It's Complicated(S1) : WK 1 - THU

(Psalm 23:5, 1 Samuel 17:37)
5 You prepare a feast for me in the presence of my enemies. You honor me by anointing my head with oil. My cup overflows with blessings. Psalm 23:5

37 The Lord who rescued me from the claws of the lion and the bear will rescue me from this Philistine!” Saul finally consented. “All right, go ahead,” he said. “And may the Lord be with you!”” I Samuel 17:37

Ok, we’re going to take today’s passages one at a time, both have much to teach us.

Psalm 23:5 always seems to be oddly placed in a passage that mostly is about peace and protection.  I mean, why is the Shepherd preparing a feast in the presence of David’s enemies?

There actually may be a tie between this verse and David’s confidence in his comments about facing Goliath.  In Psalm 23:5, David is saying that God takes care of him even when he is surrounded by his enemies, and that even in these circumstances, David always has much to be thankful for.  The anointing of the head with oil was a blessing, and when the cup meant to catch the oil overflowed, it meant that your life had more blessings than you can count.

So David’s perspective was that God was always bigger than anything he would face, and he tried to remember that even in difficult times, he had many blessings to be thankful for.

We see this time and time again in the Psalms where David cries out to God and wonders why life is so difficult, but then he almost always finds a way to offer God gratitude and praise.  I’ve often wondered if this is one of the ways in which David was a man after God’s own heart, because even in the most trying of circumstances he rarely forgot to keep chasing after God’s heart.

So these two passages are tied, let’s spend just a moment in the one from 1 Samuel 17.

I have always been taken aback by the courage of the young shepherd boy named David.  He was so confident in what he believed God would do, whereas I often feel like the father who pled with Jesus, “I do believe, help me overcome my unbelief.”

But I want to look forward to a story we’re going to cover in the coming weeks.  When David does go to fight Goliath, he actually picks up five smooth stones.  Now, if he was so confident, why not just pick up one stone and trust that God will rescue him.  

There are different interpretations of the five stones.  One is that Goliath had four brothers and that David was preparing to kill them all.  Maybe.  But I’m also ok with the idea that as confident as David seemed, he may have had a part of him that cried out, “I do believe, help me overcome my unbelief.”

Whatever the case, the life of faith is complicated.  We can be confident one day, scared the next.  We can see God’s work one day and celebrate, then two weeks later feel like He’s nowhere to be found.  The two best tools I’ve found to navigate these times are to continue to invest in the Word of God, and to participate in community.  Both of these help me navigate my faith when it gets complicated.

1. Whatever is going on in your life right now, what do you have to be grateful for where the blessings overflow?
2. Was there a time in your life that you were confident in who God was and what He was up to at the time?
3. How about a time when you have cried out, “I believe, help my unbelief?”
4. What helps you get through your times of struggles and questions?