When the Sky Falls In

There was no doubt in David's mind that Saul was trying to kill him. According to the narrative, "And David said in his heart, 'I shall now perish one day by the hand of Saul; there is nothing better for me than that I should escape to the land of the Philistines; then Saul will despair of seeking me any longer within the borders of Israel, and I shall escape out of his hand'" (2 Samuel 27:1, RSV). This was quite the predicament for the one who, years earlier, was anointed by the prophet Samuel to one day be the king of Israel (1 Samuel 16:1-13). Isn't it interesting how sometimes the directions our lives take seem so far removed from what God promised?

Verse 7 tells us that David, his two wives, and his band of six hundred men with their households spent "a year and four months" in what was basically enemy territory, in a place called Ziklag. This was not some fanciful tourist resort, for one day while David and his men were away (see 1 Samuel 28), "the Amalekites had made a raid upon the Negeb and upon Ziklag. They had overcome Ziklag, and burned it with fire, and taken captive the women and all who were in it, both small and great; they killed no one, but carried them off, and went their way. And when David and his men came to the city, they found it burned with fire, and their wives and sons and daughters taken captive." (1 Samuel 29:11-30:1-3, RSV). If he thought he had problems before, this only added exponentially to them. The city was destroyed and every single person taken captive. The narrative continues, "Then David and the people that were with him lifted up their voice and wept, until they had no more power to weep. . . . And David was greatly distressed; for the people spake of stoning him, because the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his sons and for his daughters: but David encouraged himself in the LORD his God" (30:4, 6).

In the midst of all the chaos, when it seemed like the proverbial sky had fallen in and everything was lost, with no one to encourage him and everyone wanting to kill him, that last clause speaks profoundly: "David encouraged himself in the LORD his God." David instinctively knew that when stripped of everything he held dear, the one thing he could rely on was the presence and comfort of his God. At this point in the story, he was too weak to cry anymore and even if he could, there were probably no more tears left. However, he did the one thing that he could do; he encouraged himself in the LORD his God. What do you do when you believe things could not get worse and they do? When everything in your life seem to go in the opposite direction of what God promised? For sure, we can murmur, complain, blame God, blame others, or even ourselves. But David knew that regardless of what was happening, and no matter how much he had lost and would ever lose, the one constant was that his God was still by his side and he comforted and encouraged, himself in the fact. No matter the evidence, his God, the God of the universe, is always in control.

What about you? To whom do you turn for comfort when the “sky has fallen in” in your world?