As an attorney rights are not something unfamiliar to me. In law school we take whole semester long classes on rights, what they are, when they can be exercised, how to exercise them and the fundamentals of protecting them. In criminal law you have the right to remain silent, the right to an attorney, and the right to a trial by a jury of your peers, just to name a few. Come to think of it, even as a doctor in medicine there is a patient bill of rights, and a right to privacy.
As Americans we have rights. Our country was even started on a foundational “Bill of Rights.” The news is replete with demonstrations of how people fight to exercise their rights and keep them protected. Black rights, immigrant rights, womens’ rights, LGBT rights, animal rights. Everyone has rights right?
Even the Bible provides examples of of “rights.”
But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become the children of God. (John 1:12)
Blessed are those who wash their robes so that they may have the right to the tree of life. (Revelation 22:14)
Recently I have struggled with my “rights.” I’ve felt I have certain rights the problem is I’ve also felt convicted that even though I have the “right” to do something, that doesn’t make it the right thing to do. Have you ever felt that way? As I’ve struggled with this principle I’ve turned to God’s word to see what insight I can glean on how to reconcile my rights with the right thing to do. As I came upon this Psalm, David writes,
Have mercy on me, O God, have mercy! I look to you for protection.
I will hide beneath the shadow of your wings until the danger passes by.
I cry out to God Most High to God who will fulfill his purpose for me.
He will send help from heaven to rescue me, disgracing those who hound me.
My God will send forth his unfailing love and faithfulness. (Psalm 57:1-3)
To fully understand the depth of David’s prayer here you have to dig in to the context in which it was written. David has proven to be the big man on campus and has upstaged King Saul. He has killed Goliath and overtaken the Philistines and the crowd chants,
Saul has slain his thousands and David his tens of thousands. (1 Samuel 18:7)
At the time David writes this Psalm, David has already had several threats on his life at the behest of King Saul.
Saul requested other people kill David,
Saul told his son Jonathan and all the attendants to kill David. (1 Samuel 19:1)
When that didn’t work, Saul tried to take matters into his own hands. David is sitting in service to the King, playing his harp, trying to keep King Saul entertained and Saul decides he’s going to try and chuck a spear at David.
While David was playing the harp, Saul tried to pin him to the wall with his spear but David eluded him as Saul drove the spear into the wall. That night David made good on his escape. (1 Samuel 19: 9-10)
When that didn’t work Saul sent some men over to David’s house to wait for him and have him killed there. David’s wife had to devise an elaborate rouse to help David escape.
Saul sent men to David’s house to watch it and to kill him in the morning. But Michal, David’s wife, warned him, “If you don’t run for your life tonight, tomorrow you’ll be killed.” So Michal let David down through a window, and he fled and escaped. Then Michal took an idol and laid it on the bed, covering it with a garment and putting some goats’ hair at the head.
When Saul sent the men to capture David, Michal said, “He is ill.”
Then Saul sent the men back to see David and told them, “Bring him up to me in his bed so that I may kill him.” But when the men entered, there was the idol in the bed, and at the head was some goats’ hair. (1 Samuel 19: 11-16)
So David continues on the run. In the interim he has another run-in with the Philistines and once again kicks their butts. But Saul’s pursuit of David continues and David is forced to keep moving from place to place and eventually ends up in the dessert and,
Day after day Saul searched for him but God did not give David into his hands. (1 Samuel 24:14)
As the pursuit continues Saul gets closer and closer but never gets to David. Saul gets distracted from the pursuit because those pesky Philistines have come back to raid the land and Saul goes to fight them off. But, not to be deterred from his ultimate goal of finding David and killing him, the pursuit continues and takes Saul to the entrance of a cave just beyond some sheep pens. Little does he know that David is inside this cave where he pens Psalm 57 and says,
I cry out to God Most High to God who will fulfill his purpose for me. (Psalm 57: 2)
Purpose
What better time to reflect on your purpose in life than when someone is out to kill you and is coming closer and closer right? As it turns out though David’s purpose was given to him by God early on in his life when he was just a shepherd boy. His purpose was to become King of Israel.
Then the Lord said, “Rise and anoint him (David); he is the one.” So Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the presence of his brothers, and from that day on the Spirit of the Lord came upon David in power. (1 Samuel 16:12-13)
So David well aware of what his purpose is supposed to be goes out and fights some battles, plays some harp, wines and dines with the current king, and now finds himself running for his life. He finds himself in a cave hiding himself from an enemy who was once very much on his side and now wants him dead. He is seemingly about as far away from his purpose as he could possibly get.
I don’t know about you but if I’m David at this point I’m thinking to myself, “Wait a minute! I’m supposed to be King! God said so himself! What the heck am I doing in a cave running for my life? What did I miss here? Did I mistake my purpose?” And yet even in the midst of what I can imagine must be fear, confusion, sadness, and maybe even anger; as David cries out for the Lord’s mercy and protection he still declares with faith,
I cry out to God Most High to God who will fulfill his purpose for me. (Psalm 57: 2)
David believes despite his current circumstance that God will full his purpose in his life.
Your purpose is guaranteed by God’s promise
Promise
So David finds himself in a cave declaring his faith that God will fulfill his purpose and Saul shows up at the entrance to the cave. When Saul gets there he decides that it’s time for a potty break, after all trying to kill someone is hard work!
He (Saul) came to the sheep pens along the way, a cave was there, and Saul went in to relieve himself. (1 Samuel 24:3)
[Hey, when a man’s got to go he’s got to go, but really? It’s the first time I can remember recognizing the Bible was telling us someone had to go potty.]
So here is Saul on his potty break, alone (or at least so he thinks), and David and his men spot him. Immediately David’s men think to themselves, this is the moment we have been waiting for. This is the moment that God has been planning for all along.
This is the day the Lord spoke of when he said to you, ‘I will give your enemy into your hands for you to deal with as you wish.’” (1 Samuel 24:4)
As I thought about that, it seems like a perfectly reasonable argument to make. David was told he would be king, he had been waiting for when that time would come, he had been running for his life, and now the opportunity is right in front of him to seize the day, kill the king in secret, and ascend to the throne. I can picture the headline now, “King Saul dies in fatal toileting accident, news at 11.” But as I looked at that verse again I realized that what initially sounded like exactly what God had intended for David was actually only David’s mens’ self-serving interpretation of God’s promise.
I will give your enemy into your hands: So far so good, God did give many an enemy into David’s hands and it was clear that God’s plan was for David to be king.
…for you to deal with as you wish: HOOOOOLD ON! I can’t find anywhere where God told David to do with anyone as he wished.
It’s pretty clear that David and his men were running for their lives and at risk of dying. So it’s no surprise that David’s men would interpret the situation in front of them as the opportunity of a life time to save their own lives. But in doing so they read into God’s promise something that was never there.
I think many of us probably are guilty of something similar in our own lives, I know I am. How many times do we allow ourselves or others to convince us that what God has promised us includes something that it was never intended to include because it works out to our benefit or for our happiness. How many times have we found ourselves in situations where we have the opportunity to make a decision that will benefit us and it looks like something that would lead to something that God would have for us but we take it a step further than God ever intended. But the reality is,
God’s promise must be guided by his process
Process
David finds himself with the opportunity to start fulfilling his purpose and get what God had promised him. This is the moment where David has to decide if he really believes in the promise of God or if he is going to take matters into his own hands. In a moment of instant gratification, he can kill Saul and move on with his life which as king, will seemingly be much better than it has ever been before. In one moment, he can stop running, he can stop hiding, he can stop waiting. So what does he do?
Then David crept up unnoticed and cut off a corner of Saul’s robe. (1 Samuel 24:4)
He doesn’t kill Saul but he cuts a corner of his robe. Why does he do this? A part of me wants to think he did it to put Saul on notice that he had the ability to kill him. The Bible shows us though that David confronts Saul to show him that he is not out to harm him.
Then David went out of the cave and called out to Saul, ‘My Lord the king!’ When Saul looked behind him, David bowed down and prostrated himself with his face to the ground….This day you have seen with your own eyes how the Lord delivered you into my hands in the cave. Some urged me to kill you, but I spared you; I said, ‘I will not lift my hand against my master, because he is the Lord’s anointed.’ (1 Samuel 24:8,10)
Sounds noble. But then why do we read a couple verses earlier, after David had just finished cutting Saul’s robe,
Afterward David was conscience-stricken for having cut off a corner of his robe. (2 Samuel 24:5)
David realizes he has “cut a corner,” where he shouldn’t have.
In that moment David realizes that taking matters into his own hand is NOT the way that God intended to fulfill his promise,
He said to his men, ‘The Lord forbid that I should do such a thing to my master, the Lord’s anointed, or lift my hand against him; for he is the anointed of the Lord.’ With these words David rebuked his men and did not allow them to attack Saul. (1 Samuel 24:6-7)
Sometimes, even though we don’t go in for the ‘kill’ to try and get to God’s purpose and realize his promise, we cut a corner. Maybe it’s because we think we’ll get there faster. Maybe it’s because we want to put God or others on notice that if it doesn’t come in our time we can get there on our own. But what David realized was,
Fulfilling God’s purpose and realizing his promise requires honoring the process
Throughout life we are constantly engaged in activities which are leading us in the direction of realizing God’s purpose and the fulfillment of his promises. We get there by making individual choices which are guided by honorable goals. We do so in pursuit of happiness and fulfillment. As we engage in that process we are faced with many opportunities to make choices which are seemingly right, “within our rights,” or at least not wrong. But our right to do something, doesn’t always mean it is the right thing to do.
Every good opportunity is not necessarily a God opportunity
As David stood in the cave, “conscience-stricken” while holding a piece of the King’s robe, I have to wonder if in that moment he thought to himself, ‘Wait a minute, why do I want to have just a piece of this robe when God is working towards giving me the whole thing.’
David could have claimed he was doing the right thing, but still have done it the wrong way. As we walk through life striving for happiness and fulfillment may we avoid cutting corners to only get pieces of what God has for us.
God’s will, God’s way
Exchange your rights for his riches
The one who has called you is faithful, and he will do it. (1 Thessalonians 5:24)
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