Day 134 – Doeg Kills Priests

• As David continues to run, the camera turns to focus in on Saul in today’s passages from the historical book of 1 Samuel. As you’ll have read, Saul is actively trying to chase David down.
• In the opening five verses of 1 Samuel 22, David makes his way to Moab, the home of his great grandmother Ruth. It would have been a very difficult journey. His family joins him as they are also in danger, but God doesn’t let David remain. Where is he told to go?
• Look at the conversation Saul has with his men from 1 Samuel 22:6 onward. Saul is feeling increasingly alone, it seems. He spends quite a bit of time complaining about David. Who does he take his frustration out on?
• Do you think Saul has anything else on his mind other than trying to find and kill David? If you had to write a report card for Saul’s time as king so far, what grade would you give him?
• Doeg was one of Saul’s chief servants, and clearly a tough, brutish, morally empty guy. When I think of him, I think of “The Hound” from Game of Thrones – which I hope you haven’t seen!. I’ve put a picture of him above.
• What news does Doeg give to Saul in 1 Samuel 22:9-10? Can you recall when we read about this happening a few days ago?
• Saul asks his other servants to find Ahimelech and the other priests. Remember, it was Ahimelech who gave Goliath’s sword to David. What does Saul ask his servants to do to the unfortunate priests?
• How do the servants respond? Why did they refuse, do you think? Who does the awful deed instead?
• When David returned to the Judah plains, he penned the words of Psalm 63. Think what it must have been like for David in that barren landscape. Look especially in this psalm at the mention of the word “soul” and how it thirsts, hungers and clings to God. Our soul is a reflection of a deep sense inside us which hungers to know God. Can you sense David’s inner feelings through the words?
• Psalm 52 is set against the story of Doeg slaughtering the priests who helped David (and many others). The note written in the Bible before the psalm gives us this helpful context! What does this psalm say will happen to people who turn away from God (verses 5-7)? What about those who turn to God (in verses 8-9)?

I hope you have enjoyed looking at the psalms of David over these last few days. We’ll read psalms tomorrow, and throughout the year, but this week has given us a chance to really enjoy some of these beautiful songs.

Do you have a favourite psalm? It might be one of the famous ones. The simplicity of the first psalm, the stunning prophesy of psalm 22, the beauty of the 23rd, the honesty of the 51st, the variety of psalm 119 or the awe-inspiring words of 139. Perhaps it’s one of the lesser well-known ones. I expect some of the ones we’ve read recently were new to you.

If you don’t have a favourite, then why not enjoy some time reading through the ones I’ve just given? Whilst there are many special verses in the Bible, I return to the psalms again and again for encouragement and comfort, and I hope that you will, too, come to love them in that way. They were Jesus’ songbook, and they can be yours too!