May 30, 2021
DAVID Part 3:
Waiting in the Wilderness
(1 Samuel 18:2-12) From that day Saul kept David with him and did not let him return home to his family…Whatever mission Saul sent him on, David was so successful that Saul gave him a high rank in the army. This pleased all the troops, and Saul’s officers as well. When the men were returning home after David had killed the Philistine, the women came out from all the towns of Israel to meet King Saul with singing and dancing, with joyful songs and with timbrels and lyres. As they danced, they sang: “Saul has slain his thousands, and David his tens of thousands.” Saul was very angry; this refrain displeased him greatly. And from that time on Saul kept a close eye on David. The next day an evil spirit from God came forcefully on Saul. He was prophesying in his house, while David was playing the lyre, as he usually did. Saul had a spear in his hand and he hurled it, saying to himself, “I’ll pin David to the wall.” But David eluded him twice. Saul was afraid of David, because the Lord was with David but had departed from Saul.
Waiting in the Wilderness
(Psalm 69:3) I am weary with my crying; my throat is parched; my eyes fail while I wait for my God.
Delays are not denials.
- Don’t ________________________.
(1 Samuel 22:1-2) David left Gath and escaped to the cave of Adullam. When his brothers and his father’s household heard about it, they went down to him there. All those who were in distress or in debt or discontented gathered around him, and he became their commander. About four hundred men were with him.
2. Don’t __________________.
(1 Samuel 23:14) David stayed in the wilderness strongholds and in the hills of the Desert of Ziph. Day after day Saul searched for him, but God did not give David into his hands.
3. Don’t ________________________.
(1 Samuel 26:2-9) So David and Abishai went to the army by night, and there was Saul, lying asleep inside the camp with his spear stuck in the ground near his head. Abner and the soldiers were lying around him. Abishai said to David, “Today God has delivered your enemy into your hands. Now let me pin him to the ground with one thrust of the spear; I won’t strike him twice.” But David said to Abishai, “Don’t destroy him! Who can lay a hand on the Lord’s anointed and be guiltless?
4. Don’t ______________________.
- __________ – to rave, boast, celebrate.
(Psalm 35:18 NLT) I will thank you in front of the great assembly. I will praise you before all the people.
- __________ – to acknowledge in public.
(Psalm 138:1) I will praise you, O LORD, with all my heart.
- _______ – to bless by kneeling or bowing.
(Psalm 103:1) Praise the LORD, O my soul; all my inmost being, praise his holy name.
- __________ – making music to God with strings.
(Psalm 92:1) It is good to praise the LORD and make music to your name, O Most High.
- __________ – to address in a loud tone, to shout.
(Psalm 63:3-4) Because your love is better than life, my lips will glorify you. I will praise you as long as I live, and in your name I will lift up my hands.
- __________ – to lift hands in adoration.
(Psalm 50:23) He who offers praise glorifies me: and to him that orders his conversation aright will I show the salvation of God.
- __________ – exuberant singing.
(Psalm 34:1) I will extol the LORD at all times; his praise will always be on my lips.
5. Don’t _____________________________.
(1 Samuel 30:6 AMP) David was greatly distressed because the people spoke of stoning him, for all of them were embittered, each man for his sons and daughters. But David felt strengthened and encouraged in the Lord his God.
(1 Samuel 30:17-19) David fought them from dusk until the evening of the next day, and none of them got away, except four hundred young men who rode off on camels and fled. David recovered everything the Amalekites had taken, including his two wives. Nothing was missing: young or old, boy or girl, plunder or anything else they had taken. David brought everything back.