Rock Bottom

Welcome and Introduction

Well, church, it is good to be with you. How are we doing today? Happy Mother’s Day, by the way. My mom’s out there in cyberspace somewhere—love you, Mom. Happy Mother’s Day to you and to all the mothers here; we are so grateful to be with you guys.

On a personal note, I almost get to be a grandparent. My daughter, Madison, and her husband, Connor, are expecting, so it’s an especially exciting Mother’s Day for us as we add another one to the family. We are super grateful for that. My name is Mike, and I’m one of the teaching pastors here at The Well. It is truly a joy to be with you.

I want to invite you to turn to 1 Samuel chapter 27. We have been on a journey through the life of David, and he has been in an interesting season. As we approach chapter 27, we see that he has been in a decade-long season we’ve characterized as “desolation.” This is a time where God’s presence doesn’t feel near. God is there—He is present in our lives—but He feels anything but near in moments like these.

By and large, during this season, as hard as it has been, we’ve characterized David’s posture before the Lord as open. He’s been willing. But last week, we saw a shift. Even though he had opportunities to take Saul’s life and refused, saying he wouldn’t lay a hand on the Lord’s anointed, something changed on “payday.” After watching someone’s sheep in the wilderness, he and his men got stiffed. David decided to take matters into his own hands. He moved from being willing to being willful. He walked in the flesh and said, “If I leave so much as a man alive in this man’s home, may God do the same to me.” He flew off the handle, ready to be judge, jury, and executioner.

As we look at this week, we see yet another shift. He’s no longer willing and open; he’s not even just willful anymore. David is about to shift into will-less defiance. He is emotionally depleted, physically exhausted, and in spiritual desolation. These prolonged seasons have a way of taking their toll on the godliness of men and women. This season is going to reveal something that has always been underneath the surface for David, but now it’s bubbling up. It’s a painful thing to watch. It gets dark quickly as we take a journey inside David’s head.

The Dashboard Lights of Desolation

I want you to notice a few “dashboard lights” or “check engine lights” in David’s life that are very concerning.

1 Samuel 27:1 (NASB)

Then David said to himself, ‘Now I will perish one day by the hand of Saul. There is nothing better for me than to escape into the land of the Philistines. Saul then will despair of searching for me anymore in all the territory of Israel, and I will escape from his hand.’

There are three dashboard lights I want you to see here. Number one: he is isolated. Not physically—he has 600 men with him—but mentally and spiritually. The text says, “David said to himself.” He is stuck inside an echo chamber in his own mind, and he’s beginning to down-spiral. Samuel is dead. His best friend Jonathan is no longer accessible. The spiritual counsel that used to point him to the Lord is gone. We don’t see David reaching out to God in these chapters. Previously, he would ask, “Lord, how would you have me handle this?” Now, he simply relies on himself and listens to the voices in his own head. I don’t know about you, but the voices in my head are so often incorrect. They are deceptive.

Secondly, he is believing lies. He says, “I will one day perish by the hand of Saul.” That is simply untrue. Four different people in this story have told David he’s going to be king: Samuel, Abigail, Jonathan, and even Saul himself—not to mention the Lord. In seasons past, it was his confidence in what God spoke that gave him courage. That was the David who rallied against Goliath. But those seasons feel like distant memories. Life is unstable, fear is creeping in, and he is moving from dependence to self-reliance.

Thirdly, he deceives himself. He says, “There is nothing better for me than to escape into the land of the Philistines.” These are the enemies of Israel. David makes a fear-driven decision. He chooses to believe his circumstances over God’s promises. You can hear him rationalizing and justifying: “This is the best-case scenario. All I have left to do is this.” This is where lengthy desolation leads: to despondency and hopelessness.

Living the Lie

So, David crosses over to Achish, the king of Gath. This is the same king David once acted insane in front of to hide his identity. Now he marches in and says, “I am David.” It’s troubling to see how David behaves differently in different seasons. Where is the David of Psalm 13 who cried out, “How long, O God, will you forget me?”

Psalms 13:1-2 (NASB)

For the choir director. A Psalm of David. How long, O LORD? Will You forget me forever? How long will You hide Your face from me? How long shall I take counsel in my soul, [Having] sorrow in my heart all the day? How long will my enemy be exalted over me?

In that previous season, he moved toward God. Not this time. This choice comes with significant consequences, though they aren’t apparent yet. Initially, his questionable choices actually look like they’re working out. Saul hears David is in Gath and stops searching for him. David gets exactly what he wanted.

Isn’t that the logic we often use? “Well, everything around me is fine. I didn’t get hit by a bolt of lightning, so God must be okay with my decisions. It’s only affecting me, anyway.”

1 Samuel 27:7 (NASB)

The number of days that David lived in the country of the Philistines was a year and four months.

For sixteen months, David lives in compromise. Not one psalm is written during this time. He doesn’t reach out to the Lord once. He is in defiant will-lessness, and now he has to live the lie. He lives in a city called Ziklag, given to him by Achish. It’s on the border, so Achish isn’t micromanaging him. But David has to maintain his cover.

1 Samuel 27:8 (NASB)

Now David and his men went up and raided the Geshurites and the Girzites and the Amalekites; for they were the inhabitants of the land from ancient times, as you come to Shur even as far as the land of Egypt.

David conducts raids against the Geshurites, the Girzites, and the Amalekites—common enemies of both Israel and the Philistines. But when Achish asks where he raided, David gives vague answers. He says he raided the Negev of Judah. In Texas, we’d call these “white lies.” They aren’t “black and evil,” right? You’re just being deceptive and vague. He wants Achish to believe he has switched sides and is fighting his own people.

To cover his tracks so Achish never finds out the truth, David commits a horrific act.

1 Samuel 27:11 (NASB)

David did not leave a man or a woman alive to bring to Gath, saying, ’Otherwise they will tell about us, saying, ‘So has David done and so [has been] his practice all the time he has lived in the country of the Philistines.’’

David eradicates everyone in these towns—men, women, and most likely children. This is a troubling picture of David that we don’t often talk about. It does not honor God. He is taking the lives of innocents to protect his lie. His story is so convincing that Achish believes him, thinking David has made himself odious to Israel and will be his servant forever.

The Pickle of Compromise

But the lie has to go further. The Philistines gather for war against Israel, and Achish tells David, “You’re coming with me.”

1 Samuel 28:1 (NASB)

Now it came about in those days that the Philistines gathered their armed camps for war, to fight against Israel. And Achish said to David, ‘Know assuredly that you will go out with me in the camp, you and your men.’

David gives a troubling answer: “Very well, you shall know what your servant can do.” He is in a massive pickle. These seasons of compromise work until they don’t. We tell lies to get out of situations, which leads to bigger lies and bigger pickles. If he says no, the lie is exposed. If he says yes, he has to fight his own people.

In chapter 29, the scene shifts to the battle lines. The Philistine commanders see David and his men and ask, “What are these Hebrews doing here?”

1 Samuel 29:3 (NASB)

Then the commanders of the Philistines said, ‘What [are] these Hebrews [doing here]?’ And Achish said to the commanders of the Philistines, ‘Is this not David, the servant of Saul the king of Israel, who has been with me these days, or [rather] these years, and I have found no fault in him from the day he deserted [to me] to this day?’

Achish defends David, but the other commanders aren’t buying it. They remember the songs: “Saul has slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands.” They realize that the best way for David to win back Saul’s favor would be to turn on the Philistines mid-battle. They demand Achish send him packing.

David gets the “out” he so desperately needs. But look at how he responds. Instead of saying, “Oh, bummer, I’ll go home then,” he doubles down on the lie.

1 Samuel 29:8 (NASB)

David said to Achish, ‘But what have I done? And what have you found in your servant from the day when I came before you to this day, that I may not go and fight against the enemies of my lord the king?’

He calls Israel “the enemies of my lord the king.” He is playing a dangerous game. Is he feigning interest to keep his cover, or has he truly reached a point where he’s managing his life entirely without God? It’s hard to tell, but God graciously uses the Philistine commanders to save David from his own choices.

Rock Bottom at Ziklag

As they return home, they find that while they were gone, the Amalekites—the very people David had been raiding—had retaliated.

1 Samuel 30:1 (NASB)

Then it happened when David and his men came to Ziklag on the third day, that the Amalekites had made a raid on the Negev and on Ziklag, and had overthrown Ziklag and burned it with fire;

They find Ziklag burned. Their wives, sons, and daughters are gone. This is the worst possible news. The lie that “my choice only affects me” is shattered. Six hundred men and their families are suffering because of David’s choices. The men are so embittered they speak of stoning David. He has reached rock bottom.

But from these ashes, something beautiful begins to emerge. Instead of a further downward spiral, David finally snaps out of it.

1 Samuel 30:6 (NASB)

Moreover David was greatly distressed because the people spoke of stoning him, for all the people were embittered, each one because of his sons and his daughters. But David strengthened himself in the LORD his God.

For the first time in sixteen months, David turns to the Lord. Like smelling salts, this tragedy wakes him up. He asks God if he should pursue, and God, in His incredible grace, still speaks to him. God says, “Pursue, for you shall surely overtake and shall surely rescue all.”

1 Samuel 30:18 (NASB)

So David recovered all that the Amalekites had taken, and rescued his two wives.

David recovers everything. Nothing was missing. God is exceedingly gracious. David even takes the spoils and sends them as thank-you notes to the people in Judah who had helped him over the years. The sun is beginning to peek over the horizon, though the full daybreak hasn’t arrived yet.

The Danger of Transactional Faith

We have to ask: why is this text here? Why did David have to go through this? This season revealed what David actually believed. Long seasons of discouragement have a way of exposing our faulty belief systems.

David had begun operating with a transactional understanding of God. It went like this: “I’ve been faithful, so I expect God to come through the way I think He should. I obey, He rewards. I do right, God protects my plans.” Slowly, David drifted from trusting God to managing outcomes.

This is what moralism does. It says, “If I perform well enough, God will give me the life I want.” It’s the mentality of the older brother in the story of the Prodigal Son. He didn’t want the father; he wanted the benefits he thought his obedience should earn him. It is possible to obey God and still be using God.

As we finish, I want to pose three questions for us to consider:

1. Do you see any dashboard lights in your life? Are you isolated? Are you stuck in an echo chamber, refusing other perspectives? Are you believing lies about yourself or God? Are you rationalizing choices, justifying the means because of the end you want?

2. Have you surrendered your need to control and let God be God? At some point, David stopped relating to God as a son and started relating to Him like an employee. “I did this, so You owe me that.” It’s treating God like a genie. This was a massive part of my own journey—realizing that when things were good, I felt God was doing His job, but when things were hard, I felt I was being cheated. I believed I had the right to control my life. But God never promises easy fixes; He promises to be with us.

3. What would it take to return to a willing and open posture? David had to hit rock bottom to turn, but he didn’t have to. There was another way. Sin always over-promises and under-delivers. It takes you farther than you want to go, keeps you longer than you want to stay, and costs you more than you want to pay.

The Higher Rock

Years later, when David faced another season of desolation, he responded differently. He didn’t turn to the Philistines; he turned to the Lord.

Psalms 61:1-3 (NASB)

For the choir director; on a stringed instrument. [A Psalm] of David. Hear my cry, O God; Give heed to my prayer. From the end of the earth I call to You when my heart is faint; Lead me to the rock that is higher than I. For You have been a refuge for me, A tower of strength against the enemy.

He reached the end of his rope and cried out, “Lead me to the rock that is higher than I.” He chose openness and trust. He stopped trying to manage God and started submitting to Him.

My hope for you, if you are years deep in a season of desolation, is that you would turn. Remember that we have a Savior who experienced a desolation far more severe than David’s. Jesus experienced the ultimate desolation of the cross. In the garden, He prayed, “If it is possible, let this cup pass from me… yet not as I will, but as You will.”

We are invited into that same trust. We can say, “Lord, not my will, but Yours be done.” Father, in these hard seasons, would You cause our hearts to turn to You? In the midst of desolation that is painful and excruciating, remind us that You are still good and sovereign. You may not rescue us from our circumstances today, but You are present with us in them. Help us to depend on You. We are grateful that You are with us in all times. We pray this in the name of our Savior, Amen.