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Souls Knit Together (1 Samuel 18:1)

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  Monday, June 23, 2025 Psalms 124; 125; 126 1 Samuel 17:55-18:16 Acts 12:1-11 Souls Knit Together (1 Samuel 18:1) As soon as David had finished speaking to Saul, the soul of Jonathan was knit to the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul. There’s a gag floating around observing the fact the Jesus’ greatest miracle was having twelve close friends in his early thirties. But perhaps it is not as much of a gag as it sounds – close friendship is something reliable when we are children, but, like our backs, gets more difficult as we get older. C. S. Lewis’s famous work The Four Loves goes into far greater detail than I can about the different types of friendship, affection, and, yes, love. He draws on Classical definitions, and there are some great categories he comes up with. But while we can be as academic as we like about relationships, it still needs to actually be done in order to happen. The friendship between David and Jonathon i...
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That All The Earth May Know (1 Samuel 17:46-47)

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  Saturday, June 21, 2025 Psalms 121; 122; 123 1 Samuel 17:41-54 Acts 11:19-30 That All The Earth May Know (1 Samuel 17:46-47)   [David said to Goliath,] “This day the Lord will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you down and cut off your head. And I will give the dead bodies of the host of the Philistines this day to the birds of the air and to the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel, and that all this assembly may know that the Lord saves not with sword and spear. For the battle is the Lord 's, and he will give you into our hand.” Please bear with me; comparing these speeches of David alongside Homer’s in the Iliad just makes life more exciting. I wonder if it is a boy thing, to enjoy a jolly good taunt before a big fight scene. David isn’t the only one (nor is Homer) – Arnie had plenty, as did Aragorn and James Bond. When the good guy stands up to put down the baddie once and for all,...
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Untested Armour (1 Samuel 17:39)

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  Friday, June 20, 2025 Psalms 114; 115 1 Samuel 17:24-40 Acts 11:1-18 Untested Armour (1 Samuel 17:39) ...and David strapped his sword over his armour. And he tried in vain to go, for he had not tested them. Then David said to Saul, “I cannot go with these, for I have not tested them.” So David put them off. Reading about the exploits of David alongside Homer’s Iliad, it is exciting to get some wider context on ancient warfare. The ancient Greek waxes lyrical about gleaming bronze armour, martial prowess with spears, and terrifying sword-work. As champions boast at each other from either army on the shores of Troy, arrows fly out. Men bravely charge, blinding sunlight bouncing off polished bronze, spears are thrust through breastplates, swords chop through limbs, and men succumb to “the hateful darkness” of death. There is every reason to suspect that the experience of the Israelites and Philistines were no different. Yet when David comes onto the ...
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And David Heard Him (1 Samuel 17:23)

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  Thursday, June 19, 2025 Psalms 110; 111 1 Samuel 17:1-23 Acts 10:34-48 Observance: Thanksgiving for Holy Communion And David Heard Him (1 Samuel 17:23)   As he talked with them, behold, the champion, the Philistine of Gath, Goliath by name, came up out of the ranks of the Philistines and spoke the same words as before. And David heard him. Boyhood lasts far longer than it ought to. In the schoolyard, boys find trouble, word spreads from the students to the teachers, and then the headmaster walks up to the calls of “you’re in trouble now!” The same situation repeats itself again and again on the streets outside clubs at night – young men, or hairy boys, do silly things, the bobbies arrive, and the same phrase rings out, just this time with years of practise, “you’re in trouble now!” While we may feel this phrase is suitable for immature situations, there are also times in situations with more serious consequences when it comes to mind. S...
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If They Hear About This… (1 Samuel 16:2)

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  Wednesday, June 18, 2025 Psalm 107:1-22 1 Samuel 16 Acts 10:17-33 If They Hear About This… (1 Samuel 16:2) And Samuel said, “How can I go? If Saul hears it, he will kill me.” And the Lord said, “Take a heifer with you and say, ‘I have come to sacrifice to the Lord .’ Have you ever been unwillingly drawn into what you thought was a conspiracy? Our consciences can be unpleasant things, niggling at us, arguing with us. This is exactly where the prophet Samuel found himself. The Lord had told him to go and anoint a new king; yet Samuel was worried that a coup, no matter how divinely inspired, would be the end of him (and quite possibly justifiably so). In reply to his worries, the Lord gives him a cover story. Take the required sacrifice. Is God being sneaky here? Is Samuel to pretend he is going to offer a sacrifice, when in reality he is going to overthrow the king? Actually, the Lord re-frames the issue entirely. This is not a coup, rather ...
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Little In Our Own Eyes (1 Samuel 15:17)

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  Tuesday, June 17, 2025 Psalm 106:1-24 1 Samuel 15:17-35 Acts 10:1-16 Little In Our Own Eyes (1 Samuel 15:17) And Samuel said, “Though you are little in your own eyes, are you not the head of the tribes of Israel? The Lord anointed you king over Israel.” Humility is a great Christian characteristic. Our Lord has a humble heart, and he teaches us to follow him in this attitude. And so we should make sure to reflect on what makes humility, because there is so much opportunity to get it wrong. King Saul was accused by the prophet Samuel of a misguided humility. The king had, apparently, a poor sense of himself; we might call it something approaching low self-esteem. He was “little in his own eyes”. Here is our lesson in avoiding false humility. Saul’s false humility was not a veil covering pride underneath; his false humility expressed itself in a couple of other ways. First was the problem of low self-esteem. Saul saw himself as of not much con...
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Calling And Presenting (Acts 9:41)

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  Monday, June 16, 2025 Psalm 105:1-22 1 Samuel 14:52-15:16 Acts 9:32-43 Calling And Presenting (Acts 9:41) And Peter gave Dorcas his hand and raised her up. Then, calling the saints and widows, he presented her alive. There is a certain preaching technique that we all get taught about that I think every Christian should have on their mind. I am referring to the art of the illustration. A lot of our faith rests on either an internal and experiential knowledge of the reality of the triune God, or a big load of abstract theological systems, or a mix of both. While both are good, they are also difficult to communicate to others in a way that really gets to the root of what Christianity is all about in the day-to-day life of the believer. And so we have illustrations – it is like something out in the world that we all understand. Jesus was great at illustrations. We all remember his illustration of the preached word like seed falling on different type...
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