(Images in my spirit from Psalm 42 offered without commentary, outline or application. Just some vivid images the Lord impressed upon my spirit as I was driving home from out of town yesterday.
David, son of Jesse, sat in the depths of the Cave of Adullum, afraid even to light a small fire to take the chill from his bones, lest some small wisp of smoke should escape the mouth of the cave and alert Saul's men of his whereabouts. He is a man on the run; on the run from the fury of a man driven mad by his lust for power. Even though David has been anointed as the next king over Israel - he is more like an animal being hunted by the hunters.
David knows the wilderness in which he hides better than any man for it is in these same arid tracts that he tended his father's sheep as a boy. He knows every shade tree and every cave where one can escape the scorching heat. He knows every stream and every watering hole for he has depended on that knowledge to care for Jesse's flocks. Many starlit nights have been whiled away playing his lyre lying on a sheepskin bed, looking at the heavens and writing praise songs to Yaweh. He has stood for hours before a juniper tree practicing with his sling until he could knock out a knot with deadly accuracy. He has attacked the same bush over and over again with his staff pretenting it to be a bear or a lion - practice which stood him in good stead when the sheep were threatened by the real thing - and once again will sustain him before a mighty giant.
But now.................now he is a hunted man, running for his life and daring not to stop for too long in one place lest the hounds catch his scent and the horsemen run him down. For a few moments the darkness of the cave hides him and he can rest. But as he sits in the hollow of the earth, gasping for breath, despair leaps upon him, "God why have you forgotten me?"
He thinks, "If I were to die here in this forsaken place no one would know. Perhaps a shepherd boy might one day find my bones in this anonymous grave. I am utterly alone."
Suddenly in the mouth of the cave, at the pool fed by a spring he hears, a sound. There, silouhetted by the blazing sun outside is a hart - a mighty deer. He himself is fleeing the hunter and dares only to stop for a moment to quench his raging thirst. As heaving chest cries out for air and a parched gullet screams for water this powerful beast is a ruler in the wilderness, and yet he is hunted and must flee the arrow that would strike him down. For a moment, their eyes meet and then in a flash the powerful hooves carry the beast away and David is alone again.
In the eerire calm that remains, young David realizes that even though he is utterly alone, God knows where he is, for their is no place a man can run that God is not already there. He realizes that God has orchestrated his training in this very wilderness to prepare him for this very moment. Every night spent in the desert, every blistering day in the heat; the stench of the lion's breath in his face as he is locked in mortal combat and the rumble of the earth beneath the feet of the bear - every stone flying toward its woody target; all of these have forged a man of iron, a warrior of superlative skill; a king who must first learn to rule himself before he can lead a nation.
David rises to his feet and moves to the water pool at the mouth of the great cavern - unaware that he will shelter here again as he trains his mighty men that will serve valiantly with him in battle. He drinks deeply from the pool and as he does he lifts his eyes and upon on the hillside alert for danger stands the mighty hart as David whispers words of profound understanding, "As the deer pants for the waterbrook so my soul longeth after thee. My soul thirsts for God, the living God......" Then rising to his feet with renewed strength and invigorated spirit he strides out into the blazing furnace of his affliction, knowing that God is crafting him for another day.
From my Father's mouth to my spirit to your heart, may the Lord bless you.
Michael Gantt
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