David was greatly distressed, for the people spoke of stoning him, because all the people were bitter in soul, each for his sons and daughters. But David strengthened himself in the Lord his God. (1 Samuel 30:6)

David was not the first great man in Israel to be threatened with stoning. Nor would he be the last.

This was almost a rite of passage for daring leaders in a landscape littered with chunks of rock. Even the great Moses, meekest man on earth, had found himself on the cusp of being stoned (Exodus 17:4; Numbers 14:10). And a thousand years after David, when his greater son would appear, we read even of Israel’s long-awaited Messiah, “The Jews picked up stones again to stone him” (John 10:31–33; 11:8).

Although David still evades the violence of Saul, he now feels the panic of his men who blame him for leaving their families vulnerable to an Amalekite raid. David is “greatly distressed,” as we might expect. But then we hear where the future king turns in such dire straits: he “strengthened himself in the Lord his God.”

How did David “strengthen himself in God”? The immediate context doesn’t tell us much. We learn what David does with the fresh strength he finds: he inquires of God and pursues the enemies who have sacked the city and carried off the women and children (1 Samuel 30:7–9).

But how David “strengthens himself in God” goes unsaid. A hint is offered just a few chapters prior.

Asking for a Friend

In 1 Samuel 23, David’s life is under threat, and he knows it. Saul has come out to the wilderness, where David is hiding, to seek David’s life. The threat has left David discouraged and uncertain, feeling vulnerable and weak.

Yet the God who has anointed David to be Israel’s next king will sustain him even through this storm. Not only does God keep Saul and his men from finding David, but God also sends an instrument of his grace to strengthen David’s heart — Jonathan, Saul’s own son and David’s dear friend:

Jonathan, Saul’s son, rose and went to David at Horesh, and strengthened his hand in God.

Oh, for friends like Jonathan! How we need brothers and sisters who rise from their places of comfort and seek us out in the wilderness, in an hour of need and uncertainty and fear, that they might strengthen our hand in God.

To strengthen David’s hand means to renew his confidence, to pour fresh courage into his soul, to help him persist in his calling and not give up in leading 600 men in the wilderness. And how does Jonathan do that? How does he put holy strength into the soul of another man? Through words.

Spoken Courage

Jonathan speaks words to David that go into his ear and into his heart and fill him with supernatural strength and courage. Verse 17 tells us what Jonathan said:

Do not fear, for the hand of Saul my father shall not find you. You shall be king over Israel, and I shall be next to you. Saul my father also knows this. (1 Samuel 23:17)

He reminds him of God’s promise. God has chosen David and anointed him to be king. And David cannot be king if Saul kills him. Therefore, even Jonathan knows, God will not let Saul find him. God will preserve David’s life. God has promised to make David his king, and God will fulfill his oath, as he always does. The promise of God rehearsed in the mouth of a faithful friend powerfully supports the heart, and the hands.

Rehearse God’s Promises

What’s remarkable, then, about 1 Samuel 30:6, seven chapters later, is that now David has the wherewithal to do this for himself. Having been the recipient of hand-strengthening words from a dear friend, David, who is again in dire straits, strengthens himself in the Lord his God. Now the threat is not Saul, but his own disillusioned men.

“Dear needy saint, dire as your straits may be, rehearse the bottomless riches of his promises for you in Christ.”

Surrounded by a volatile crowd of mighty men, David does for himself what his friend Jonathan had done for him before: he rehearses God’s promises. As we’ve seen, to be strengthened in God does not mean to receive food or money or weapons from above, but words of God’s promise. The use of similar language in 1 Samuel 23 and 30 suggests that David now rehearses such promises to himself. David may even recall the very words of Jonathan, but beyond them, the words of God himself. David remembers and meditates on the words of God till his soul finds fresh courage in them.

David, like Jesus centuries later in his wilderness temptation, calls to mind what he knew God had said, and David believes. He lingers in God’s promise until it becomes a part of him, until it nourishes him and energizes him.

All Yes in Jesus

Perhaps you hesitate to receive how David’s meditating on God’s word relates to you today. Samuel has not personally anointed you the next king of Israel. You might think, Certainly David could draw on such certainty — but what of me? O Christian, don’t think so little of your Christ.

The reason this shepherd boy had been anointed king is because God chose to prepare the way for the Anointed king who was to come. Any surety David had about his personal deliverance drew on the greater surety of God’s resolve to send and exalt his own Son.

Dear needy saint, dire as your straits may be, greatly distressed as you are, rehearse the bottomless riches of his promises for you in Christ. In him all the promises of God find their Yes for you (2 Corinthians 1:20). Pick one of the thousands in his Book, fix your attention on it, linger over it, feed it to your soul without hurry, and so strengthen your hand in God.