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  (2 SAMUEL) FREE FROM BITTERNESS
  by David Guzik
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Summary: David Guzik's sermon explores how David's response to Saul's
death exemplifies freedom from bitterness and the importance of
forgiveness.

Duration: 34:11 Topics: "Overcoming Bitterness", "Spiritual Freedom"

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DESCRIPTION
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In this sermon, the speaker discusses the story of David and the message
he receives from a messenger in the city of Ziklag. The speaker
emphasizes that the characters in the Bible are real people and that God
has something to teach us through their lives. The speaker highlights
the importance of applying spiritual principles to real-life situations,
using the example of letting go of bitterness and resentment. The sermon
concludes with a prayer for God to speak to the hearts of the listeners.

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CONTENT
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The book of Second Samuel, you'll notice that it's a book marked by
three great themes. The beginning of it is the great theme of David's
triumph. The middle of it is the great theme of David's tragedy.

And then the end part is the great theme of David's trouble. It's about
this great man of God, King David. And you're going to see this morning
just what a great man of God he was.

Let's begin with it now. Second Samuel, chapter one, beginning at verse
one. Now it came to pass after the death of Saul, when David had
returned from the slaughter of the Amalekites and David had stayed two
days in Ziklag.

Then on the third day, behold, it happened that a man came from Saul's
camp with his clothes torn and dust on his head. So it was that when he
came to David, that he fell to the ground and prostrated himself. And
David said to him, where have you come from? And so I said to him, I
have escaped from the camp of Israel.

David was in Ziklag. We're talking here about a real person coming from
a real place at a real time in history. Just already we had mentioned
here in these verses, you have David, you have his men, you have a real
place.

You have an Amalekite messenger coming to David. I just want to stress
with you, we're not talking about Goldilocks and the three bears. You
know, this isn't Hansel and Gretel.

These are real people. And God has something to say to our lives through
these real people. You might say that what we're going to find as we go
through Second Samuel together is a lot of case studies.

God likes using case studies. They're very effective for our learning.
Right.

I could tell you a lot about a principle of the Christian life, and it's
good. And oftentimes we can grab a hold of principles. But when we see
it worked out in somebody's life, when we see how they took that
spiritual principle and applied it to something real in their life,
that's a very powerful thing that happens in us, isn't it? I've heard it
said that the Harvard Business School only uses case studies as its
curriculum and instruction.

That's what they spend all their time on, talking about what happened in
this business and what happened in this corporate structure. Well, God
likes using case studies in our life. You're going to find a lot of
them.

King David is a great example for us right here. First of all, he
started out in a difficult place in Ziklag. You say, well, where's
Ziklag? It's not in Israel.

It's in the land of the Philistines. So I thought David was an
Israelite. What's he doing in the land of the Philistines? Because David
is just coming out of a time of spiritual decline in his life.

You know, the story of David may be in brief outline, you know, the
whole David and Goliath thing. Well, after David killed that giant
Goliath, he became instantly famous. Literally hit songs were written
about him and they went all throughout Israel.

You couldn't walk anywhere without hearing people sing that hit song.
Saul has slain his thousands and David, his ten thousands. I know it
doesn't sound too catchy to us.

It must have had a great beat or something because it was popular back
then. And as it went all throughout the land, David became very famous
and his boss, King Saul, became very jealous of David. And Saul, in the
twisted envy of his mind, convinced himself that David, who was actually
a great and loyal friend to Saul.

Saul's twisted, insane jealousy took David's loyalty and somehow he told
himself that it was animosity. And Saul began to regard David as a great
enemy, and he decided, well, David's going to kill me one day, so I need
to take the strike first and kill him first. And Saul sent out on an
extended campaign to murder David.

He took away David's family. He took away David's career. He took away
David's livelihood.

He took away David's security. He took away everything that he could
take away from David, except his life, because God wouldn't let him take
away David's life. And after 10 or 15 years of that, David got pretty
discouraged.

And one day he said, there's nothing better for me than to just go up
and live among the Philistines. I guess there's no future for me here in
Israel. And so David moved to a city named Ziklag and lived there with
the three or four hundred men who followed him there in Ziklag.

And as David hung out with the Philistines, he began to think more like
a Philistine and act more like a Philistine. Till the day came when the
Philistines were going to go in a significant battle against the
Israelites. And David said, well, I'll battle with the Philistines
against the Israelites.

Can you imagine that? You know, the Bible tells us that we should not be
deceived that bad company corrupts good morals. Your mother told you
that, didn't she? This is Mother's Day. Let's remind ourselves of some
of the things mom would remind us of.

She would tell you bad company corrupts good morals. It happened to
David, the man who is after God's own heart. You don't think it'll
happen to you or I? Well, God was merciful to David and he put it on the
hearts of the Philistines to reject him.

Oh, it hurts when the bad company rejects us, doesn't it? But sometimes
that's the sweetest gift God can give us. And that's what happened to
David, the Philistines rejected him and he came back to his city,
Ziklag, dejected after offering him and his men as an army on behalf of
the Philistines. He comes back to Ziklag and finds that the Amalekites
had come and taken everything that he had and every one that he loved
from that city.

They had plundered it and carried everything and everybody away captive.
And David broke down before God. It was the kind of thing that he needed
to break himself before God.

And he wept and he cried. And the Bible says it's a beautiful verse in
First Samuel. It says, and David strengthened himself and the Lord, his
God.

And it turned it around. He won a great victory over the Amalekites, and
now he is back here in Ziklag, sort of rebuilding, wondering where the
Lord has for him next. But it's on his mind.

The Philistines were going to go to war against the Israelites. David
would pace back and forth. I wonder what's happening in this battle
between the Israelites and the Philistines.

What's happening? Who won the battle? What happened to Saul? What
happened to my good friend Jonathan? And then finally, a messenger is
coming. They can see the dust coming from down the road, the dust that
the messenger is kicking up. And he's trotting.

He's going many, many miles. And so he's keeping a gate that he can
sustain over many miles. And he comes into the city of Ziklag and he
asks, where's David? I've got a message for David.

And David looks at him. And David's a compassionate man. He probably
first said, bringing something to drink, get the man off his feet.

Let him rest for a moment. But as soon as the man is able to, David
says, tell me what's your message? That's where we pick it up in verse
four. It says that then David said to him, how did the matter go? Please
tell me.

And he answered. And here's the news. The people have fled from the
battle.

Many of the people are fallen and dead. And Saul and Jonathan, his son,
are dead also. David, the battle was a calamity.

Israel's defeated. David, the king of Israel is dead on the field of
battle. The crown prince of Israel, the man next in line for the throne.

He's dead on the field of battle. The armies are routed. They're in full
retreat.

David, his heart's beating faster now. Verse five. So David said to the
young man who told him, how do you know that Saul and Jonathan, his son,
are dead? The young man who told him said, as I happened by chance to be
on Mount Gilboa, there was Saul leaning on his spear.

And indeed, the chariots and horsemen followed hard after him. Now, when
he looked behind him, he saw me and he called to me and I answered, here
I am. And he said to me, who are you? And so I answered him, I'm an
Amalekite.

And he said to me again, please stand over me and kill me for anguish
has come upon me. But my life still remains in me. So I stood over him
and killed him because I was sure that he could not live after he had
fallen.

And I took the crown that was on his head and the bracelet that was on
his arm. And I brought them here to my Lord. Now, there's some things
that we can gather from comparing scripture with scripture.

And by taking a close look at first Samuel, chapter thirty one. And at
the whole character of this situation in chapter one, it leads me to a
conclusion. This Amalekite was probably lying.

He's not telling the truth. Now, he is telling the truth that Saul and
Jonathan were dead. He is telling the truth that Israel was routed on
the field of battle.

He is telling the truth that he really did have the crown of Saul and
the bracelet of Saul. He's not telling the truth when he said that he
delivered the final blow to Saul. That's not true because first Samuel
chapter thirty one tells us that Saul killed himself after being wounded
on the field of battle.

And after being afraid that the Philistines would come and torture him
and catching him alive, Saul said, I'm going to end my own life. I'm
wounded already. I'm not going to live through this.

So so instead of enduring the torture and the mocking, I'll kill myself.
Saul fell on his own sword. We say, well, how do you know that he, you
know, didn't die and maybe he stayed alive for a few hours.

And then the Amalekite came along. I know that because in first Samuel
thirty one, it says that the armor bearer of Saul, his assistant on the
field of battle, he saw that Saul was dead and then he killed himself.
So if he saw that Saul was dead, there was nothing for the Amalekites to
kill.

I think the Amalekites lying. Well, why would he lie? Because he thought
this would be good news to David. You see, again, Saul was David's
bitter enemy.

Saul was the man trying to kill David, who put pressure on David. And
David responded to that pressure by leaving the land of Israel, by
aligning himself with the Philistines. Everybody knew that Saul had it
out for David.

And when you hear that the guy who had it out for you is dead, how do
you feel? I'm going to Disneyland is how most people feel. I mean,
that's how you would have thought David would feel. The Amalekites
saying when I show David this crown, when I show David this bracelet,
which he undoubtedly took off the dead body of Saul.

And when I tell David that I delivered the death blow, that's going to
be like winning the lottery. David's going to reward me with riches. I'm
going to be David's new best friend because I finished off the man who
was his enemy.

Now, we'll come back to that in a moment, but I just want you to
consider something. That here is this Amalekite. Now, I don't believe
that the Amalekite actually killed Saul.

I believe that Saul was already dead. But there's something distasteful
about this Amalekite stripping the treasure off the dead body of the
king of Israel as he lies on the field of battle. And he was an
Amalekite.

I say, so what? Well, you know, some 15, 20, maybe it was even 25 years
earlier, God gave a command to King Saul that God wanted Israel to carry
out a unique war of judgment against the Amalekites and to wipe them out
completely. And Saul didn't do it. Oh, he dealt with some of them, but
he didn't do it completely.

Now, who is it stripping his dead body of the royal treasure? It's an
Amalekite. Doesn't that teach you something, friends? It teaches us that
our disobedience will come back to haunt us. If you don't deal with the
Amalekite when God tells you to deal with it, you'll find that Amalekite
later on robbing you, taking from you, thieving from you.

Your disobedience will come back to hurt you. Isn't that strange? The
first time that you committed that sin, you felt, oh, I feel terrible
about this. But, you know, lightning didn't come down from heaven and
kill you.

The whole world didn't fall apart when you when you resisted the Lord on
that matter. And so you figured, well, maybe God doesn't care all that
much. But friends, here's the point.

You know why God told you no on that thing? Because he loves you and he
knows that what you're doing is self-destructive. How many times have
you seen it? Your kids want to do something and boy, it's a lot of fun
for them, but it's just self-destructive. It's going to end in ruin for
them.

The kids who love candy, candy, candy, candy all the time, nothing but
candy, man, they could just eat at breakfast, lunch and dinner. Why
doesn't mom and dad love me and let me eat what I want to eat? And, you
know, they binge for a day on candy and nothing serious seems to happen.
It seems to be OK, but you know very well you continue in that and it's
going to have very, very bad effect on the same way.

That's sin that you're clinging on to. It hasn't wrecked your life yet,
but it's like that with Amalekites, isn't it? You don't deal with it
when God tells you to deal with it. And later on, it'll come and spoil
you.

That's what the Amalekite did to David, excuse me, did to Saul. Now,
let's look at how David reacted. We anticipated that the Amalekite
thought that David would be happy that Saul was dead.

Look at how he reacts in verse 11. And David took hold of his own
clothes and tore them. And so did all the men who were with him.

And they mourned and wept and fasted until evening for Saul and for
Jonathan, his son, for the people of the Lord and for the house of
Israel, because they had fallen by the sword. You know, we might have
expected that David would celebrate at the news of his great enemy. I
mean, after all, when we consider who Saul was to David, here's a man
who out of pure jealousy, hatred, spite and ungodliness, Saul took away
David's family, David's home, David's career, David's security.

I just thought about it this week, you know, probably the worst thing
that Saul took away from David was the years. David lived from the time
he was 20 to the time he was about 35 or 40. That's a pretty important
15 or so years in your life, isn't it? A lot of people would call those
the best years of your life.

Now that I'm kind of getting out of that range, I wonder about it. I
hope it's not the best years. But, you know, those can be some pretty
good years in your life, right? Saul took those years away from David.

And, you know, you can get back your career, you can get back your
family, you can get back your home, you can get back your security.
You're never going to get those years back. And David could have been so
embittered towards Saul for all that he stole from him, all that he took
from him.

But friends, the mere fact that David responds with sincere grief and
mourning when he hears of Saul's death, friends, that shows. It shows
that David was free from bitterness. David's reaction shows that he was
free from bitterness towards Saul.

That's no small accomplishment, friends. Saul gave David every reason to
be bitter. And might I add, on top of all of those reasons, when you
think about all that Saul took away from David, let me add one more
thing.

Saul was utterly unrepentant. Saul went to his grave thinking that he
was in the right against David. And with all of that, when David hears
that Saul is dead, he mourns, he rips his clothes, he puts dust upon his
head, he bows down in the dust before God.

Now, let me tell you something. This demonstrates something very
powerful to us. It shows us and I have to lay this right out on the
line, friends.

It shows us that our hatred, that our bitterness, that our unforgiveness
towards others, friends, it's chosen. You choose it. We don't want to
feel like that.

We want to feel like it's imposed upon us, like it's something that we
caught, like a disease or something. And, you know, you're not
responsible for catching the disease. You just caught it.

You're just there. You're a victim of your bitterness. You're a victim
of your own.

You're not. You've chosen it. I don't think that there's a single person
here in this room who has greater reason to feel bitter than David did
towards Saul.

Oh, not that you don't have your own experiences. You know, in your
career, there's the person who stabbed you in the back. They're trying
to climb over you in the corporate ladder.

And you know what? By every outward appearance, they've succeeded. They
lied to other people about you. They defamed your character.

They tried to undercut your projects. And all the time they've done it
with a false, silly smile on their face towards you. Oh, they wanted you
to think that they were your best friend, but they stabbed you in the
back.

I don't think they did to you what they did to David. Did they make you
a fugitive? Make you run all around the country and put wanted signs in
every community and wanted that there's a price on your head? Did they
hire assassins to go out and kill you? That's what Saul did to David. I
think David had great reason to feel bitter, but he didn't.

Because he chose not to. I guess I want us to be real about this, folks.
If you're bitter against somebody today, if you're harboring
unforgiveness towards somebody today, it's because you're choosing to.

At least come that far and be honest about it. Let's not pretend about
it anymore. Let's not act as if we really don't have a choice in the
matter and it's just been dumped upon us.

No, you're choosing to hold on to it. And I pray that before we're done
this morning, you'll choose to let go of it. Now, in any regard, it
wasn't just David.

It was all the men who were with him. Did you notice that? Verse 11.
Then David took hold of his own clothes and tore them.

And so did all the men who were with them. And they mourned and wept and
fasted until evening for Saul and for Jonathan, his son, and for the
people of the Lord and for the house of Israel, because they had fallen
by the sword. I want you to know there's not a mention of David thinking
about himself in all of this.

Now, I don't know about you, but this was life changing news to David.
He had been anointed to take the throne of Israel some 20 years before
that. And now it seemed like the royal anointing that he had received
some 20 years before was now going to be fulfilled.

The crown was going to be put on his head. He couldn't help but think
about himself. But he did.

He did help it. He was thinking about Israel, he was thinking about
Jonathan, he was thinking about Saul, he was thinking about their
family, he was thinking about the glory of God. You see the point here?
The point is simply this, that like Jesus, David was an others centered
person.

How often do you see it in your own life when something happens? The
first grid that you read it through is how does it affect me? I, me,
mine. What's it to me? Friends, that's a miserable way to live. You're
great people, you're wonderful folks, but you're not great enough to
make the center of your life.

Only God is, and then others beyond that. God first, others second, me
third, that's how it should be. So David had this great others centered
mentality.

And. Well, we see how seriously the Amalekite had misread David. I'm
sure when he saw David mourning and weeping and all of this, he's
starting to think, maybe I got this wrong.

Then maybe he's clinging to the hope. Oh, I get it. This is the public
business.

You know, David's a politician and he has to pander to the crowd. This
is the public business. But really, you know, back behind the tent,
David's going to pat me on the back and, you know, slip me a thick wad
of bills and say, oh, good job.

Amalekite, I'm glad you did it. No, not at all. Look at your verse 13.

Then David said to the young man who told him, where are you from? And
Amalekite said, yeah, well, this is great. Wants to know where I'm from.
Wants to know where to send the check.

Where are you from? And he answered, I'm the son of an alien. I'm an
Amalekite. So David said to him, how was it that you were not afraid to
put forth your hand to destroy the Lord's anointed? And hearing that,
the smile leaves the face of the Amalekite.

Maybe it flashed in his mind because I'm convinced that these stories
were well known throughout the kingdom. Maybe it flashed on his mind on
the many opportunities that David had to kill Saul and nobody would have
blamed him. It would have been self-defense.

Nobody could have convicted David in the court of law. You're just
defending yourself against a man who wanted to kill you. But David knew
something that we have to grab a hold of is that when God puts somebody
in authority, then let God bring them down.

It's up to you, Lord. Lord, you put the crown on his head. You're going
to have to take it off.

I'm not going to push the crown off his head. I'm not going to play king
of the hill. Lord, you put him up.

You bring him down. I'm not going to put my hand to it. And so he asked
the question, the Amalekite, how come you weren't afraid to put forth
your hand to destroy the Lord's anointed? And if the smile wasn't off
the face of the Amalekite yet, it is here in verse 15.

Then David called one of the young men and said, go near and execute
him. And he struck him so that he died. So David said to him, your blood
is on your own head for your own mouth and testified against you,
saying, I have killed the Lord's anointed.

There's a lesson there for us, isn't it? The Amalekite was probably
lying and promoting yourself through lies ends badly. You know what, if
he would have just come to David and said, I discovered Saul slain on
the field of battle and here's his crown and here's his bracelet, let me
tell you how the battle went. He probably would have been rewarded by
David, but he just had to throw in the lie, didn't he? The lie that he
had killed Saul and promoting yourself through lies ends badly.

It did for the Amalekite. It'll end badly for us as well. Well, let's go
on here.

Verse 17. Then David lamented with this lamentation over Saul and over
Jonathan, his son, and he told them to teach the children of Judah the
song of the bow. Indeed, as it is written in the book of Jasher, don't
go thrumming through your Bible looking for the book of Jasher.

You won't find it now. This upsets some people. They say, well, then
there's a book missing from my Bible.

There's a lost book of the Bible. I wonder what secret mysteries the
lost book of Jasher holds for us. Friends, it's a complete leap into
wrong thinking to say that just because the Bible mentions a book that
it must be inspired.

Yes, there was a book of Jasher, maybe it was a bestseller. But it was
an inspired scripture. Otherwise it would be contained in the great
writings from the old and the New Testament.

Anyway, verse 19. Here's the song. The beauty of Israel is slain on your
high places.

How the mighty have fallen. Tell it not in Gath, proclaim it not in the
streets of Ashkelon. Lest the daughters of the Philistines rejoice, lest
the daughters of the uncircumcised triumph.

Oh, mountains of Gilboa, let there be no dew, nor let there be rain on
you, nor fields of offerings for the shield of the mighty is cast away
there. The shield of Saul not anointed with oil from the blood of the
slain, from the fat of the mighty. The bow of Jonathan did not turn back
and the sword of Saul did not return empty.

Saul and Jonathan were beloved and pleasant in their lives and in their
death. They were not divided. They were swifter than eagles.

They were stronger than lions. Oh, daughters of Israel, weep over Saul,
who clothed you in scarlet with luxury, who put ornaments of gold on
your apparel. How the mighty have fallen in the midst of the battle.

Jonathan was slain on your high places. I'm distressed for you, my
brother, Jonathan. You've been very pleasant to me.

Your love to me was wonderful, surpassing the love of women. How the
mighty have fallen and the weapons of war have perished. Now, ask
yourself, is there a difference between that song of the bow? And ding
dong, the witch is dead.

Pretty big contrast, right? This is not a song of celebration that a
rival or an enemy has been vanquished by the way that David speaks about
Saul. You can tell something very powerful here. It shows that David
didn't kill Saul with a sword, but he also didn't kill him in his heart.

I don't know of anybody in this room suffering under a murder rap, but
if we could be tried and convicted for murder that we commit in our
heart, there wouldn't be enough jail cells to hold us all, would there?
But David didn't kill Saul in his heart. He kept a heart of love and
compassion towards him. Do you see all the good that he saw in Saul?
Isn't it amazing that David found the good to say about Saul? He saw
beauty in him.

He wanted no one to rejoice over the death of Saul. He wanted everyone
to mourn, even the mountains and fields. He praised Saul as a mighty
warrior.

He complimented the personality and the loyalty of Saul. He wanted
everybody to mourn that the fact that this man was dead. Not one word of
bitterness, not one word of he got what he deserved, even though it was
true, David found good to say about Saul, just like the Bible says we
should.

First Corinthians 13, 5 says, love thinks no evil. Funny, we find bad to
say about our friends and David could only find good to say about his
enemy. Striking.

Well, we look at this and. We would almost want to tell ourselves that
it's beyond us. This is one of those things that Bible characters have
to do, not us.

No, we do, too, don't we? So how did David do it? How did David stay
free from that bondage of bitterness that so easily infects our hearts?
I would suggest to you one thing, although I think there are probably
many reasons. But the main point I would touch on to conclude with this
morning is that David was free from bitterness because he really trusted
God. You see, when there's a soul in your life screwing up everything
for you.

It's very easy for you to think that your life is in their hands. That
they're in control. That whether or not you get the promotion is due to
the soul, that whether or not you succeed in this endeavor, whether or
not you're happy, whether or not you have this or don't have that, you
tend to think it's all in the hands of other people.

And when those other people stab you in the back or pull the rug out
from under you, you're bitter against them. But when you understand that
God is Lord overall. You say, Lord, you're bigger than this person,
you're bigger than the circumstance, and I believe your word when it
says that promotion comes neither from the East or the West, but from
the hand of God.

You understand that and you understand that even the evil or the trouble
that God allows in our life, he can work a glorious purpose through. So,
God, I'm in your hands, I'm not in the hands of the souls of this world.
You know, when you get that not just in the head, but work it down about
18 inches to the heart, suddenly you're just not so bitter against other
people.

You can pray for them, you can love them and friends, I know. I know
from my own life how how enslaving bitterness and unforgiveness can be,
but you know, from your life, too. This is one of those ones that's easy
to apply because every one of us deals with it.

It's just not that every one of us deals with it in the right way. So I
wonder, I wonder how much of the great free and full work of the Lord is
hindered in your life because you're clinging to bitterness, because
you're clinging to unforgiveness. And my simple question for you is, how
long are you going to hold on to it? How long are you going to take it
to your grave? Now, there's some satisfaction.

I took the bitterness all the way to my grave. What what kind of
accomplishment is that? You say, OK, well, I'm not going to take it to
the grave. All right, well, then when are you going to let go of it?
What, five years, I'll let go of it.

Well, that just sounds silly to say, doesn't it? If you can put it away
five years from now, why not put it away today? A woman came up to me
after first service and she had a wonderful testimony, she said how much
of what we talked about this morning really resonated with her own
heart, and she said just at the last women's retreat, God spoke to her
in a powerful way about these things, and she let the Lord just take
some bitterness and resentment away from her that she had been harboring
towards other people, and she said, life is so much different since
then. It's just a different day for her. What can be a different day for
you today? I think I've said all I can say about this.

You've seen all you can see in the life of David. Nothing more for me to
say. Now I just have to pray.

So, Father, won't you speak to hearts right now? That person, Lord, that
we swore we would never forgive. And honestly, Lord, maybe they don't
deserve our forgiveness. They're hard, they're unrepentant.

They don't deserve it, Lord. Lord, neither did we deserve your
forgiveness. So if we're going to receive your forgiveness when we don't
deserve it, Lord, I suppose that we should grant it to others when they
don't.

That's what your word tells us, God, and I. Lord, I pray that you would
speak to hearts and give hearts the courage to lay aside every
hindrance, every obstacle that's in the way of their deeper walk with
you. Help us all know, Lord, to know the freedom of a short account with
everybody in our life, not a big ledger filled with grievances that
they've done against us, but a short account, God. Do this work, Lord.

It has to be by an outpouring of your Holy Spirit, because, Lord, there
are hearts out here this morning that are so hard or so cold that, God,
it can only be by your spirit. I or anybody else can't talk them into
it, but your Holy Spirit can touch them. So do it, Lord.

We ask that you would do something great among us with this work. We
pray it in Jesus' name and all those who agree. Amen.

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Audio: https://sermonindex1.b-cdn.net/10/SID10692.mp3
Source: https://sermonindex.net/speakers/david-guzik/2-samuel-free-from-bitterness/
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