The Bible Study Hour

Guest (Male): In the cave of Adullam, David reached his lowest point. Abandoned and alone, his friends had deserted him, and David felt nothing but the pain of utter desolation.

Welcome to the Bible Study Hour, a radio and internet broadcast with Dr. James Boice, preparing you to think and act biblically. With nowhere to turn and no one to turn to, David reached out to the Lord with a prayer and a plea. And this wasn't a normal prayer; it was one of great urgency, a plea not so much from the heart, but a desperate cry for help in the midst of a crisis.

Join Dr. Boice as he describes a man whose only resort was the Lord, who was waiting for David right there in the middle of his circumstances.

Dr. James Boice: There are a lot of troubles in life, but few things are worse than to be in trouble and to be going through it entirely alone. But that's usually the way it is. When life turns sour or when we're in deep trouble, we usually do have to go through it alone.

Alexander McLaren wrote, when he was trying to develop the ideas in Psalm 142, "The soul that has to wade through deep waters always has to do it alone, for no human sympathy reaches to full knowledge or share in even the best loved one's grief. We have companions in joy, but sorrow we have to face by ourselves." And yet, he adds, still speaking of the dark side of things, but looking also upward in hope, "Unless we have Jesus with us in the darkness, we have no one."

I doubt a very many of you know the name of Ella Wheeler Wilcox, but she's an American poet. She lived between 1855 and 1919. And although you don't know her name, I'm sure you know two lines of poetry that she wrote. Ella Wilcox wrote, "Laugh, and the world laughs with you; weep, and you weep alone." Well, those are cynical words, and yet they're mostly true, except on rare occasions with rare friends, and except in Christianity.

Now, when we come to Psalm 142, this is exactly what we find. We find that David is alone, and David is in trouble. We know it not only because the Psalm speaks of trouble, but also because of that title line. This is the only Psalm in this last collection of Psalms by David that actually has a title line. And this one says, "A maskil of David when he was in the cave. A prayer." Now, that's helpful to us because we know something about this period of David's life, when he was in the cave of Adullam after he had fled from Saul.

Now, it was the lowest period in his life. He had risen to fame in Israel by killing Goliath, and after that, he had entered the military service of the king, King Saul. And he was very popular. He used to lead troops out to battle. He was successful there. And the people began to praise David more than Saul. "Saul has slain his thousands, but David his ten thousands" was one of their songs. And so, Saul got jealous of David. It's understandable. It worked on him. He eventually tried to kill him. And finally, David did the only thing he could do under the circumstances; he ran away and fled into the wilderness.

On the way into the wilderness, he went by Nob, which was a city of the priests. He had no weapons, no army, no food. He went to Ahimelech, the high priest. He asked if he could have some food. Ahimelech had nothing but the showbread that was there on the altar, and he gave it to him. And then he asked if he had a sword. He had no weapons except the great sword that had belonged to Goliath, which was laid up there as a trophy in the city of the priests. David took that, and then with that sword, he went off. He didn't know where to go.

The first place he went was to Gath, the home of the Philistines. And interestingly enough, also the home of Goliath. Now, I ask the question: what in the world would ever cause a man to do that? It was bad enough for David, one of the prominent Jewish heroes, to go to the city of Gath, a Philistine city, a city of the enemies, where he was in danger. But we remember when we study the narrative carefully that Gath was also the hometown of Goliath. And so here comes David into the hometown of Goliath, bearing the sword of Goliath, which certainly would have been recognized by all of the people in the town.

There he was. It would either be absolute arrogance on the part of some lofty hero, or it would be sheer desperation that would push him to such an act. It was desperation, of course. He just had nowhere else to turn. He was in danger there. People reported his presence to the king, and David began to dissemble. He thought, "They're going to kill me, and the only thing I can do is fool them." So he began to act like a crazy man, which caused the king to say, "Do I not have enough crazy men in my kingdom without you bringing me this additional one from Israel? Get him out of here." And so David left, and he fled into the wilderness, and he ended up in the cave of Adullam.

Now, it was when he was in this cave, or it's about the time when he was in this cave, that the Psalm was written. He's alone. He's in trouble. He has absolutely nowhere to turn. And so he writes the Psalm. Derek Kidner is one of the great commentators on the Psalms, and he has a very useful outline of this Psalm. It has four stanzas, and Kidner's outline of it, one point for each stanza, goes like this: first, my plea (verses 1 and 2); second, my plight (verses 3 and 4); third, my portion (verses 5 through 7); and finally, the last half of verse 7, my prospect.

Isn't it amazing when people can come up with outlines like that, all beginning with the letter P? I can't do that. I have to borrow it from other commentators, as I've done here. My plea, my plight, my portion, and my prospect. Now, the first two verses have to do with his plea, and they set the tone for the Psalm. Because David is in trouble, and here he is pouring out his distress before God. He's seeking God's help in his trouble, and he's praying urgently.

From time to time in these studies of the Psalms, I mention this characteristic of Hebrew poetry which is known as parallelism. It's most characteristic of the Psalms, where one line says something and then the next line says almost the same thing but in slightly different words. Here you have four lines that are parallel to one another because each one says virtually the same thing. Look at them. First line: "I cry aloud to the Lord." That's the same as "I lift up my voice to the Lord for mercy," except that the second line adds a plea for mercy as the subject matter of the complaint.

And then the next lines: "I pour out my complaint before him." That's the same as "before him I tell my trouble," except that "trouble" now begins to explain what the complaint is all about. So here is David saying the same thing over and over four times. It's a way of saying he's very earnest about this. This is quite a serious prayer that he is uttering. There's also something else about it. The words "cry aloud" in verse 1 literally in Hebrew read, "with my voice I cry." So the Psalm actually begins by a repetition of that idea: "with my voice I cry to God, and with my voice I ask for mercy."

So David isn't merely praying in his heart, as we sometimes do. This is a prayer that he's uttering audibly and openly, and I think we have to say this, loudly. What does it take to lift our prayers from the wasteland of mere routine to the high ground of actually pleading with the Almighty? Well, I don't know what all the answers to that might be, but trouble helps. And here David is in trouble. In our easy times, our prayers are easy, too. But they take on a new urgency when trouble comes.

Now, we go on to the next stanza here, and I should say it's possible that verse 3 should be placed at the end of stanza one, explaining why David is placing his troubles in God's hands. That's because his spirit is growing faint. Derek Kidner sees it that way, and he sees this verse 3 as the first of what he calls three modest summits of faith in the Psalm. We're going to see the others as we go on. He sees it as meaning this: when I'm ready to give up, you're the one who knows my way.

That is, I don't know it, but you do. And so David here would be throwing himself onto the omniscience and wise counsel of God, somewhat the way he did in the 139th Psalm that we studied earlier. Well, that may be, but I think probably that the New International Version is right when it puts verse 3 where it does, because it's here that David begins to describe what really is troubling him.

In verses 3 and 4, he lays these difficulties before God. Now, notice the change of pronouns. In the first two verses, David's writing in the first person. He's writing about himself. He says, "I cry aloud. I lift up my voice. I pour out my complaint. I tell my trouble." But now in verses 3 and 4, he speaks to God himself, saying it is you who know my way. Even verse 4 is spoken to God as bold as it may seem, because what he says there is this: "God, look on my right hand and see; no one is concerned for me."

Now, that puts me in mind of the 23rd Psalm, because exactly the same thing happens in Psalm 23. In the first part of that Psalm, when David is describing the Lord's ample provision for him and his presence with him in life, he is using the pronoun "he," talking about God. He says, "He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside the still waters. He restores my soul. He guides me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake." But as soon as he comes in the middle of that Psalm to talk about walking through the valley of the shadow of death, where he turns from the ample provision in good days to talk about the troubles, the pronouns change.

And now it's no longer "he," but it's "you" and "your." "Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil because you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me." You see, there are troubles in life, and when the troubles in life come, it's natural for the believer in God to turn to God and begin to address him directly. We can be abstract and distant and philosophical about our faith in other times. But when difficulties come, we turn to God and we say, "You alone, O Lord, are my strength."

Now, he explains what his problem is here. It's twofold. First of all, the path before him is a dangerous one, full of the snares of his enemies. If David is in the cave, he doesn't know what the immediate future holds. We understand that. He's saying, "I need help." And then secondly, he says, "I have no friends here. I'm alone. So if you don't support me, I'm lost." As it turned out, God did support him, and comfort him, and provide for him, because it was while he was there in the cave that other disenfranchised, discontented people, beginning with those from his father's own household, began to collect around him.

So by the time he left the cave of Adullam, he had the core of his future army: 400 strong, fierce, fighting men. But this is earlier, and he felt that there was absolutely no one, no one to help him in his time of trouble. Let me ask a question: why does David ask God to look to his right? See that verse? "Look to my right and see; no one is concerned for me." Well, it's because it's on the right hand of a sovereign that people of importance would normally be found. That was the place for an honored guest. It's the place where the chief figures of the army, the generals, would stand.

And so what David says is that when I look where my real help should be, there's no one there. I look in front and there are enemies. I look behind, there are enemies. I look to the left, there are enemies. And when I turn and look to the right, there's no one. We ask the question: no one? Really no one? I wonder if David remembered that he had written earlier in the 16th Psalm, "I have set the Lord always before me; because he is at my right hand, I will not be shaken."

Well, I think he did remember, because the next section of this, verses 5 through 7, begin to talk about God, and they are a reminder to David himself by David that God is first of all his refuge, second his portion, third his savior, and fourth his liberator from his prison cave. If I could put it this way, God didn't need to look to David's right, but David did. And when David looked to his right in faith, he found that God was there.

Now, verse 5 is what Kidner calls the second summit of faith in the Psalm because it begins to express faith in God in spite of the circumstances. As far as David could see—that is, with his physical eyes—he was alone. He was in the cave. Nobody was there to help him. But in solitude, faith begins to see what is invisible to the physical eye. And what David saw when he looked up in faith was God.

First thing he realized is that God was his refuge. He says, "I have no refuge; no one cares for my life" (verse 4). But here he says, "You are my refuge, my portion in the land of the living." What was God a refuge from? Well, from his enemies, of course. It was from those who had hidden a snare for him. That is exactly what he says also in the companion Psalm, Psalm 57. That Psalm describes his enemies as ravenous beasts who pursue him, spread a net for his feet, dig a pit in his path. But it also says, "In you my soul takes refuge; I will take refuge in the shadow of your wings until the disaster has passed." So David here confesses that God is a refuge for his saints.

Now, God's our refuge, too. He's a refuge from our enemies, whoever they may be. But I want to point out this: if I may put it this way, that God is also our refuge from God. Ever stop to consider that in an unsaved state, your greatest enemy is not people that you see on every hand, but your greatest enemy is God? Because God punishes sin, and God is the author of a final judgment, and we stand under his wrath in an unsaved state every single day. Where are we going to be sheltered from God's wrath?

The only possible answer to that question is in God himself. As God himself provides a shelter from his wrath in Jesus Christ and his work upon the cross. Charles Wesley wrote on this idea: "Other refuge have I none, hangs my helpless soul on thee." And Augustus Toplady, the author of some of our great hymns, wrote: "Rock of Ages, cleft for me, let me hide myself in thee."

So I ask the question: have you found a refuge in God? One who is able not merely to help you through life, but save you from your sins and bring you into a state through the work of Jesus Christ by which you're able to stand before him, clothed with a righteousness not your own. That's what the Christian life is all about, standing in Jesus Christ before God.

Now, secondly, David calls God his portion. We have a great illustration of these points in the Old Testament in the case of Abraham. When Abraham was returning from the battle against the kings of the East who had attacked the cities of the plain and carried off Lot, his nephew, and family and the spoils, and Abraham had attacked them and dispersed them by night by a surprise attack and bringing back all the spoils and the captives, he was met by Melchizedek. Melchizedek is described as a priest of the most high God.

And Abraham bowed before him and offered a tenth of the spoils to Melchizedek. And after he had done that, he gave back all the rest of the spoils to the king of Sodom because he said, "I don't want you to go around saying, 'I have made Abraham rich.'" Abraham wanted his richness to be in God. Now, at that particular point in his life, Abraham was not in a very enviable position. He hadn't benefited from the battle at all, and furthermore, he was in danger because who was to say whether these kings of the East might regroup and recognize what had happened, go up into the hill country and attack and kill Abraham?

And it was at this point that God came to him with a very great promise, Genesis 15:1. God said, "Do not be afraid, Abraham; I am your shield, your very great reward." See what he was saying? "I'm your shield against your enemies. I'll protect you. And I'm your reward; you do not need the spoil of Sodom." A person who possesses God is richer in eternal things than even the richest and most famous person in the world. Do you understand that? If you do, why do you spend so much time raising money, working on advancing your bank account, and so little time advancing the health of your soul? Jesus said, "Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."

Well, the third thing David confesses in these verses is that God is his savior, the savior from those who were pursuing him, those who were too strong for him. Of course, this isn't expressed in direct speech the way the first two points were, but there is a petition. He says, "Rescue me from those who pursue me, for they are too strong for me." So by his prayer to God to rescue him, he is recognizing that God is his savior. So I ask the question again: is God your savior?

You need a savior from a lot of things. You need a savior from sin and its destruction. You need a savior from Satan and his wiles. You even need a savior from yourself, and you need a savior from the world and its enticements. If you don't have a savior and you don't turn to God to be a savior, those things are going to gang up on you and sweep you away. What you need is one who can save your soul and lead you in the way everlasting, and that is God alone.

And then finally, the fourth thing: he confesses that God is his liberator, saying, "Set me free from my prison," that is the cave, "that I may praise your name." That's a step beyond mere rescue. David needed to be rescued, but more than that, he wanted to be free to leave the cave that seemed to be his prison, so he might bear witness and serve God in a variety of ways. Now, God was all those things to him. He's very clear about it.

So we come to the last verse, and here we have a satisfying climax. Now, notice what David has said. He is in danger of being killed by Saul, but he's found a refuge in God. He's been driven away from home, possessing nothing, but God is his portion. He's in danger of being overcome by people who are stronger than he is, but God is his savior. And he feels that he's been shut up in the prison of his cave, but God is his liberator who will set him free.

What he says as he comes to the end, in effect, is this: he knows he's going to be the king of Israel. And so what he anticipates finally is a day when "the righteous will gather about me because of your goodness to me." This means that in the final analysis, as he prayed about it and thought about God and God's provision, he knew that he wasn't going to be alone at all. He knew that God was with him, and he knew that in the end, the righteous would be standing by him, too.

So I come back to the point here where I started out. There are aspects of suffering that are entirely individual. No one can ever really experience our suffering as we do. But the righteous are still with us and stand by us. The company of the redeemed are our friends, and they will be with us here somewhat, and then certainly with us forever in glory.

And there's also this: think of Jesus Christ. Was Jesus alone? Yes. No man was ever more alone than Jesus, especially during those hours when he hung upon the cross. While he was on the cross, even God the Father forsook him as he took our sin upon himself. He cried out from the cross, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" And yet he knew that God would return to him again. And even since he had been meditating on Psalm 22, he must have been reminding himself the way that ends: that the day would come when, in the company of the righteous, the redeemed, he would stand and praise his God.

So I say: remember Jesus. And also remember what the book of Hebrews tells us about him in the fourth chapter. "Therefore," it says, "since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are, and yet without sin. Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in our time of need."

Do you feel alone? Jesus was alone. Do you feel deserted by those who have been closest to you? Jesus was deserted. But Jesus has not deserted you. And moreover, he understands you, and he is with you, and will help you. And it's probably the case that some of the righteous will, too. Remember what Job said? Job had this testimony: "He knows the way that I take, and when he has tested me, I will come forth as gold."