David and His Giants
Even if you didn’t grow up in church you’ve probably heard the story of David and Goliath.
What’s interesting about that story, and we’ll talk more about it next week, is that it is NOT a rated “G” children’s story! I mean, have you actually read that story? It’s a war time, blood and guts kind of story.
If someone actually made a movie of the story of David and Goliath chances are you wouldn’t let your kids see it. But we read the Bible story version of it to our kids all the time today just like Jewish families did some 2000 years ago.
David is remembered as a lot of things. He was a shepherd. A giant killer. A singer song writer. The king of Israel. And a man after God’s own heart.
But as you read the story of the life of David, you realize very quickly it wasn’t all sunshine and roses.
There were some giants in David’s life that needed to fall. But there were other giants in David’s life that needed to rise. It makes me wonder…
What giants need to rise and which ones need to fall in our lives?
Giants & Trees
Several years ago when our family was living in Atlanta, Alisha and I bought a house in a cul-de-sac that had a big yard. We wanted a big yard so the kids could be outside and play.
The only problem? There were a ton of trees.
Big trees, small trees, all kinds of trees. There were probably more than 60 trees on this property. So there was only way we were going to be able to enjoy this yard. I was going to have to cut down some of those trees.
I’m always up for a challenge. I went to Home Depot, got myself a chainsaw, and got to work. The small trees were no problem. But I knew I would need some help with the bigger trees. My dad had a lot more experience cutting down trees than I did so he came over to help. We got several cut down and chopped up.
Everything is going well. It’s a lot of work, but we’re making progress.
The thing about trees, and I’ve had to learn this lesson more than once, is that they are bigger, heavier, and stronger than you think.
I decided to take on this tree that was right by the driveway. I’ve got dreams of setting up a basketball goal for my son right here and this tree needs to go.
After studying this tree, we’ve got a plan. We need to remove some of the limbs before I cut the tree down. I get an extension ladder. I tie a rope to the limb we’re going to cut off first. I’ve got my dad pulling on that rope to make sure when it falls, it falls away from me. I take the chainsaw and I go to work.
I still don’t know exactly what happened. But when that limb broke loose it came right at me, hit me in the jaw, knocked me off that twelve foot ladder, and I hit the ground.
Thankfully the chainsaw went flying in the other direction. My instincts kicked in and I started an army crawl away from the tree. I didn’t know where that branch was going to land but I didn’t want to be under it!
My dad came running to check on me and we decided we were done cutting down trees for the day. My face hurt where I had been punched by that branch. My ankle was severely sprained from the fall. And even though that tree didn’t kill me, my wife was about to!
I had severely underestimated the size, the weight, the power, and the strength of that tree. And it almost killed me!
A World Full of Giants
Now, it’s kind of a funny story. But it’s not a joke when the giants in your life threaten to take your life.
And we live in a world of giants.
Every day people are falling, people are failing, and people are dying at the hands of their giants.
Some of those giants have names like Addiction. Others are named Anxiety and Depression. Some are named Fear and some are named Anger. Some are called Loneliness while others are called Rejection.
There’s the giant known as Pornography. And there’s the giant named Control. There’s a giant called Greed. And still another called Hate. There is the giant called Acceptance and still another known as Comfort.
We live in a world of giants. Giants that need to fall.
The self-help section at the book store or on Amazon hasn’t made a dent in helping us defeat our giants. We can’t overpower them. We can’t will our giants away. We can’t work hard enough or do enough to defeat them.
We’ve been told that we could but we’ve failed and it’s left us feeling like failures when in reality, those giants were never going to fall by doing more or working harder.
The giants we need and want to defeat are defeating us. Those giants need to fall.
Giants that Need to Rise
And then there are other giants.
Giants that need to rise up within us but we don’t know how to summon them.
We need and we want a giant faith. We want true friendship that sustains us through the ups and downs of life.
We long for deep roots grounded in God’s love. We want to be able to worship now like we believe we will one day worship in heaven.
We want to have a heart for God, a heart on fire for God, but we don’t know how. We want to live a life filled with giant sized love, and joy, and peace, and goodness, and kindness, and faithfulness.
These are the giants we want to rise, we need to rise.
But how?
The good news is that God knows how to bring down larger than life giants. And He also knows how to rise up a giant sized heart for Him that will carry you through this life.
David & His Psalms
Many of the worship songs we sing today come from the psalms. And many of the psalms were written by David.
The psalms are the song book of the Jewish people. These were the songs of praise they would sing in worship to God, the songs of lament they would sing in their grief and despair, the songs they would sing on days of victory as well as days of defeat.
And throughout David’s psalms, you can hear echos of the giants he faced in his life.
One of the psalms attributed to David is Psalm 37.
We don’t know when David wrote this particular psalm, what was going on in his life at the time, or what motivated these lyrics, but I want you to hear the words of this prayer song.
Psalm 37.1-2
Don’t worry about the wicked
or envy those who do wrong.
For like grass, they soon fade away.
Like spring flowers, they soon wither.
In other words, when your giants rise up against you, when your enemies are out to get you, when you’re not sure what you’re going to do next because whatever the situation is, it appears to be more than you can handle…
Do not worry. Do not be afraid.
How can David say this? How can he write this?
Living 3000 years ago David didn’t have to deal with back then with what we have to deal with now.
Clearly, he didn’t live in this political climate. He didn’t have to worry about wars breaking out around the world, gun violence in our country, stressing about work, climate change, kids, family, or living paycheck to paycheck.
David didn’t have to worry about what anyone posted on social media or what people were saying behind his back. He didn’t have to worry about any of that.
And… that’s true. But, as a young shepherd boy, probably only 8-10 years old, he was literally fighting lions and bears as his job was to protect the family sheep. He did have that encounter with a giant who was over nine feet tall.
For a time, the reigning king of Israel was actively trying to take his life and he was hiding in caves. When he became king, he was constantly at war with the surrounding nations. Not only that, when his sons became men, one of them tried to take the crown away from him.
David’s life was far from easy and he often lived in fear for his very life. He completely understood what it felt like to be overwhelmed, afraid, and worried when facing his own giants.
The Power of Trust
What he had experienced is that all of those giants, in the presence of our God who is greater than any giant that may come against us, will fade away, wither, and die.
And so he writes…
Psalm 37.3-4
Trust in the Lord and do good.
Then you will live safely in the land and prosper.
Take delight in the Lord,
and he will give you your heart’s desires.
Instead of focusing on the size of the giants who are coming against you, focus on the size of your God who is FOR you. Do what is good and right and pleasing in His eyes. Delight in him and He will delight in you.
David had discovered an eternal truth. There are giants in this life. Absolutely.
To pretend there are no giants is to be dishonest about what it means to live in a broken and fallen world. There are giants. There are things to be afraid of and if you’re not afraid sometimes you may need to check your pulse.
There is a version of Christianity that says to be a good Christian, to be full of faith, means that you’re never afraid. But that is not a faithful witness to scripture or to what it means to follow Jesus. There is a lot to be afraid of in this world.
The difference for us, for those of us who are seeking God, is that we have put our faith in someone greater than ourselves or anything this world has to offer. We have decided to put our “trust in the Lord.”
The Secret to Slaying Giants
David continues this theme in verse 34…
Psalm 37.34-35
Put your hope in the Lord.
Travel steadily along his path.
He will honor you by giving you the land.
You will see the wicked destroyed.
I have seen wicked and ruthless people
flourishing like a tree in its native soil.
What David knows, what he has learned that so many have failed to learn, is the secret to living the kind of life where you get to watch giants fall. The kind of life where your enemies, whatever they are, can be and will be destroyed.
Even when those enemies that rise against you are like giant trees well rooted and seemingly impossible to overcome… David knows that they can and will fall.
And he knows the secret.
Some of those giant trees in David’s life were literal giants like Goliath. But David faced other giants like lust, pride, anger, and a massive failure to trust in the Lord and take matters into his own hands.
David faced some of the same giants you and I face. And just like you and me, there were days that David was defeated. He was a giant killer, but not every giant fell as quickly as Goliah.
But what David learned in the valley of Elah when he faced Goliath was this truth.
Psalm 37.39-40
The Lord rescues the godly;
he is their fortress in times of trouble.
The Lord helps them,
rescuing them from the wicked.
He saves them,
and they find shelter in him.
Sometimes David forgot that truth. And when he forgot he was defeated.
But when he remembered God, when he was faithful in those times of trouble, when he returned to God he was always rescued by God.
You see, David is often remembered as the one who defeated the giant, but the secret David knew and never forgot is that he had never defeated a giant.
The only one who can defeat giants is God.
The secret is to put your hope in Him!
What Giants Need to Fall?
So which giants need to rise and which giants need to fall in your life?
In what area of your life do you need to trust God and put your hope in Him?
After nearly being killed by that tree near my driveway, I did what I should have done in the first place. I called a professional. Someone who knows how to cut down trees. Someone who understands when you cut a limb which way it will fall. Someone who has experience taking down pine trees that are over 100 feet tall and who can do it without getting hurt.
Some of you have been trying to defeat the same giant or giants in your life for a long time. And you’ve made the same mistake David made from time to time. The same mistake we all make from time to time. You’re trying to defeat your giants all on your own.
But you can’t.
You might conquer it for a moment, for a month, or even for a season. But giants, especially the mean ones, are patient. They don’t mind hanging around and waiting for you to have an off day.
Goliath came every day for 40 days and taunted Israel.
Giants are patient, persistent, and they love to hang around to taunt us and terrorize us. Especially when we’re living by our own power. When we’ve put all our trust and hope in ourselves.
Some of you have giants that need to fall. Whatever name your giant goes by, whether it’s lust or greed, pride or power, worry or regret, or something entirely different… can I just ask this question in the most loving way I know how?
Is it time for the giant your facing to fall?
And if so, then can I ask this next question?
Which giant needs to rise up within you? For you?
What Giants Need to Rise?
David, at times, had a giant faith. And his trust in the Lord always led him to the good life God wanted for him. His faith led him to write songs like Psalm 23, “the Lord is my shepherd….”
His faith led him to dance before the Lord in worship. His faith led him to face Goliath when no one else, not even the reigning king of Israel, would face him.
David had giant faith, and he also experienced giant friendship. His friendship with Jonathan carried him through one of the most difficult times in his life. David needed a friend. Just like you and I need friends. More and more, people are lonely. Isolated. But people need people.
And David had a deep desire to pursue the heart of God. He wasn’t perfect. Not by a long shot. But at every turn David seemed to turn back to God. And because of that he’s remembered as a man after God’s own heart.
Trust & Hope
Which giants need to rise and which ones need to fall in your life?
Here’s what’s true and what I want you to come to understand this summer: The right giants will rise and the right giants will fall when you…
Trust in the Lord and put your hope in him.
You see, God is bigger than your biggest giant. And God, not you, is the one who makes giants fall.
This week, trust God. Whatever giant your facing, trust God with it. Whatever doubt your dealing with, put your hope in Jesus.
Why?
Because… God knows how to bring down larger than life giants. And He also knows how to rise up a giant sized heart for Him that will carry us through this life.
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