FORMATION OF DEPTH IN OUR SOULS

J.Renton

1 Samuel 30: 1-8; 2 Samuel 12: 14-23; 15: 25, 30, 32.

We get much interesting detail in the scriptures as to David's history and experiences and the circumstances through which he passed. There is great variety, and in some instances David rises to a beautiful type of the Lord Jesus; at other times David fails and he sins and is more a type of a believer. Nevertheless he is genuine and he has depth.

David was God's anointed, as we know. He was God's selected and is typical of Christ in that setting. He was anointed three times. First of all in the midst of his brethren, followed by years of suffering and reproach. The Lord was anointed at the Jordan in view of service and in view of suffering, in view of His death and what He would accomplish men. Then David was anointed over Judah in Hebron where he reigned for seven and a half years. Then he was anointed when all the tribes came to Hebron to make him king. The Lord Jesus is spoken of as anointed with the oil of gladness above His companions. This is not in view of suffering but is in view of joy and in view of bringing joy to the heart of God.

The experience at Ziklag was very sorrowful for David and for his men because a great disaster had happened. David was greatly distressed. Just think of what these circumstances were through which he passed with the people so embittered that they spoke of stoning him! But what we learn from this passage the depth there was in David. He goes through the most bitter experience here; he must have gone right down to the bottom in this experience. Then it says "David strengthened himself in Jehovah his God." He had gone right down to the bottom but now he strengthens himself in Jehovah his God. Then things begin to happen. We speak sometimes of touching the bottom in repentance but we are tested as to what depth there is with us.

In each of the instances read, David was responsible for the situation. We know what calamity is and what sorrows are. I used to think that the sorrows that have happened amongst us are unparalleled in history because we have brought much of the reproach upon ourselves. Think of the public reproach which we have to face! Are we not humbled that we were responsible for it ourselves? It is not exactly the reproach of Christ. The reproach of Christ is the normal Christian position. The Lord Jesus said that He was hated without a cause (John 15: 25) but when we face facts at the moment some of us could not say that. We are certainly under reproach and we are to blame for a large part of it because we had not represented the reproach of Christ and we departed from the Christian way. In certain conduct that went on among us and by our attitude towards others we are responsible ourselves for much of the reproach. In all these instances David was responsible for the disaster and for the reproach. He had given occasion for the enemies of Jehovah to blaspheme (2 Sam 12: 14). We have given cause for persons to reproach us and that causes sorrow. David was responsible here because he and his men had been amongst the Philistines. He had gone to Gath, allied himself with the king there and in fact he had been prepared to go with the Philistines against the people of God. It is true he had been prevented from doing so but he had been prepared to go as far as that. So he would feel he was to blame for the calamity but what you find is that in the discipline of it there was depth formed in his soul. He faced it all, he was distressed about it, then he strengthened himself in Jehovah. It brings out me depth there was in David and there will not be depth with us, dear brethren, without facing the responsibility for much of the reproach that has come upon us. No doubt David here had faced the whole situation; he would go over the whole history, why he had fled from Saul and allied himself with Achish, king of Gath, and why he was so involved with the Philistines. He would go over all this in the presence of God and find the root of it all. What do we know about this? We are to know something of it. No doubt David searched his motives as to why he had got into such a position and as doing so depth was formed in him. Luke's gospel speaks about the man who dug and went deep (Luke 6: 47), not simply that he dug deep but dug and went deep. That is what happened to David, he went deep and as a result you see a fully recovered man. Then things begin to happen: he is like the righteous man who "falleth seven times, and riseth up again" (Prov 24: 16). He strengthened himself in Jehovah his God - it is something inward - a strengthening in his own personal knowledge of God and it produced inward strength. No doubt it involved (speaking in Christian language) the presence and activity of the Holy Spirit. No doubt he had previously grieved the Spirit but now he strengthened himself and enquires of Jehovah. From this point there is recovery and from the position of being guilty and responsible he rises to be a type of Christ and recovers all. It shows what is possible, beloved, as we face things and depth is formed in our souls.

Now 2 Samuel 12 follows the grievous sin of which David was guilty in regard of Bathsheba and Urijah. You say 'the same David who had learned depth in his soul, who had known what it was to be with God and God with him?'. Yes: what a sin he sinks into, guilty as to the death of Urijah and in relation to Bathsheba. What a scheming man he became! What a politician! What a sin he sinks into, scheming with Joab for the death of faithful Urijah! How serious it was and here again David was responsible. He is under God's hand in discipline: God says that the child shall certainly die. Does David say 'Well, that is going to happen; I cannot do anything about it.' No, he goes through the experience with God. If he had been a superficial believer he might have just resigned himself to God's action and said, 'the child will certainly die, and that will be that.' But David does not do so; instead he besought God for the child. You see, he has depth and affection in his soul and he fasted. He ought to have fasted in chapter 11 and gone with the army when the conflict was on, but God does not say he was too late to fast now. He respects David's fast. David confessed his sins and God had regard to him. So he goes through the exercise even though the elders of his house do not understand what is going on. He fasted and lay all night on the earth. The elders did not understand the depth of repentance; they must have been superficial persons, yet David goes on day after day, for seven days. When the child died the exercise was over, but when there was life David went on with the exercise at cost to himself. The elders feared to say when the child was dead. What one may go through in the depth of his soul is mysterious to the superficial mind. Dear brethren, we need to know something about this. If we are to be truly recovered persons, truly revived persons, we need to know something of going through these things with God. Misunderstood by many, David still goes through the matter. In the next verse you find that a child is born of these same parents and Jehovah sends by the hand of Nathan the prophet and called his name Jedidiah, meaning the child is loved m Jehovah. What a result from David's exercises; you can hardly understand it! But surely it is the result of depth in David's soul. Such is the divine way. Superficial persons can somersault overnight - that does not denote depth. David goes through exercise in a deep way and the result was for the pleasure and glory of God. So David went into the house of Jehovah and worshipped. What a result from the discipline through which he passed! We may often face much in the way of discipline and the Lord does discipline us. Some of our dear brethren know it more than others and we all ought to be with them in the experience of it. How many have lost parents, families, children! God would use this for our discipline, that we might go through it with God and in result be able to go into His house and worship as David did. There are to be results from all we have been through and go through, for the pleasure and glory of God.

In the third scripture, we have David and those with him in public reproach. Jerusalem is taken over by Absalom and David has to flee. Think of the public reproach, the shame of it, that David the rightful king flees when Absalom takes over. Alas, again, David is responsible; he had unrighteously reinstated Absalom and the consequence was that this rebellion took place. Oh, do we feel responsible for the public reproach that has come in on the testimony! Once again this is not exactly the reproach of Christ; it is like the reproach due to our own misdeeds and our failures and our being caught up in wrong things. So David is responsible but see how he acts! He says to Zadok, "Carry back the ark of God into the city. If I shall find favour in the eyes of Jehovah, he will bring me again, and show me it, and its habitation." It is a man in whom there is some depth of soul. He sends back the ark, and Zadok, Abiathar and others go with it too, in the very city controlled by Absalom. The ark is there, and the priests, and the sons. There was a spot in Jerusalem where the ark was and had you been in its habitation you would not have known there was a rebellion. It is what God has secretly in the midst of the public confusion. We see publicly the confusion complete but in the midst of it all there is a spot where the ark is and where the priests are and the service of God goes on. David had to face the public position but his heart was where the ark of God was, and his longing was that he might be back where the ark was. Meanwhile he faces the public reproach. He, the true king is in rejection and those with him were in rejection too, going where they might; such is the public position. David goes up by the ascent of the Olives, weeping with his head covered and barefoot. He is feeling the reproach of the whole position and those with him are moving likewise. Yet when he comes to the summit he worshipped God! We would desire to be able to move like this, in some way at least. What we go through should result in a deepening with us. We might say that we were led away but we cannot blame anybody but ourselves. It was lack of depth with us that we were so readily carried away by certain things; we were too superficial. But as depth was found here in David's soul, so it is to be found in our souls. We learn thereby to consider for God and to be with God and to know something of God being with us. "Jehovah is with you while ye are with him" said the Spirit of God through Azariah (2 Chron 15: 2). The great need is to be with God and with the Lord. We often pray that the Lord might be with us; that is good too but the important thing is that we should be with the Lord. David came to be with God in all these instances we have read; in the disaster at Ziklag, in his exercise over God's dealings in relation to his sin, then in this matter of the rebellion. He arrived at this point in his soul by facing things in depth and the Lord means, I am sure, that we should deepen in our knowledge of Himself. As we do so we shall deepen in our feelings for Him and for one another, and we shall be increasingly knit together and more fully committed to the service of God.

May it be so, for the Lords Name's sake.

MALVERN

27 January 1973