Lies

So he flees to Nob, to Ahimelech the priest. It's an interesting start to the verse. Why does Ahimelech—that name means "my brother, the king"—why does he come trembling before David? Well, everybody at this point knows the beef between David and Saul. Like, this has not been quiet. Saul's walking around with a spear at all times, apparently, chucking at anybody that upsets him. And so Ahimelech sees David coming, and David's by himself, which is not ordinary, right? Because David is the commander of thousands. He's the head of the bodyguard. And so he sees him coming and he says, "Hey, why are you alone and no one is with you?"

And David said to Ahimelech the priest, "The king has charged me with a matter and said to me, 'Let no one know anything of the matter about which I send you, and with which I have charged you.' I have made an appointment with the young men for such and such a place."

So David just flat out lies to the priest of Yahweh. Just makes up a story. "Oh, I'm here on a secret mission from Saul. And I'm going to go meet with the dudes over here. We've got this secret mission going on. And so I've come for your help."

Now then, what do you have on hand? Give me five loaves of bread, or whatever is here. And the priest answered David, "I have no common bread on hand, but there is holy bread—if the young men have kept themselves from women."

So the priest is there in the tabernacle, and there's all the items for worship that God has stipulated in the Torah that He gave to Moses. And part of that is the daily offering of the bread, the showbread. It's a representation of God's provision through manna. And so it's consecrated. It's sacrosanct. It's not to be eaten in general by the common man. He's like, "All I got is that. So if you guys are pure, if you're ritually and ceremonially pure, I guess I could give that to you."

And David answered the priest, "Truly women have been kept from us as always when I go on an expedition. The vessels of the young men are holy even when it is an ordinary journey. How much more today will their vessels be holy?"

So you see how he's just spinning his lie. "Well, of course, we haven't had any women for this imaginary journey mission and imaginary group and this whole thing." Like, he just keeps going with it.

So the priest gave him the holy bread, for there was no bread there but the bread of the Presence, which is removed from before Yahweh, to be replaced by hot bread on the day it is taken away. Now a certain man of the servants of Saul was there that day, detained before Yahweh. His name was Doeg the Edomite, the chief of Saul's herdsmen.

So this little detail is thrown in. It's going to come back with a vengeance later. So while David's there making up this story, there's this guy there, and he's, it says, detained before Yahweh or restrained. He's there to offer a vow or some sort of ritual worship experience. And so he's there, and he's witnessing this whole thing.

Then David said to Ahimelech, "Then have you not here a spear or a sword at hand? For I have brought neither my sword nor my weapons with me, because the king's business required haste."

Yeah, like the whole thing's been haste. Like when he started, he had to go out the window and his wife had to make a fake body in the bed, and he's been hiding in the field. This has been crazy, right? So he doesn't have any weapons. "Are there any weapons here?"

And the priest said, "The sword of Goliath the Philistine, whom you struck down in the Valley of Elah, behold, it is here wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod. If you will take that, take it, for there is none but that here." And David said, "There is none like that; give it to me."

So now we have a little detail that we didn't know. If you remember, after David killed Goliath, he took the armor as something for himself. He took the armor and put it in his own tent. But it didn't tell us anything about the sword. So now we find out that the sword ended up at the tabernacle, which tells us that most likely it was given by David or by Saul or by someone as an offering unto Yahweh and a celebration. And then the priests who received it see it as this incredible symbol of God's protection and God's power and God's providence. So they take it and they wrap it up and they put it within the sanctuary by the ephod, where the Urim and the Thummim are and all the other instruments of God's blessing. And so they put it there as this symbolic reminder of what God is doing for them. And David's like, "That'll do. I'll take that."

And David rose and fled that day from Saul and went to Achish the king of Gath.

Which is an interesting choice because Achish the king of Gath is a Philistine. Gath is a Philistine city, one of the five major ones. Achish is one of their kings, and David has been fighting them constantly. And yet he's so afraid of Saul that now he's not only told a lie to the priest of Yahweh, he's so scared, now he runs and he tries to hide in the presence of Saul's enemies, but they were also his enemies. So this is not going to go well for him.

And the servants of Achish said to him, "Is not this David the king of the land? Did they not sing to one another of him in dances, 'Saul has struck down his thousands, and David his ten thousands'?"

That's an interesting thing for them to say. Because David actually has been the functional king of the land. Because the Spirit of God has been upon him. And God has been blessing him. And David has been leading in victory. And you remember that little song that made Saul so jealous? That song became a hit. It went viral, right? So even in Gath, they've heard the song.

And David took these words to heart and was much afraid of Achish the king of Gath. So he changed his behavior before them and pretended to be insane in their hands and made marks on the doors of the gate and let his spittle run down his beard.

So he changed his behavior. There's lies of words and there's lies of acting. He changed his behavior. He puts on an act. Now, literally in the Hebrew, what this says, it's a Hebrew phrase, idiom. It says he changed his taste. He changed his taste. I want you to put that away in your memory because we're going to come back to that in a little bit. So he changed his behavior for them and pretended to be insane in their hands. He made marks on the doors of the gate and let his spittle run down his beard. So he just plays crazy. Because in the ancient Near East, killing a crazy person, there's no honor in that. There's no respect in that. So David says to himself, "He's going to kill me. This song's gone, everybody thinks I'm dead." So he acts crazy.

Then Achish said to his servants, "Behold, you see the man is mad. Why then have you brought him to me? Do I lack madmen, that you have brought this fellow to behave as a madman in my presence? Shall this fellow come into my house?"

So basically David's being rejected from hanging out in Gath and hiding out from Saul there because he plays like a madman and it does save his life, but it actually makes it impossible for him to stay there. And that's, once again, just the reality of how lies work. Even when they work, they don't work. There's always unintended consequences. So he lies to save his life, which allows him to save his life, but then he's not allowed to stay there. And this chapter is just so tragic in the sense of David has been so faithful. And he's demonstrated so much faith. He's feared God, not man. But now because of the situation that has evolved and developed and the ongoing hatred and enmity that Saul has shown towards him and everything that has developed, he's... You understand this. You let a little bit of fear in. And it takes more and more and more, and then you're consumed with it. And we see David here, the man after God's own heart, the giant slayer, right? Terrified and pretending to be a madman.

Chapter 22 moves from the deception to the devastation that's brought about because of the deception. And it's heartbreaking. It's hard, hard to imagine that David's lie to save himself is going to result in the death of hundreds.

David 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.

So he goes to this fortress, kind of this place of refuge, and it's out in the middle of nowhere, and it's kind of this, it's on the margins. And that's what David has become. He's become marginalized. He's become stigmatized. He's a runaway. He's on the outside of culture and society. And so he goes there, and his family hears where he is, and so they go and they come to him.

And everyone who was in distress, and everyone who was in debt, and everyone who was bitter in soul, gathered to him. And he became commander over them. And there were with him about four hundred men.

So everybody that's marginalized, everybody that's on the outside, that doesn't find their place, that's experienced dishonor in a variety of ways, they come and they are welcomed by David. He welcomes the marginalized because he is marginalized. And so they come to him and he became commander over them. So one day you're the head of Saul's bodyguard, you're leading troops of thousands, the best of the best of the best, and now he's hiding out in the outskirts in the middle of nowhere, and he's the commander over the people that nobody wanted. And there were with him about 400 men.

And David went from there to Mizpeh of Moab. And he said to the king of Moab, "Please let my father and my mother stay with you, till I know what God will do for me."

So his family came to him and he knows this thing with Saul isn't going away. And so he wants to protect his family. And so he takes them to Moab, which might seem like a strange choice until you remember who David's grandfather was. Boaz, who married Ruth, and Ruth was a Moabite, right? So he's actually taking his family to his other extended family and saying, "Hey, will you take care of them? Because the way I'm going to have to live, it's dangerous. I need you to do that."

And he left them with the king of Moab, and they stayed with him all the time that David was in the stronghold. Then the prophet Gad said to David, "Do not remain in the stronghold; depart, and go into the land of Judah." So David departed and went into the forest of Hereth. Now Saul heard that David was discovered, and the men who were with him. Saul was sitting at Gibeah under the tamarisk tree on the height, with his spear in his hand, and all his servants were standing about him. And Saul said to his servants who stood about him, "Hear now, people of Benjamin! Will the son of Jesse give every one of you fields and vineyards? Will he make you all commanders of thousands and commanders of hundreds, that all of you have conspired against me? No one discloses to me when my son makes a covenant with the son of Jesse. None of you is sorry for me or discloses to me that my son has stirred up my servant against me, to lie in wait, as at this day."

What a tragic, whiny, pathetic, self-obsessed dialogue and diatribe that is. Saul has become so consumed in his vanity. So he's doubled down on his lack of faith and his faithlessness against God so many times. He's just becoming consumed by it. And so he just rails at everybody. "Again, nobody's with me. Nobody treats me right. Everybody loves David more than me."

Then answered Doeg the Edomite, who stood by the servants of Saul, "I saw the son of Jesse coming to Nob, to Ahimelech the son of Ahitub, and he inquired of Yahweh for him and gave him provisions and gave him the sword of Goliath the Philistine."

So Doeg's a rat. And he's trying to curry favor with Saul. "Guess what I saw? The priest, he helped David out."

So the king sent to summon Ahimelech the priest, the son of Ahitub, and all his father's house, the priests who were at Nob; and all of them came to the king. And Saul said, "Hear now, son of Ahitub." And he answered, "Here I am, my lord." And Saul said to him, "Why have you conspired against me, you and the son of Jesse, in that you have given him bread and a sword and have inquired of God for him, so that he has risen against me, to lie in wait, as at this day?"

Which of course isn't true. David's not out lying in wait. David didn't rise up against Saul. Saul rose up against David. The whole thing is not true, and yet this is the reality that Saul has constructed for himself and that he's living in, and he's the king, so he can do that to some degree. And he calls out, "Why did you do this?"

Then Ahimelech answered the king, "And who among all your servants is so faithful as David, who is the king's son-in-law, and captain over your bodyguard, and honored in your house? Is today the first time that I have inquired of God for him? No! Let not the king impute anything to his servant or to all the house of my father, for your servant has known nothing of all this, much or little."

Completely reasonable, by the way. He's like, "He's your son-in-law. He's the captain of the guard. He comes to me all the time. It was just another day." Which is absolutely true. Why? Because David lied to him. Right? So here he is. He's now in absolute jeopardy. Not just him, his entire family is in jeopardy because of the lie that David told that put him in a place where now Saul's anger is directed at him. He says, "I didn't know anything about this."

And the king said, "You shall surely die, Ahimelech, you and all your father's house."

It just shows you where Saul is at at this point, like how far he has fallen from grace. The priest and his family did nothing wrong. They were deceived. They did nothing wrong. But Saul, in his rage, in his vanity, in his anger, in his pride, "You will die."

And the king said to the guard who stood about him, "Turn and kill the priests of Yahweh, because their hand also is with David, and they knew that he fled and did not disclose it to me." But the servants of the king would not put out their hand to strike the priests of Yahweh.

What a statement coming from the lips of the king. "Turn and kill the priests of Yahweh." Can you imagine what that did to Saul? Like, can you imagine? He just pronounced this death sentence. He turns to his guard. He's like, "Kill him!" And they're like, "I ain't killing a priest." They just don't do it. So you can just imagine. So then he remembers the brown noser, Doeg.

Then the king said to Doeg, "You turn and strike the priests." And Doeg the Edomite turned and struck down the priests, and he killed on that day eighty-five persons who wore the linen ephod. And Nob, the city of the priests, he put to the sword; both man and woman, child and infant, ox, donkey and sheep, he put to the sword.

Doeg the Edomite goes on a rampage. Eighty-five priests, their families, their wives, their children, hundreds slaughtered. Now hundreds are slaughtered because of the sinfulness and the vanity and the rage of Saul, but the pebble that dropped into the water that created this ripple was David's lie, his deception. Because sin brings death, and lies always have unintended consequences.

Yet there's this little glimmer of grace in this chapter.

But one of the sons of Ahimelech the son of Ahitub, named Abiathar, escaped and fled after David. And Abiathar told David that Saul had killed the priests of Yahweh. And David said to Abiathar, "I knew on that day, when Doeg the Edomite was there, that he would surely tell Saul. I have occasioned the death of all the persons of your father's house. Stay with me; do not be afraid, for he who seeks my life seeks your life. With me you shall be in safekeeping."

What a brutal, harsh, tragic, ugly story. What must have seemed to David such a simple—I even love our language—white lie, just a little lie, could have had no idea how that would spiral and ripple and turn into this tragic, brutal, ugly, messy devastation. Like a gut punch. A reminder that lies don't just vanish. They carry a price. Often from those who had no part in the telling.

Amidst this tragedy, there's a glimmer of deliverance. There's this glimmer of hope. God preserves Abiathar and brings him to David. And in that, David repents. David's repentance is profound and deep. And he works out that repentance, as he very often does, through poetry and song. And David composed one of the Psalms immediately after this event. Psalm 34 says, right, starts this way:

Of David, when he changed his behavior before Abimelech, so that he drove him out, and he went away.

So it's in the whole context of this story. David's lies, David's deception, David running from Saul, David marginalized on the outskirts, all that he did. And Psalm 34, it's a beautiful psalm. There's a couple of lines in here that you're going to hear and you're going to go, "Oh yeah, I know that. I've heard that. I've sung that." And I want to read through the whole thing. And I want you to hear this psalm in the context of what has just happened. Because it's a psalm of praise. It's not a psalm of repentance. We think of like Psalm 51 where David just goes deep into his repentance. Right? This is a psalm that's written on the back end of his repentance. So after he's worked through that and wrestled through it and owned it and come clean before Yahweh, he writes this psalm to teach and to educate and to direct and to point others, including us this morning, on why we should trust in God and fear Him and not fear man.

So listen to the words of Psalm 34.

I will bless Yahweh at all times; his praise shall continually be in my mouth. My soul makes its boast in Yahweh; let the humble hear and be glad.

"Let the humble hear and be glad." In other words, God's goodness, God's greatness is so profound, it's so beautiful and amazing and satisfying and all that it is, that even when you're in humble circumstances, you can boast in Yahweh. It's not when you're at your best, then you can boast in Yahweh. When you're at your worst, when you've been humbled, when you've been humiliated, pretending to be insane in front of a king, being forced to run from your family, from everyone that you know, David knows what it's like to be humbled. And now he's saying, listen, no matter what your condition, no matter what circumstances you find yourself in, the goodness of God, the glory of God, is something that you can boast in no matter what.

Oh, magnify Yahweh with me, and let us exalt his name together!

I love that. I love how David is like, "I want to worship God so much, I don't want to do it by myself. No, I want you to come with me. I want you to join me in this. We're going to worship, we're going to exalt, we're going to magnify, we're going to declare the goodness of God together."

I sought Yahweh, and he answered me and delivered me from all my fears.

What led David to lie and pretend he was insane? It was his fear. He wasn't fearing God. He was fearing Saul. He wasn't fearing God. He was fearing Achish, the king of Gath. He was taking his eyes off of the goodness of God. He'd taken his eyes off the provision and protection that only Yahweh can offer. He says, but when I sought Yahweh and He answered me, then He delivered me from all my fears.

Those who look to him are radiant, and their faces shall never be ashamed. This poor man cried, and Yahweh heard him and saved him out of all his troubles. The angel of Yahweh encamps around those who fear him, and delivers them. Oh, taste and see that Yahweh is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!

"Taste and see that Yahweh is good." Do you remember when he was before the king of Gath and he said he changed his appearance, he changed his behavior, and literally that translates as he changed his taste? It's the same word here, the connection. I think David's being very intentional in his language here. Like, you don't need to change your behavior with God. You don't need to pretend. You don't need to play. You don't need to act. You don't need to... Like, you can't fool Him anyway. He knows. He knows everything. He knows it all. He knows you better than you know yourself. So taste and see that God is good. Blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him.

Oh, fear Yahweh, you his saints, for those who fear him have no lack!

I know we live in America and we've produced this American prosperity gospel. And so it's easy to kind of read declarations like this through that lens. "Oh, if I fear God, I'm going to have no lack. Bitcoin's going to just start flowing to me." David's writing this on the run. He might be writing it in the cave. He might be writing it in the southern lands of Judah. We don't know exactly when he wrote this, but he's gone through the process of redemption and reflection and repentance. And he's like, "Those who fear Him have no lack." Like he's writing this in the wilderness from the margins. But they have no lack because they have God. And we sang it this morning. Like Jesus is enough for us, right?

The young lions suffer want and hunger; but those who seek Yahweh lack no good thing.

I think that's an interesting comparison. The young lions suffer want and hunger because the head of the pride controls all that. And the young lions, man, they've got to fight for the scraps and for that. And really, David is the young lion. He's fighting for the scraps. And Saul, the old head of the kingdom, is driving him out. Now that I think about it, this is the plot of The Lion King. But those who seek Yahweh, those who seek Yahweh, lack no good thing.

Come, O children, listen to me; I will teach you the fear of Yahweh.

I love the heart of David here. "Don't do what I did. Don't be like me. Don't let the fear of man consume you. Don't let the fear of your circumstances, don't let the fear of what's happening around you cause you not to trust in God and cause you to try to take things into your own hands. Don't do what I did. Don't start telling those lies. Don't try to manipulate reality according to what you can control and understand because you actually control and understand very little. And I'll say this, you actually control and understand way less than you think you can control and understand. And that's proven out time and time again. In fact, every time we lie."

What man is there who desires life and loves many days, that he may see good? Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking deceit. Turn away from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it.

David learned a hard lesson here. At the cost of the lives of Ahimelech and his entire family, the entire town of Nob, devastated because he lied and was deceitful. David's saying to us, "Listen, I've been down this road. You don't want to walk it. You want to love your life? You want to have peace and a sense of well-being no matter what the circumstances that you're in? Man, trust in God. Fear Him first. Keep your lips from lies and deceit. Seek peace. Pursue it. And do good, not evil. Do good, not evil."

I feel like that's a message that the church in the United States right now at this current cultural moment needs to hear. It's expressed in the New Testament in this way. We don't overcome evil with evil, but we overcome evil with good. We're tempted in times of chaos and strife. We're tempted in times of danger. We're tempted in times when we let the fear of the world, the fear of man, the fear of events in. We're tempted to fight the battle of the world with the weapons of the world, but we are no longer of the world because He has chosen us out of the world and the weapons of our warfare are not of this world. We're not to respond to hatred with hatred. We respond to hatred with love. We're not to respond to cursing with cursing. We respond to cursing with blessing. And we entrust ourselves into the hands of the one who sees all. And who one day will judge all. This is the reality that we need to embrace today. "The ends justify the means," we say to ourselves. But that's not the way that it works.

The eyes of Yahweh are toward the righteous and his ears toward their cry. The face of Yahweh is against those who do evil, to cut off the memory of them from the earth. When the righteous cry for help, Yahweh hears and delivers them out of all their troubles. Yahweh is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit. Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but Yahweh delivers him out of them all. He keeps all his bones; not one of them is broken.

What an interesting sentence for David to write in this as he's reflecting. David owns his part. He knows what he did. He's proclaiming the grace of God in this and how God rescued him out of his own foolishness. I probably pray more than anything, "God save me from myself." Amen. And then David writes, "He keeps all his bones; not one of them is broken." He went through all that, and David's like, "Not one of them was broken." Hold on to that.

Affliction will slay the wicked, and those who hate the righteous will be condemned. Yahweh redeems the life of his servants; none of those who take refuge in him will be condemned.

David blew it. He failed. He sinned. The devastation of his deception was immense. I can't even imagine that conversation between David and Abiathar when he comes and tells him what had happened and the slaughter that ensued. I can't imagine what David was feeling as he's like, "I did that." But David brings it to Yahweh. And at the end of that process, he comes out and he declares, "Those who seek Yahweh are redeemed. Those who seek Yahweh will be forgiven. Those who seek Yahweh can be rescued." Of course, David is a shadow of the true king to come. He's always going to point us towards Jesus. And this is one of the moments where it's the contrast between David and Jesus in which David points to Him. Because Jesus had to stand before a foreign king. Jesus had to stand before a ruler and be questioned. His life was at stake. Jesus chose, though, not to go down the road that David did. Jesus doesn't lie. He doesn't pretend to be mad. He doesn't take things into his own hands and try to manipulate and control the situation.

You remember this, don't you? John 18, standing before Pilate. "Are you the king?" Pilate asked him. Jesus answered,

"My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the world." Then Pilate said to him, "So you are a king?" Jesus answered, "You say that I am a king. For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world—to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice."

What a statement. This statement ultimately is going to lead Him to be rejected by the people, by the nation. Pilate's going to wash his hands and say, "Do with Him as you wish." Jesus is going to the cross. And yet the truth of Psalm 34 is demonstrated in its ultimate sense in His deliverance through the resurrection. Jesus chooses to entrust Himself to God. "Not my will," He prays, "but yours be done." Now, many are the afflictions of the righteous, but Yahweh will redeem them. Yahweh will redeem Him from the pit. So Jesus goes to the cross because He bears witness to the truth. He's killed. But because He trusts and fears God, the grave cannot hold Him, and He's raised. And in the New Testament, in the Gospels, when they're describing what happens, Psalm 34 gets quoted: He keeps all his bones; not one of them is broken (Psalm 34:20 ESV).

For these things took place that the Scripture might be fulfilled: "Not one of his bones will be broken."

Here's the mystery of the gospel. God doesn't keep Jesus from the affliction, but delivers Him through it. That same deliverance is offered to us by Jesus through Jesus. He is the light of the world who came to bear witness to the truth, who embodied truth in the flesh. John 1. He came, the light of the world. The darkness hated it. We witnessed His glory full of grace and full of truth. This is the one who declared in John 14:6,

Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."

Jesus is the truth, and it is in Him and through Him that we have access to the source of reality, the truest truth, God Himself, in whom there is no lie, in whom there is no deception. That truth changes everything. Truth is freedom. And see, this is the crux of the matter of deceit and lying. When you feel tempted to just say that little falsehood, that little untruth, so that you can make your life that little bit easier. You're stepping into a whirlwind of sin and death that you have no idea where it can take you and who will pay the price for it.

Jesus says in John 8:31-32,

So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, "If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."

That's what truth does. Why does truth do that? Because truth is alignment with reality. Truth is alignment with God, who is reality. If David were here this morning, telling us this story, walking us through Psalm 34. I can almost imagine the quiver in his voice, the tears in his eyes as he reflects on the consequences, the unintended consequences that his words, his lie brought into the world. And I can hear the passion in his voice in Psalm 34. "Come and let's worship God together. Let's do this together. Don't do what I did. Keep yourself from deceit. Don't lie. Trust in God. Seek good. Pursue peace. Let Him rescue you. He's better at it than you are."

You're going to be tempted to lie today. Like maybe between now and walking to the parking lot. You're going to be tempted to lie to people that you love. You're going to be tempted to lie to yourself. You're going to be tempted to lie to God. You're going to be tempted to involve yourself in the lies of this world. Church, I want to stand like David in Psalm 34 and say, "Hey, let's not walk down that road. That way lies madness. Let's stand on the one who is the truth. Let's trust in the one who entrusted Himself to God, and because of that, death could not hold Him, and He rose in victory. Let's trust in the one who has given us that victory. Let's trust in the one who gave us the Spirit, the same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead, now dwells within us in our mortal bodies. So let us live in the freedom that the truth brings, that Jesus brings. Speak truth. Speak truth in love. Because the most loving thing you can do is live and speak the truth of reality." May God protect us from lying and deceitful lips, and may He guard us in the truthfulness of Jesus. Amen?