First published in February 2017

So David and his men wept aloud until they had no strength left to weep….David was greatly distressed because the men were talking of stoning him; each one was bitter in spirit because of his sons and daughters.
…But David found strength in the Lord his God.

1 Samuel 30:4,6

I’m sure some of us know what it’s like to cry so much that we have almost no strength left. I know it’s happened to me. So when I read this story, I truly felt David’s pain and his men’s pain over the situation they found themselves in. They had arrived home to Ziklag, finding the town destroyed and their wives and children taken captive. The men talked about stoning David.

I was moved when I read, “…But David found strength in the Lord his God. ” What an impressive example of faith and determination! Imagine David in the spot he’s in taking a deep breath, putting his grief aside, and focusing once more on God, trusting that God was in charge.

Gathering strength and courage from the Lord, David led his men in pursuit of the raiders. Eventually they recovered everything that was taken from them. Not a woman or child was lost.

Reading the Psalms can be great encouragement for us during troubled times. So many of them reveal the same positive, trusting attitude that David had in Ziklag.

In Psalm 42 and 43, for example, he repeated these lines three times:

Put your hope in God,
for I will yet [despite everything] praise him,
my Savior and my God.

David inspires me. I pray for all of us that God will help us to find it in ourselves to follow David’s example. When things are tough, may we too be able to say, “…and yet I trust you, Lord. I trust you to give me the strength I need.”

marja