1 Samuel 22: When the wicked prosper

Outline

• The provision of the cave
• The killing of the priests
• The praise of the persecuted

Introduction

Why do the wicked prosper? This is a question that has confounded the people of God since the devil overcame our first parents in the garden. If God is so caring why are His people that he claims to love so hard pressed? If God is so just why does He not suddenly come and judge the wicked? If God is so powerful why do His people have to continue in persecution? We can jump almost anywhere into the story line of the bible and find this scenario. Think of Joseph, Israel in Egypt, Israel under the Philistines, Assyrians, Babylonians, Greeks, and Romans. Think of the many persecutions against Christianity through the ages and the modern attacks of Islam and postmodern secularism. The chapter before us is another typical scene from this story. Saul, the man without the spirit who is being driven by demonic forces is irrationally pursuing God’s anointed. Those who serve in the presence of God are unjustly slaughtered at the hand of unbelievers. The people of God are oppressed, but God is graciously providing and strengthening His people, and His sovereignty is overruling even when evil seems to be prospering. This chapter does not answer every problem but does deal with some of the central concerns of it.

In this chapter we will see David spiritually restored and provided for yet all the while evil is apparently prospering. We want to look at how God provides for David, how God is still sovereign when evil prospers and psalm 52 which David wrote in response to this chapter.