"And David ... was sore afraid of Achish the king of Gath. And he changed his behaviour before them, and feigned himself mad in their hands, and scrabbled on the doors of the gate, and let his spittle fall down upon his beard. Then said Achish unto his servants, Lo, ye see the man is mad..."
1 Sam. 21:12-14)
The above account is about David fleeing Saul, running for his life. As you can see the brief narrative is self-explanatory. That is, you need not dig deeper than the surface to get the nugget. Many profound truths in life lie on the exterior.
In our story, it is clear as crystal: fear brought about a radical change in David's behavior. David's living, as all Bible saints’, didn't always come up to his preaching. But he, like they, didn't bring his preaching down to his living!
Fear and its kin is found dozens of times in David's writings, as found in the book of Psalms. When fear is present in our lives we can appear to those around us to be, "out of sorts," as they say in Ireland. We can do some crazy things during fearful times.
Hebrew speaks of those who feared all their lifetime. Some of us are more susceptible to this paralyzing plaque than others, although all encounter it at times, but not to the same degree. Some fear without a cause, "There were they in great fear, where no fear was..."
"'What time I am afraid, I will trust in thee.' Trust is not the absence of fear; trust trumps it!"
(rds)
By An Old Disciple
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