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For the director of music. To the tune of “A Dove on Distant Oaks.” Of David. A miktam. When the Philistines had seized him in Gath.

¹ Be merciful to me, my God,
    for my enemies are in hot pursuit;
    all day long they press their attack.
² My adversaries pursue me all day long;
    in their pride many are attacking me.

³ When I am afraid, I put my trust in you.
⁴     In God, whose word I praise—
in God I trust and am not afraid.
    What can mere mortals do to me?

⁵ All day long they twist my words;
    all their schemes are for my ruin.
⁶ They conspire, they lurk,
    they watch my steps,
    hoping to take my life.
⁷ Because of their wickedness do not let them escape;
    in your anger, God, bring the nations down.

⁸ Record my misery;
    list my tears on your scroll —
    are they not in your record?
⁹ Then my enemies will turn back
    when I call for help.
    By this I will know that God is for me.

¹⁰ In God, whose word I praise,
    in the Lord, whose word I praise—
¹¹ in God I trust and am not afraid.
    What can man do to me?

¹² I am under vows to you, my God;
    I will present my thank offerings to you.
¹³ For you have delivered me from death
    and my feet from stumbling,
that I may walk before God
    in the light of life. (NIV)

In the past I have quoted something I heard years ago, ‘Fear knocked at the door; faith answered, and there was nobody there.’ It has a nice ring to it, and there is, of course, a real truth to it. Winston Churchill said, ‘When I look back on all these worries, I remember the story of the old man who said on his deathbed that he had had a lot of trouble in his life, most of which had never happened.’

But sometimes, when fear knocks at the door, there really is someone there – armed and dangerous and out to get you! David regularly found himself in tight corners, as when he wrote this psalm, and whereas trust in God did not always remove the threat from his door, it drove the fear from his heart.

”When I am afraid (3)…I will not be afraid (4). This paradox expresses the heart of the psalm.” Alec Motyer.

 Many of the Samaritans from that village committed themselves to him because of the woman’s witness: “He knew all about the things I did. He knows me inside and out!” They asked him to stay on, so Jesus stayed two days. A lot more people entrusted their lives to him when they heard what he had to say. They said to the woman, “We’re no longer taking this on your say-so. We’ve heard it for ourselves and know it for sure. He’s the Savior of the world!” (The Message)

”And they went to see for themselves.” (30)

We hope that people will look at Jesus for themselves, but how wonderful if God uses our words to move them in His direction!

It was the woman’s testimony that spurred many of her fellow Samaritans to cross those fields to see Jesus. But once they’d met Him, once they’d heard and encountered Him, they knew. There is no substitute for personal experience. Now they would have their own testimonies to share.

‘There are many ways of coming to know Christ. In some cases he comes to us, as to the woman by the well, and reveals himself in a direct and illuminating manner, so that the soul can never afterward entertain a doubt as to his reality or its own experience. In other cases, the report of some associate or friend is the arresting and converting factor.’ F.B.Meyer

PRAYER: Lord, please will you use even me, to tell the story of what you have done in my life.

Many of the Samaritans from that village committed themselves to him because of the woman’s witness: “He knew all about the things I did. He knows me inside and out!” They asked him to stay on, so Jesus stayed two days. (The Message)

What struck me about this short reading is the wonderful truth that Jesus responds to our prayers. Note the little word ”so” in verse 40. It’s a small word with big significance. Jesus is God, and where people genuinely seek Him, He welcomes such seeking.

”You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.” (Jer.29:13 NIV)

I once read that when David Livingstone was struggling with doubt and loneliness in an African jungle, he wrote about the text, printed below, in his diary: ‘That is the word of a Gentleman of the most strict and sacred honour. He would never break His word to me.

”All those the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away.” (John 6:37)

As you look around right now, wouldn’t you say that in about four months it will be time to harvest? Well, I’m telling you to open your eyes and take a good look at what’s right in front of you. These Samaritan fields are ripe. It’s harvest time!

^36-38 “The Harvester isn’t waiting. He’s taking his pay, gathering in this grain that’s ripe for eternal life. Now the Sower is arm in arm with the Harvester, triumphant. That’s the truth of the saying, ‘This one sows, that one harvests.’ I sent you to harvest a field you never worked. Without lifting a finger, you have walked in on a field worked long and hard by others.” (The Message)

When Jesus told His disciples to look at the ”ripe” fields, maybe they saw the Samaritan people making their way across those fields towards Jesus (30).

Evangelism takes a team. When we see a ‘harvest’ in our ministries today, who can say how much we owe to those who came before us and faithfully ‘sowed’ in these self-same ‘fields’?

”And although I see few results, future missionaries will see conversions following every sermon. May they not forget the pioneers who worked in the thick gloom with few rays to cheer, except such as flow from faith in the precious promises of God’s Word.” David Livingstone

‘The whiteness of the harvest appeared in the crowds that were coming down the valley; but at harvesttime we are sometimes apt to forget the sower who passed home without seeing the result of his labour. That is not the divine method. The sower is rewarded for his share, as the reaper for his – they rejoice together.’ F.B.Meyer

As Paul says, whatever part we may play in the process, it is ultimately all God’s work:

”What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants, through whom you came to believe—as the Lord has assigned to each his task. ⁶ I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow. ⁷ So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. ⁸ The one who plants and the one who waters have one purpose, and they will each be rewarded according to their own labour. ⁹ For we are co-workers in God’s service; you are God’s field, God’s building.” (1 Corinthians 3:5-9 NIV)

In the meantime, the disciples pressed him, “Rabbi, eat. Aren’t you going to eat?”

³² He told them, “I have food to eat you know nothing about.”

³³ The disciples were puzzled. “Who could have brought him food?”

^34-35 Jesus said, “The food that keeps me going is that I do the will of the One who sent me, finishing the work he started. (The Message)

Once again the disciples took Jesus literally when He intended to be understood spiritually. What ‘nourished’ Jesus above all else was doing the will of God. Essentially He had come to earth to do one thing: the will of the Father who sent Him.

One preacher used a helpful analogy. He said something like this, ‘Imagine an artist working in his studio on some masterpiece. Someone brings him coffee and sandwiches for lunch. When they return, later in the day, to collect the empty cup and plate, they find the food and drink untouched. The artist has been so immersed in his work that he has lost touch with any other appetites. He has been lost in his painting; absorbed in his task, focussed on finishing the great work.’

‘The only way we can freely participate in a discernment process is if we trust that God is good, not merely as a general attribute but as it relates to us specifically. Many of us will need to work at getting this building block set in the foundation of our discernment process. In order to surrender to the discernment process, we need to go beyond intellectual assent to cultivating a deep, experiential knowledge that God’s will is the best thing that can happen to us under any circumstances.’ (Ruth Haley Barton, in ‘Pursuing God’s will together’)

PRAYER: Teach me Lord, to love your will, and warmly embrace it.

Just then his disciples came back. They were shocked. They couldn’t believe he was talking with that kind of a woman. No one said what they were all thinking, but their faces showed it.

^28-30 The woman took the hint and left. In her confusion she left her water pot. Back in the village she told the people, “Come see a man who knew all about the things I did, who knows me inside and out. Do you think this could be the Messiah?” And they went out to see for themselves. (The Message)

‘The blessings we receive are to be shared. If we put a light under a bushel, it will go out (Matthew 5:15).’ Tom Hale

There is something here about the simplicity, and yet power, of Christian testimony. We don’t have to make it complicated (or long-winded!!) It appears that she used just a few words, and raised a pertinent question, and the impact was great. A year or so ago, I noted in my journal that what we see here is the essence of evangelism; and that the woman started to give her ‘testimony’ before she was one hundred per cent sure.

”Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did.” One commentator referred to this as ‘a pardonable exaggeration.’ It must have felt to her like Jesus did know ”everything” she’d ever done.

‘First find Christ for yourself; then say, ”Come and see.” He who knows us with an unchallengeable knowledge cannot be other than the Christ.’ F.B.Meyer.

Just then his disciples came back. They were shocked. They couldn’t believe he was talking with that kind of a woman. No one said what they were all thinking, but their faces showed it.

^28-30 The woman took the hint and left. (The Message)

I wonder how many people have entered our churches and, sadly, like the Samaritan woman, they have taken ”…the hint and left.” It is easy to communicate warm acceptance or cold disapproval with just a look. Of course people can get this wrong. It is possible to misread body language. But it is thought that up to 93% of communication is non-verbal, where this involves attitudes and emotions, so we need to walk carefully. People see more than we might like to think. We can give off the wrong ‘vibes’.

Thankfully, this woman met Jesus personally and, as we shall see, was not put off from following Him. But the church can get in the way of people coming to Christ. May God mercifully grant that this is not true of us.

After Ehud came Shamgar son of Anath, who struck down six hundred Philistines with an oxgoad. He too saved Israel. (NIV)

”For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds” (2 Cor.10:3,4).

Shamgar is summed up in two sentences. It seems he didn’t achieve as much as some of the other Judges, but he played his part. He was on the team. He was someone God used. ‘He too saved Israel.’ You don’t have to be a ‘big name’ to be used by God. The Lord has many anonymous heroes and heroines. The point to note is that whether the human actor is well-known or not, the work is God’s and all the glory should go to Him.

”But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that the all-surpassing power is from God and not from us” (2 Corinthians 4:7)

God uses in His great purposes unexpected people, and often with unlikely weapons. Shamgar ”…struck down six hundred Philistines with an oxgoad.” ‘An oxgoad is a metal-tipped wooden rod used for prodding or goading plough animals…Even the humblest ”weapon” can be effective when God strengthens the arm of the one using it.’ Tom Hale

‘He turns our weaknesses into His opportunities, so that the glory goes to Him’ (Graham Kendrick)

I am encouraged today by this reading. It seems to me that what I have to offer is small, and weak, and not likely to win victories, ”… but with God all things are possible.” (Matt.19:26).

Again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord, and because they did this evil the Lord gave Eglon king of Moab power over Israel. ¹³ Getting the Ammonites and Amalekites to join him, Eglon came and attacked Israel, and they took possession of the City of Palms. ¹⁴ The Israelites were subject to Eglon king of Moab for eighteen years.

¹⁵ Again the Israelites cried out to the Lord, and he gave them a deliverer—Ehud, a left-handed man, the son of Gera the Benjamite. The Israelites sent him with tribute to Eglon king of Moab. ¹⁶ Now Ehud had made a double-edged sword about a cubit long, which he strapped to his right thigh under his clothing. ¹⁷ He presented the tribute to Eglon king of Moab, who was a very fat man. ¹⁸ After Ehud had presented the tribute, he sent on their way those who had carried it. ¹⁹ But on reaching the stone images near Gilgal he himself went back to Eglon and said, “Your Majesty, I have a secret message for you.”

The king said to his attendants, “Leave us!” And they all left.

²⁰ Ehud then approached him while he was sitting alone in the upper room of his palace and said, “I have a message from God for you.” As the king rose from his seat, ²¹ Ehud reached with his left hand, drew the sword from his right thigh and plunged it into the king’s belly. ²² Even the handle sank in after the blade, and his bowels discharged. Ehud did not pull the sword out, and the fat closed in over it. ²³ Then Ehud went out to the porch; he shut the doors of the upper room behind him and locked them.

²⁴ After he had gone, the servants came and found the doors of the upper room locked. They said, “He must be relieving himself in the inner room of the palace.” ²⁵ They waited to the point of embarrassment, but when he did not open the doors of the room, they took a key and unlocked them. There they saw their lord fallen to the floor, dead.

²⁶ While they waited, Ehud got away. He passed by the stone images and escaped to Seirah. ²⁷ When he arrived there, he blew a trumpet in the hill country of Ephraim, and the Israelites went down with him from the hills, with him leading them.

²⁸ “Follow me,” he ordered, “for the Lord has given Moab, your enemy, into your hands.” So they followed him down and took possession of the fords of the Jordan that led to Moab; they allowed no one to cross over. ²⁹ At that time they struck down about ten thousand Moabites, all vigorous and strong; not one escaped. ³⁰ That day Moab was made subject to Israel, and the land had peace for eighty years. (NIV)

There are rather disgusting details in this story, but it is, at the same time, thoroughly compelling! Anyone reading it through New Testament eyes is surely going to remember Hebrews 4:12:

”For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.”

We may also think about Ephesians 6:17:

”Take…the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.”

There can be no doubt that, at times, God’s Word cuts through and exposes deep things. We can feel its sharpness, like at Pentecost when people were ”cut to the heart” (Acts 2:37).

It is mighty to put our enemy to flight. No wonder he hates it! He clearly does.

We must not forget that Israel found themselves in dire straits because of their sin (12), but we can also praise God that He is wonderfully merciful to those who sincerely call on Him (15), and He is mighty to save.

PRAYER: Examine me, God! Look at my heart!
    Put me to the test! Know my anxious thoughts!
Look to see if there is any idolatrous way in me,
    then lead me on the eternal path! (Ps.139:23,24: Common English Bible)