Fairy tales have their share of peril (big bad wolves, wicked stepmothers, plotting witches, perilous spinning wheels and so on), but they tend to end with the words ‘and they all lived happily ever after.’ As Aaron Shust reminds us, though,
‘There’s no such thing as Peter Pan,
No such place as Never Never Land,
I wish we all could have
Those tiny magic wings.
But we live in a world with wars;
It’s not like it was before.
We won’t find our happy ever after here:
There’s no such thing.’ (‘Ever After’, Aaron Shust)
Our ‘happily ever after’ does not come in this world or in this lifetime, and David is proof that living under God’s anointing and calling is no guarantee of a stress-free, problem-free life. In actual fact, trials and testings are part and parcel of life on earth because of sin, and 1 Samuel 19 reminds us that the myth of a perfect life without trouble is as much a fairy tale as those we read to our children – and about as real.
The Biblical story is rooted in reality, not myth. Troubles are real, and the Bible stories we read in the historical books are not fiction. They don’t gloss over sin or trouble or injustice or any of the things that make our world difficult to endure. But they also remind us that there is more going on in these stories than can be seen at first glance. When we take the long view of Scripture, we see God working for good in all things. (Rom 8:28) David faced murderous opposition from King Saul, even though he had done nothing to provoke this (see also Ps 59, written at this time.) David fleeing from Saul and hiding in Ramah cannot have seemed like a promising fulfilment of God’s plans for David’s life, but he learned through this difficult period to trust God as his fortress, refuge and deliverer. When we face opposition and difficult times in life, we must learn to do the same.
