The Two Kings | Messiah: The Coming King

Sermon Transcript:

(transcribed with AI)

Hey, good morning everyone. It is good to be here with you all. I don't know how many of you own dogs, and so you'll have to correct me if this is not true across the board, but I feel like our dog could be the poster child for tunnel vision. Our dog has an amazing amount of focus at very, very specific times. Whenever we come and sit down to eat dinner or anytime we're eating at a table, our dog just appears. She appears underneath the table at our feet, and she is locked in on the floor, usually right where my kids are sitting. She has determined through years of observation that this is the place where food sometimes comes, and so for the entire time that we are eating, she will sit there and she will stare at that spot, just waiting until that moment comes that she can suddenly grab something. And I'll be honest, as much as we find that annoying at times, her determination does pay off. She gets a shocking amount of food through this tunnel vision, and yet we also know tunnel vision is a bit of a problem for us. If you've ever experienced this, you know, yes, you're very focused on one thing, but oftentimes there are other things that are still happening we should be paying attention to.

I'm told actually in certain professions, they actually do training to overcome this. If you're police or ambulance or fire or a doctor or a pilot, you'll actually have training in order to escape sort of that tunnel vision focus, because actually you need to be aware of what else is going on around you. And even if you're not in one of those professions, we recognize there are dangers in our own lives. You start focusing only on work and you find, oh actually I've been neglecting my family. Or I've been focusing just on my kids, my family, and I've actually neglected some other responsibilities that I've got in my life, or all I'm thinking about is my way of seeing the world, my point of view, and we can very easily miss what other people are trying to say. And we can miss the bigger picture that's happening around us.

See, whenever we're hyperfocused, we realize actually we become really irritable. I don't want to hear it. I don't want to hear what you have to say. I'm just going to do my own thing and if you're not helping me do this, everything else is irrelevant. We miss things, we hurt people, we're not trying to. And so often we miss the bigger picture of what God's doing.

This morning as we open our Bibles, we're going to see a wonderful example of someone with tunnel vision. If you have a Bible with you, let me invite you to open 1 Samuel chapter 16. We are continuing on with our series on David. And at this point, we have seen David has been anointed to be the next king. But right now he's not king yet. In fact, Saul is the king. And we're going to notice Saul's got a pretty serious case of tunnel vision. But even as we see him, I wonder whether or not it reflects a bit upon our own lives when we miss things that God is doing around us. So in our story, we are going to see the very first time that David and Saul are meeting.

First Samuel, starting in verse 14, it's our tradition here to stand as we read the word of God. So if you're able to, would you stand with me? Says now the spirit of the Lord departed from Saul, and a harmful spirit from the Lord tormented him, and Saul's servant said to him, behold now a harmful spirit from God is tormenting you. Let our Lord now command your servants who are before you to seek out a man who is skillful in playing the lyre. And when the harmful spirit from God is upon you, he will play it and you will be well. So Saul said to his servants, provide for me a man who can play well and bring him to me. One of the young men answered, Behold, I've seen a son of Jesse the Bethlehemite, who is skillful in playing, a man of valor, a man of war, prudent in speech, and a man of good presence, and the Lord is with him. Therefore, Saul sent messengers to Jesse and said, send me David, your son, who is with the sheep. And Jesse took a donkey laden with bread and a skin of wine and a young goat and sent them by David, his son to Saul. And David came to Saul and entered his service, and Saul loved him greatly, and he became his armor bearer. And Saul sent to Jesse saying, Let David remain in my service, for he has found favor in my sight. And whenever the harmful spirit from God was upon Saul, David took the lyre and played it with his hand. So Saul was refreshed and was well, and the harmful spirit departed from him. As far as the reading of God's word, you may be seated.

Well as we are continuing on this series looking at the life of David, we are coming to this moment. This is the first time Saul and David are meeting and don't miss the drama of this moment. Here are two kings now sitting in the same room. Saul, who has been rejected, is the one sitting on the throne. David, who's just been anointed, empowered by God, is sitting in front of him playing the lyre. You can imagine just what's going on in David's mind as he's being summoned to the royal throne room and he's coming there thinking to himself, you know, is this what God's doing? Is God going to put me on the throne right now? What exactly is going to happen? And here we find David coming in, being faithful, and yet Saul loves David. And all the while we're just thinking, OK, but how long is that going to last? Because once again, Saul's got this tunnel vision. He really very well could have recognized how much of a threat David was to him, but at this moment, he doesn't see it at all.

God had rejected Saul. God had told Saul, I have rejected you. God told Saul, I have someone I'm going to replace you with as king. And so we have this tension as these two kings sit in the throne room, one being harassed, one bringing comfort. And as much as we are meant to see sort of the physical tension of that moment of what's going on in the room, we're introduced to a whole other realm here. Because as much as this passage is about anything, it is the spiritual reality that is happening. There is a spiritual attack that is being dealt with. And actually as we go throughout the rest of David's life, we're going to see this come up again and again and again. As much as David is known as a physical warrior, and certainly he is, he is engaged in just as much spiritual warfare. And so this passage challenges us with just the spiritual reality of what's going on. But not to make us panic, not to make us worried, rather to help us trust God's sovereignty in all of these things, even as we enter into this warfare of worship. God shows us his sovereignty over the physical and spiritual world so that we can worship Him.

But let's start off, just look at this, looking at our spiritual reality. See, I'm going to argue, I think this passage challenges us in the way that we think about the world around us. Look back at verse 14 with me. It says now the spirit of the Lord departed from Saul, and a harmful spirit from the Lord tormented him. Now again, just to remind us of sort of the wider context, if you remember all the way back when Saul was first made king, God sends the spirit of the Lord to rush upon him, to equip him for this role. God empowers Saul to be the king of Israel. And as you watch his sort of career going forward, you realize that Saul is far more interested in relying on what he can accomplish than God. God gives him warning after warning after warning, eventually God rejects him, and last week we looked at God then appoints David to be the new king. And if you look back just one verse in your Bible to the end of verse 13, we're told that the spirit of the Lord rushed upon David from that day forward. The same thing that had happened to Saul now is happening to David. God is now anointing, empowering and equipping David for this role to be king, and the next verse we see, God now does the reverse for Saul. Actually, the spirit of the Lord departs from Saul. It is on David and not on Saul. And we're told that in its place a harmful spirit from the Lord tormented him.

Saul's now being harassed. We're not told exactly what this harassment looks like. Some of your translations might say evil spirit or troubling spirit, but the point is always the same. This is causing Saul quite a bit of pain, suffering, whatever it is, anguish of some kind. And here is the strange part for us. Because this isn't presented as a sort of mystical account. This is not some dream, this is not some apocalyptic vision of what's happening, this is presented to us simply as the ordinary events of life. The ordinary events of life in which the spiritual world actually takes precedent here. It's not something bizarre or unusual, and here's where I think this might be the most challenging part for us. Because in general, as North Americans, we don't believe there is any such thing as a spiritual world. All we are is just flesh and bones, chemistry and circuitry, wired together, animals that have evolved and nothing more. And so we look at a story like this and we say, well, clearly, Saul is dealing with some mental health concerns. He's got schizophrenia, he's got bipolar, whatever it might be like that, and so we dismiss anything supernatural in these accounts because these are ancient people who just didn't understand what we understand now. CS Lewis calls this chronological snobbery. We think that we're better than everyone who came before us.

The truth is what we are being presented with is a worldview that doesn't align with ours. And so instead of dismissing it, instead of tunnel vision and focusing just on what we think is happening, instead let's try and understand what the Bible is explaining to us. See, the worldview of the Bible is that actually God created us as both physical and spiritual beings, body and soul combined, and by God's design that is actually a good thing. The call is not go to one extreme or the other. On one side we could say well all we are is simply bodies, chemicals and nothing more. But the truth is we don't operate that way. We don't operate as if that is all we are. In fact, we assign value to human beings that is far greater than just the sum of our parts. We recognize inherently that there is something more, that my body is not all that I am. But lest we swing to the other end of the spectrum and begin to say, well, everything has a spirit, every rock, every tree is a spirit, every bad action has a demon behind it, every good one, an angel. We're not called to be functional atheists nor pantheists, neither what the Bible is calling us to see, rather we are to see that there is by God's design both a physical and spiritual reality to our lives.

Listen to the way Peter writes. He writes to the churches, he says, be sober-minded, be watchful. Your adversary, the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world.

Peter here warns the churches about this sort of spiritual attack, and yet at the same time he equates it with the physical persecution that is happening to them. See, Peter is putting both the physical and spiritual together for us. In fact, it's the same thing we're being shown here with Saul. Was Saul's torment spiritual or physical? Well, yes, to both. Clearly this harmful spirit had a physical effect on him, so much so that the people around him could tell and his servants were starting to get worried about it. And so we need to recognize that we are both body and soul. What happens in our spiritual lives does have effects on our physical and the other way around.

And here perhaps is our biggest problem, because that means that what we physically do has a spiritual aspect to it. And this is why the Bible constantly warns us about the problem of sin. See, sin is not merely something physical that we do. Yes, there are physical consequences when we sin. If I lie to someone and they go, oh great, I don't trust you anymore, that breaks that relationship. Or if I steal something from someone, I have robbed them, they no longer physically have that, that is a consequence, and certainly I'll face some. But actually, we need to recognize there is a spiritual reality as well. That God sees our actions and so even if we say, well, my sin didn't hurt anyone, no one even knew about my sin, God says actually no, there is a spiritual reality to your sin. God holds us accountable, in fact, God will judge us based on our sins, not simply for the physical consequences, but the spiritual as well. Our relationship with God is broken, we face his judgment. Secret sin is still a problem.

If we understand the Bible's worldview, we come to recognize we have both a physical and spiritual problem before God. But if you allow me just to jump to the end of our story for a moment, because we're seeing God's answer for that problem. Because at the end of the story we get David. God's anointed, who is coming and he is serving Saul in order to give him relief from the spiritual harassment that he is under physically and spiritually. And we need to recognize actually we are the ones in the place of Saul. If we're anyone in this story, we are the ones in Saul's place who have sinned before God, unable to do anything about it until God would send a Messiah to deal with our sin. And see, this is where Jesus comes in, in such a beautiful picture because he is the greater David who comes and doesn't give us temporary relief, but eternal dealing with our sins before God.

Colossians one says he, God has delivered us from the domain of darkness, the spiritual domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

The beautiful reality is that for all who trust in Jesus, actually we have nothing to be afraid of. Because our sins are forgiven because Jesus physically came to this earth. He physically lived a perfect life. He physically died in our place, paying the punishment for our sins. He physically rose again so that our sins are dealt with spiritually. We are secure before God by faith in Jesus Christ. So that we are given new spiritual life that we may physically live forever with God. See, the message of Jesus is wrapped up in both the physical and spiritual realities as he fills our greatest of needs.

This salvation is open for all who believe, all who trust in Jesus, and the Bible doesn't even stop there because there are far more promises. In fact, God says he will fill us with his Holy Spirit in the same way we saw the Spirit rush on David, so for everyone who trusts in the greater Messiah, we have the same promise. And lest we worry, you know, well, what if God leaves me? God left Saul, maybe I need to be worried about that. We need to understand what God is doing with Saul is far different. He's promised not to leave us.

Hebrews 13 says keep your life free from the love of money and be content with what you have, for he has said, I will never leave you nor forsake you.

Be content. Why? Because God does not forsake us. Saul is literally the example of what God will not do with us. The beautiful reality is for all who trust in Jesus, our sins are forgiven, we are made right with God, secure in his presence. The more we recognize that God has made us both physical and spiritual, we see our great need before God but also our great Messiah Jesus Christ who has dealt with all of that that we might be confident God is with us and so the call for us is then to trust him, trust God's sovereignty.

See, as we are seeing the spiritual reality, we're not called to be afraid, but rather trust God is in control. Look back at verse 15 because there's one more sort of big hurdle we have to overcome in this passage. Look at verse 15. It says, and Saul's servant said to him, Saul, behold now, a harmful spirit from God is tormenting you. In fact, 4 times in this passage, we are told that this harmful spirit is from God. And we are left to wonder exactly what is going on here. We know that God is perfect, he is pure, he does not tempt anyone, he does no evil, so what do we mean that this harmful spirit is from God? And so here's where we need to recognize actually, what we're being told is, God is sovereign over all of it, even including evil.

Probably the book of Job gives us one of the clearest pictures of this in our Bible. If you remember the story, at the very beginning, we have Job and he's following God, he is rich and wealthy, and God calls sort of a heavenly council. All the angels come and stand before him and Satan comes as well. And God looks at Satan and says, hey, have you seen Job? Have you seen how well he follows me, and what is Satan's reply?

Job chapter one tells us, then Satan answered the Lord and said, does Job fear God for no reason? Have you not put a hedge around him and his house and all that he has on every side, you have blessed the work of his hands and his possessions have increased in the land.

Notice what is Satan saying? God, I haven't been able to touch him. Because God had protected him. God had kept it. Satan, as much as he rebels against God, was not able to go any further than God allowed him. Even in fact, if you continue the story, you know, God then begins to allow Satan to take things from Job all the way up until, except his life. But Satan could never go any further than God allowed him. And actually what we see throughout is that God had a purpose for that.

Another story we get in the Bible shows us God always has a purpose, is the story of Joseph. Remember the story of Joseph in the Bible? Joseph's brothers hate him. So much so they try and kill him, they sell him into slavery, he gets traded off into Egypt. He gets accused of trying to sleep with his boss's wife and gets thrown in jail. I mean, the man's life has gone from bad to worse to worse. But it's in jail that he meets someone who then recommends him to Pharaoh. Pharaoh sees his worth and sets him in charge of near the entire kingdom. Why? So that God could use Joseph to save an entire country, not to mention the very brothers who tried to kill him. And when finally the dust all settles, what does Joseph say to them?

Joseph said to them, his brothers, do not fear, for am I in the place of God? As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive as they are today.

Yeah, the brothers, they meant evil. They meant to hurt him and nothing more. God allowed it for a purpose because he had a greater reason in mind and in fact an incredible good would come from it. Don't get tunnel visioned and miss what God is doing. While God never commits evil, he restrains it and will use it for his good purpose.

In fact, that's exactly what we see in this passage as well. God allows Saul to be harassed in order that David would actually enter into this throne room. See what happens next in our story, you could interpret it as a whole bunch of coincidences. It just so happened that these things happened in this way, but we're meant to see God's hand through all of it. Verse 16 says, let our Lord now command your servants who are before you, seek out a man who is skillful in playing the lyre, and when the harmful spirit from God is upon you, he will play it and you will be well. You know, it just so happens that Saul's servants in attendance can actually understand what's going on with Saul, that they even have a solution for him. And so Saul recognizes that and goes, great, yes, go search the land, search far and wide, try and find someone who can help, and before they've even left the room, someone pipes up and goes, I know a guy.

Verse 18 says one of the young men answered, behold, I've seen a son of Jesse, the Bethlehemite, who's skillful in playing, a man of valor, a man of war, prudent in speech, and a man of good presence, and the Lord is with him.

Before they can even get outside the room, someone knows the perfect person, it just so happens. And we get this incredible description of David. We're not told who this unnamed servant is, or why or how he knows David. But this unnamed servant is one God has placed there for this exact reason. Saul sends a message to Jesse, David's father, and Jesse sends David to the king.

Verse 20 Jesse took a donkey laden with bread and a skin of wine and a young goat and sent them by David, his son to Saul.

It's not a coincidence, but by the plan of God, that Israel's king would arrive on a donkey laden with gifts to bless the one who's hurting. We're meant to see Jesus over and over again, even in the fact that he comes bearing bread and wine, I think points forward to what Jesus will do.

Verse 21, David came to Saul and entered his service, and Saul loved him greatly, and he became his armor bearer.

An armor bearer would have been a very close attendant. Someone who shines the armor. He's someone who is there, but he could be there whenever Saul needed him. And as it turns out, Saul needed him. Saul loved David. He was such a help to him. Saul actually writes back to Jesse and goes, hey, can I keep him longer? I'd like to keep him here because he is so useful to me. And once again we see the hand of God at work because this is a grand reversal of everything that one should expect at this moment. A subject of the king, they should show loyalty to the king, but it's Saul who shows loyalty to David. The king should be the one who is blessing his subjects, but it's the subject David who is blessing the king. God is showing this grand reversal, this exchange that is going to take place as David is being prepared to sit on that throne. God has orchestrated all the details in order to bring David into this national place of attention, which is exactly where God calls him to be.

Actually we see God's sovereignty in his sovereignty over evil, in his sovereignty over the details. But hear me, this doesn't mean David's life is now easy. In fact, we're going to keep going in this story and we're going to see it is anything but easy at this moment. But what we will see is that God has a purpose for all of it. Some of the most beautiful psalms in our Bible come when David is most desperately needing to trust and lean on God above all things. Perhaps our truest test of trust in God comes when things are most difficult. God will give us both green pastures and trials, and in all of them, we will see and recognize actually it is God who is in control for his good purposes. Don't get tunnel vision, watch for what God is doing. Do not be anxious about the things that God has in his control. We aren't able to, and we were never called to. Trust in God.

And actually when we do this, we find we have all the more reason to worship him. This passage ends with what I just called the warfare of worship. See, while we would hardly think of worship as warfare, once again, the Bible is presenting us with a different lens than we often expect. Look back at verse 23.

It says whenever the harmful spirit from God was upon Saul, David took the lyre and played it with his hand. So Saul was refreshed and was well and the harmful spirit departed from him.

So now as David is in Saul's service. Whenever he's overcome by this harmful spirit in whatever way that was, David was there, and so he could pick up the lyre, it's a stringed instrument, and he'd begin to play. As David played, the spirit would leave. And once again, we're tempted to see this and we'll say, well, sure, music has power over people's lives, emotions, hearts. I've worked with musical therapists and I've watched as people who have very late stage dementia and are sometimes even not verbal, and yet you start playing music and suddenly they can sing, they can remember whole choruses and songs. Music has a very, very well documented and powerful effect on our heart, and so we look at that and we say, well yeah, clearly that's all it is. But once again, the Bible's showing us far more.

See, we're not told exactly what did David play, but we know David was the great worship leader of Israel. Most of the psalms in our Bible are written by David, and as the anointed one empowered by the Holy Spirit, he is leading in worship, and as he does this, the spirit is leaving. See, David was a worship leader. Because actually he pointed us forward to the future Messiah who would also lead us in worship. You remember the story of Jesus talking to the Samaritan woman at the well? He comes to her and they begin to talk for a little while about all kinds of different things, and eventually she asks him, she says, well, where exactly are we supposed to be worshiping? Is it over there? Is it over there? Where does God want us to worship and what's Jesus' answer?

John chapter 4, Jesus says, God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth. A woman said to him, I know the Messiah is coming, he who is called Christ, David's son. When he comes, he will tell us all things and Jesus said to her, I who speak to you am he.

Just as David led in worship, so Jesus the Messiah leads us in worship to worship God in spirit and in truth. If we understand what Jesus is telling us, we should recognize that worship is far more than just singing. That's not what we're talking about, it's not just the music that we sing. Our singing at church is not a bit of light entertainment until the sermon. It is a spiritual act of declaring the goodness of God above all things, to move our hearts to see and recognize the greatness of who God is, of what he has done in Jesus Christ. It is to realign the core of who we are, both body and soul to what God has revealed to us. It is declaring the good news of Jesus once again, teaching our hearts the very purpose why we exist. Never misunderstand that worship is spiritual warfare in the heart. It is a fight against all the sin that would pull us away from seeing the goodness of our God. Against all the spiritual forces that would fight against us.

Have you ever struggled to worship? To show up here on a Sunday morning. You get here and it's been a busy morning and you're struggling and the worship team comes up and they're starting to sing and you're thinking, what's going on? I don't have a heart in this at this moment. Why? Because this is a spiritual battle. It's not just a physical thing that we are doing, this is a spiritual battle to realign our hearts once again to God's will. That's why we worship together. It's the same thing when it comes to reading your Bible or praying. Those are physical things you can do, but it is a spiritual exercise to follow after God. Why do we struggle to do those things? Because there is opposition, opposition in our own hearts that has sin in it, opposition in the spiritual realm.

So what do we do when we struggle? Worship all the more. Lean into the worship more and more. Set your heart, pray to God, help me to worship. Look, if you're not a musician, I'm not either. But sing. Sing because it helps us as body and soul come before God. Sing because it is part of the spiritual battle of our hearts, because music does move our emotions and hearts. We know it does, so use it. Use it to bring ourselves back to God, to use that tool. Life is too short not to.

Paul writes in Ephesians 5, he says, look carefully then how you walk. Not as unwise, but as wise. Making the best use of the time because the days are evil.

How do we make the best use of the time? Addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart. How can we use our time here on Earth in the best way possible? Worship. Look, we don't have a long time here on Earth, and there certainly will be hardships, the days are evil. So trust in God's purposes and lean your heart to worship him again. God made us to glorify Him, to enjoy Him, so lead your heart to worship Him.

Hebrews 13 says, through him, Jesus, let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name.

Hear me again, it's not just the words that leave our mouths, it is, we are both body and soul to worship God. And in Jesus we never run out of reasons to praise Him. We are always able to thank him because of his death on the cross, his life as our example, his resurrection that gives us hope. We can praise him for his rule over this earth, for the fulfillment of his promises or his work in our lives. We can praise him for his character, his goodness, his mercy or grace, his kindness, his compassion and love, we can praise his justice, his righteousness or holiness, praise his unchanging nature, his presence with us at all times, or his power over all things. We will not run out of reasons to praise our God. Only we will grow deeper in our appreciation of them. Our lives are not mere physical existence, but the spiritual reality of warfare to worship our King Jesus.

As we see God's hand in directing David's life, to see him worship and the spiritual warfare that is involved. Let us lean in and worship our King. As we follow his example, let us find our hearts aligning more and more with God as we trust Him in all things. Hear me? Avoid the tunnel vision that misses what God is doing. That is so focused on what happens around us that we cannot see God's purposes and his grace on us. God created us as both body and soul, and there is a spiritual reality to our lives that means we need to be made right with God. The good news is that is why Jesus came. He came to this earth that we would be made right with God, that our spiritual lives eternally secured because of his forgiveness. So trust him. Trust his control over all things and worship him, resound in the worship of our King Jesus. Let's pray together.

Oh heavenly Father. We are so grateful for the way that you have worked in our lives. Father, that you have not left us to ourselves, but that you have sent Jesus, the Messiah. To show us even what David could not do, to be the greater Messiah, the greater answer to the greater prayer of our sin. Father, thank you for the forgiveness that we have in him. Lord, may we always trust your hand, not in what we can accomplish, but may we trust in you. And Lord, would we give you all the praise, all the glory that our lives might resound with the goodness of who you are. We ask all these things in your name. Amen.