The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) - Day 113: Broken Trust (2023)

Episode Date: April 23, 2023

In today's readings, we learn how Doeg the Edomite betrayed David, the priests, and the Lord. Fr. Mike explains that betrayal is painful because our hearts are deeply wounded when trust is broken. Today we read 1 Samuel 21-22 and Psalm 52. For the complete reading plan, visit ascensionpress.com/bibleinayear. Please note: The Bible contains adult themes that may not be suitable for children - parental discretion is advised.

Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension. Using the Great Adventure Bible timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today. Today is day 113, and we are reading from 1 Samuel chapter 21 and 22. We're also praying Psalm 52. As always, the Bible translation that I am reading from is the Revised Standard Version, Second Catholic Edition. I'm using

the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension. If you want to get that Bible, you can go to ascensionpress.com and buy it, or wherever fine Bibles are sold. If you want to get the Bible in a Year reading plan, you can get that even quicker and even more easily by going to ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year, and you can download that. So right in front of you is the color-coded chart with the Bible plan printed out. You can look at it, stare at it, love it,

check it off every single day, because today, as I said, is day 113. If you want to subscribe to this podcast, please feel free and consider yourself thanked. We're reading today 1 Samuel chapter 21, chapter 22, and Psalm 52. 1 Samuel chapter 21, David and the Holy Bread. Then came David to Nob, to Ahimelech the priest. And Ahimelech came to meet David trembling, and said to him,

Why are you alone, and no one with you? And David said to Ahimelech the priest, The king has charged me with a matter, and said to me, Let no one know anything of the matter about which I send you, and with which I have charged you. I have made an appointment with the young men for such and such a place. Now then, what have you at hand? Give me five loaves of bread or whatever is here.

And the priest answered David, I have no common bread at hand, but there is holy bread. If only the young men have kept themselves from women. And David answered the priest of a truth. Women have been kept from us as always when I go on an expedition. The vessels of the young men are holy, even when it is a common journey. How much more today will their vessels be holy? So the priest gave him the holy bread, for there was no bread there but the bread of the presence, which is removed from before the Lord to be replaced by hot bread on the day it is taken away. Now a certain man of the servants of Saul was there that day, detained before the Lord. His name was Doeg the Edomite, the chief of Saul's herdsmen. And David said to Ahimelech, And have you not here a spear or a sword at hand?

For I have brought neither my sword nor my weapons with me, because the king's business required haste. And the priest said, The sword of Goliath the Philistine, whom you killed in the valley of Elah, behold, it is here wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod. If you will take that, take it, for there is none but that here. And David said, There is none like that. Give it to me. David flees to Gath. And David rose and fled that day from Saul and went to Akshish, the king of Gath. And the servants of Akshish said to him, Is not this David the king of the land? Did they not sing to one another of him in dances, Saul has slain his thousands and David his ten thousands? And David took these words to heart and was much afraid of Akshish the king of Gath. So he changed his behavior before them and feigned himself mad in their hands and made marks on the doors of the gate and let his spittle run down on his beard.

Then said Akshish to his servants, Behold, you see the man is mad. Why then have you brought him to me? Do I lack madmen that you have brought this fellow to play the madman in my presence? Shall this fellow come into my house? Chapter 22. David and his followers at Adulam. David departed from there and escaped to the cave of Adulam. And when his brothers and all his father's house heard it, they went down there to him. And everyone who was in distress and everyone who was in debt and everyone who was discontented gathered to him.

And he became captain over them. And there were with him about 400 men. And David went from there to Mizpah of Moab. And he said to the king of Moab, please let my father and my mother stay with you till I know what God will do for me. And he left them with the king of Moab and they stayed with him all the time that David was in the stronghold. Then the prophet Gad said to David, do not remain in the stronghold, depart and go into the land of Judah. So David departed and he went into the forest of Hereth. Saul slaughters the priests at Nob. Now Saul heard that David was discovered

and the men who were with him. Saul was sitting at Gibeah under the tamarisk tree on the height with his spear in his hand and all his servants were standing about him. And Saul said to his servants who stood about him, here now you Benjaminites, will the son of Jesse give everyone of you fields and vineyards? Will he make you all commanders of thousands and commanders of hundreds that all of you have conspired against me? No one discloses to me when my son makes a league with the son of Jesse, none of you is sorry for me or discloses to me that my son has stirred up my servant against me to lie in wait as at this day. Then answered Doeg the Enamite, who stood by the servants of Saul, I saw the son of Jesse coming to Nab, to Ahimelech the son of Ahitub, and he inquired of the Lord for him, and gave him provisions, and gave him the sword of Goliath

the Philistine. Then the king sent to summon Ahimelech the priest, the son of Ahitub, in all his father's house, the priests who were at Nob, and all of them came to the king. And Saul said, Here now, son of Ahitub. And he answered, Here I am, my lord. And Saul said to him, Why have you conspired against me,

you and the son of Jesse, in that you have given him bread and a sword, and have inquired of God for him, so that he has risen against me to lie in wait, as at this day? Then Ahimelech answered the king, And who among all your servants is so faithful as David, who is the king's son-in-law, and captain over your bodyguard, and honored in your house? Is today the first time that I have inquired of God for him? No, let not the king impute anything to his servant, or to all the house of my father.

For your servant has known nothing of all this, much or little. And the king said, You shall surely die, Ahimelech, you and all your father's house. And the king said to the guard who stood about him, Turn, and kill the priests of the Lord, because their hand also is with David. And they knew that he fled and did not disclose it to me. But the servants of the king would not put forth their hand to fall upon the priests of the Lord. Then the king said to Doeg, You turn and fall upon the priests.

And Doeg the Edomite turned and fell upon the priests, and he killed on that day eighty-five persons who wore the linen ephod. And Nob, the city of the priests, he put to the sword both men and women, children and sucklings, oxen, donkeys, and sheep he put to the sword. But one of the sons of Ahimelech, the son of Ahitub, named Abiathar, escaped and fled after David. And Abiathar told David that Saul had killed the priests of the Lord. And David said to Abiathar, escaped and fled after David. And Abiathar told David that Saul had killed the priests of the Lord. And David said to Abiathar, I knew on that day, when Doeg the Edomite was there, that he would surely tell Saul, I have occasioned the death of all the persons of your father's house. Stay with me, fear not, for he that seeks my life seeks your life.

With me, you shall be in safekeeping. Psalm 52. Judgment on the deceitful. To the choir master, a mascal of David, when Doeg the Edomite came and told Saul, David has come to the house of Ahimelech. Why do you boast, O mighty man, of mischief done against the godly?

All the day you are plotting destruction. Your tongue is a sharp razor, you worker of treachery. You love evil more than good and lying more than speaking the truth. You love all words that devour, O deceitful tongue. But God will break you down forever. He will snatch and tear you from your tent. He will uproot you from the land of the living. The righteous shall see and fear and shall laugh at him saying, see the man who would not make God his refuge, but trusted in the abundance of his riches and sought refuge in his wealth. But I am like a green olive tree in the house of God.

I trust in the mercy of God forever and ever. I will thank you forever because you have done it. I will proclaim your name for it is good in the presence of the godly. Father in heaven, we give you praise today and we know what it is like, what it is to be betrayed. We know what it is to be lied about. We know what it is to lose faith in others when they have turned their backs on us. We know what it is to be hurt by having trusted others, having given our hearts to them and having those hearts be betrayed. And so we recognize in David's prayer, in this Psalm 52, we recognize our own experience. We recognize our own hearts. We recognize what it is to be abandoned, to have had friends and then to have those friends turn on us. and so we pray for each other, especially those betrayed hearts, especially those who

find themselves wounded by those they thought they could trust. Lord God, we pray for all of our friends right now who've been wounded by friends, all those people who are joining us in this community who have been wounded by those they believed they could trust, and we ask for their strength, for grace, and for mercy to be in their hearts. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, amen. So we had, gosh, 1 Samuel chapter 21 and 22, kind of one of the villains. I mean, if Doeg the Edomite had a, if we had a picture of him,

he'd have one of those curly mustaches, because he's just slimy, right? He would have been that slimy kind of guy who's just doing what he needs to, just doing what he wants to, to get ahead. And in chapters 21 and 22, Doeg the Edomite is that betrayer, right? Not only does he bust a Himalek, but also then when the king's men are saying, we're not going to strike down all the priests, Doeg said, well, I'll do it then. And he does this thing, this, I was gonna say dastardly deed, but it's a dastardly deed. It's an evil, evil thing that he does.

And yet we recognize, we recognize David's response to this in praying Psalm 52 is, yes, Lord, bring justice about. Yes, Lord, let there be justice upon this man who betrayed me and who not only betrayed me, but betrayed the Lord, not only betrayed the Lord, bring justice about. Yes, Lord, let there be justice upon this man who betrayed me and who not only betrayed me, but betrayed the Lord. Not only betrayed the Lord, but also betrayed the priests of the Lord and struck them down.

But I'm going to walk, even though people around me betray, I'm going to walk as righteously as I can. Even though the people around me are false, I want to be as true and as honest as I possibly can be. And this is our call because, right, we live in a world right now. We live in, well, always the world is this. It's not just right now. It's this world is one where there is such a thing as treachery, right? We live in a world where there's such a thing as betrayal. In fact, if you've ever read Dante's Inferno, Dante, Dante's Inferno, if you've ever read Dante's Inferno, and he goes down the circles of hell,

the deepest circle of hell, where Lucifer is encased in ice. So every circle of hell represents a certain kind of sin, and things get more serious and more serious. As the sins get more serious, it becomes a deeper circle of hell. And so you think, gosh, what would be the deepest circle of hell? Well, Dante at least puts those who betray in the darkest and deepest circle of hell. Those who were trusted by someone else and they betrayed the trust of that person. He has people who betrayed their country, people who betrayed their vows, people who betrayed God, people who betrayed those they had promised to love, and they betrayed them. Judas is in that circle of hell next to Lucifer and some other people. But you recognize here is someone like Doeg, who we don't necessarily know that he had any connection with David. It wasn't like a close, close friendship, obviously. David knew who Doeg was because he recognized him when he was at the temple of the Lord.

But you recognize this also. You recognize that here is what it is to betray. Is someone trusted me and I hurt them because I was able to hurt them more deeply because of their trust. And that's one of the reasons why betrayal is so deep and so dark. So moving on, because we've experienced this, so we're going to keep praying for each other that we are able to, A, not only not be betrayers, but also heal from it. Because every one of us has been hurt by that, by trusting someone, and then it turns out later that they weren't worthy of our trust.

They didn't deserve it, or they abused our trust. One other thing, just to kind of keep in mind, this is more of a detail. When it comes to chapter 21, this is David and the holy bread. Just what a gift. Remember when we're back in talking about how is the layout of the temple with the layout of the presence of God, you have the holy place and you have the holy of holies. And the holy of holies was where the ark of the covenant would be kept, right? But before that was the holy place and you have the holy of holies. And the holy of holies was where the Ark of the Covenant would be kept, right? But before that was the holy place. And there were three pieces of furniture, we'll call them, three pieces of furniture, three objects that were in the holy place. There was the altar of incense, where the incense would go up before the Ark of the

Lord. There was the menorah, the golden lampstand. And there was also the bread of the presence. And the bread of the presence, the capital P presence, it would be a sign of not only God's provision for the people of Israel as he fed them through their desert wanderings, but also a sign of God's love. In fact, at the end of the feasts, when we finally get to Jerusalem and the temple is built there by King Solomon, and then later restored, et cetera, et cetera, It's all coming, coming up in the future. But when they came up for the high holy feasts, right, we've already talked about those so many times, high holy feasts, the final blessing that was

given to the people was where the priest would go into the holy place and he'd come out with the bread of the presence and he would lift up the bread of the presence and he would say to the people, behold, the love of God for you. As he held up the bread of the presence, and he would say to the people, behold, the love of God for you. As he held up the bread of the presence, he said, behold, the love of God for you. This is what happens at every single mass, that the priest holds up the bread of the presence, the true presence, right? The real presence of Jesus Christ. And he says, behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. Blessed are those who are called to the supper of the lamb. Basically, one of the things he's saying is behold, love of God for you. This is Jesus Christ crucified and risen and ascended to heaven. This is truly him. It's what a gift. It's so,

so incredible. And here's David who gets to eat this bread of the presence so that he and his men can continue their fight, continue their fleeing from King Saul, who's unjustly pursuing David and seeking his life. Speaking of being pursued, you are being pursued right now by the Lord. He loves you and he desires to make your heart his own. And so let's keep praying for each other because sometimes it's hard. Sometimes it's hard when we've been hurt by other people's betrayal that we learn, I don't know who I can trust.

And yet, once again, today, we're reminded, I can always trust the Father. I can always trust the Son. I can always trust the gift of the Holy Spirit. And so let's pray for each other that we can be men and women who trust in God. Please pray for me. I am praying for you. Let's pray for each other. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.