chemical element. What is going on is that When we talk about an evil spirit, how does the Bible also designate evil spirits? What are we talking about here? Okay, demonic spirit. We're talking about the spiritual beings that are real. I don't care what the culture around us says in poo-pooing this. There are real beings that are inherently evil and are committed to resisting the will and purposes of God in this earth. and who are not visible and yet who are influential in the lives of human beings. Now it doesn't mean that every person that isn't walking with the Lord is demonized. We've talked about this before, but There is such a thing as demonic influence in the lives of people. And in this particular case, Saul enters into an experience of direct demonic influence. Now, to what degree the Bible doesn't say that this demon came and physically entered into Saul as in the worst cases we see in a few places in the scripture of what we would call demonic possession. That's not happening here. He's not actually possessed by this demonic spirit, but he does at certain key moments of his life come under a significant influence or oppression of this particular demonic spirit. Now the mysterious part, and most believers are tracking with what I've described so far. The mysterious part is the tagline that's added to the designation of this being an evil spirit. It's an evil spirit from the Lord. And that's the part that some believers struggle with. You know, how can that be? That seems to be a disconnect. That seems to be like a spiritual problem here because the two things don't seem to go together. There's some Christian teachers that in their attempt to simplify complicated spiritual matters have gone too far beyond what the Bible teaches and have tried to make formulas like this. Like I've heard this before. God is a good God. The devil is a bad devil. And the two don't have anything to do with one another. Meaning that if there's a good thing that happens in your life, then that good thing is from God. If there's a bad thing that happens in your life, that bad thing happens because of the activity of the devil in your life. And the two never cross over those lines. Well, that's just not true. That's just not the way things actually are. There are all kinds of quote unquote, good things that happen in people's lives, things that those people would consider to be good, that may not be the hand of the Lord and the purpose of the Lord for them, but may actually be the influence and activity of a demonic spirit in their life. For instance, I read a story not too long ago, and I don't know the spiritual details of what really happened behind the scenes. I'm just going to use this as a point of illustration. You guys are all familiar with the California lottery, right? That's been ongoing for several years now. You may have heard some of these stories yourself, but this is a real thing that happened. There was a person that won the California lottery. Before they won the lottery, they were not financially well off. They were not exactly poor, but they would, you might say, lower middle class economically. They bought a ticket, won the lottery, won millions upon millions of dollars, and within a year of winning the millions upon millions of dollars committed suicide. Because winning that money ruined their life. They just didn't handle it well at all. And it led to problem upon problem and an increasing burden upon their heart to where they just couldn't stand it, couldn't handle it anymore, and ended up committing suicide. So that was a good thing to win the lottery for that person, right? And yet, you know, there's literally, literally millions of people that, you know, standing in line, you know, to buy lottery tickets because none of them are thinking, okay, I want to buy this lottery ticket because this is going to be a bad thing and may lead to my eventual suicide. You know, I want to buy this ticket for this purpose. Every single person that buys a lottery ticket, and there are millions that do every single week, you know, I don't know how often they do the lottery, but whatever the frequency is, They all have one thought in their minds. I wanna buy this ticket because if I buy it, I might win. And if I win, I guarantee you, they're all thinking this is a good thing, okay? So what the Bible leads us to understand is that the lines between good and evil are not as obvious to the natural man as we should understand as spiritual men. We need to be able to discern what's really going on behind the scenes in each spiritual circumstance that we encounter. Now, in this case, it's the opposite. We have the activity and the influence of a demonic spirit, and yet it's identified here as an evil spirit from the Lord. Now we touched on this before, but I just want to make sure we're tracking. How can that be? How can that be an evil spirit from the Lord? Is that even possible? Well, of course, it's possible. The Bible just said it. So I'm tracking with you. It's possible. But let's try to grasp the concept in an understandable way. How is that possible? Okay. Well, the Bible very clearly teaches that while there is such a thing as the reality of demonic activity, demonic beings, that none of them are total free agents. None of them, including Satan himself, are running around in the spiritual atmosphere of this world and doing whatever they want, whenever they want, however they want, to whomever they want, as much as they want. None of them have that kind of freedom. Every single demon, including Satan himself, are operating within assigned boundaries of the Lord. assigned boundaries. He gives them limits to their activity. We see that in detail in the interaction in the book of Job in the first two chapters, when Satan has to present himself before the presence of the Lord for personal accountability for his activities. And he has to give an account for what he's been doing, how much he's been doing. And then there is a determination by the Lord of what he will be allowed to do further leaving that meeting of accountability with the Lord. And what is clearly implied by this passage and others that support it elsewhere in the Bible is that the Lord is not beyond using demonic activity to accomplish his purposes in the life of an individual. Now, is that shocking to you? Like God would use a demon? God uses anything and everything at his disposal and everything is at his disposal to accomplish his purpose. Now, sometimes in the life of an individual, his purpose is a good and holy purpose. And sometimes in the lives of other individuals, his purpose is a purpose of judgment. In this case, Saul is in committed rebellion to the Lord. And so the Lord's purpose for Saul at this time in Saul's life. Earlier, the Lord had blessed Saul when Saul was in submission to the will of the Lord and was walking in obedience to the Lord. Now that Saul's in rebellion, what the Lord does is he, in a sense, removes the kind of barriers of protection, what was described in Job's life story as a hedge of protection around him. The Lord removes that and grants access to this evil spirit to come and oppress the mind and life of Saul. And what that oppression does is it leads Saul to bring out publicly the behavior that's already present and hidden in his heart. The judgment of the Lord in this case, through the agency of this demonic spirit, simply squeezes out of Saul what's already in there. Why would the Lord do that? Why would the Lord squeeze out of him what's in there all along? In his heart, he was already jealous toward David. In his heart, he was already enraged and fearful of David. And now all the Lord is doing is squeezing that out publicly. Why would the Lord do that? Why would the Lord expose that in the heart of a man who's in rebellion? Right. It's a matter of public accountability. And the Lord does this. He will justify his actions in the life of a person by making it obvious to everyone that this is what's really going on with this person. The Lord's plan is to eventually replace Saul with David. And he wants everyone to see that this is a justified replacement. But not only that, he's not only dealing with, the Lord's not only dealing with Saul, as you should have already learned this about the way the Lord works by now. The Lord is dealing with everybody all at the same time. And he's using different situations to deal with different things and different people. The Lord is also dealing with the whole nation of Israel here. The Lord's judgment on Saul is an expression of the Lord's judgment on the entire nation. You think it's a blessing or a curse for a nation to have an insane leader? I mean, think of Adolf Hitler. Think of Joseph Stalin. Think of some of the examples we've had in history. Or think of on the flip side, think of Winston Churchill or Abraham Lincoln. What a blessing it is for a nation to have a good person leading, a wise person, a righteous person, someone that does the right thing at the right moment versus someone like an Adolf Hitler or a Stalin or Nero in ancient Rome that's just literally out of his mind with madness and just acting in whichever way the latest impulse strikes him. It's a tremendous blessing to have a righteous leader. And it's a tremendous curse when a nation has an unrighteous leader. And in this case, the Lord is judging Israel. Now, why would the Lord judge Israel? What's Israel done that would deserve the judgment of the Lord in this particular circumstance? Well, that's true, but going a little bit back before that, how was it that Saul became king to begin with? Anybody remember? Exactly. Right, Saul becoming king in the first place was the judgment of the Lord because Israel had, as the Lord described it, Israel had clamored to be just like the other nations and to be given the privilege of having a great and mighty king to lead them in battle just like the other nations had. And so they cried out to the Lord to give them a king. And the Lord said, okay, I'll give you a king, but understand this. And that king was Saul. Understand this, by embracing Saul as your king, what you've essentially done is reject me as your king. So this is the judgment of the Lord. The insanity of Saul is the Lord teaching the entire nation that, you know, this is what happens when you reject me. Believe me, when Adolf Hitler was the leader of Germany, if you read in the history of Germany leading up to the period where Adolf Hitler took power, He didn't take power in the midst of a godly nation that was serving the Lord and walking with the Lord as a general culture. He rose to power in the context of a nation under the judgment of the Lord. The same with Russia and the whole Stalinist thing. The same with Rome and Nero. We could name literally dozens of other examples through history. And it's the same way when a godly man comes to a position of prominence and power, it's usually a blessing of the Lord as a reward for the faithfulness of the people of that nation. And so in this case, Saul's insanity is a result of a demonic influence, but that demonic influence is an expression of the judgment of God upon Saul's rebellion and beyond him upon the rebellion of Israel itself. All right. We're going to put a. a comma right there. And we'll pick up next time with this whole pattern that develops between David and Saul. And this is just the beginning of what's going to be repeated over and over again over a course of years now that's ahead of David in which Saul is going to be attempting to murder David. And David is going to be dodging left. He's going to be dodging right. He's going to be ducking low and he's going to be jumping over. And he's going to be avoiding the spear after spear after spear in various forms that Saul is going to be hurling his way. And we'll pick up with that theme of how the enemy will assault us and yet the Lord will provide for us the way of escape.