This Sunday, we continue our series preaching through the book of 1 Samuel.  We come to chapter 23.  In this chapter we have David, the anointed, future king of Israel, again in a very difficult place -running for his life from Saul.  This time he encounters some so-called “friends.”  Well, at least, they’re his countrymen, and the Ziphites are from his own home area!  First, he helps Keilah who is being robbed and pillaged by the Philistines at harvest time.  David does not want to get involved in this battle without permission from the Lord; which he gets twice as he and his men are concerned and fearful of the fallout.  Then second, David and his men hide in the wilderness of Ziph in the Judean area south of Jerusalem, west of the Dead Sea.  Both of these “friends,” countrymen give up David to Saul.  Telling on him or would be telling Saul (Keilah) where David is.  As a result, Saul closes in on David and his men and almost catches him.  But David is delivered by God using the Philistines as they attack Israel and Saul has to go back and fight them.  What is God teaching us here in this passage?  I think it’s important to see and understand the eventual enemies of David being more than just Saul, but people that should be helping David but instead turn around and go against him.  In this message I want to talk about the 3 ways David dealt with his enemies, as I call them.  Ways we can learn to work in dealing with our enemies. 

Our scripture reading this Sunday is from Psalm 54.  This passage is David calling out to God in prayer for deliverance from the Ziphites.  A beautiful passage that gives more clarity to the historical passage in 1 Samuel.