In this sermon, the preacher focuses on the story of David and the 400 men who gathered around him in distress, debt, and discontentment. He emphasizes that God calls and brings together an unlikely and unique group of people. David becomes their captain and leads them. The preacher highlights how David resisted the temptation to turn them into a rebel army. The sermon also mentions King Saul's reaction to David's group and how the Lord guides David's actions through the prophet Gad. Overall, the sermon encourages listeners to trust and obey the Lord's guidance in their lives.

1 Samuel chapter 22 continues in this look we've been having at the life of David throughout the Scriptures. We make our way through this book, we see that David was a man that God chose and anointed at a very young age. God had done a marvelous work in the life of David when he was a young man tending the sheep in the obscure hillsides of Judea, the Bethlehem area. But we notice also that it was very important for the Lord not just to call David and to anoint him, but to do a training work in his life. To make David into a man of God, into the kind of king that could rule over the nation in a godly and in a wonderful way. Well, as is often in our lives, God trains us and molds us and fashions us through trials. The present time in the life of David, he's going through quite a trial. The trial centers around the jealousy of King Saul. Saul sees David and Saul, in his own wickedness and rebellion against God, has been rejected from the kingly authority over Israel. I mean, he still officially sits on the throne, but God doesn't honor or glorify or support his leadership. And God is basically saying, Saul, you're just there until I get you out. And so when Saul saw David being raised up of the Lord and blessed and working with power and strength, it frightened Saul and it aroused a powerful sense of jealousy within him. And because of this, Saul set himself against David and tried to kill him. And with all the authority Saul could muster, with the army and his informants and his family and the prestige and the power of the palace, Saul is trying to kill David. So now, at this point in David's life, he's on the run. Some of the time on the run, he's been trusting God and giving himself to the Lord. Other times, he's slipped into a trust in himself or a trust in the ungodly. But even in that, God corrects him and brings him back to the right place. We saw David sort of come from this backslidden state, this place of decline with the Lord, until the Lord broke him of it and he ended up, well, chapter 22, verse 1, David therefore departed from there and escaped to the cave of Adullam. And the life of David is somewhat unique in the Bible, because not only do we have a historical narrative, a historical account of what his life was like, but we also have psalms that speak of where his heart was at, where he was at emotionally in the midst of all these things. And we know from some of the psalms that we took a look at last week, David was in a discouraged, desperate place when he came to the cave of Adullam. But he didn't stay there. The Lord encouraged him. The Lord strengthened him. The Lord gave him a sense of the Lord's power and hope, even in the midst of the cave of Adullam. And at that cave, God gave David a beautiful sense of his strength and power, but that's not all that the Lord wanted to give David. Look at the rest of verse 1. David therefore departed from there and escaped to the cave of Adullam. And when his brothers and all his father's house heard it, they went down there to him. The first thing that the Lord gave to David in the cave was the Lord gave David himself. And the Lord met David in the cave. And again, we saw that many of the psalms. But the second thing that the Lord gave David in the cave was his family. Now, I think this is wonderful because we know from our previous looks in this book of 1 Samuel, that David's relationship with his family wasn't always smooth. His father didn't think much of him. Remember when Samuel the prophet came and he told David's father, whose name was Jesse. Hey, I want you to come and have a feast and bring your whole family. Jesse brought the whole family, except David. David was the forgotten one, the neglected one, the one who was always overlooked. But David didn't have the greatest relationship with his father. Then there was David's relationship with his brothers. Remember how they despised him? When David came to the camp of Israel and Goliath was terrorized and Israelized, David came to the camp there on an errand from his father and his brother Eliab just started laying into him. Why have you come here? I know the wickedness in your heart, so forth and so on. David had to endure that kind of thing from his family. But no matter where his family was at before, now in David's real point of need, when he's at a Doolam cave, his family comes to him. Isn't that beautiful? It's a precious gift from God, because all David previously knew was trouble and persecution from his father and his brothers. Now they join him at a Doolam cave. Before they mostly seemed to be against him, but now they're for him. What a blessing that was to David. His family, his brothers, he sees them walking up the trail to a Doolam cave. And he says, oh, great. Now they're just going to lay into me again. Son, you've messed up your whole life. You've got to come home. He's figuring that's what he's going to hear from them. That's not what they say at all. They say, we're here for you. You're an outcast. You're a rebel. Well, we're here with you. You're despised. The king's against you. You're swimming against the tide. We're here with you. Isn't that a beautiful thing? What a glorious gift the Lord gave David from his family. But that's not all. Look at verse 2. That's quite a crew to have around you, isn't it? That sounds like a lot of congregations I know. That's who the Lord calls, isn't it? That's who the Lord brings together. God called an unlikely and a unique group to David in a Doolam cave. If they were all to submit their resumes to David, there would be. What's your resume? What's your qualifications? Well, first of all, David, I'm in distress. I'm in distress. My life isn't easy. My life isn't together, David. I don't know what's going on. But here I am. I'm here to help you. And David says, come, come on in. You're in distress. Come. You can join with me. Next guy comes up to David and says, David, here's my problem. I'm in debt. I've made a mess of my life, David. Other people are successful around me, but I haven't had success. I'm smarting from my past failures. I've got a lot of problems of my own, David. David says, don't worry about it. Come join me. The third guy comes up to David. He says, I'm discontent, David. That Hebrew word for discontent is beautiful. It actually means bitter of soul. David, I'm bitter of soul. I look around at the way things are in Israel right now, and I think they stink. I don't like King Saul. I think he's a wicked man. I don't want to follow King Saul. I don't want to be one of Saul's men. I want to be one of your men, David. David says, come, come on in. You see, it was only those who were sick of the reign of Saul who came to David. Those who prospered under that wicked king. Those were the ones who were comfortable with him. But these men had to make a conscious choice. They had to say, who's going to lead me? Who's going to be my king? Am I going to be a man identified with King Saul? Or am I going to be a man identified with David? Now, there was a price to being identified with David. You were going against the prevailing winds. You were going against what seemed to be in power, what seemed to be in authority. You were making yourself something hated by the world. But these 400 men didn't care. They said, I'm going to cast my lot with David because God's hand is upon him. And I'm going to go with him. And I'm going to be with him in the Doolam Cave. You see the picture there, don't you? Jesus Christ is the son of David. You know, Jesus descended from David. Jesus had the blood of David in his veins. And as Jesus is the son of David, Jesus, so to speak, stands at the opening of a Doolam Cave. And he says, come unto me, all you who are weary and heavy laden. I'll give you rest. Are you in distress? Come to me. You're in debt? Come to me. You're discontented? Come to me. As a matter of fact, those are the only kind of people who really do come to Jesus, aren't they? Now, maybe they're not in distress or in debt or discontented in any way people could see on the outside. Maybe they've got a successful life on the outside in the bank of counsel. But in their soul, they're distressed. In their soul, they know they have a debt before God. In their soul, they're discontent. In other words, if you think everything in your life is just fine without God, then you're never going to come to him. These men knew that something was wrong. They knew they needed a leader. They knew that things weren't working out in their life otherwise. And so they came to David. And look what happened there in verse two. He says, so he became captain over them. Isn't that beautiful? They had a leader. This wasn't a mob. This wasn't one of those groups you see in the pirate movies. You know, all this great big mob. You know, go out and plunder and cutthroat and be a rebel army. No, this was a team that needed a leader. And David became captain over them. Matter of fact, that was a requirement for being in this group, wasn't it? You didn't want David for your captain? Then go be with Saul. But he says, no, no, I'm going to be your leader. I'm going to be your captain. God doesn't work through mobs, my friends. He works through called men and women. And that's a very important principle for us to understand. Matter of fact, I'd say there's two principles illustrated here. First of all, it's that God works through called men and women. David was a captain over them. He was the leader. There's no doubt about it. But we also see the principle that David couldn't do it alone, could he? He needed these 400 men. The principle that God leads through a called and anointed man is very important. When an ark had to be built, God didn't call 400 men. He called one man, Noah. Friends, when the children of Israel had to be led out of Egypt, God didn't call a committee or 400 men. He called one man, Moses, and he raised him up for the job. When God needed someone to plant churches and to be the vanguard of spreading the church into Europe, God didn't call 400 men. He called one man, the apostle Paul. God always centers his work by a called and anointed man. But at the same time, friends, it's just as important to say that God rarely calls that man to work alone. Moses had his job to do. He couldn't do it alone. Noah had his job to do. He couldn't do it alone. Paul had his job to do. He couldn't do it alone. And David needed these 400 men. Maybe he never thought he did before. You know, I think in a way David was almost sorry to see these people come to him. God had been strengthening his heart and cherishing his soul. And it's just beautiful. Oh, David said, seek me with the Lord. And when you're all by yourself, you don't have a lot to worry about, do you? All David had to worry about was himself. But now these people come to him. He has to take care of them. He has to be a captain over them. I'm sure something in him said, you know what, Lord? Sometimes I'd just rather be all by myself. But he said, no, David, I'm calling you to be a leader. I'm calling you to take care of these people and shepherd them. And this is where you're going to learn how to be a king for my people. You're going to be a king over these 400 first. Those 400 people, David needed them. Friends, we need to understand that each one of those 400 men were just as called and just as anointed to their position as David was to his. They were just as important in God's outworking of his plan. Friends, the Lord took these men, brought them under David. He made David captain over them. They came to David when they were in distress and debt and discontented, but they didn't stay that way. David, through the Lord's work and through the Lord's power, he made something beautiful in them, didn't he? Isn't that glorious? Isn't it just glorious to see what the Lord did through those 400 men? Matter of fact, First Chronicles chapter 12 describes the kind of men that they became. First Chronicles 12, 8 says that these men became mighty men of valor, men trained for battle who could handle the shield and spear, whose faces were like the faces of lions and were as swift as gazelles on the mountains. Friends, they weren't like that when they came to David in the cave. But they let David be their captain. And he made something great of it. You see the illustration, don't you? See the illustration very powerfully. You need a captain in your life, don't you? I know that I do. I need Jesus Christ to be my captain. It doesn't matter if we come to Him in distress or debt or discontented. He'll take us, He'll fashion us, and He'll make us mighty men and women of valor. He'll do a glorious thing in our lives. We can come to Jesus. You see Him at the opening of a Doolam cave and He's saying, Come to me. Come, let me be your captain. Let me be your leader. I'll do glorious things in your life. Do you want to be one of my 400 men? And we say, yes. And we notice something else, too. That David resisted a great temptation with these 400 men. Let's face it, these guys were sort of men would seem to have unsavory histories. Maybe they all had police records and that kind of business. You know, this wasn't exactly the cream of the crop coming to David. But David resisted the temptation to make them into a rebel army. He could have done that. 400 desperate men. I could do something with these guys. I could go out and make a rebel army against Saul. We could attack him. We could defeat him. Yes, yes. This is a good beginning to that. David would have none of it. David said, no, no, I'm not going to allow this to become a gang of rebels or cutthroats. He's going to be men who serve the Lord. Now, David has more to do there at Adullam. We see here in verse three. And David went from there to Mizpah of Moab. And he said to the king of Moab, please let my father and my mother come here with you till I know what God will do for me. So he brought them before the king of Moab and they dwelt with him all the time that David was in the stronghold. David's hiding out and he's anticipating the dangers that may come his way in the battles that may be ahead. And he says, you know what? My mom and dad have come to me, but they're not cut out for this kind of life. I'm going to find a place of refuge for them. Isn't that beautiful to see the love in David's heart? You know, many people in the same place that David was at would be so consumed with their own problems that they wouldn't even think of taking care of other people. David wasn't like that. He said, I got to think about my mom and dad. You know, I've got to honor my father and my mother. I've got to obey the Lord. What should I do? I know I'll take them to the Moabites. Now, why the Moabites? Well, it's because David's great grandmother was a Moabite. Remember what her name was? Ruth, the Moabites. And so David, having his part of his lineage from the land of Moab, he goes to the king of Moab and he leaves his father and mother there for safekeeping. But I especially love what David says at the end of verse three. He says, please let my father and mother come here with you till I know what God will do for me. David didn't know, did he? He says, listen, I know God anointed me to be king, but I don't know when, I don't know how. That's God's business. So till I know what God will do for me, here they are. I'll keep them in safekeeping. Doesn't that comfort you to know that David didn't know what was going on and he still loved the Lord and followed him? Do you think you serve the Lord better, that you love him more, that you follow him more obediently when you know what's going on? Well, friends, you've got to come to the place where even when you don't know what's going on, you love him and you serve and you obey him. I think every one of us in some way of our life could say, hey, till I know what the Lord will do for me, because I don't know right now, but I'm going to love him. I'm going to serve him. I'm going to honor God till I know what he will do for me. David had no idea, but he did know that he had to trust and obey the Lord even when he didn't know what God would do for him. Trust and obey. Remember that old song? Trust and obey, for there's no other way. It's really true, isn't it? That's our lot in life as Christians, to trust the Lord and obey him even when we don't know what God will do for us. But the Lord does guide us. He does give us his direction. Look at how the Lord does it for David in verse five. Then the prophet Gad said to David, do not stay in the stronghold, depart and go to the land of Judah. So David departed and went to the forest of Horeb. I can just imagine David in the stronghold of the cave of Adullam with the 400 men and his family. I imagine they're having a great time. There they are, the laughing, the fellowship, the fun. They're around the campfire every night. It's just great. They're having a wonderful time and they're saying, hey, look, this is super. Let's all do his thing. We'll just hang out here until Saul dies or something. And then the Lord will raise me up as king. We'll just wait him out. Thank you, Lord, for giving me such a great place here. Oh, isn't it great? And then the prophet Gad comes along and says, David, move out of here. What? I like it here. The Lord met me here. The Lord has ministered to me here. I don't want to leave here. No, you need to go to the land of Judah. And Judah, that's Saul's backyard. What am I going to do there? The Lord will show him what he has for him to do there. But you see, friend, isn't this a mighty, mighty example of how the Lord works in our lives? David had to learn to trust God in the midst of the danger, not on the other side of the danger. Get out of your stronghold, David, and go out in the midst of the battle. I've got work for you to do there. No, Lord, I like it in the stronghold. Don't let me go out of the stronghold, Lord. I want to stay there. No, the Lord says, David, get out of there. Get out of there. I need to push you a little further along the road of faith. Now, as we leave verse five and come to verse six, the scene shifts. If you're thinking about this as a movie in your mind here, you pan out from David at a Doolam cave, and he and his 400 men are leaving a Doolam cave in obedience to the Lord and heading towards the countryside of Judea. And as they're leaving the Doolam cave, heading for the countryside of Judea, the camera pans away and then the camera comes in on King Saul. And he has his war council around him. And Saul isn't in a very good mood. Look at it here at verse six. When Saul heard that David and the men who were with him had been discovered, now Saul was staying in Gibeah under a tamarisk tree in Ramah with his spear in his hand and all his servants standing about him. Believe me, Saul's servants were pretty light on their feet when he had that spear in his hand. He had a habit of letting it go there. Verse seven, Then Saul said to his servants who stood about him, Here and now, you Benjaminites, will the son of Jesse give every one of you fields and vineyards and make all of you captains of thousands and captains of hundreds? All of you have conspired against me. There's no one who reveals to me that my son has made a covenant with the son of Jesse. And there's not one of you who's sorry for me or reveals to me that my son has stirred up my servant against me to lie in wait as it is this day. Oh, poor Saul. On this road to decline away from the Lord. And as he keeps going, he keeps picking up momentum. And we see Saul there with his staff, with his war council around him. And what's he doing with them? He's saying, guys, we need to wait on the Lord and find out what the Lord wants for us. And let's see who's the next enemy the Lord wants. Maybe it's the Philistines. Maybe it's the Edomites. Lord, what do you want? No, none of that. He sits around and he says, you guys are all against me and none of you feel sorry for me at all. That's leadership, isn't it? That's a king for you, right? This is Saul. This is what he's sunk to, my friends. He accuses David of trying to kill him. He accuses his son, Jonathan, of provoking David to kill him as if Saul's the victim. David's lying in wait for me. Wake up, Saul. You're lying in wait for him. David doesn't want to kill you. You want to kill him. But Saul paints David as the aggressor so he can paint himself as a victim. He's in his fleshly, self-focused world where everything revolves around Saul. And he's paranoid and he whines and he leads through guilt and accusation. Saul, you're slipping off into the deep end. And he accuses all of his servants around him of a conspiracy. Now, how would you feel if you were one of Saul's servants? How would you feel if you're under the accusing eye of Saul now? And he's holding that spear in his hand. You think, man, somebody here is going to catch that spear in the chest. Because I saw what Saul did to David. I saw what Saul did to Jonathan. When Saul feels attacked, when he feels conspired against, he starts lashing out in anger, lashing out in rage. There was one man present there at that meeting of Saul's war council. Who was clever enough and wicked enough to save his own skin. Look at it here. Verses 9 and 10. Then answered Doeg the Edomite, who was set over the servants of Saul, and said, I saw the son of Jesse going to Nob to Ahimelech, the son of Ahithah. And he inquired of the Lord for him, gave him provisions and gave him the sword of Goliath, the Philistine. Doeg was much more than an ambitious man looking for any opportunity to promote himself. He also knew expertly how to divert Saul's anger and suspicion from Saul's servants to the priests of the Lord. You see what Doeg's doing, right? Saul, Saul, we're not the problem. It's those priests. That's who you got to get. It's the priest. It's Ahimelech. Matter of fact, I saw David and Ahimelech together at the tabernacle of the Lord. Now we saw this when we were in 1 Samuel chapter 21. David went to the tabernacle of the Lord at a city called Nob. And when he met with Ahimelech, the priest, Ahimelech looked at him and said, David, what's up with this? I don't know what's going on. You look funny. You're all by yourself. Your appearance is disheveled. What's going on, David? And you know what David did? David lied. David covered himself. David said, well, I'm on a secret mission from King Saul. Yeah, right. That's a lie. And then he says, I'm doing the king's special business. And I'm really traveling with a great group of men. They're just over the hill. And I'm not all alone. Lie upon lie upon lie. And what David wanted to do was keep Ahimelech in the dark. We can understand maybe David had an innocent motive for all of that. But it ended up causing a lot of trouble, as we're going to see in just a few moments. But while David was there at the tabernacle, he saw this fellow, Doeg. Doeg, the servant of Saul, was there at the tabernacle. And 1 Samuel chapter 21, verse 7 says that Doeg was detained before the Lord at the tabernacle. Don't think that he was really serving God there. It probably says they're on official business, punching his ticket, so to speak, probably to work on Saul's staff. You know, he probably had to have approval from the priest or something like that. And so Doeg is there just doing his business. And David sees him there and Doeg sees him there. Now, Doeg is reporting it all to Saul. And look at the spin he puts on it here in verse 10. And he inquired of the Lord for him. Ah, you see, he's giving him counsel against you, Saul. And he gave him provisions. Ah, you see, he's aiding and abetting a known felon, Saul. This is Ahimelech. He's a bad character. And finally he says, he gave him the sword of Goliath, the Philistine. And Saul's saying, oh, wow, David killed Goliath with that sword. Now he's going to kill me. We've got to get Ahimelech because he's been helping David. Doeg expertly puts Saul's suspicious and accusing eye on Ahimelech instead of Saul's own servants. So what's going to happen? Look at verse 11. Then the king sent to call Ahimelech the priest, the son of Ahithob, and all his father's house. And the priests were a knob and they all came to the king. And Saul said, here now, son of Ahithob. And he answered, here I am, my lord. Then Saul said to him, why have you conspired against me, you and the son of Jesse, and that you've given him bread and a sword and have inquired of the God for him, that he should rise against me to lie in wait as it is this day? You can see the scene here, can't you? Very highly charged. Saul's enraged. And he calls for Ahimelech and all Ahimelech's family and the other priests to come before him. And as they're coming here, it's intimidating enough to be confronted by a king. But as he stands before this king, he starts laying into Ahimelech. And then Saul says, listen, you're conspiring against me. You're at the heart of a conspiracy. And David's trying to kill me and you're helping him. What's going on with this? Look at Ahimelech's answer here in verse 14. It's so innocent. And Ahimelech answered the king and said, And who among all your servants is so faithful as David, who's the king's son-in-law, who goes at your bidding and is honorable in your house? Did I then begin to inquire of God for him? Far be it from me. Let not the king impute anything to his servant or to any in the house of my father, for your servant knew nothing of all this little or much. Saul, I don't know what's going on. Now, if he would have only said that, that would have been enough. But did you see what he said in verse 14? Saul was furious and he says to Ahimelech, You're at the heart of a conspiracy against me. You were helping David. And what does Ahimelech say to Saul? David, isn't he a great guy, Saul? Boy, he's serving you faithfully. You must be so proud to have him as your son-in-law. And can you see the blood rushing to Saul's face? His eyeballs are just burning right now. How dare you praise this man in my midst? I can't say... And Ahimelech is totally dumb, isn't he? He doesn't know anything. He's completely ignorant of what's going on because David lied to him. And it just makes Saul all the more angry. And look at how it turns out here in verse 16. And the king said, You shall surely die, Ahimelech, you and all your father's house. I bet when Ahimelech heard that, he couldn't believe his ears. He's like, Did I hear what he said? I'm a priest of the Lord. I didn't do anything wrong. One of the priest's servants came to me and said he was on an errand from you, Saul. And I helped him. I'm not involved in this in any way. And you want to kill me and my father's house? You want to kill me and my children? For what? Ahimelech in the midst of this, he doesn't know what's going on. He's confused. And then look at verse 17. Then the king said to the guards who stood about him, Turn and kill the priests of the Lord, because their hand also is with David, and because they knew when he fled and did not tell it to me. Oh, how David regretted those lies right now, didn't he? You know what? We can't say that David was really guilty of the death of Ahimelech. Saul did it. But David put Ahimelech in a very vulnerable position, didn't he? I mean, if David would have come and told the truth, if he would have said to Ahimelech, Ahimelech, Saul's out to kill me. I need some provisions. I need some prayer. I'm on the run. Then at least Ahimelech would have had a choice. He would have had the choice of saying, David, you know what? I don't want to get in the midst of this. I can't help you. Please move on. That would have been Ahimelech's choice, right? Or Ahimelech would have had a more glorious choice. And I think he would have taken it. He would have said, David, I'm behind you all the way. I'm going to help you. But then at least Ahimelech would have known what was going on. And when he stood before Saul, he could have died the brave death of a knowing martyr instead of just a victim sort of caught in a trap. Saul commands him to be executed. This command shows that Saul is going faster and faster down the decline away from the Lord. He tried to kill David many times before. He even tried to kill his own son. But do you understand what's happening now? Now he commands the death of complete bystanders to the problem. He commands the death of priests to the Lord. And he commands the death of their families. This is just cold-blooded murder. And there's no other word for it. One commentator, Adam Clark, says, this is one of the worst acts in the life of Saul. His malice was implacable and his wrath was cruel. And there's no motive of justice or policy by which such a barbarous act can be justified. Another commentator, John Trapp, said, a bloody sentence, harshly pronounced, and as rashly executed without any pause or deliberation, without any remorse or regret, this was the worst act that Saul ever did. You see, Saul really hated the Lord, didn't he? But it's hard to fight against the Lord, right? Your arms are too short to box with God, aren't they? You can't get one over on the Lord. So many times when people are angry at the Lord, many times when they want to fight against the Lord, they fight against his people. They fight against his priests. And that's exactly what Saul was doing. Kill them. Kill them all. Kill their families. Look what happens here. Verse 17. But the servants of the king would not lift their hands to strike the priests of the Lord. Praise God. Isn't that great? That the servants of Saul were men of conscience, at least. And they were unsure about their own leader. And they said, we can't do this. This is cold-blooded murder. We're your servants, Saul, but we're servants of the Lord God before that. And this is murder and we'll have no part of it. But unfortunately, there was one man wicked and unprincipled enough to do it. Look at here, verse 18. And the king said to Doeg, you turn and kill the priests. So Doeg the Edomite turned and struck the priests and killed on that day. Eighty-five men who wore linen ephod. Also Nob, the city of the priests. He struck with the edge of the sword, both men and women, children and nursing infants, oxen and donkeys and sheep with the edge of the sword. A massacre. There at Gibeah. Eighty-five priests dead on the ground. Not to mention how many women and children. And who knows how much property was destroyed. Bloody dead bodies laying everywhere. And Doeg standing in triumph over them. You know, it's funny. We know very well about the kind of massacre and tragedy that happens in our country. Just a little over a month ago in Littleton, Colorado, there was a horrible incident. Where two young men went in. They were the heart and the spirit of Doeg, right? That bloodthirsty violence without a conscience. They struck down men. They killed many. And many of the ones they killed, the common link between them, that they were Christians. Believers in Jesus Christ. That's funny. This is even worse, isn't it? Eighty-five priests massacred that day. I think one of the remarkable things about the Bible. One of the truly great things about it, and especially the life of David, is not only do we have a historical account of David's life, but we also have the Psalms, which speak of David's heart, of his emotions through these historical events. And so I want you to keep a finger there in 1 Samuel chapter 22. But I want you to turn to Psalm 52 with me. And to see how David felt about this. And a reason why I think this is so important is because, friends, people like Doeg are still with us to this day, aren't they? And for some of us, we don't know what to do when we see the Doegs at work in our world today. Some people get completely panicked and completely freaked by it. They get so distressed. They get so angry. Well, might I tell you, David was angry too. Look at verse... Well, first look at the title here of the Psalm. Psalm 52. To the chief musician, a contemplation of David, when Doeg the Edomite went and told Saul and said to him, David has gone to the house of the Himalaya. Okay, that's the setting. So this was David's reaction after the massacre. Verse 1, Why do you boast in evil, O mighty man? The goodness of God endures continually. Your tongue devises destruction, like a sharp razor working deceitfully. You love evil more than good and lying rather than speaking righteousness. You love all devouring words, you deceitful tongue. We look at the Doegs of the world today and we're fed up with them. We don't want to have anything to do with them. And that's exactly the heart of David too in this. He looks at us and says, you're a deceiver, you're a deceitful tongue. May the Lord do away with you. But then look at this as well, my friends here. David knew how to give it to the Lord. Look at verse 5. He says, God shall likewise destroy you forever. He shall take you away and pluck you from your dwelling place and uproot you from the land of the living. David knew. David knew that God knew how to deal with the Doegs of this world. And friends, can I say, He still does. I think of those two young men who murdered all those people at the high school. And the last thing they did while their hearts beat on this earth was they directed those guns at their own heads and they killed themselves. And you know why they did that, don't you? They thought they could escape the punishment for what they've done. They can't punish me. I'm not going to court. I'm not going to sit in jail. I'm not going to be in a trial. I'll kill myself. I can escape punishment for what I've done. But friends, as soon as their lives passed from this world to the next and they stood face to face with the holy righteous God, they realized more than they ever realized on this earth that they would never escape punishment for what they've done. And God knows how to deal with those things. And friends, doesn't that help put things in perspective? Doesn't that help us say we're not going to become freaked out over the dough eggs of this world? We don't like it. We grieve. We get a little angry. But friends, we don't have to live our lives enslaved to fear and doubt and panic. As a matter of fact, look at David's words here in verses 8 and 9 as he concludes the psalm. He says, But I am like a green olive tree in the house of God. I trust in the mercy of God forever and ever. I will praise you forever because you've done it. And in the presence of your saints, I will wait on your name for it is good. When David ends the psalm, he's not thinking about dough egg. He's thinking about the Lord. And so when you see the evil people, when you see the wicked people, it's okay to be angry at them. It's okay to say, Lord, you take care of them, but then get your heart and mind off of them. Put your focus back on the Lord. That's what David did. The Lord met him in the midst of it. Back to first Samuel 22 as we finish up the chapter. Verse 20. Now, one of the sons of Ahimelech, the son of Ahithah, named Abiathar, escaped and fled after David. And Abiathar told David that Saul had killed the Lord's priest. So David said to Abiathar, I knew that day when dough egg the Edomite was there, that he would surely tell Saul, I have caused the death of all the persons of your father's house. Stay with me. Do not fear. For he who seeks my life seeks your life. But with me, you shall be safe. David was grieved and repentant when he saw the bitter result that his lying had caused. He didn't try to shade it. He didn't try to cover it up. He said, I've done this. And I'm sorry. I'm sorry before the Lord. I'm sorry before you. And the Lord was able to help restore things. You know, friends, there's something I think about that just really fixes on my mind here as we leave this. I think back to 1 Samuel chapter 21, verse 7, where David and dough egg were both at the house of the Lord together. There they were. Could I put it in today's kind of vocabulary? David and dough egg went to church together. They sat in church together. They were both before the Lord at the house of the Lord. There. And look at the direction that dough egg went and look at the direction that David went. Now, my friends, do you get the distinction here between the two? It's a very important distinction. Dough egg went to the house of the Lord, but it never went into his heart. And in that frightening prospect, I think about that sometimes that somebody can come to the house of the Lord and maybe you come occasionally, maybe you come every week and you hear the word. But friends, if it's not touching your life, if you're not letting it change your life, you could end up just like a dough egg. I'm glad you're here. It's great that you're here at the house of the Lord. But friends, don't let it just pass over your head. Is the Lord calling you to turn and to repent of something this morning? Then do it. Is the Lord calling you to something deeper with him? Then follow him. Is the Lord calling you to step out in a bold way? Then don't shut your ears to the Lord. You can end up like a dough egg instead of like a David, who was also at the house of the Lord. But when he stumbled, he got back up and kept following the Lord. And he listened to the Lord's voice and he followed after the Lord. My friends, what a tragedy it is. People you know, you love, you see them go the way of dough egg. You think, well, how could that be? They were at the house of the Lord. Friends, dough egg could shut his ears. Dough egg could put it all away. I just pray that no one here is following in that path. And if you see yourself on that path, right now, you can change. Right now, you can come before the Lord and say, I don't want to be a dough egg. I want to be a David. So friends, here is our captain, Jesus Christ, standing at a dullum cave saying, come to me, come to me. Leave everything else behind. Come to me. Today, it's just incumbent upon us to say, here we are, Lord. We want to follow you that way. Let's pray about it right now.