FETCHING UP SAUL
¶ To fully understand the desperation of David in Psalm 17 we must fetch up Saul out of the Book of 1 Samuel 27:1, where, in its content, we find the young, tried and true warrior, David, laying out his heart with the deference of a dying man’s last words as he says, with all urgency, “…because, by the hand of Saul, Death is knocking on my door: there is nothing better for me than that I should speedily escape into the land of the Philistines where Saul shall despair of seeking me ever again within the borders of Israel: so shall I escape out of his hand. (1 Samuel 27:1, ¹wcv)
¶ Keep in mind, this is the young man, that when still a boy, was anointed by the Prophet Samuel years earlier to be the greatest earthly king Israel was to ever know!
¶ I don’t think anyone resting at ease in the pews of American Christendom today can fully realize the desperation that David is expressing in this Psalm unless they themselves have, at some time in their life, been relentlessly hunted down by a madman whose malice was at a fever pitch, whose obsession was rabid, and whose army was predatory. However, there are some veterans who have been there.
¶ You have to be in a hard place to want to escape into enemy territory. I mean, something really bad has to be lickin’ at your heels. And something really bad was certainly lickin’ at David’s heels. It was that close behind him! Saul was, in deed, a manifestation of the terrifying AntiChrist to come, and Saul wanted David dead, dead, dead!
Which takes us to Psalm XVII
<<A Prayed of David>>
1 Hear my just cause, O Lord, give my heart Your full attention♥, listen to my prayer for I am free of all deceit!
2 Let my vindication come from You; for Your eyes (always²) see what is right.
3 You have proved my heart: You have visited me in the night; You have tried me, You have put me to the test and found no evil purpose in me. My heart is set and my mind is fixed so that I will not sin with my mouth. ( vs. 1,2,3, ¹wcv)
¶ David is saying, “Lord, you see clearly into the innermost thoughts and yearnings of my heart. In the deepest reclusion of my soul, You see what I design. By many afflictions have you tried me, as gold in the fire. Never have you found me devising wicked schemes for gain or to get the upper hand. My secret thoughts have never strayed into evil territory. They are, IN DEED, in league with my speech and my actions, they are one and the same; they have always agreed together. Lord, you know me thru and thru. You know I am not guilty.”
¶ “Lord, it seems as though you have deferred the judgment of the guilty, and let my enemy pursue me as if I were guilty. Lord my God, openly acquit me. Let all of Israel see it! Judge between me and the hounds of hell that pursue me. I know that You have no regard for the blustery greatness, the pompous stature, or the high and vain station of any man, no matter how garish and grandiloquent they may be. I also know that you have great regard for those who are upright in their heart and full of integrity.” David is crying out, “Lord, do something here. You know I am not guilty of this treason.” (sound familiar?)
4 Considering the ways of Cain, by the Oracles of My God have I kept myself from rendering evil for evil. (though, indeed, I was tempted)
¶ Twice, David had Saul dead-to-rights but refused to take his life, for Saul was, at one time, God’s anointed king; and David refused to raise his hand against one of God’s anointed. David, warrior that he was, refused to repay evil-for-evil, lest he himself should become like Saul by falling to the spirit of Cain. Warrior that he was, David prayed instead…
5 Hold fast² my goings in Your Path, Lord, so that my feet will never slip. (Order my steps forever in Your Word and never let iniquity have dominion over me.) (Psalm 119:133)
6 When I cast myself upon You, O Lord my God, (You are always near, even at my right hand)(Ps. 16:8), You always bow down Your heavens so I might hear You, and You, O Lord, always hear me. (144:5-8)
7 O Savior, You are forever pouring out your sovereign lovingkindness upon those who seek refuge in You from those who rise up against us.
8 Keep me, as the apple of thine eye, hide me neath the shadow of Thy wings, (.vs. 5-8, ¹wcv & ²)
¶ David dared not touch God’s anointed, lest he become like Saul, even though Saul had become as wicked as Satan himself, but at the same time David reminded the Lord of His Word, that anyone who dared do David any harm would be the same as harming the “apple of God’s own eye”. Thus, it proved out, Saul would have been better off poking a sleeping grizzly in the eye with a stick, than pursuing God’s Anointed. For so says the Lord, “He that touches you, touches the apple of Mine own eye.” (Zechariah 2:8, Deuteronomy 32:10)
Did not David verily pray…
8 Lord, keep me as the apple of thine own eye, hide me neath the refuge of Your mighty wings,
9 From the wicked man that does oppress me so, and from my deadly enemies who now compass me about.
10 Enveloped with the fat of their own great, swelling words,
11 They compass us about, casting the glare of their high-browed stare down upon us
12 Like lions, greedy for the prey, they lurk about in covert haunts.
13 Arise, O LORD, and startle them, cast them into the abyss, and by YOUR SWORD, deliver my soul…
14 …From their high and haughty hand, O LORD, from the lovers of this present, evil world, whose bellies are about to be filled to the bursting of their bowels with Your GREAT REWARD, the RECOMPENSE OF THE LORD. They have trained up their many children in the ways of the world and left them massive treasure that they also might set themselves on high. (vs.8-14, ¹wcv & ²)
¶ Who, with all the highfalutin haughtiness they can muster, can but at their best, throw out their bellies but not their chests, to show how stuffed they are with worldly goods. And with all the great and broad braggadocio of an obese blowhard, they bluff as though they have already accomplished their evil designs against me. They have, indeed, grown fat and sluggish on their own wicked designs; They are, indeed, full of themselves. (17:10)
¶ They have waxed so fat (with ill gotten gain) that they can do no more than kick at the dust. They have grown thick in their own fat (trapped in their own great vault by the “love of money”). They have, by living a life of wicked deeds, IN DEED, deceived themselves with vain estimations of their own greatness. Their hearts, having been embroiled in greed, have forsaken their Creator and flippantly rejected the Rock of their salvation. (Deuteronomy 32:15,)…
…and like Saul, they will be brought swiftly to a quick demise by the enemy of their soul who they did so faithfully serve in vain throughout their lives. For the day is at hand “…when they will all be proclaiming, ‘Peace, Peace, there ain’t no danger here”,...which is the time, says the Scriptures, “…that SUDDEN DESTRUCTION shall sweep down upon them like a thief in the night, and as the birth-pangs of a woman travailing with a child – not one of them shall escape.”(1 Thessalonians 5: 2,3, wcv)
¶, Unlike Saul, we comfort ourselves with the Great Hope that is set before us. For we, like David, do declare…
15 As for me, (O LORD), I will behold Your Face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied when I awake, with Your Likeness.
¶ Like David, “I have become like one who dreams. My heart is filled with laughter and my mouth with songs as I go out proclaiming today among all my old and cherished heathern friends, “THE LORD HAS DONE GREAT THINGS!!!” (Psalm 126, wcv)
¶ Like the old Kentucky crickbeds and tributaries that did run so freely in the Spring-a-the-Year thru the Forests of the Deep Fetch, that did so enamor my soul and where I did run so freely in the days of my youth, the Lord did restore this drought-ridden wayward soul with His ever-flowing River of Delights. He has, indeed, filled me up and set me free.
¶ Because of the goodness of the Lord I am no longer a natural man living for the moment, for, “…according to His Divine Power I have been given ALL THINGS that I need in the here and now pertaining to life and godliness, through the KNOWLEDGE of the very ONE that called me to His own glory and excellence. No, I am no more a natural man… (2 Peter 1:3, ¹wcv)…for I have been given the exceedingly great and precious promise: that by these and His DIVINE POWER, I am now a partaker of His DIVINE NATURE.” (v.4, ¹wcv & ²)
¶ “And though it has not yet appeared what I shall be when I awake, I do know this, when I behold Him face to face in all of His Righteousness and Glory, like David, I shall be like HIM.” (1 John 3:2, Psalm 17:15)
In SUMMARY, I would like to extend a WORD to the WISE:
Saul has, indeed, been Fetched Up Out of the Nethers to Raise Cain one last time. We must maintain the victory IN THE SPIRIT, for it is the Lord alone that HOLDS FAST our feet in the Way that we should go. Remember, “We DO NOT War against flesh and blood…but against spiritual forces of wickedness, which is exactly what is raising its ugly head. This madman’s malice is at a fever pitch, his obsession with our demise is rabid, and his army is predatory – but he is no match for our Returning King. However, at the same time, this is no time to be flippant, coy, or cute about what’s comin’ down the pike. Many who claim to be Born Again of the Spirit of God are about to find out He doesn’t KNOW THEM.
We are about to find out who will stand and who will run. We’re about to find out who it is that’s piddling around in the outer court and who it is that, like David, dwells in the Secret Place of the Most-High.
THE GODLY KIND by Will Callery ©William & Cynthia Pub. Co.©2023
Contacts:
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lettersfromoveryonder@gmail.com
Letters From Over Yonder, The Deep Fetch, & The Covenant are published by William & Cynthia Pub. Co. ©2023
{All Rights Reserved)
¹wcv / My Emphasis / My Version (From the Greek, Aramaic, and Hebrew Definitions/Interpretations)
² / My Insert
