Tough No.8 Disappointment - David

Our worship isn't forced, we're very glad to bring it to our God, to our Lord Jesus Christ who means so much to us and we salute him and lift our hands to him whether we do that physically or just in our spirits so to speak, but we do lift our beings to him. All hail the Lamb enthroned on high, his praise shall be our battle cry. We'll sing this through a couple of times.

Second Samuel chapter six, I was looking for the ark and I couldn't find it but here we are. The story of David and the bringing of the ark of God into Jerusalem, one of the most momentous acts in the whole of the Old Testament. David again brought together out of Israel chosen men 30,000 in all.

He and all his men set out from Baalar of Judah to bring up from there the ark of God which is called by the name, the name of the Lord Almighty who has enthroned between the cherubim that are on the ark. They set the ark of God on a new cart and brought it from the house of Abinadab which was on the hill. Uzzah and Ahio, sons of Abinadab were guiding the new cart with the ark of God on it and Ahio was walking in front of it.

David and the whole house of Israel were celebrating with all their might before the Lord with songs, with harps, lyres, tambourines, cisterns and cymbals. When they came to the threshing floor of Nacon, Uzzah reached out and took hold of the ark of God because the oxen stumbled. The Lord's anger burnt against Uzzah because of his irreverent act.

Therefore God struck him down and he died there beside the ark of God. Then David was angry because the Lord's wrath had broken out against Uzzah and to this day that place is called Peraz Uzzah. David was afraid of the Lord that day and said, how can the ark of the Lord ever come to me? He was not willing to take the ark of the Lord to be with him in the city of David, that is Jerusalem.

Instead he took it aside to the house of Oved Edom the Gittite. The ark of the Lord remained in the house of Oved Edom the Gittite for three months and the Lord blessed him and his entire household. Now King David was told the Lord has blessed the household of Oved Edom and everything he has because of the ark of God.

So David went down and brought up the ark of God from the house of Oved Edom to the city of David with rejoicing. When those who were carrying the ark of the Lord had taken six steps he sacrificed a bull and a fattened calf. David wearing a linen ephod danced before the Lord with all his might while he and the entire house of Israel brought up the ark of the Lord with shouts and the sound of trumpets.

As the ark of the Lord was entering the city of David Michael daughter of Saul, David's wife, watched him from a window and when she saw King David leaping and dancing before the Lord she despised him in her heart. They brought the ark of the Lord and set it in its place inside the tent that David had pitched for it and David sacrificed burnt offerings and fellowship offerings before the Lord. After he had finished sacrificing the burnt offerings and fellowship offerings he blessed the people in the name of the Lord Almighty.

Then he gave a loaf of bread, a cake of dates and a cake of raisins to each person in the whole crowd of Israelites, both men and women and all the people went to their homes. Well that's a very jubilant description or a description of a very jubilant event in the history of Israel. What do you do seriously when you're going through great disappointment? Well as I say that's a subject matter that confronts us this evening.

How many of you over Christmas saw the film Raiders of the Lost Ark? Well I won't ask for a show of hands, I had it videoed, watched it and then wished I hadn't bothered. The film actually was referring to the ark of the covenant and the ark of the covenant is something that features very much in this particular passage of scripture that Tim especially wanted our thoughts this evening to be pivoted around because it's the failure of David to bring the ark of the covenant into Jerusalem that caused him to plunge into disappointment when actually his spirits had been extremely high. Now before we go any further we've got to decide what the ark of the covenant was about.

What does it mean? Well the ark of the covenant and those of you who saw the picture at least got this bit most of it was fantasizing from Hollywood whoever made the film but most of you would have got this picture at least in your mind that there was in the use of the ark of the possibility of God manifesting His presence to the Jewish nation. Way back in the beginning of the Old Testament times God gave specific instructions to Moses to create a sort of portable temple and in the center of that temple was to be placed the ark. On either side of the ark were golden cherubim and in the center between the cherubim God's presence was said to be located and there once a year a man would go into the holiest place of all the high priest and there he would speak to the Lord on behalf of the people and the people would speak to the Lord would speak to him so that he could relay his message the divine message to the people.

Let's listen to Alison read to us from Exodus which tells us a little about the ark of the covenant. Have them make a chest of acacia wood two and a half cubits long a cubit and a half wide and a cubit and a half high overlay it with pure gold both inside and out and make a gold molding around it cast four rings for it and fasten them to its four feet with two rings on one side and two rings on the other then make poles of the case you would and overlay them with gold insert the poles into the rings on the side of the chest to carry it the poles are to remain in the rings of this ark they are not to be removed then put in the ark the testimony which I will give you make an attainment cover of pure gold two and a half cubits long and a cubit and a half wide and make two cherubim out of hammered gold at the ends of the cover make one cherub on one end and the second cherub on the other make the cherubim of one piece with the cover at the two ends the cherubim must have their wings spread upwards overshadowing the cover with them the cherubim are to face each other looking towards the cover place each cover on the top of the ark and put in the ark the testimony which I will give you there above the cover between the two cherubim that are over the ark of the testimony I will meet with you and give you all my commands for the Israelite did you hear that last bit there I will meet with you God was going to promise indeed he did make a promise that if the Israelites wanted to know his will clearly then their representative once a year would go and stand in front of the ark and his purposes for Israel would be made known now unfortunately the ark of the covenant was actually captured that very holy piece of furniture it was captured by the philistines and the philistines found much to their displeasure that when they looked after the ark of the covenant it could well be that taking what was such a such a sacred symbol could bring great problems when David became the king of Israel he was enabled by God to find the ark again the ark which had been neglected for such a long time and and it was his great privilege to plan to bring the ark of the covenant back to Jerusalem and that's what you read about in the second verse and onwards of the sixth chapter of second Samuel he and all his men set out from Bala of Judah to bring up from there the ark of God which is called by the name the name of the Lord Almighty who is enthroned between the cherubim that are on the ark it was a great day one of the best days in the whole history of Israel since they were released from their captivity in Egypt David had made great preparation there were many people thronging the streets of Jerusalem waiting for the return of the ark what had been out of order for five decades for 50 years was going to be re-established and the people of God the Jews were to find or hopefully find that as the ark was brought to Jerusalem so it would usher in the great presence of God would usher in tremendous blessings for the Jewish people and then something awful happened in the midst of David's elation he was plunged into great despondency for you read that as they took the ark from the land of the Philistines and put it on a cart it started to shake at one point and someone by the name of Uzzah reached out touched the ark which he should never have done and he was struck dead and the whole of the atmosphere changed and David became extremely angry now David's concern had been to find a house for the ark of God to have it safely returned or safely put to Jerusalem for the first time that was his great objective in his life and now it seems to be utterly frustrated and David is angry with the Lord and you read in verse eight then David was angry because the Lord's wrath had broken out against Uzzah and verse nine David was afraid of the Lord that day and said how can the ark of the Lord ever come to me? Tremendous disappointment that gripped the soul of David he didn't understand what had happened as Abraham joined the ranks of the disappointed because he couldn't understand why God had promised to bless him and his descendants and yet he hadn't had a child and he was well over middle age like Jonah was disappointed because well God had told him to do a certain thing in Nineveh and he told him that as a result of the sinfulness of the people Nineveh would be destroyed the citizens weren't destroyed and Jonah felt disappointed with God something happened that he didn't really comprehend God didn't pour out his anger upon the people and Jonah thought that he was an idiot this man David he joins the ranks of of disciples who followed the Lord Jesus a great mass of them you read of them in John's gospel in chapter five Jesus had had fed a great crowd of people and then he started to teach how difficult it was to be a member of his kingdom and you read that all the multitude started to melt away they couldn't be seen anymore why well because they were disappointed what Jesus had said seemed to suggest that life might be very tough in the future and that's not what they expected and so they melted into the distance and Jesus turned around to his disciples and said will you also go away are you among the ranks of the disappointed you see I give you that little historical excursion of the old testament and into the new to nail this very difficult incident that we've been reading of in 2nd Samuel 6 whatever you understand or you don't understand this is surely quite clear in your mind David is mad at God he believed that what he was doing was right he engaged in the impulse and the enthusiasm of the moment and somebody reached out and touched what they shouldn't have and was immediately killed and the whole atmosphere changed and David is disappointed let's try to examine first of all what it was that David did that was wrong that therefore contributed to his disappointment and the first thing that I brought to you draw to your attention is this he was aiming at the right goal but he was using the wrong means he wanted the worship of God to be installed in Jerusalem and there was nothing amiss with that at all where he went wrong was this he was prepared to put God's ark on a cart which was against the teaching of scripture and somebody in a foolish moment tried to get God out of a problem as they stretched out their hand and steadied the ark David had a right goal but he used the wrong means do you sometimes have a right goal in your Christian life but the means that you are using destroys the possibility of realizing your goal is your goal to establish yourself in this world so that your family is well looked after and is the means that you employ to do that so taking up all the time that you have that you've known to offer in the service of the Lord and you cut back on your devotional time you cut back on your giving to the Lord in effect you're in the same situation as was David there's nothing the matter with the goal but there's lots that is wrong with the means there's something else that was amiss I think as far as David was concerned and contributed to him feeling very angry before the Lord very disappointed let's see what that was a failing to realize God keeps his promises and also his threats did you hear that God keeps his promises and also his threats you remember that mysterious ark that was made in Moses's day and the thought that God would manifest himself there so it became and at least the film got this right it became the most sacred spot in the whole of the world well there was a specific instruction given about how to handle the ark of the covenant listen to the threat listen to the regulations God gives in numbers and chapter four this is the work of the koatites in the tent of meeting the care of the most holy things after Aaron and his sons have finished covering the holy furnishings and all the holy articles and when the camp is ready to move the koathites are succumbed to do the carrying but they must not touch the holy things or they will die the koathites are to carry those things that are in the tent of meeting the Lord said to Moses and Aaron see that the koathite tribal clans are not cut off from the levites so that they may live and not die when they come near the most holy things do this for them Aaron and his sons are to go into the sanctuary to assign each man his work and what he is to carry but the koathites must not go in to look at the holy things even for a moment or they will die they were not to go in and look at the holy things even for a moment or they would die these were the special people who were called by God to transport the ark of the covenant there was only one group of people who had this particular privilege now do you get my point the blessings of God are kept by the Lord in terms of his promises so also are his threats if you were to read about the further instructions in regard to the ark of the covenant you would discover that it was never to be put on the cart at all ah but somebody might argue that the the philistines did that and nothing happened to them well why if God allowed it for the philistines wouldn't he like for the hebrews you remember how Jesus said on one occasion it will be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah on the day of judgment than for Israel God will suffer from the world what he will not take from his own people when the Lord Jesus says he who believes on me shall be saved that was right but he says that he who does not believe on me shall be condemned you see my point failing to realize God keeps his promises and his threats if you don't believe on the Lord Jesus then condemnation will be yours as is illustrated by the fact that God said if you touch the ark of the covenant over against my express instructions then divine vengeance divine judgment will fall the third reason that contributed to David's disappointment is that performing enthusiastically one duty he was neglecting abysmally another he really was having a good time praising the Lord wasn't he he got all the people together on this occasion and they were laughing and they were dancing and singing and they got their tambourines the whole of the hebrew philharmonic orchestra was it was in good metal in good sound there was nothing amiss with that but he had forgotten to look into the word of God and to balance his praise by his obedience are you strong on certain areas of the service of God but weak on others strong on praise weak on prayer prepared to pray your instruments are you still prepared to evangelize is there a total balance because unless you have a balance then the possibility is that you too might be plunged into depression into disappointment as was David David was displeased with God David was angry David was afraid of the Lord do you not remember how one occasion the disciples came to our Lord Jesus he was asleep on the boat and they said carest thou not that we perish our Lord Jesus in a very wonderful sense represents the ark of the covenant because Jesus is God speaking to the world as God spoke to the world and at least spoke to the Israelites in days gone by in the old testament era and here were the disciples in effect trying to touch if you like the Lord Jesus and saying hey don't you realize don't you realize that that things are going wrong you need us just to wake you up because otherwise well we'll all drown you as well touching the ark as though God needs their help you adjusting scripture as though God really needs you to balance up his teaching God does not always ask for you to understand what he does ask is for you to obey and when you fail to obey then you find yourselves in circumstances equivalent to that of David they may be different in degree but it's the same in principle all these factors I suggest contributed to David's disappointment he aimed at the right goal but he used the wrong means he failed to realize God keeps his promises and his threats he performed enthusiastically one duty but he neglected abysmally another I said to Ann Cotton I want you to talk I want you to sing either before or after I finish preaching on disappointments and she said to me when she called me on Friday on or on Saturday I can't really find anything that blends in with the theme of disappointments so what I've decided to do is to turn it around and to speak on how from disappointments you move into blessing and that's given me the key point to conclude my address and to show you how the disappointments of David and how your disappointments can be changed round so let's start to have a look at my second slide turn around how do you when you've found yourself making a mess as David made a mess at this particular juncture when you feel plunged into a state of disappointment when you're mad at God when you're under his anger how do you keep your own anger down that's Matthew Henry's phrase and it's an important one how do you keep your anger down when you're under the anger of God you see unless you can handle and answer that question then you'll always be disappointed when things have gone wrong in your life so my suggestions are basically these and they're simply enough I draw them from this passage but I'm trying not to get too involved in the history case I lose some of you who are not so familiar with this complicated passage of scripture the first thing that you have to realize to turn your disappointments back so that they can become the threshold of your blessings humble yourself humble yourself you see David was really wrong he was wrong because well he'd made an error of judgment and what's more he was crediting God as being responsible for his disappointment whereas the fact of the matter was this it was David's cross negligence that was the reason why he's in the condition that he's in and the hardest thing for you and for me to do is to get over the obstacle of pride and say Lord it's me that's in the wrong listen to something about pride pride sees the wrongs of others but never identifies with others in weakness it never says yes I've done that too or I understand if it was not for God's grace I would have done that also pride does not admit wrong or personal responsibility or if it does it excuses it and explains it away to the point where there is no sorry for the wrong done pride is occupied with blaming others with criticizing and pointing out why others are wrong pride produces hardness arrogance self-sufficiency self-sufficiency and independence pride is more interested in being right in the eyes of others than being good in the eyes of God pride is more concerned with winning arguments than with keeping friends pride never says the words I am wrong it is my fault will you forgive me pride makes us feel that we are more spiritual or closer to God than others it results in our feeling justified in thinking that we are too good to be identified publicly with certain groups or individuals pride produces a demanding spirit it focuses on what has not been done for us rather than what has been done for us it covets the past or the future but is never satisfied with the present pride causes us to judge situations by what they mean to us and not to God pride cannot see God's perspective in a person's life or a group pride results in a negative judgmental and critical attitude slander and backbiting pride gossips tears down ruins reputations and delights in spreading news of failure and sin pride blames God and others when things go wrong did you get that last pride pride blames God and others when things go wrong if you were to work your way through another passage of scripture that covers this incident it's in the 15th chapter of first chronicles you will discover that David gives himself to a period of reflection he's now got the right men in front of him to carry the ark and the 13th verse of one chronicles and the chapter 15 says it was because you the Levites did not bring it up the first time that the Lord our God broke out in anger against us we did not inquire of him about how to do it in the prescribed way David humbled himself and he asked have I been disobedient and he came to the conclusion that he had the third thing was that David was prepared to put it right not any old Tom Dick or Ruben could touch the ark of the covenant God had set his own standards God had given his own directions you might not like them you might not even approve of them but you can't change them because that what is what God has decreed when Naaman was offended by God and said that he didn't want to bathe in the river Jordan because the rivers that crisscross Syria were far superior he could have been told by God's prophet man you can dip yourself in those rivers a thousand times and a hundred times a thousand and you will never get up with your leprosy cleanse because God has said you are to immerse yourself in the Jordan there is only one way in which we can be saved and it is by turning to our Lord Jesus who is the the fulfillment of all that the ark of the covenant actually was projecting there is only one way that you can be saved and that is by confessing him as your Lord and Savior you need to humble yourself ask have you been obedient put it right and then attend to detail David was so concerned to get all the right people in for this second uh occasion when the ark is directed towards Jerusalem he applies God's instructions in minute detail Psalm 119 verse 45 says I will walk in liberty for I have sought thy precepts and so you discover that David finally was able to expect to find a greater joy that's precisely what we're told about in this chapter are we not when the second run is made when the second attempt is made to bring the ark of the into Jerusalem then everything is done properly there's an increase of joy there are sacrifices taken as David appreciates just the significance of what is happening and David in ecstasy verse 14 wearing a linen ephod danced before the Lord with all his might while he and the entire house of Israel brought up the ark of the Lord with shouts and the sound of trumpets you see the point David has worked himself through disappointment how did he do it by applying specifically the instructions of scripture by being humble by being prepared to confess that God's way is the right way only one fashion in which the ark could be handled only one salvation which God has set forth to this world you have to respond to what God says to do it my way is to plunge you into despair despondency perpetual disappointment but to handle it God's way is to release you from the things that otherwise would cause you such blackness of spirit let's bow our heads in prayer shall we loving father there are many of us here who in certain situations knew what we should have done but didn't you allowed things to happen we were angry and blamed you then we became terrified of you not in the respectful sense of fear but in the cringing sense of anger and disdain for our sins and this you did not want but right now we offer to you the disappointments which have been self-caused in our lives and we ask Lord that you will disentangle the knot we bring to you things that we don't understand which at this point of time we don't seem to be responsible for but nonetheless we're encased in them help us to trust you when we cannot trace you to hang on to what we know of you until the time comes when you allow the shafts of sunlight to beam in again and help us always to realize that you do communicate to us through our Lord Jesus through his written word help us to follow his instructions in the minutest detail and to confess him as Lord and Savior bless every baffled mind here this evening release every heartache and send us on our way believing that you good God have an interest in our lives for Jesus sake amen now well and come and underline the turnaround i cannot count your blessings lord they're wonderful i can't begin to measure your great love i cannot count the times you have forgiven me and changed me by your spirit from above how i worship you my father you are wonderful all how i glorify you jesus you're my lord how i praise you holy spirit you have changed my life and you're now at work in me to change the world when i was blind you opened up my eyes to see when i was dead you gave me life new when i was lost you found me and you rescued me and carried me rejoicing home with you i cannot count your mercies lord they're marvelous i cannot count the times you have answered me whenever i have prayed and sought your face how i worship you my father you are wonderful how i glorify you jesus you're my lord how i praise you holy spirit you have changed my life and you're not work in me to change the world whenever i consider what i am to you my heart is filled with wonder love and all oh i want to share with others that you love them too and tell the world of jesus more and more how i worship you my father you are wonderful all how i glorify you jesus you're my lord i praise you holy spirit you have changed my life and you're not work in me to change the world how i praise you holy spirit you have changed my life and you're not work in me to change the world may god bless us to the extent that our disappointments may be turned to his appointments and through them and our positive experiences of his grace we may influence our world let's go to hymns of faith number 54 concluding great hymn an old hymn great god of wonders all thy ways are matchless godlike and divine yet samuel davis is prepared to acknowledge that there are some strange things that happen in god's providence verse 3 oh may this strains this wondrous grace this matchless miracle of love fill the wide earth with grateful praise and all the angelic choirs above number 54 in hymns of faith and we'll conclude as we go naturally into the older version of the doxology praise god from whom all blessings flow