1 Samuel 30:1-6, “And it came to pass, when David and his men were come to Ziklag on the third day, that the Amalekites had invaded the south, and Ziklag, and smitten Ziklag, and burned it with fire; And had taken the women captives, that were therein: they slew not any, either great or small, but carried them away, and went on their way. So David and his men came to the city, and, behold, it was burned with fire; and their wives, and their sons, and their daughters, were taken captives. Then David and the people that were with him lifted up their voice and wept, until they had no more power to weep. And David’s two wives were taken captives, Ahinoam the Jezreelitess, and Abigail the wife of Nabal the Carmelite. And David was greatly distressed; for the people spake of stoning him, because the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his sons and for his daughters: but David encouraged himself in the LORD his God.”
Try to picture this for a moment.
David has been on the run from Saul for years. He left the land of Israel because he didn’t think he was going to survive. He went to live with the Philistines, the enemies of God’s people, and he spent over a year lying to a pagan king just to stay alive. He was just marching with the Philistine army, about to go to war against his own people, and God had to use the suspicion of pagan lords to pull him out of that mess.
Now he’s walking back to Ziklag with his 600 men. Three days of marching. They’re tired and they’re coming home expecting to see their families. And when they get there, the city is burned to the ground. Everything is gone. Their wives, their sons, their daughters, all taken captive by the Amalekites. Every house is a pile of ash.
These 600 men, battle hardened warriors, stood there and wept until they physically couldn’t weep anymore. The Bible says they “had no more power to weep.”
And then it gets worse.
David’s own men, the ones who followed him when nobody else would, the ones who were with him in the cave of Adullam, in the wilderness of En-gedi, through every close call with Saul, these same men start talking about picking up stones and killing him. The men he led, protected, and fought beside are now blaming him for everything and plotting his death.
Think about where David is right now. He has no home, no family, and no safety. His own men want him dead. Saul is hunting him. The Philistines just kicked him out. And everything he built in Ziklag is a smoking ruin.
This is about as low as a man can go.
So what do you do when you’ve hit the absolute bottom? David shows us three things, and I want you to notice the order.
Encouraging Ourselves in the Lord
1 Samuel 30:6 says, “But David encouraged himself in the LORD his God.”
Notice what David didn’t do. He didn’t try to talk his men out of stoning him, he didn’t give a speech and he didn’t panic and start barking orders. He didn’t try to negotiate or run. Every one of those things would have made the situation worse.
There was no person there to help him. Nobody was going to pat David on the back.
So he went to God.
When the Bible says he “encouraged himself” it means to seize, to grip, to fasten yourself onto something and refuse to let go. Meaning David is both doing the strengthening and receiving it at the same time. He grabbed hold of God the way a drowning man grabs a rope.
David’s thoughts were spiraling. Every worst-case scenario was running through his head.
So what did he do with all those thoughts? He pointed it at God. He took every spinning thought and aimed it toward the Lord. This had to come first.
Nothing else was going to go the right direction until David got his emotions under the authority of God. You can’t lead when your heart is panicking. You can’t hear God when your mind is screaming. David knew that. He fixed himself before he tried to fix the problem.
Psalm 56:3 says, “What time I am afraid, I will trust in thee.” David wrote that. He knew what it meant to be afraid and to turn that fear into faith.
