“Offer the sacrifices of righteousness, and put your trust in Jehovah” (Psalm 4:5, ASV).

All you have to do to learn of David’s trust in the Lord is read Psalms. Over and over he says he will trust in God or he has trusted in God (37:5; 40:4). He said it, but did he always do it? No, for we know that David sinned.

Two times, when Saul was chasing David, God helped David come out on top (1 Samuel chapters 24 and 26). Yet in chapter 27:1, we find David saying “I shall now perish one day by the hand of Saul: there is nothing better for me than I should escape into the land of the Philistines.” So he fled unto Achish, king of Gath.

What? God has just saved you twice, and now you feel that He isn’t with you and you have to escape to your people’s enemy and rely on them for protection? What’s wrong with you, David? Don’t you trust God anymore?

Like us, who say we trust God, David didn’t always think of God first. We can imagine that he was tired of running and longed for rest. He was probably disheartened. God had promised that he would be king someday, but that was long ago, and it sure didn’t seem like things were working out. So instead of asking God what to do, David made his own decision.

His stay in Gath did not turn out well. He lied to Achish about his battles. When he tried to join Achish’s army, he was denied. Perhaps God was with him even then, for how could he fight his own people?

Do you ever feel tired, sick, worried, and overwhelmed? Have you forgotten all the times when God has protected you and helped you? Has your Father ever forsaken you? Keep believing that He is still with you and will help you, for He has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”

Hymn: “Living By Faith”

Prayer: Heavenly Father, no matter how tired and overwhelmed I feel, remind me that You are always with me and will help me. In Jesus’s name. Amen.

Donna Wittlif, Denver, Colorado