The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) - Day 115: King Saul is Spared (2023)

Episode Date: April 25, 2023

Fr. Mike uses King Saul as an example that God does not unchoose those he has chosen, and never loses faith in us. Even if we feel someone is in power unjustly, it's God who decides who holds power, not us. Today's readings are 1 Samuel 24 and Psalm 57. 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. It is day 115, and we are reading from 1 Samuel chapter 24. We're also praying Psalm 57. As always, the translation of the Bible 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 download your own Bible in a Year reading plan, you can visit ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year. And you also are invited to subscribe in your podcast app to receive daily episodes that you don't have to hunt for every single day because they will find you. They will hunt you down and make sure that you listen to the Bible today like you're doing on day 115 as we're reading from 1 Samuel chapter 24 and Psalm 57. 1 Samuel chapter 24, David spares Saul's life. When Saul returned from following the Philistines, he was told, Behold, David is in the wilderness of Ein Gedi. Then Saul took three thousand chosen men out of all Israel and went to seek David and his men in front of the wild goat's rocks. And he came to

the sheepfolds, by the way, where there was a cave, and Saul went in to relieve himself. Now David and his men were sitting in the innermost parts of the cave, and the men of David said to him, Here is the day of which the Lord said to you, Behold, I will give your enemy into your hand, and you shall do to him as it shall seem good to you. Then David arose and stealthily cut off the skirt of Saul's robe. And afterward David's heart struck him, because he had cut off Saul's skirt. He said this to his men, The Lord forbid that I should do this thing to my Lord, the Lord's anointed, to put forth my hand against him, seeing he is the Lord's anointed.

So David persuaded his men with these words and did not permit them to attack Saul. And Saul rose up and left the cave and went upon his way. Afterward, David also arose and went out of the cave and called after Saul, my lord the king. And when Saul looked behind him, David bowed with his face to the earth and did obeisance. And David said to Saul, why do you listen to the words of men who say, behold, David seeks your hurt? Behold, this day your eyes have seen how the Lord gave you today into my hand in the cave, and some bade me kill you, but I spared you. I said, I will not put forth my hand against my Lord, for he is the Lord's anointed. See, my father, see the skirt of your robe in my hand,

for by the fact that I cut off the skirt of your robe and did not kill you, you may know and see that there is no wrong or treason in my hands. I have not sinned against you, though you hunt my life to take it. May the Lord judge between me and you. May the Lord avenge me upon you, but my hand shall not be against you. As the proverb of the ancients says, out of the wicked comes forth wickedness, but my hand shall not be against you. After whom has the king of Israel come out? After whom do you pursue? After a dead dog? After a flea? May the Lord therefore be the judge and give sentence between me and you and see to it and plead my cause and deliver me from your hand. When David had finished speaking these words to Saul, Saul said, Is this your voice, my son David?

And Saul lifted up his voice and wept. He said to David, You are more righteous than I, for you have repaid me good, whereas I have repaid you evil. And you have declared this day how you have dealt well with me, in that you did not kill me when the Lord put me into your hands. For if a man finds his enemy, will he let him go away safe? And David swore this to Saul. Then Saul went home, but David and his men went up to the stronghold. Psalm 57. Praise and assurance under persecution. To the choir master, according to Do Not Destroy,

a mictum of David, when he fled from Saul in the cave. Be merciful to me, O God, be merciful to me, for in you my soul takes refuge. In the shadow of your wings I will take refuge, till the storms of destruction pass by. I cry to God most high, to God who fulfills his purpose for me. He will send from heaven and save me. He will put to shame those who trample upon me. God will send forth his mercy and his faithfulness. I lie in the midst of lions that greedily devour the sons of men. Their teeth are spears and arrows, their tongues sharp swords. Be exalted, O God, above the heavens. Let your glory be over all the earth. They set a net for my steps. My soul was bowed down. They dug a pit in my way, but they have fallen into it themselves. My heart is steadfast, O God. My heart is steadfast.

I will sing and make melody. Awake, my soul. Awake awake harp and lyre. I will awake the dawn. I will give you thanks, O Lord, among the peoples. I will sing praises to you among the nations. For your mercy is great to the heavens, your faithfulness to the clouds. Be exalted, O God, above the heavens. Let your glory be over all the earth. Father in heaven, we give you praise and we lift your name up and we thank you. We thank you even in the midst of trial. We thank you even in the midst of persecution. And we follow these stories of King David. He's being hunted. He's being hunted unfairly, he's being treated unfairly. We can see snapshots of our lives. We can see snapshots of when we have been victims of injustice, when we have been those who have experienced the evil of others, evil decisions of other people.

And so we, like David, we give you praise even in the midst of the battle. We give you praise even in the midst of the battle. We give you praise even in the midst of the struggle. We give you praise even in the midst of injustice because you desire justice and you bid us to work for justice. And you bid us to trust you and to praise you and to belong to you. And so this day we reassert the fact that, Lord God, even when things are difficult and when things are dark, we are yours. And when things are a, even when things are difficult and when things are dark, we are yours. And when things are a struggle and when things are a battle, that we fight in your name and we

fight according to your plan and your will. May you be glorified this day and every day of our lives. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. So here we go. In, gosh, 1 Samuel chapter 24. We have once again, not once again, but we have for the first time, one of the moments where David is going to spare the life of King Saul. He's going to do it again. Just sorry, spoiler, I guess. But one of the things that this highlights is how rooted David is in the reality that God has chosen King Saul. Yes, God has also chosen David to be king, but God doesn't un-choose who he has chosen, right? And even the fact that King Saul has sinned and he will not

have a dynasty that lasts forever, that doesn't mean that he's un-kinged, right? He still is the king. He's still charged with the duty and the responsibility to continue to fight for the people of Israel, especially against the Philistines, against the enemies of the people of Israel. He still has that job. Now, at some point, God can un-king the king. Absolutely. But David realizes, I am not God. And what God has anointed, I'm not going to violate. I'm not going to say that, I'm not going to take it upon myself to, I guess, exterminate the person that God has anointed. Even if God has made it very clear that he's going to take the kingship from King Saul, David has the wisdom to know that yes, that is God's prerogative. God gets to do that, but he has never ever told me that that's my prerogative,

that I get to do that. And there's something really powerful about this because what it reveals is reveals that David himself recognizes the power of the Lord and his anointed, his anointing and the power of the Lord's choosing him and the power of the Lord's faithfulness that God gets to be the one who decides who is king and who's not. God gets to be the Lord over the living and the dead. God gets to be the God of life and death. He gets to be sovereign, right? God gets to be the God of life and death. He gets to be sovereign, right? God gets to be sovereign. And David, even though he's going to be the next king, he recognizes his limits. And this is maybe the key for a lot of us, maybe not for all of us, but I know for myself, I might be tempted at times or even might be told by others, hey,

you should overextend your reach. I might want to overextend my reach and wade into areas that God hasn't given me permission to wade into. That there are battles around this world. There are battles in life that God hasn't necessarily commissioned me to step into. If he does, great. I will try to do my best to say yes to this. And there are battles in our lives, in your life, that God hasn't necessarily called you into. And if he does, great, hopefully you'll respond. Hopefully all of us will respond whenever the Lord calls us to move

forward. But there are also limits that we all have. And these limitations, they can be self imposed limitations, right? They can be limitations imposed by others around us. They also can be the limitation of, I don't know that God has called me to this. I don't know that God has called me to this particular fight, this particular battle, this particular struggle. And to be aware of one's own limitations is not the same thing as limiting oneself. It's not the same thing as shrinking back from the challenge or shrinking back from the battle.

Remember, David is not a man who's going to shrink back from the challenge of Goliath, just like Jonathan wasn't a man who'd shrink back from the challenge of the Philistines. But here's what we have to do. Sorry, I don't know if you do. I know that I do. What I have to do is someone says, Father, why don't you do X, Y, or Z? Or maybe I look at it and say, man, I want to say something about this, that, or the other thing. What I get to do and I have to do is what David did yesterday. I have to consult the Lord. God, this is, remember with the residents of Keilah, the Keelites, sorry, Keelites, yeah, Keelites, how do they say it? Residents of the city of Keilah, they were being attacked by the Philistines. And before David just went up and fought them, fought that battle, he went before the Lord

and said, God, is this a battle you want me to fight? This is so important for every single one of us, especially when we can be keyboard jockeys, you know, when we can just weigh in on every, every, everything that's even important stuff that maybe isn't our fight, maybe isn't our battle. Now, at the same time, I can look at someone else and say, we should be fighting here. I should look at someone else and say, maybe you should step down. But you know, that's not my job either. That my job is to listen to the Lord's voice

and to ask him, God, do you want me to say something about this? Do you want me to do something about this? And not just to say, okay, I'm gonna go fight because someone tells me I need to go fight. Unless that person is my bishop, in which case I will do that. How this makes sense.

One of the things we realize that David reveals to us is he is aware of his limitations. And he also is aware that he will only fight when the Lord tells him, hey, now it's time to go fight. I think that might be something we can take away with and walk away with as well, that I become more and more aware of my limitations. And I'm only going to fight when God says, okay, this is the fight that you need to throw your hat into. No matter what it costs, you need to get into this battle, into this fight. But until the Lord does that, maybe it's wiser, wisest thing to do is to continue to pray, continue to listen to his voice, continue to listen to wise people, and always be ready to do his will.

Because there's nothing greater. There's nothing other than that. We all want to be ready to do God's will at every moment. Anyways, I am praying for you because I know that the Lord will call you into certain fights that maybe you don't want to go into. And please pray for me because the Lord might call me into certain fights that I am not equipped for. And so we need to keep praying for each other because there are.

Our battles are not with flesh and because there are, our battles are not with flesh and blood, right? Our battles are with principalities and powers. And so the Lord is going to call us to some kind of battle. Typically that battle for every one of us is going to be against principalities and powers, not against flesh and blood as much as it always is going to be against the kingdom of darkness so that the kingdom of Jesus Christ can always reign. That's why we need to pray for always reign. That's why we need to pray for each other. That's why I need you please to pray for me. That's why I am praying for you. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.