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Psalm 54 The author of this psalm fled, seeking refuge and protection from his pursuers. Perhaps it refers to David’s flight from the wrath of Saul, though the sentiments expressed here can apply to anyone.
With a freewill…it is good: This is a clear parallel to the Sacrifice of Christ, who obeyed the father and willingly gave his life as an offering for our sins. (CCC 207)
1 Samuel 23 there is something so powerful about this
At the beginning of this chapter we have David saving the city of Keilah
The Philistines were attacking Keilah
David has 1 of 3 potential options
David could say, “Ok fine. I’m not the king. Saul is the king. Let Saul defend the people of Keilah against the Philistines.”
He could have said, “Not my business.”
Second, David could say “This is my business. I will fight.”
Or he could do what he DID DO
“I will inquire of the Lord about this.”
It’s remarkable because we have this happen again and again
Here is a group of people or a leader of people WHO DID NOT CONSULT THE LORD
Here is David who did say, “I actually need to ask of the Lord FIRST.”
Then what happens is pretty remarkable
There are people that David trusts who say, “DON’T. LET’S NOT DO THIS.”
Then David appealed to the Lord AGAIN
What this shows us is that not only does David ask God for guidance
David is also taking into account the wisdom of the people around him
This is what we do when we DISCERN
We go to Scripture
We go to the Catechism
We look and see if God has ever said anything about this
Or is God speaking NOW to tell us NO or to tell us YES
But we also take into account the wise voices around us
That’s what David does and then he goes to the Lord
The counselors said NO
God said YES
It gives us a great example for ourselves
It gives us INSIGHT into the HEART OF DAVID
David is going to be the kind of person who APPEALS TO THE LORD and doesn’t just go off on his own...YET (DUN DUN DUUUUUUNNNNNNNN 😉)
David shows he is a man AFTER GOD’S OWN HEART
He appeals to The Lord for direction more than anything
The Ziphites betray David and tell Saul that he is there
The last section of Ch 23, there is this little story describing how on one side of the hill is Saul and his army and on the other side of the hill is David and his MERRY MEN ;)
They are separated by a ridge
If Saul knew that the future King David was on the other side of this ridge, he could have just gone over the ridge and attacked
God sends word through the messengers of King Saul that the Philistines were attacking so Saul had to go back to fight them
Think about how this relates to all of the ways God is acting WHEN WE DON’T EVEN REALIZE IT
Think about all of the ways that God is still active WHEN WE HAVE NO IDEA
Imagine, David has no idea that King Saul is on the other side of the ridge
David has no idea what a close call this was
David has no idea this could have been the end of his life
Later, David realizes this place was the ROCK OF ESCAPE
How many times do difficult things happen to us?
How many times do horrible things happen to the people we love?
We count these things because they matter
We often get hurt
The people we love often get hurt
BUT…
We don’t even know how to BEGIN COUNTING the number of ESCAPES the Lord has given to us
The number of times THE LORD HAS DELIVERED US
The number of times WE DIDN’T EVEN REALIZE HOW CLOSE WE WERE TO DISASTER
GOD STEPS IN in a way that we may see as “coincidence”
We might not even NOTICE IT
We might not even SEE IT
Until Heaven…
When we look back on our lives and we will be able to see NOT ONLY all of the times when there were difficult moments where GOD WAS PRESENT but He allowed us to enter these difficult moments
But also all of those moments where it could have been CATASTROPHE
It could have been DISASTER
It could have been THE END OF US
But God, in His mysterious will and His mysterious way He stepped in
The Hand of God is present to ALL OF US
EVEN WHEN WE DON’T REALIZE IT
This is the shortest day so far
Maybe God wants to give us a bit of a break
We’ll do longer ones later on 😉
Fr. Mike is proud of you and grateful that you are continuing to journey through the Bible in a Year
KEEP PRAYING FOR FR. MIKE
KEEP PRAYING FOR EACH OTHER
Prayer by Fr. Mike: “Father in Heaven, we give you praise and glory. We thank you. We thank you for the fact that you are just and you are good and you continually speak to us, Lord God, and sometimes in our prayer you are quiet. Sometimes in our prayer, we ask for a specific answer and you are silent. And you don’t speak in the way that we would prefer. But, Lord God, you continue to speak. You continue to speak to us through your Word. You continue to speak to us every single day that we press play and just allow your word to reach our ears and allow your word to touch and transform our hearts. And so this day, just like David, we ask for your guidance. We ask for your will to be made known not only in Sacred Scripture, Lord God, not only through the Church, but also in our prayer. We ask that you please, and also in the people around us, we ask that you just in everything your will is done. In everything you are glorified and we give you praise and glory right now. Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning is now and ever shall be world without end. Amen.”
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