Vessels to hold God's blessings ㅡ Ps 59 ㅡ

The original Korean text: https://blog.naver.com/stevision/50103020792

 

>> ,,, 2 deliver me from those who work evil, and save me from bloodthirsty men. 3 For lo, they lie in wait for my life; fierce men band themselves against me. For no transgression or sin of mine, O Lord, .... Each evening they come back, howling like dogs and prowling about the city. .... 17 O my Strength, I will sing praises to thee, for thou, O God, art my fortress, the God who shows me steadfast love. (Ps 59) <<

 

Abraham was a large vessel holding God's blessings. One of the blessings he received is large land. God called Abraham out of his birthplace Ur of the Chaldeans and led him to the land of Canaan (Gen 11:31). God promised that he would give the land of Canaan to Abraham's descendants as everlasting possession (Gen 12:7), and he really kept his promise. The promise of God was fulfilled so naturally. God led Abraham's grandson Jacob and Jacob's 12 sons to live in Egypt, made their offsprings increase into a nation for hundreds of years, led them out of Egypt through the Exodus, and then helped them conquer Canaan and occupy the land. The land of Canaan was too large for Abraham, an individual, to possess, and Abraham as an individual was too small a vessel, so that God enlarged his vessel, that is, multiplied his descendants to millions of people, then he poured his blessings into the enlarged vessel.

 

Like this, there is 'a process of making the vessel bigger' between God's promise and its fulfillment. God forsook Saul who had betrayed him, and gave David the promise to make him king over Israel through prophet Samuel. Now God began to make David's vessel bigger. Abraham needed lots of descendants to conquer the land of Canaan so that he could occupy the land. Then, what is needed for David to be a king? It is the heart of the people of Israel. If you want to be a king, you must win the heart of the people. He who wins the people to himself becomes a king.

 

How could David, a shepherd in the village of Bethlehem, Judah, win the hearts of the people? God caused David to be a general of Saul's army, and gave him victory whenever he went to war. What was the result? David became a legendary figure among the soldiers of Israel. Every time he went to battle, God poured out wisdom and courage on David like a waterfall, and the soldiers of Israel were amazed at his achievements and became dumb. The Israelites were living in the fear of the threat of the surrounding gentiles at that time. The qualification of the king they needed was a competent military commander who could defeat the enemy one hundred times at one hundred wars. As time went on, the hearts of the soldiers and people began to incline to David rather than to Jonathan Saul's son, when they thought of the next king.

 

But David couldn't become a king at that stage. No matter how great David's victories were in war, and no matter how his direct subordinates and some people admired him, there were still many high mountains of difficulty before him in view of the political dynamics of the time. As a matter of fact, Saul also is a great person. After he became king, Israel could have a firm national organization against the Philistines; and he was a king who established a nation of Israel and gave Israelites secure habitats. And isn't it Saul's excellence that he chose an excellent warrior like David as a leader of his army and achieved numerous victories? And it was the tribe of Judah that David belonged to. The tribe of Judah was checked by other eleven tribes because it was a large tribe. It suggests much to us that king Saul was from the tribe of Benjamin, the weakest tribe in Israel. All the tribes of Israel could accept that a man from the tribe of Benjamin, the least tribe, became king. This means that, in the position of the other tribes, a man from the tribe of Judah, a major tribe, must not become king. And in fact, the most powerful tribe in Israel was the tribe of Ephraim. Maybe the head of Ephraim didn't give up utterly the dream to be the leader of all Israel, though not revealing it ostensibly. I mean that there must have been a counterbalance to the tribe of Judah in Israel at that time.

 

Some people have the naive idea that David will automatically become king as soon as Saul dies. But it's absolutely impossible! You know the tip of an iceberg. The political power that is ruling Israel now is not Saul alone, an individual, but Saul's house, military leaders, and the political group around Saul. Even if the tip of the iceberg(, that is, Saul,) was removed, one of the persons close to Saul would be chosen as king. Saul came into a cave for a pee when David hid himself there. David could kill Saul then, but he didn't, which is a really wise decision. If he had killed Saul in the cave, Saul would have screamed. Then David would become like a rat in a trap, and would have to die in the cave without escaping from there. If Saul couldn't scream, his soldiers would think it strange that Saul didn't come out, and they would come into the cave and find Saul killed. Then an emergency would be declared, and David would be found and killed without getting out of the cave. Then the throne would go either to Jonathan, Saul's son, or to Abner, the commander of Saul's army. Even if David could kill Saul and get out of the cave, it is absolutely impossible for him to be king immediately, because the political power around Saul and the army of Israel would never make David who killed Saul the king of Israel even when Saul died. David's vessel was still too small for him to be a king. It was not yet the time.

 

In the political dynamics of the tribes of Israel, and because of Israel's monarchy, David, a man from the tribe of Judah, could never take the throne as long as he was Saul's servant. When the capacity of the vessel of David as Saul's servant had reached its limit when David had distinguished himself on the field of battle as Saul's subordinate, God sent an evil spirit to Saul and made him David's enemy. This means that God launched an operation to make David independent of Saul and to break the vessel of Saul who had betrayed God. God caused Israelites' estimation on Saul to be changed from 'a king who guards Israel' to 'a mad king bulling his loyal servant David'. Saul, controlled by an evil spirit, did all sorts of disgusting deeds to David in the sight of his family, his servants, and soldiers. Today's Psalm 59 is a psalm written by David when Saul sent men to David, his son-in-law, to kill him when he had fled to Saul's daughter Michal. Saul's daughter Michal managed to save David by her wisdom. Saul went mad to kill David, but God even protected David through Jonathan, Saul's son, and Michal, Saul's daughter. God got politicians, religioners, and soldiers of Israel to see all this process and to think that Saul was an immoral mad king. This means that Saul's vessel was being broken. On the contrary, David's political vessel was growing bigger while Saul was playing the villain. As a rule, the more a president (a king) persecutes someone, the more the persecuted person is magnified in the nation, so that he becomes a prominent politician automatically. So we can understand that all Saul's nasty madness was an indispensable tool to make David's vessel larger. If there is a ruling party in a country, there is necessarily an opposition party, a dissatisfied group of the people. There was bound to be an opposition party in Israel no matter how capable Saul was. It's time for Israel's opposition leader to emerge. Naturally there could be an established privileged group and a disadvantaged group in Israel while Saul was ruling; and all the dissatisfied classes and groups became David's political supporters. By the way, in fact, those who have been enjoying the privilege with Saul are frequently seized with fear these days. 'Who knows if that crazy Saul will throw his spear at me? Won't Saul, who even seeks to kill his faithful servant like David at all costs, kill me also? Oh, what an unbelievable man!'

 

According to the Bible, some people dissatisfied with Saul's regime came to David one by one and became his subordinates when David fled from Saul to wilderness and moved from one cave to another in the wilderness. At last David became the leader of a political power opposing Saul! Now God begins to destroy the whole iceberg, the top of which was Saul. God strengthened the Philistines. Saul and his army gradually lost power. Eventually, the Philistines and Israel went on a full-scale war, and Israel was defeated completely. Decisively Saul and his eldest son Jonathan were killed, and many Israel's soldiers scattered and returned home. At this very moment, Judah, or David's tribe, made him king of the tribe, which was absolutely impossible when Saul and his supporters were powerful, which was possible when Saul and his son died and the army of Israel was almost disbanded.

 

After that, God gave continual victories to David in the war between David and Saul's son Ishbosheth who succeeded his father. And the bones of Saul's house were conclusively broken when Joab killed Ishbosheth's commander Abner in an unsportsmanly way. Then other eleven tribes of Israel went to David and made him their king. He became the king of the whole Israel. There was no alternative but David for them. In this way, David's vessel to hold the blessings of God was completed.

 

My brethren, are you under persistent attack from the wicked? David suffered much indeed from Saul. However, Saul's persecution was a process of breaking his own vessel of blessing while David's suffering was a process of enlarging his own vessel of blessing. God used Saul's children and even the Philistines, the neighboring country, to break Saul's vessel and to enlarge David's vessel. There are many people who are like David. You can be persecuted by your boss at work. But the truth is, the boss is breaking his vessel while you who are bullied by him are enlarging your vessel now.

 

Above all, we must not break our vessel of blessings. The biggest factor that breaks one's own vessel is to betray God and man. It is, very interestingly, Solomon, son of David, who betrayed God like Saul, and who lost most of the land of his kingdom when his son became king. Saul betrayed God to win the heart of the Israelites while Solomon betrayed God to win the heart of the neighboring countries so that he might secure peace with them. Solomon engaged himself in international marriages with heathen countries, that is, in marriage diplomacy. At that time, daughters of heathen kings brought their gods into Israel. As God began to break Saul's vessel during his reign because he betrayed God, so that his kingdom was taken by another man (David) during his son's reign, so God began to break Solomon's vessel during his reign because he betrayed God, and at last gave most part of Solomon's kingdom to another man during his son's reign. "Awake to punish all the nations; spare none of those who treacherously plot evil (v. 5). But thou, O Lord, dost laugh at them; thou dost hold all the nations in derision (v. 8). Make them totter by thy power, and bring them down, O Lord, our shield (v. 11)!"

 

In addition, we must become a good vessel in the sight of God. A vessel suitable in God's house is a clean vessel. Can holy blessings of God be held in a dirty vessel? "No transgression or sin of mine, O Lord, no fault of mine. (v. 3)" And a vessel suitable in the sight of God is a heart that loves and trusts God. "I will sing of thy might; I will sing aloud of thy steadfast love in the morning. For thou hast been to me a fortress and a refuge in the day of my distress. (v. 16)"

 

When we take a view of all that happened to David, quite naturally David did not complain to God but sang praises to God when he was extremely persecuted by Saul. Come to think of it, people of large vessel give thanks to God in everything and sing praises to God every day. Those who give thanks and praises to God will possess the world.

 

I pray to God that your vessel of blessing may grow bigger day by day.

 

Chong Tack Kim

                     - Dongtoma Sunshine Church -