The Anthem of a King

Psalms 34
 Of David. When he pretended to be insane before Abimelech, who drove him away, and he left.
                                                                                                                                                                                            
     Can you see him? He is tired ~ weary from the center of his soul to bottom of his filthy sandals. He has been on the run for weeks ~
from Gibeah where Saul was throwing spears at him across the dinner table,
     running from Gibeah to Nob where he got Goliath's sword from Ahimelech the priest,
            running from Nob to Gath, the capital of Philistia, where he tried to hide from Saul
. . . until he had to run from Gath because the king's advisers had heard that pesky top 40 song:
                                                              "Saul has killed his thousands
                                                                 David his ten-thousands"

GATH on the left,
ADULLAM with the red balloon

    So, David ... pretended to be insane in their presence; and while he was in their hands he acted like a madman, making marks on the doors of the gate and letting saliva run down his beard.

( 1 Sam 21:13 )

  Now, here he sits in a cave about 10 miles outside of Gath,  just inside the borders of Israel. 

In my mind's eye, it is sunset. 

He is absentmindedly running his hands along the edges of his lyre

As music is wont to do, the melody stirs his memory and images like bubble popping off the top of a churning cauldron  ~    suddenly the hills before his eyes are peppered with sheep. He remembers the hot evenings just like this one,  as a boy he shepherded his father's sheep. His heart begins to race as he remembers 

... a growl, low and fierce. There -- camouflaged among the rocks on the ridge above -- a huge mountain lion. Hardly breathing, without taking his eyes from the lion, his hands find his sling, and fit a stone into the pouch. .  . and before another heart beat pounds in his ears, the stone has found its mark between the lion's eyes and the lion tumbles down the hill side. 

And layering the first memory 

... he feels the sling whip around his head  ~ snap ~ the stone erupts from his sling and, in less than a heartbeat, buries itself into Goliath's forehead.   

"Oh God!  What was I thinking? God, I am so sorry...You saved me from lions and bears; you saved me from Goliath ~ and I run from Saul? I go hide in Philistia? What am I doing? What have I been thinking?  You protect me, you deliver me. I do not need to fear!    

Philistia is not my refuge    ...   YOU are my refuge" 

This inauspicious cave, out in the middle of nowhere, becomes a crossroad for David.  For me, this is where David picks up the crown God had given him and owns it! Not a gilded crown worn in pomp and ceremony, but, none the less, a crown of real authority. Perhaps he laughed realizing that now, just as when he was a boy, he was called to shepherd his Father's sheep and protect them from harm. No more running from Saul, no more trying to save his own skin. Either God, his Father, protected him or   . . . well, really there is no "or". He knows it ... and now he KNOWS that he knows it, and that he has really always known it. As he felt the sweat drip down his neck on that hot Israeli night, perhaps in his memory, he felt the oil from Samuel's flask dripping from his head, down his neck...and he knows:  

Being king means God is his refuge. Being king means his hands hold swords -- not to protect his life   -- his hands hold swords to protect the sheep of God, the people of his kingdom. Being king means he runs to the battles, not away from Saul. He raises his lyre and his voice, and out of the fullness of his heart he sings :

I will extol the LORD at all times; his praise will always be on my lips.

My soul will boast in the LORD; let the afflicted hear and rejoice.

Glorify the LORD with me; let us exalt his name together.

I sought the LORD, and he answered me; he delivered me from all my fears.

Those who look to him are radiant; their faces are never covered with shame.

This poor man called, and the LORD heard him; he saved him out of all his troubles.

The angel of the LORD encamps around those who fear him, and he delivers them.

Taste and see that the LORD is good; blessed is the man who takes refuge in him.

Fear the LORD, you his saints, for those who fear him lack nothing. 

The lions may grow weak and hungry, but those who seek the LORD lack no good thing. 

 Come, my children, listen to me;I will teach you the fear of the LORD.

Whoever of you loves life and desires to see many good days,

     keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking lies.

Turn from evil and do good;seek peace and pursue it.

The eyes of the LORD are on the righteous and his ears are attentive to their cry;

the face of the LORD is against those who do evil, to cut off the memory of them from the earth.

The righteous cry out, and the LORD hears them;he delivers them from all their troubles.

The LORD is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.

A righteous man may have many troubles, but the LORD delivers him from them all; 

he protects all his bones, not one of them will be broken.

Evil will slay the wicked;the foes of the righteous will be condemned.

The LORD redeems his servants;  no one will be condemned who takes refuge in him.

Ps. 34: 1-22