The last time we talked about David, we found him in a deep dark cave in Adullam and he was “distressed.”  The Hebrew word that is translated in English as “distressed” paints a picture not only of David’s physical circumstances, it also gives us a hint as to his state of mind and heart.  “Distressed” here means “to be in a tight, cramped space, to have nowhere else to go.”Some would say that this story about David in a cave paints a picture of clinical depression.

I am not a psychologist but it is one thing to stay in a cave because you have nowhere else to go and your life is in immediate and imminent danger.  It is quite another thing to prefer living  in a cave because of emotional turmoil.

What I do know is that David’s experience in Adullam paved the way toward a greater spiritual maturity.  For in the next two chapters, we evidence a definite change in David’s character.

He was no longer the impulsive, self-propelled warrior, he is now more dependent on God.  He makes no moves unless he has a clear go signal from God and David consults God in all of his life’s circumstances.

For instance, when the Philistines invaded the city of Keilah, David did not automatically engage the Philistine invading force.  He asked God if he should go.  When God told him to go and smite the Philistines, the men who were with him objected to his plan to save Keilah.  This led David to ask God to confirm his will:  God issued a command and gave them the promise of victory.  Only then did David go forth to Keilah.

When they were there in Keilah and they had gained a victory over the Philistines, David learned that Saul was assembling a force to  lay a siege against Keilah in order to force David to surrender.  Instead of panicking, David asked God for guidance.  God told him that the men of Keilah will give him him up to Saul and so David left.

David’s prayer to God, it was so intimate.  David had two concerns:  he wanted God to speak to him, and he wanted God to take into consideration that the inhabitants of Keilah may be killed by Saul for his sake, just the same way Saul killed all the inhabitants of Nob when they helped David.

We see God protecting David because Saul was doggedly trailing David, sniffing him out and trying to ferret him out of his hiding places but Saul was unsuccessful.

We see a different internal climate in David.  He was still on the run from Saul, but unlike before, he was no longer emotionally distraught.  He was no longer wringing his hands, wondering why Saul was treating him so shabbily.  He was no longer pitying himself nor was he asking God to get him out of that sticky situation.  We see instead that David moved from hiding place to hiding place at God’s bidding and with God’s guidance and it was Saul who was trying to keep up.

We see that Jonathan, Saul’s son, was able to find David easily.  Jonathan affirmed his love and respect for David and even acknowledged that David will be king of Israel one day.  This is a practical application of Proverbs 16: 7:  when a man’s ways please God, he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him.  Jonathan was Saul’s heir.  He stood next in line to be king, but Jonathan was ready and willing to defer to David because he knew that David was God’s choice.

We see David refusing to take Saul’s life.  Saul slept near the mouth of the very same cave where David was hiding.  As Saul slept, David’s men were urging him to kill Saul in his sleep.  David’s men even said that it was God who had brought Saul there so that David can kill him.  But we see David’s firm resolve to leave to God the task of making him king.

David was content to wait for God’s time to make him king, he will not short-cut or expedite his way to the throne.  David was content for God to make a way for him to be king.  David was no longer going to take matters into his own hands.  This is a total surrender to God.

We see DAvid’s meekness in his confrontation with Saul.  He told Saul to his face that he was wrong in seeking to kill David, but David also declared that he left to God the matter of deciding who between him and Saul was in the right.  He no longer felt the need to vindicate himself or to explain his actions or for men to say that he is right and Saul was wrong.

We see the kindness of David to Saul, not just in sparing his life but also in swearing to Saul that he will not exact revenge on the house of Saul when God has made him king.

We see in this scene that it is David who is the true monarch, for Saul, the reigning monarch was asking David a favor.  The ostensible circumstances may not have changed but the minds of both David and Saul have.  Both men are aware that the matter of who will be king is a matter for God to decide and neither of them could do anything about it.

What do we learn from this?

1. The darkness and distress of Adullam was God’s way of showing David his inadequacy and his failure.
2. The loneliness of Adullam was the right time for God to show that God is David’s sufficiency;
3. The fear and sorrow  David experienced in Adullam gave way to repentance;  Adullam was the place that the Holy Spirit convicted David of sin.
4. Adullam changed David.
5. David was a man surrendered to God after Adullam.
6. David was no longer a man of independence; after Adullam, David was totally dependent on God.
7. David was no longer a free agent; after Adullam, David was a servant of God and God was his master.
8. David was wary of trusting his own instincts, his own impulses and his own choices; after Adullam, he let God choose for him.
9. David was a shepherd boy who became a fugitive before Adullam; but after that, he was a king-in -waiting.
10. God allowed Adullam to occur because God needed to mold David’s character.

This, in a nutshell, is really the reason why God allows us to trip up ourselves sometimes.  This is why God does not force us to choose what is right or force us not to choose what is wrong.  God deals with all our wrong choices: God does not exempt us from the consequences of our wrong choices.  But God does take our wrong choices, and with his power, he makes it all work together for our good.  I think it was Oswald Chambers who said:

“Never believe that the so-called random events of life are anything less than God’s appointed order.” (November 14 reading My Utmost for His Highest)

Are you in Adullam today?  Maybe your life is full of fear and anxiety, guilt and self-reproach because you have sinned against God.  Sorrow over our sins is only godly sorrow when it leads us to repentance.  Sorrow over our wrong choices is only godly sorrow when by it, God breaks our stubbornness and pride and makes us humble before him.

Do not whine to get out of your Adullam.  Wait for God’s mercy.  Wait for God’s grace.  Adullam is a place of waiting for God to teach us humility before him, and dependence on him.  You will be a changed person when you come out of Adullam, just like David.

After some time in Adullam, you will develop a “permanent kind of faith.”  God engineers our circumstances, he takes us through the Adullam experience so that we may grow the kind of “faith that is not sustained only  by feelings and by blessings“.  But through the” emptiness of our lives where we see only ruin and barrenness,” God teaches us to trust him that no matter where God places us, and no matter what we experience, “we can praise God that all is well.” (from April 4 reading of My Utmost for His Highest, Oswald Chambers.)