Pain to Purpose Devotional - DAY 20
Week 3: David
SCRIPTURE:
Isaiah 61:3 (NIV)
3 [He will] provide for those who grieve in Zion—to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of his splendor.
Psalm 42:5 (NIV)
Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.
DEVO:
If you know the story of David you can understand why I’m drawn to it. The mess and the beauty of his story give me hope that God can use my mess as well. There is a lesser known part of David’s story that has had a massive impact on my own personal healing. It’s the story about David’s wife and kids being captured. I recall the first time I encountered this story, I was reading my Bible next to a fire on a harsh winter morning soon after my late wife was killed.
Here’s my story of reading that morning in 1 Samuel 30:
David was still on the run from King Saul and his men when he decided to take refuge among the Philistine army even though they were his enemies! David was, of course, the unassuming shepherd boy who had killed the Philistine champion, Goliath. How amazing is it that they would even let him into their camp?
Somehow David convinced them he deserted the Israelite army and that he wanted to fight for their side. Over time he built such a trust with Achish, the commander to whom he was assigned, that he was allowed to come and go as he pleased—as long as he reported back what he’d been doing every day.
David and his men went out each day and raided the camps of other enemy nations—the Geshurites, the Girzites, the Amalekites, and the Cellulites (no, not really). Then, in order to retain the trust of Achish and the Philistine commanders, David came home and reported that he’d been sacking the Israelite camps. This persisted day after day.
One day, the Philistines called their entire military force to go to battle against the Israelites. David and his men joined the conscription, but as they lined up for battle, the other Philistine commanders told Achish they couldn’t trust David. They were afraid that, in the middle of battle, David and his men would double-cross them. So they sent them away. David and his men began the slow, dejected march back to their campground in Ziklag.
As they approached the crest of the hill that overlooked Ziklag, they noticed smoke coming up from their camp. They rushed into the camp, but it was too late. Their city had been burned and each of their wives and children carried away by the Amalekite army. David had messed with the enemy too much and retaliation was due, and this time it was his wife and children who would pay.
I put my Bible down, peered over at the fire and began to whisper, “Lord, are you trying to show me something here? This is crazy! David had his wife stolen from him by the enemy?!” I felt the prompting to keep reading to see how David responded to his tragedy that felt eerily similar to mine. I mean, my wife and daughter had also been stolen by a great enemy. This is one of my favorite things about scripture: if we look closely, we can find ourselves in it. So I continued reading.
I have to admit, I fully expected David to go into William Wallace mode at this point. I thought he would probably explode into a fury of vengeance and cut the throats of every Amalekite responsible (which, if you keep reading, he eventually does). But what struck me as miraculous was what he did first.
In Chapter 30 of 1 Samuel, David and his men “wept until they had no more strength to weep.” I’m sure we can all resonate with this during our most intense seasons of grief. But then what happened next made me all the more intrigued. David motioned to the priest and said, “Bring me the ephod.”
What is an ephod? I wondered. Surely this is some ancient weapon or instrument of torture David was intending on using against the Amalekites. So I looked it up. I was surprised and a little confused to discover that, instead of a weapon, an ephod was a linen cloth the priest would put on before they stepped into the tabernacle to make sacrifices to God on the people’s behalf. The Bible also refers to it as a “garment of praise.”
Wait, what? Why would David ask for a garment of praise? Why would he ask to put on an ephod when he had just lost his wife and kids?! The last thing I wanted to do was praise God for my circumstance! This didn’t make any sense to me.
Then, I remembered another instance in scripture where David wore a linen ephod. In 2 Samuel 6, following one of his greatest victories in battle, David triumphantly paraded into the city as a conqueror— and he danced in a linen ephod. The people made up chants about his triumphs and the women swooned over him as he showed off his moves.
The only two times David is portrayed wearing a linen ephod in the Scriptures are in his greatest triumph and his greatest tragedy. In both seemingly opposite situations, he put on a garment of praise. Even though he felt like focusing on the pain, he chose instead to look at his tragic circumstance through the perspective of praise for what God was going to do through this tragedy.
Though David’s decision to “put on praise” was a pivotal moment, the story doesn’t end there. The next thing we see David do here is He asks God what he should do in response to the Amalekites. I absolutely love what God says to him: “Go take them back.”
And this is exactly what David does. He and his men march right into the Amalekite camp and take back what the enemy stole from them. And friend, this is the same invitation God has extended to each of us in our own trauma. A very real enemy has stolen something from you. He’s threatened to use pain, tragedy, and heartache to rob from you the future God has intended for you. He wants to keep you in a stronghold of shame, depression, anxiety, and fear. But God is inviting you into a partnership with Him to take back your story. Will you accept that invitation?
QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION AND JOURNALING:
When you find yourself in the middle of heartache, how would you describe your immediate impulse reaction? Why is it so difficult to have a perspective of praise in the midst of your problem?
David had to put on the garment of praise. It was a conscious decision. What kind of practical things can you do to put on a praise mindset today?
To what extent does gratitude for what God has done for you in the past, play into your present outlook on life?
PRAYER:
Lord, it’s easy to praise You on the mountaintop, but it’s such a challenge to praise You in the valley. Help me to keep the same attitude no matter what problem I’m facing. Help me to keep a heavenly perspective, and keep me focused on how good and powerful You are in all circumstances.
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