ZIKLAG
As David does, in this Golden Poem, this Messianic Psalm, proclaim,
1 << A Golden Psalm of David>>
Hedge me about, O God, in You alone do I put my trust.
2 O my soul, You have said unto the LORD, You are My LORD, I have no goodness of my own that would benefit You,
3 But to the saints that live upon the earth, to the excellent in whom You do delight, to these do I extend the Goodness of God. (Hebrew) (¹wcv)
¶ The proclamation contained in these three verses was made in Faith by a young and Godly warrior compassed about by a very complex set of deadly scenarios, all of which culminated in the surly, viperous, Land of the Philistines in an abandoned Philistine stronghold known as Ziklag. Ziklag, where David with 600 faithful warriors and their families set up camp to avoid the deadly hostilities of the insane, corrupt, and rejected king who had pursued David for over a decade, to kill him. Saul relentlessly pursued David with an army for “Saul was terrified of David because the LORD was with David but had departed from Saul.” (1 Samuel 18:12) Here we have the Profane, once again, at odds with what is Holy. Saul, not unlike our politicians of today, was unscrupulous, unprincipled, and dishonorable. Saul did away with all that was Godly and empowered all that was godless. Saul’s greatest achievement as King of Israel was the total corruption of Israel. Saul did, ruthlessly, and with all malevolence, corrupt all that was honest, sincere, and holy in what was meant to be the Beautiful Land of the Lord, the Lovely, Covenant Land of Beulah. Saul hated God! (Sound familiar?) Now aging, denounced, and rejected as King by the prophet Samuel, Saul began to seek out his Divine Providence and Divine favor thru the sorcery of the Witch of Endor (1Samuel 28:7) which hurled him into deeper fits of insanity and spells of hellish torments, while the one whose death he was obsessed with, and relentlessly hunted, was God’s King Elect; the Godly, chosen and anointed, but not yet coronated, Outlaw-Warrior-King in hiding, David, the son of Jesse. It is here, in Ziklag that we find the son of Jesse, now known as the Man After God’s Own Heart proclaiming in Verses 1 & 5
1 “LORD, You are my Stay and my Strength. It is You that hedges me about, in You ‘alone’ do I put my trust.”
5 “…You ‘alone’, O LORD, maintain my inheritance and my destiny.“ (vs. 1 & 5 from Hebrew) (¹wcv)
¶ Unlike our motivational speakers, self-promoting apostles, bouffant TV evangelists, strutting peacocks, and Grammy award-winning prophets of today who cannot be touched or confronted, for they keep themselves safely nestled away in the impenetrable fortress of the airwaves, the “Now-you-see-me-now-you-don’t” shifting shades and shadows of the internet,(of which Satan is Prince; “Oh, and how is that?” You say. Have you not heard? Satan is the “…Prince of Power of the Airwaves…”) (Ephesians 2:2, ¹wcv). In stark contrast to the characters I just named, David’s “character”, “calling”, and “positioning” was quite to the contrary. Unlike the kings and queens of Do-Lally Land, David found himself positioned in the “very real” unfolding mystery of God’s Fetch into the Deep lain-low in an abandoned enemy stronghold called Ziklag, surrounded, not only by “very real” warring heathen armies but was also hotly pursued by the “very real” army of his own nation, which, under the leadership of the madman, Saul, had diminished into a regiment of bloodthirsty myrmidons.
¶ David was not fearful of a fight, for David himself had become a Bloody Man (1 Chronicles 28:3). In addition to taking down a lion and bear when he was but a boy, and as a very young man, to the great astonishment of both the Philistine and Israeli armies, he took down the most terrifying warrior the entire Philistine army had to offer with the flight of a single stone. Shortly thereafter He did indeed deliver 100 Philistine foreskins to the feet of King Saul for the hand of his daughter, a feat which absolutely stunned Saul with dismay and a terrifying fear of this young warrior, while at the same time, instilling in himself begrudging fits of insane jealousy. It began to become obvious; David loved the Lord with all of his heart while Saul had no use for the things of the Lord or for God Himself. David warred in the Spirit and the natural to secure the Kingdom of God for the souls in his charge and those that he would soon deliver out of the hand of Saul and his corrupt goons that they might dwell freely in a new and Promised Land over which he was about to rule for forty years, and his son for forty more; a New Nation of people over which the Lord would greatly delight. “It is to them”, Says David, “that my goodness shall extend.” (v.3) David was certainly a major player in the Divine Providence of Almighty God‘s Deep Fetch for a Nation of His own, to be inhabited by a people of His own. As a Shepherd, a Prophet, a Warrior, and a King, David did faithfully bear the weight of the Birth of this New Nation upon his shoulders as well as accurately prophesied of yet a Greater King to come upon Whose Shoulders the final government of a new and pristine world would rest. This coming King of whom David prophesied in this very Psalm, Psalm XVI, would come to be known to all of creation as the Son of David, the Son of God, the King of Kings, our Kinsman Redeemer, Jesus Christ, who in the Last Days – will come – just as prophesied – to rule the earth upon the very Throne of His earthly ancestor, David. (Isaiah 9:7)
¶ As did the Hand of Divine Providence position David smack-dab-in-the-middle of the most brutal, savage, vicious, and hostile nations of his day, so was our Savior, the Son of David, the Son of Man, God Incarnate, born one thousand years later into the very midst of one of the most violent empires to ever rule the earth, the Roman Empire. And, just as David knew that he was born to conquer, build, and rule over a New and Godly Nation of which the likes of had not been seen since Eden, so did Jesus know, full well, that He came to vanquish from the face of the earth a far greater enemy than that of His ancestor, David; an adversary known as Satan, the supreme master of evil. Like David, what Jesus came to do had to be done in both the natural realm and the invisible realm of the Spirit, the realm into which the natural man could not see and a realm that most of those of whom He came to set free did not truly believe existed, and if they did, they conjured up counterfeit versions of it by worshiping hand-carved idols of wood or little works of art made of silver and gold or by being directly involved with the Evil One, as was Saul, or by conjuring up great religious doctrines of men. Still, others denied the existence of the spirit realm completely by proclaiming, “When your dead, your dead, and that’s the end of it.” Nonetheless, there has always been a faithful remnant. All of this, save the Faithful Remnant, Jesus destroyed in three and one-half years thru His ministry as a Teacher, with signs, wonders, and miracles following, which was but the laying of a New Foundation upon which we are to maintain a New House over which this same Son of David will come back to rule. As for the Old Foundation, “…there will not be one stone left upon another…” (Luke 19:55, Matthew 24,2)
¶ When David wrote this Golden, Messianic, Psalm, Psalm XVI, he was indeed carried out beyond himself by the Spirit of God into the realm of the Prophetic, which will, if we look closely, take us a thousand years on down the road from Ziklag into a night where, in a Garden known as Gethsemane, we will find this Son of David, the Son of God, Jesus of Nazareth, in such fervent prayer with the Father over what is about to befall Him that He is sweating great drops of blood (Luke 22:44) and praying…
1 Hedge me about, Preserve Me, O God, in You alone do I put my trust.
2 O my soul, (the Son of David had a human soul and this Human Soul…) said unto God, His Father, You are My LORD, (as a mere man on earth the Son of David said) I have no goodness of my own that would benefit anyone.
3 But to the saints that live upon the earth, to the excellent in whom You do delight, to these I AM about to extend the Goodness of My Father. (Hebrew) (what goodness could this be? The Ultimate Sacrifice; Christ upon the Cross resulting in the Redemption and Restoration of the Souls of men) That GOODNESS! (vs.1,2,3,¹wcv & ²)
¶ Like David, Jesus Christ was also a Bloody Man, however, the only Blood that Jesus had on His Hands was His Own, which He shed for us to WASH AWAY OUR SINS, The Saving Blood of the Lamb Slain. Jesus Christ is the greatest warrior ever known to God or mankind, yet, unlike His descendant David, Jesus warred only in the Spirit, that is until now, for there is a Day coming, which is nearly upon us when this Great Warrior King will certainly return to war with flesh and blood in a valley known as Megiddo. Armageddon!
¶ Having illuminated the first three verses of Psalm XVI in the revelatory Light of the Word and applied them to Christ, keep in mind the fact that Jesus, like David, overcame the flesh by operating in the Spirit by Faith as a mere man, and that David saw Jesus Christ in all His Deity a thousand years before He came to earth, and that this truly is a Messianic Psalm.
¶ The confirmation of all this unfolds in the Book of Acts, Chapter Two, beginning with verse 25, with the Apostle Luke bringing to our attention the fact that, in the Spirit, David saw Jesus! David “foresaw Him”! 25 “For David spoke concerning Jesus, I “foresaw” the Lord before me continually, He was continually at my right hand, that’s why I could not be moved. (v.8 Ps) 26 Because of this my heart did rejoice, my tongue was full of joy, and my soul did rest in hope” (v. 9 of Ps.) In verse 27, Luke shows that David goes on to prophesy of Christ in verse 27 “For You will not forsake My soul to see the fires of hell, nor will you allow Your Holy One to see corruption. (v. 10 Ps) 28 You have revealed to Me the ways of life. You always do and always will fill Me with the overwhelming joy of Your countenance.” (v.11, Ps.) In verse 29, Luke then goes on to speak of David, saying, 29 “Men and brethren, let me speak freely to you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried and his tomb is with us to this day.” (David’s body decayed (saw corruption) and what’s left of it is in the tomb today – the Body of Jesus is not) 30 “He (David), being a prophet, knew, because God had sworn with an oath to him (a Divine Promise) that out of the fruit of his loins…God would raise up Christ (which came to pass 1000 years down the road) (two more thousand years down the road, just as prophesied, this Son of David, Jesus Christ will return (which is where we are now)) to sit upon the Set Throne of David.” (2 Sam. 7:12,13, Ps. 132:11, Lu. 1:32,69, Ro. 1:3, 2 Tim. 2:8) “Foreseeing” this, David spoke of the resurrection of Christ, that His soul would not suffer the fires of hell, neither would His flesh (the Body of Jesus) see corruption.” (rot in the grave) (Psalm16:10, Acts 2:27,31, & 13:35 )
¶ Everyone Born of the Spirit can have this same inseparable, intimate, prophetic companionship with the Lord as did David, however, it’s up to us! “Draw nigh to God and He will draw nigh unto you.” (James 4:8, Hebrews 7:19) A simple Statement (Promise) that, if taken to heart, will produce phenomenal results. Quite an amazing offer! If you do, He will not hesitate in doing for you what He did for David, and that is, to unfold for you the Mysteries hidden in Christ, not to mention the Gifts of the Spirit and financial provision. The kings & queens of Do-Lally Land along with Big Baroque Hot Air Bafoons of Christendom (the Harlot Church) are of no more benefit to you than the Witch of Endor was to Saul, however, what they can do for you is send you into fits and starts of error and confusion.
¶ When writing, there are times when I know that I am being carried out beyond myself. These times are akin to being taken over by Divine Revelation. I may mean one thing but the Spirit of God comes thru with much more, taking me on from there.
¶ In the writing of Psalm XVI, we know that David was, insooth, carried out beyond himself by the Spirit of God into the realm of revelation. According to the Scriptures, I believe with all of my heart that David saw Jesus Christ, the Son, speaking to His Father, Almighty God, of a Mystery so great that even the angels longed to look into it, but could not, (1 Peter 1:12, Daniel 12:5,6,9,13) ….yet it was revealed to the prophets of old of which David was one, a Patriarch and a Prophet. This Mystery would not unfold for a thousand years but came to pass down to the letter, line-upon-line, and word-for-word precisely as predicted by the prophets of old and is today, 3000 years later, about to unfold in “the Dispensation of the Fullness of Times” into the Day of the Lord, when Jesus Christ returns to take His rightful place upon the Set Throne of David. (Isaiah 9:7)
¶ Now, bear with me as I change horses in the middle of the stream here and take it back to Ziklag.
¶ As men sometimes do, when found to be victims of a relentless, hot pursuit, change horses in the middle of a stream, they do so for its benefits. The horse and rider can drink, the tracks are covered, and both horse and rider receive a bit of rest and repose. David did that very thing going into verse 4. Going into verse 4 on a horse of a different color we find David warning his band of 600 men. Why? Well, being worn, weary, and thoroughly exhausted from the years of being hunted by a madman with an army of bloodthirsty myrmidons, warring with the Amalekites, and the Cherethites, all the while maintaining a volatile relationship with the Philistine army while hiding out, of all places, in one of their abandoned strongholds, a Philistine stronghold, out of desperation some of David’s faithful men began to relieve their stress by dabbling with the gods and the sorceries of their hedonistic enemy for they seemed to be more powerful and effective than a God they could not see. Their reasoning? Well, if Jehovah was truly the only God, why would He not give His faithful a final victory over all these things by now? Befittingly, great victories were about to befall this Man After God’s Own Heart, his small band of 600 warriors and their families along with all of Israel, but, this great victory would come in God’s timing, not man’s.
¶ As I said, David was now not only surrounded by warring Amalekites and warring Cherethites, but was also in a very volatile predicament with His old enemy, the Philistines, while hiding out in one of their abandoned strongholds from “one of his own”, the unhinged, deranged pursuer, and rejected King, Saul, who was obsessed with seeing the death of David. In addition to all of this, David was now also dealing with mutiny. David was shouldering the blame lowered on him by some of his men for the fact that their stronghold, Ziklag, had been razed to the ground and that their wives, their children, their livestock, and all their provisions had been taken captive by the Amalekites while they were engaged in battle elsewhere. Upon returning to this devastation, some of David’s men considered stoning David to death. This final devastation at Ziklag was beginning to push some of his men over the edge.
¶ David, when he was but a young boy, was anointed by the prophet Samuel to be the greatest King Israel would ever come to know, yet still unseated, and of all things, an outlaw on the run, David found himself in a most bewildering, perplexing place. However, David never flinched! His reply? “Is Jehovah God or not?”
¶ It was there, in the ashes of Ziklag that I believe David penned verses 4, and 5, which address his band of 600 warriors and their families. It is to his men, there in Ziklag, that David says,
4 Your sorrows will be multiplied that hasten after, and fetch up other gods. (David says, know this) Not only will I not take up your drink offerings of blood, but the names of their gods will never cross my lips. (¹wcv)
¶ In the tangled mess in which they found themselves, I honestly believe that some of David’s men, out of exasperating desperation were trying to convince David to try out the abominable sorcery of devils practiced by those with which they were at war…
…which brings us to another reply from David in v. 5
5 The LORD is the portion of my inheritance; that is the cup out of which I will drink. It is the LORD alone that maintains my destiny. (¹wcv)
¶ After David’s declaration of allegiance to the Lord his God in verse 5
“David sought the Lord! (1Samuel 30:7,8) After David “sought the Lord” something changed in the realm of the Spirit, for he mustered his small army, saddled up, and went after the Amalekites recovering everything that had been taken, including his two wives. Nothing was missing… from the smallest item to the greatest of their treasures, none of the wives, none of the sons, none of the daughters, nor property of any kind was missing. David not only brought everything home, but he also captured their flocks and herds, which they were driving ahead of other livestock, (this turned it all around for David) and the people rejoiced and agreed that this would be David’s spoil.” (Samuel 30:18,19,20) “David then said, ‘The Lord has hedged us about as with thorns and delivered the enemy that has come against us into our hands, along with all their goods, the spoils’.” (1 Samuel 30:23)
¶ Is this not a perfect picture of Jesus Christ, not only retrieving the souls of men out of this present, evil world but also restoring them, some 30, some 60, some 100 fold, to spend eternity with him in the Lovely Land of the Lord, a Land of COVENANT known as Beulah.
That we might also come to say, as did David,
6 The lines have fallen unto me in pleasant places; Yes, I have a good and Godly heritage.
7 I will bless the Lord, Who has given me counsel: my reins also instruct me in the night seasons.
¶ And is not verse 7 a perfect picture of the Holy Spirit encouraging, comforting, leading, and instructing (guiding) us thru the darkest and most difficult stretches of our journey between the eternities? These Night Seasons, these Blood Sweating Gethsemanes, may be, for us, a series of seasons that last only from sundown to dawn for a night or two or from sunup to sunup for years. These Night Seasons are also known as the Dark Night of the Soul in which the Lord deals with us in ways we will never forget, producing in us, if we ABIDE, great strides and leaps into the likeness of our Lord, and I might add, bringing us into an unrelenting compassion for others. If we endure thru these Night Seasons as David endured his Ziklag, and as Jesus endured from Gethsemane to the Cross, we will, with a thankful heart, proclaim…
6 “The lines have fallen unto me in pleasant places; I have a good and Godly heritage
5 for the Lord is the portion of my inheritance, this is the cup out of which I drink for it is the Lord alone Who maintains my destiny.”
…and Who has, indeed, brought me into that place where my great hope is to hear the Lord someday say, “Like David, here is ‘A Man After My Own Heart’.”
WHY? Because, like David, and like the Son of David
8 I have set the LORD always before me and because He is always at my right hand, I shall not be moved.
9 Therefore my heart is overwhelmed with brightness and the entire design and fashion of my body, soul, and spirit rejoices in hope.
10 For You will not suffer My soul to see the fires of hell; Just as You would not suffer Your Holy One to see corruption.
11 You have shown Me the Path of Life, and I will travel it in Your Presence to that place of overflowing joy, where, at Your Right Hand (in Jesus Christ) there are pleasures forevermore. (vs.8-11,¹wcv)
¶ Closely considering verses 8 thru 11 it is not difficult to realize that, like us, David did indeed have great regard for his own hope and welfare along with the Salvation of all of his Nation, Israel. It is, however, incontestable that it is Jesus Christ Who is prophesied of in this Psalm, for David was not THE HOLY ONE and David’s body did, indeed, stay in the grave (V.10).
¶ Operating as the Son of Man as opposed to the Son of God in His thirty-three years of Loving Condescension on earth, Jesus, like David relied on the Power, the Truth, the Love, the Spirit, and Promises of the Father, which is why He was never moved away from His deepest, most agonizing trials, tribulations, and sufferings but went thru them “for the joy that was set before Him… He endured the cross.” Yes, He endured the cross and despised the shame.” ...for the Salvation of our souls! The Salvation of our souls IS the Joy that was set before Him. As a man, Jesus was totally assured by the Promises of God that his human soul would not be left in the place of separated spirits or see the fires of perdition, nor would His body be left in the grave to see corruption. He willingly yielded to Death, and for a time on the Cross even suffered separation from the Father (for us), crying with a loud voice, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken Me?” (Matthew 27:46 & Mark 15:34) Yet He KNEW, by Faith, in the Spirit, that, just as the Father had Promised, He would rise on the Third Day, and afterward ascend to heaven as the First Born From the Dead, Paying the Price and paving the WAY for ALL who will Come Unto Him. Not only was he shown the path of Life by the Father, He became the Path of Life for all mankind, for whosoever will Come Unto Him. Jesus is the only Way out of this present, evil world and into the presence of God where lies the “overflowing fullness of joy unspeakable and eternal pleasures forevermore.” (Scott/Callery) That, my friend, is a Powerful Promise from the Creator of the Heavens and the Earth, Himself!
Which, indeed, gives this old man the ability to say,
6 Fair are the places marked out for me! Because of You, Lord, I have a most noble heritage. (BBE)
SUMMARY
¶ As was David in Ziklag, are we in this nation not in that same place of desperation today; surrounded and even infiltrated by the enemy while multitudes of those who call themselves by His Name are seeking out worldly devices, other gospels, beguilers, false prophets, great men, mysterious mechanisms, and seducing spirits to deliver themselves out of the wrath to come instead of walking by Faith in the Promises of God. Have we forgotten that those “who seek to save their lives will not only lose their lives but also suffer the second death.” (Luke 17:33, Rev. 2:11, 20:6,14, 21:8) God’s “so-called” people had better get a handle on it; Trusting in the ways of the world to deliver you in the Day of the Lord is no different than placing your soul in the hands of a hoodwinking charlatan, and believe me, not unlike honkytonks, bars, and devils dens the churches are full of them, sly and very charismatic ones. If we trust in the ways of the world to deliver us from the wrath to come we will suffer the fate of the deceived.
¶ As David said to his men in Ziklag, I will say to all of us, in these Lasts Days…
4 You who fetch up ‘other gods’ and hasten after false prophets, and ‘other gospels’ will suffer sorrows unimaginable: your drink offerings of blood I will not touch, nor will the names of your ‘gods’ (famous men – Oh, he’s such a great man!) ever cross my lips.
5 The LORD is the portion of my inheritance; HE is the cup out of which I drink. It is the LORD alone that maintains my destiny.
6 Indeed, how fair are the places, O LORD, that You have marked out for me; Because of You, Lord, I have a most noble heritage.
1 For it is in You alone that I am hedged about, in You alone O LORD, DO I PUT MY TRUST. (vs.4,5,6,1, ¹wcv & ²)
THE GODLY KIND by Will Callery ©William & Cynthia Pub. Co, ©2023 BMI
¶ My Dear Friends, IN CHRIST we are no different than the Patriarchs in trials, tribulations, sufferings, blessings, and the victories of those gone on before us, howbeit, NOTHING WORTHWHILE COMES EASY, yet it is irrefutable that, “WITH GOD ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE.” “…With men it is impossible, but not with God: for with God all things are possible.” (Mark 10;27)
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¹wcv / My Emphasis/Version
² / My Insert
