“And he became more and more powerful, because the LORD God Almighty was with him.”
~ 2 Samuel 5:10
Hi James and Ellen,
How often to you think that God is okay with you wanting to talk with Him? You will realize that as you grow older that God wants you to be talking with Him all the time. When have you been talking with God? Do you know what your grandmaa and grandpaa do when they get into their car to make a long trip and before your grandpaa begins to drive? Your grandmaa and grandpaa talk with God. Why do you think that your grandmaa and grandpaa want to talk with God? Your grandmaa and grandpaa know that God is always watching them. Your grandmaa and grandpaa know that God wants to protect them. When you talk with God, God wants you to ask Him to protect you. Why do you talk with God before you eat? You know that God wants you to have food to eat. You want to thank God for the food that He has given you to eat. God is always a part of your lives. When you talk with God, you are letting God know that you know that He is always a part of your lives. God was a part of David’s life. When you are reading a Psalm, you sense how important God was to David. When you are reading one of the Psalms that David wrote, you think of David being the kind of guy who cared about his relationship with God. You hear David talking with God as if he can see God sitting right next to him. You are to talk with God today just as David was always talking with God. Do you know who David was? David was anointed to be the Israelite people group’s second king. 2 Samuel 5 reports that David was the Israelite people group’s king for over forty years. David became the Israelite people group’s king when he was thirty years old. When David first began in the role as king, David was a whole lot younger than what your dad is right now. Do you know what an Old Testament king was supposed to do? David – as king, was to shepherd and to reign over his people group – the Israelites. To shepherd is to lead people like they are sheep. To reign is to make decisions for people. David changed history. When David was first made king, David lived in Hebron. David decided that he wanted to reign from another city. David had to first throw out the guys, gals and kids who were living in the city. That city’s name was Jerusalem. Jerusalem was not a very large city. The area that the city of Jerusalem covered had less area than the development that you are living in right now with your ma and dad. The guys, gals and kids who were living in Jerusalem were called Jebusites. When the Jebusites heard that David was going to try to take their city from them, the Jebusite guys and gals said that even the guys who were lame and blind could keep David from taking their city from them. There are deep valleys and high cliffs around Jerusalem. David came up with a plan that worked to get into Jerusalem to throw out the Jebusites. Jerusalem had been from Abraham’s time a royal city. Jerusalem today often is in the center of the world’s eyes.
David did not just write Psalms when he was king, David also fought in battles. Do you like to fight? There are times when you feel like you are in the middle of a war. Your grandmaa and grandpaa have felt that way for the past couple of months. Your grandmaa and grandpaa are involved in different ministries which the enemy does not want to see happen. The enemy is Satan. Satan does not want to see guys, gals and kids talking with God. Satan has God’s permission to try to stop you from doing what God wants you to do. This is why it is so important that you always go to God– even though God has told you that He has already defeated Satan in those battles, to ask Him to fight your battles against Satan. What did David do when he had to fight an enemy? David asked God what to do. God told David what to do. No one knows how God told David what to do. You just know that God – maybe through a dream or a vision or even directly, told David exactly what to do. David would do what God told him to do. The Philistine people group was one of the worst enemies that the Israelites had in the land which God had given to His specially chosen people to always to have to live in as their very own land if . . . the Philistines as the PLO or Hamas today is still one of Israel’s worst enemies. The first time that the Philistines attacked the Israelites, David asked God what he should do. David asked God if God would hand the Philistines over to him if he attacked them directly. God affirmed David when He told David that he was do what he had thought that he should do. The Philistines took their idols with them when they went into this battle. The Philistines ended up leaving their idols when God used David to defeat them. Satan will never ever give up trying to completely destroy God’s special chosen people. The Philistines thought that they would for sure defeat David and his Israelite army the next time that they fought. When David saw what the Philistines wanted to do, what do you think David did? David asked God again what he should do. God this time told David that instead of directly going against the Philistines that David was to have his men circle behind the Philistines. David’s fighters were to go to where there were some trees called balsams. God told David to tell his soldiers that just as soon as they heard the sound of marching in the tops of the balsam trees that they were to move quickly against the Philistines. The sound of marching that David’s fighters heard in the tops of the balsam trees was really the sound of God going out in front of the Israelite soldiers to defeat the Philistine army.
What happens when you let God make decisions for you? Samuel in verse 10 tells you about David “And he became more and more powerful, because the LORD God Almighty was with him.” When you have God on your side, your enemy has already lost. As you get older, you will have to make decisions. Each decision that you make will affect the rest of your lives. If you always ask God first – as David did, you will always make the right decision.
2 Samuel 5 (50)