THE FRUIT OF PRESSURE

Psalm 4:1; 1 Samuel 30:4-8,18-26; 2 Samuel 23:13-17

I thought, beloved, to say a little about this statement in the middle of the first verse that we read: “in pressure thou hast enlarged me”. There are so many references like this in the Psalms; how precious they are! I want to speak of David and how he, as typical of a believer, had such experiences. I think that, as a man, God’s work in him grew as a result of the experiences which he had with God, experiences of pressure without necessarily seeing the result immediately. But think of the way in which David was introduced. We get the reference to him as a youth when the lion and the bear attacked his flock and he had to protect the flock (1 Sam.17:34-36). What pressure that would have meant for him, and doubtless he gained experience from it.

Before I turn to the two illustrations that I have in mind, I just call attention to the first thing in the heading; ‘To the chief Musician’. Such a psalm is in principle for the heart of Christ, it represents what is for God, and it is the experience of David. Then the heading says, ‘On stringed instruments’. That might speak of discipline which comes in, that the strings may be further tuned, and so we must never forget that the heading of this psalm was ‘upon stringed instruments’.

I would also call attention to the way in which the psalm begins; “When I call, answer me, O God of my righteousness…”. The footnote to the word “call” there is helpful: ‘it is abstract, ‘in my calling’’, as though David did not have a particular event in mind here, but it was characteristic of him that he would call on God. He was a man who characteristically called on God, and looked to God for an answer. If we call, is what we ask for suitable for God to answer? Yes, He will answer, He is ready to answer, even when we may fall short: “answer

me, O God of my righteousness”. To be established in righteousness involves what God has done. “O God of my righteousness: in pressure thou hast enlarged me”.

The other scriptures describe two examples of pressure that David came under. In the few verses I have read in 1 Samuel, we can immediately see that they describe a time of pressure on David from without; the enemy had taken his wives, taken the people’s wives and their sons and their daughters. The city was burnt; what pressure there was from without, we might say, from what the enemy had done. But then, there was also the pressure from within, from the men who were with him. David was greatly distressed; it shows the feelings he had as under pressure, “for the people spoke of stoning him; for the soul of all the people was embittered, every man because of his sons and because of his daughters”. But David was one who knew what it was to say, ‘In my calling, O God of my righteousness, hear me’. He “strengthened himself in Jehovah his God”, the God he knew. He did not turn as a first resource to any other than the One who was his God.

You wonder how many times in his life David must have strengthened himself in Jehovah his God. It comes as a challenge to me as to what I know of this; how characteristic is it of me to strengthen myself in God? David strengthened himself in Jehovah his God, and his voice would have been uplifted in regard to approach to God. He said, “Bring near to me, I pray thee, the ephod. … And David inquired of Jehovah, Shall I pursue after this troop? shall I overtake them?”. Oh beloved, maybe in times of pressure when we should most turn to God, we may be overwhelmed by our own affairs, but David was not overwhelmed. He turned to God to ask, and here God gave him an immediate answer.