[Curious]

(With much respect for aron’s work on the psalms I hope he doesn’t mind me approaching them from a completely different, yet in my opinion, not at all contradictory, angle).

Looking at David as a young man, I’m going to borrow the analogy of Israel being a High School, King Saul the Principle, and David a star student who has outshone everyone, including the Principle, with some great achievement. He’s proven himself to be the most amazing student that ever could be, using ‘clever’, skill, and courage to achieve a great salvation for the school, saving it from bankruptcy. (A high-school related replacement to tackling Goliath).

Instead of being accepted, honoured, respected, for his great achievement, to his horror, the opposite happens. The principle of the school abandons his responsibilities as principle, and devotes all his energy to persecute his star pupil. It’s one thing to be bullied by the class bully, even the school bully, but the school PRINCIPLE is out to get you, when what you did was good, brave, noble, and protected everyone. Not only that, he wants to KILL YOU DEAD!!...and he’s got the police on his side! How would you or I cope if that became our reality?

Dropping that analogy now…

David is hiding in caves and nooks in the hillside, so scared he cannot sleep in case he is found and killed in the night or the next day. He had been anointed to be king by Samuel but this must seem a dim bad nightmare to him at this time. I imagine him to feel lost, confused at how it could all go so wrong, betrayed by Saul but also wondering what in earth happened with his God. How could this be His plan? Its clearly a disaster and all at his expense.
He could easily have become bitter and angry at God. However, though he was very honest about what he was going through emotionally, he found another way…

His pouring out of his feelings and processing of all this is recorded in the psalms. Once you think of the depths of betrayal he felt, the loss of trust in those in authority over him, whom he no doubt had looked up to and served with a sincere heart, his loss of faith in people and even his anger towards Saul is totally understandable. Because he was young, he was no doubt a bit innocent and naïve, as young people are, shocked at the brutality that envy can produce in others. At a loss to come to terms with it and how doing good could lead him into such a disastrous situation.

However, through it all, he pressed and kept pressing into God. He had ups and downs. Times where faith rose up in him. Times he could feel God’s presence and guidance. Times his despair overtook him and he expressed the depths of that too. There were no sleeping pills to turn to, to give him a break and some sleep to help him gain perspective. Even a realistic perspective in the natural is of no comfort anyway.

And in these ponderings and writings, amidst all this, perhaps especially his loss of faith in people, God showed him glimpses of the coming Messiah, Himself in the flesh. Someone whom he could have faith in that made it all worthwhile and gave him hope, against all the odds. David’s reward, as he suffered in hiding, were the insights given him of the plan God had made which he attested in the words he wrote. Foretelling of Jesus.

By the time Saul did enter his cave unbeknownst, to relieve himself, David had felt convicted to honour Saul regardless of Saul’s intent and conduct. This is the amazing thing. The words of his struggle are not at all reflected in the stance David then took as he interacted with Saul… this was the result. He stepped out in faith, and in righteousness and grace towards his enemy, trusting the character of God and reflecting it towards Saul…. because who he knew God to be, not who he knew Saul to be.

Are we like this towards our enemies?

David became so convinced of this that he became enraged at the young Philistine soldier who attempted to curry favour with David by claiming to have killed Saul, assuming that would have pleased David. So, David slaughtered him on the spot. David then goes on to grieve for his King in a lament as recorded. [1 Samuel chapter 31 – 2 Samuel chapter 1]. God gave that heart to David, in spite of how Saul had treated him. A heart that Saul did not understand or trust. Neither did the Philistine soldier.

RK is right to let the vengeance be in God’s hands, He testifies to that in the talk at the top of this thread, it’s God’s to repay, not ours, David says so too. But RK’s own heart is the thing that is wrong, so he has misconstrued the whole thing as a result.

Ron Kangas has not lamented for the hearts of those lost to the LC. His rants directed at Steve Isitt, and all the others he has named and cursed with his words do not even hint at the process David embarked upon as preparation to become a leader of ‘Israel’, (either that of the past or RK’s idea of a present equivalent). Even using his reference to the ground opening up and swallowing those who rebelled in Moses’ time….Moses did not will that punishment on the people. It was God’s doing, not Moses!! [Numbers 16:28]. Not RK’s place to decree the judgement.

He may well have felt ‘attacked’ by these people, he may have expressed his ‘fallen human concepts’ about it all as David did, if you want to refer to it that way. But he has done this publicly and repeatedly, over time. He has not gotten to the place of honouring and protecting those he is at odds with, as David did. David chose to treat Saul with honour in spite that Saul’s intentions towards David were indeed wicked. (That is not the same thing as seeking to speak a corrective word, as RK’s enemies have only sought to do).

Even putting that point aside, RK still fails to reflect God’s character at all.
Furthermore, this principle is stated in the NT:

Luke 6:28; ‘Bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you’
Romans 12: 14 ‘Bless those who persecute you, bless and do not curse!’

This consistency with words given many centuries later to become included in scripture, confirms David was indeed learning from God.

On the other hand, Saul persevered in and chose not to respond to the opportunities he had to change, twice David challenged him by choosing to do him no harm. [1 Samuel 24, 1 Samuel 26]. Just as the Pharoah of Egypt ignored the opportunities given to him to let the people go. They both chose stubborn determination to continue on their path. It seems RK is following that same way, too confident he is at liberty to.

The challenge rests instead before Steve Isitt and the others he has cursed and villainized. Are we taking the path David walked where our enemies are concerned?

Another point. When a person is so mistreated, when all they have done and intended has been good, its hard to see themselves as fallen or guilty of wrongdoing themselves. Especially while young. It would have been a great humbling for David to realise he himself, in other circumstances much later on in life, could be himself guilty of the shedding of innocent blood, to facilitate his own convenience. I am referring to the sin of adultery and murder to cover up. [Psalm 51]. Which is such a huge shift. He himself was as faithless as those who had sought to do him harm as a young man!

This humbling awareness is not present in the psalms of his early adult life. But we all, if we are honest, perceive our own vulnerability as sinners, either early or late in our lives. We learn in maturity that only Christ is good. Those around us betray us, and we also are capable of such betrayal to others too. That is the lesson of maturity and it is frightening.

RK’s theology conveniently sidesteps this frightening self-discovery. LC theology does provide an avoidance through various replacements, of this realization, I believe. The sad and only problem is, RK is deceiving himself and others, but not God. As referenced already, we are all directly called upon to pray for and bless those that harm us. I have my own battles that makes this real for me so I am not saying this lightly.

Netflix ‘When Will They See Us’ tells the true story of a great injustice. Even greater, a complete reversal of that injustice occurred. But it happened because the mother of a falsely accused young man got saved. And she prayed for her enemies. She blessed them, and then something amazing happened. And it’s a true story, the Christian part so key to the outcome that it is included in the secular movie. I advise anyone to watch that story if you haven’t already, and note the testimony that the mother speaks to her son about blessing your enemies just before it all turns around. This is our template as those who would be brothers and sisters of Christ. This means our conduct must be equal to his to be co-labourers with Him, achieving results His way, and ever grateful for our pardon.

That’s my message and challenge for all of us: myself, RK and those he has listed as enemies of the ‘truths’ of the LC….and all that have identified as being hurt or harmed by this movement. Not a comfortable solution but God’s one to us. Lest any of us be cut off. [Romans 11:22]