Running for our lives

By Rev. Victor I. Burgos

Have you ever felt the pressure of circumstances surrounding you and trying to crush you in ways you thought it was almost impossible for you to survive except if you ran for your life? I have to confess that there have been a few times that I have felt like King David in Psalm 55 when he wrote in verse six, " And I said, Oh that I had wings like a dove! for then would I fly away, and be at rest." The truth of the matter is that running away from the circumstances that are difficult to handle gives one the illusion that all is well when we know deep inside of us that whatever sense of rest or security we might feel is false. It is at times of such overwhelming pressure that we all can use a little encouragement. It is also true that those are the times that such encouragement seems to be the hardest to find.

In the book of I Samuel beginning in chapter twenty-seven through chapter thirty, I read a portion of the life of David in which he faced very hard-times. Hoping that king Saul would forget about him and quit his relentless manhunt of trying to kill him, David fled to the land of the Philistines with his two wives and six hundred men and their families. There he found favor with Achish, king of Gath, who gave him the land of Ziklag to dwell. David was right, Saul stopped looking for him to kill him but his problems were far from over.

David gained the complete trust of king Achish, so much so that when the princes of the Philistines planned to make war against Israel, Achish wanted David to fight by his side. But there was one problem, the princes did not trust in David and feared that he would turn against them in the heat of the battle so they persuaded Achish to send David and his men back to Ziklag. In chapter twenty-nine of I Samuel, Achish tries to comfort David as he questions him about his decision of sending him back. David’s faithfulness and integrity is out of the question as far as Achish is concerned and in verse six he tells David, "…nevertheless the lords favour thee not."

When David and his men arrived at Ziklag it was burned to the ground and the Amalekites had taken captive their families. In verse four of chapter thirty the scripture tells us that the suffering of their loss was so painful that they wept, "…until they had no more power to weep." The situation was so bad that in verse six we find that the people were so hurt they turned against David and wanted to stone him. They blamed him for all their misfortunes. The scripture says that David was "greatly distressed", meaning that he was under heavy mental and physical strain not only for his personal loss but also for the people for whom he sacrificed so much. The same people that were, in better times, a great source of encouragement had turned against him. In the midst of that seemingly hopeless situation the Bible says, "but David encouraged himself in the Lord his God." In that dark hour of his life David laid hold of his God, fastened himself in Him, leaned totally on His might and fortified himself in Him and was able through Him to recover everything and more that the adversary had stolen from him and his men.

What am I trying to tell you? There is One from whom we can always draw strength and encouragement when there is no one around us to cheer us up. Let all of us be encouraged in His faithfulness, His love, His mercy and compassion, His longsuffering and all the attributes of His glory and we will never fail to overcome the most adverse of circumstances. In Proverbs 18:10 we read, "The name of the Lord is a strong tower: the righteous runneth into it, and is safe." If we have to run somewhere from our distresses let us always run toward Him and not away from Him. His name is JESUS!

Victor