[0:00] I'm going to sing the Psalm 13. Psalm 13, the whole psalm.
[0:13] How long wilt thou forget me, Lord? Shall it forever be? O how long shall it be that thou wilt hide thy face from me? How long take counsel in my soul?
[0:26] Still sad in heart shall I? How long exalted over me shall be mine enemy? O Lord, my God, consider well, and answer to me make.
[0:39] Mine eyes enlighten, lest the sleep of death me overtake. Lest that mine enemy should say, against him I prevailed. And those that trouble me rejoice, when I am moved and failed.
[0:53] But I have all my confidence thy mercy set upon. My heart within me shall rejoice in thy salvation. I will unto the Lord my God sing praises cheerfully, because he hath his bounty shown to me abundantly.
[1:13] This whole psalm to God's praise. Psalm 13, how long wilt thou forget me, Lord? Shall it forever be? How long wilt thou forget me, Lord?
[1:33] Shall it forever be? O how long shall it be that thou wilt hide thy face from me?
[1:47] Thou long take counsel in my soul?
[2:10] Still its stagnant heart shall lie? How long exalted over me shall be mine enemy?
[2:35] O Lord, my God, consider well, and answer me.
[2:53] What long will thou forget me, O Lord, my God, consider well, and answer me? My God, consider well, and answer me, O Lord, my God, consider well, and answer me.
[3:07] All yet me overtake. Lest I in my land Let me search him Against him I've revealed And those that come will be rejoiced When I am earned and failed The dying hour of my confidence My mercy is left upon
[4:12] My heart within me shall rejoice In thy salvation I will not turn the Lord my God Sing praisest cheer only Because he hath his tradition To me have and only And we for a short time turn to the passage that we read 1 Samuel chapter 28
[5:25] You can read at verse 3 Now Samuel was dead And all Israel had lamented him And buried him in Ramah Even in his own city And Saul had put away those That had familiar spirits And the wizards out of the land We've been considering Over the last number of weeks The life and ministry Of God's servant Samuel As an Old Testament judge and prophet And given the content text Of the content rather of this chapter It is debatable Whether what we find in this chapter Even should be included
[6:28] In what we mean by the life of Samuel I'll explain what I mean by that Because simply the focus of this chapter Is on the passion of King Saul And we've already mentioned Several times how the life of Samuel And the life of Saul Were interrelated But obviously with the death of Samuel That causes a separation But While the focus is on King Saul What we want to emphasize Is that What we are Reading here Is the fulfillment Of God's word
[7:28] Through Samuel That is what has brought Our attention The declension And end Of This man That God had raised As The first king Of Israel We're going to Just highlight a few things And Probably You will understand That it is not an easy passage To To interpret Because Of the nature of the content But we have already touched On some things that need to Be remembered First of all Can I remind you of How chapter 15 Comes to our conclusion We read there that Samuel went to Ramah
[8:33] And Saul went up to his house To Gibeah Of Saul And Samuel came no more To see Saul Until the day of his death Nevertheless Samuel mourned for Saul And the Lord repented That he had made Saul king Over Israel There was a Physical separation Which I suppose Needs to be Considered An indication Of the Separation Separation That had Occurred At the Command of God Secondly What we Are told here In this chapter And In chapter 25 And verse 1 Is that Samuel was dead And It is clearly The case That The ministry of Samuel
[9:35] Pretty much Came to an end With the exhortation Of Saul But With the declension Of Saul Again Samuel Faded into the Background So that Nothing much Of what he said Or did Is brought to our Attention But The fact That When we Read Chapter 25 Verse 1 Chapter 28 Verse 3 Both the Same Literally And What is said There Is That Samuel Was dead And all Israel Had lamented Him And buried Him In Ramah Even in His own City You would Think that Much more Could have Been said You might Even think That much More Should have Been said In fact
[10:36] If you go Forward To the To the Point of The death Of Of Jonathan And David And the Account that We are Given of David's Jonathan And Saul Rather The account That we are Given Of David's Lament And how Much Detail He went Into Concerning His own Grief And what He thought Of Of Saul And what He thought Of Jonathan David lamented With this Lamentation Over Saul And over Jonathan These words Are very Familiar to You I'm sure They're Lovely Words They're Very Beautiful Words The beauty Of Israel Is slain Upon the High Places However The mighty Fallen Tell it Not in Gath Publish it Not in The streets Of Ascalon Let
[11:37] Not the Daughters Of the Philistines Rejoice Lest the Daughters Of the Uncircumcised Triumph And so On A beautiful Acknowledgement Of the Place that Saul And Jonathan Had in The heart Of Of David And yet When it Comes to Samuel Surely Somebody Would be Found that Would Compose A eulogy Or Say a few Words that Reflected The place That he Had Perhaps it Was because He was Old Very often The old Are forgotten Very often Those who Are their Peers Have left The scene Of time Before them And those Who Are Their Contemporaries Although not Their peers Have little
[12:39] Knowledge Of them Or little Recognition Of the Place that They occupied In the World And that Is most True About God's People You Mark The times When you See the Funeral Of the Professing People of God How little Respect Is given To Many Of these People Who Graced The Cause Of Christ People Who Lived Their life Consistently And Conspicuously By their Adherence To God's Word And yet That Place Is not Given To them By many And that's Not To be It's not Something that We should Be Surprised
[13:40] At That's The way Many People Value The Things Of God Or Otherwise But the Path of Samuel Had been Followed To the Glory of God And the Fact is That he Was Dead And the Fact that He was Dead Does not Mean That he Was not Honored Because we Are told In the Scripture That the Saints of God Are always Remembered By their God The Righteous We are Told Shall be In everlasting Remembrance That's True Whether Men Remember Them Or not Whether Their Name Is Like The Snow On a Dyke Doesn't Matter God God Will Remember
[14:41] Them And God Will Hold Them Dear When I Was Preparing This In the Afternoon There Was I Was When I Came To be Minister In the Presbytery Here I Was One Of The Youngest Of The Ministers One Other Minister Who Was Younger Than Me Currently In the Ministry At That Time And There Were Sixteen Congregations With A Minister In Each One Of Them Apart From One Which Was The One That I Was Going To Minister In And Of That Sixteen There Are Four Surviving Today Three Of Them In Retirement And One Of Them In Another Denomination There Were Five Ministers Who Were In Retirement At The Time
[15:41] And All Of These Men Have Now Vacated Their Place In Time And Entered Into Their Long Home Entered Into The Presence Of The Lord God Knew Them God Honored Them God Took Them To Be With Himself That's The Process That's The Path That We Run We've All Got This To Anticipate Whether We're One Of The Lord's People Or Not Death Will Come And We Will Enter Into The Experience Not Just Of Dying But Of What Death Means The Congregation Here Will Mourn The Passing Of A Former Minister Who Has Gone To Be With His Lord Samuel Was The Same And We Need To Emphasize
[16:41] That Samuel Died And That God Knew Samuel And God Took Samuel To Be With Himself But verse Verse 3 Also Tells Us Of The Seal Of Saul In His Early Reign Probably Given Impetus By The Relationship That He Enjoyed With Samuel And We Read That He Diligently Applied The Law Of God With Regard To The Occult he followed the law concerning mediums and witches and the black arts according to the teachings of the Old Testament and it might be a surprise to you why such a feature was present in that generation some would just say that it was the result of the Canaanite religion that this was very much part of it and although the Canaanite religion was something that was under God's direction supposed to be done away with it still survived and it was very much in evidence when Saul comes to depart from the Lord and we need to remind ourselves of this fact that this is not just a myth this is not a fiction this is the way it was in Saul's day but it's also the way it is in your day you might not be aware of witches and warlocks and wizards and mediums but they still practice and are very much to the fore in our generation
[18:43] I remember reading, just scanning an old newspaper probably in the early 30s, 40s, I don't know it was a long time ago and if you went to the sections of that newspaper that contained advertisements it was quite significant how many people actually showed an interest in the occult that there were mediums who readily and regularly advertised their so-called gift and there were several of them on the pages of these newspapers that's going back decades but that didn't win that didn't go away you'll know yourselves that very recently there was somebody brought to a hotel in Stornoway who was a medium and people were invited to come to that hotel whatever they were going to gain by meeting with that person
[20:05] I don't know but it's something that is in the world something that the world knows a little about it but one thing that you can be sure of there is nothing good about it it is from the darkest pit and it uses the power of darkness and the power of Satan and harnesses the abilities that evil spirits possess and the world has evil spirits in it and Paul in his own day was counselling the Christian believers to be under guard against them but here we see that the very person who was at the forefront of suppressing the power of the occult that he turns to the occult that he turns to witches and medians to further his cause and you will know that he sought Samuel out for advice or help but not during
[21:26] Samuel's ministry because when Samuel sought to direct him he turned away from Samuel and went his own way and now he turns to Samuel but the person whose counsel he once burned is the one he seeks and it just shows you the perverse nature of the way sin works in the heart and mind of men when they go off and when they go off the beaten track you'll notice in verse 5 and 6 that he seeks the Lord and he petitions the Lord but to no avail Saul inquired of the Lord and the Lord answered him not neither by dreams nor by Urim nor by the prophets he couldn't the Lord turned his back on him and that was promised by Samuel that this was going to be his fate and yet what does he do he doesn't accept with good grace what God had judged him for or the judgment that he brought to bear upon him no he then goes against the counsel that Samuel had given him and sought
[22:55] Samuel out the only place he could find Samuel because Saul knew that he was dead the only place he could find him was by going to the medium or whoever it was now the question is for yourself when we read this and I think the emphasis has to fall on this Samuel is dead Samuel is dead and whatever desires all in his heart for Samuel it is not possible for that desire to be met because Samuel is dead whatever he said to him in this world whatever he said to him when he lived whatever he heard from his mouth he was not going to hear it again and the fact that he chooses to seek him out when he is dead is an indication of how far he has gone away from
[24:06] God and the question you ask yourself surely is this does a medium or does a witch have the power to bring Samuel back from the dead in any forum does a witch have power to summon him and you would read this chapter and you would say to yourself well by all accounts it was Samuel that appeared to Saul and spoke to him and what he said sounded like what Samuel would say well what does the Bible say to you about the faith of the believer what does the Bible teach you about a Christian who dies what happens to them where do they go well their bodies they return to the dust they are interred to the dust but the souls of the believer what does the Bible teach you about it well it tells you that the soul of the believer it returns to God the soul of the believer immediately we are told in the shorter catechism immediately enters into glory the words in the larger catechism are this of the west of the confession their souls immediately return to
[25:43] God who gave them the souls of the righteous being then made perfect in holiness are received into the highest heavens where they behold the face of God in life and glory waiting for the full redemption of their bodies that's what the confession teaches that's what the Bible teaches and it's for the believer and we believe that Samuel was one believer a servant of God a judge a prophet and on his death this would be his experience the body would be interred into the dust one of the commentators at least suggests and I'm not sure where this came from I think it's from one of the older translations which suggests that the body of Samuel was buried in under the floor of his home in
[26:51] Ramah which is where he was taken Samuel was dead all Israel had lamented him and buried him in Ramah I'm not sure where they can get that from but it is suggested by some anyway that his body was buried under the floor of his home and the reason for that according to them at least is that it ensured that there would be no marker on his tomb that would encourage people to revere him in his death but we don't need to believe that we don't need to understand it what we do need to believe is that the body was in the dust and the soul was in glory and when we think of the passages in scripture that remind you of occasions where for example on the mount of transfiguration a vision was given where Jesus is seen along with
[27:59] Moses and Elijah does that necessitate that Moses and Elijah were physically present on the mount of transfiguration does that mean that they were taken from glory which was their place the place that God gave to them that they were even temporarily taken from that place does it mean that when the Bible speaks about Abraham's bosom when he Jesus speaks about in parabolic forum speaks about the rich man and Lazarus and Lazarus was seen in the bosom of Abraham and the church speak of Abraham's bosom or something that that means something more than just a physical presence in glory physical in the sense of the spiritual locus of the soul until the time that the body and soul are reunited at the resurrection when we read the description here given to us in verse 13 what do you think is said here the woman spoke to
[29:23] Saul saying why hast thou deceived me thou art Saul and the king said unto her be not afraid for what thou saw what sawst thou and the woman said unto Saul I saw God ascending out of the earth and there's a doubt in my own mind if you were going to see Samuel it wouldn't come out of the earth because his body was in the grave but his soul was in glory and every image that the Bible presents to us of a heavenly location that descends not as ascends from the pit and you also notice that when the witch describes Samuel Saul does not see Samuel it is the description of the woman of Samuel that enables him to ascertain that it is Samuel if the aim of
[30:26] Saul was to gain comfort and it was he was able he was perplexed he was afraid he was fearful for his own life and what he was seeking was some kind of word of counsel or comfort from Samuel which he wasn't too careful about before Samuel and him parted their ways through but the comfort that could come to him had to come from some other source and if you think that when the Lord is about to comfort you if you are in need of comfort the comfort that he brings to you is on the basis of truth.
[31:16] Never error. It is on the basis of what is righteous and holy and just and true. Never on the basis of what is wrong and impure.
[31:34] And here we find Saul consorting with the dark arts in order to seek comfort. And God supposedly supplying him that comfort through the very thing that he himself had taught Saul to condemn.
[31:54] How likely is that? How probable is it that it was the very person that instructed Saul about the wickedness of what the word is, the consorting with the dead, the very thing that the scripture condemned.
[32:19] The only comfort the enemy of your soul will give you is a comfort that is false.
[32:30] He'll do anything in his power to encourage you in the path that is taking you away from God. Nothing to encourage you to come to God. And I have to confess that when I was preparing this, I was looking at, I've just got three commentaries I refer to on the book of Samuel, and none of them really said much about this event.
[32:56] They were very careful about how to deal with it. So I felt for myself that when I read this, this was the only conclusion that you could come to.
[33:07] So I was thankful when I read Matthew Poole that I was in agreement with him, because his opinion was that this was the devil representing Samuel to Saul.
[33:23] And it was not a good, but an evil spirit that received worship from Saul. Because if it was a good spirit rather than an evil spirit, you know, Saul bowed, prostrated himself in the presence of that spirit.
[33:45] And if that spirit was from God, that would have been forbidden by him. And more importantly, I don't think God would break his own promise to his people.
[34:00] And it is a promise. It is a promise given by the Lord to the thief on the cross. Today you shall be with me in paradise. What value is that promise if on a whim or just for the sake of necessity that paradise peace is broken and they're plugged from glory to serve a purpose of an individual who should have known better what the Lord was intent on doing.
[34:31] We see the true position of Saul spiritually when he swears by the name of God while at the same time trying to reverse the very judgment that God had pronounced upon him through Samuel.
[34:53] It's just a typical inconsistency that you see when there's confusion reigning and confusion and confusion reigns often when the people depart from the ways of God willingly.
[35:11] So I suppose the fact of the matter is although we've arrived at this point in the experience of Saul that what we see here is not really Samuel but the God of heaven proved true in the end that Saul is about to suffer as revealed by the prophet as taught by the Lord.
[35:44] Yes, the Lord was going to take the kingdom from him and give it to another and that is exactly what was about to happen.
[35:59] The book of Samuel continues and the life story of David takes up where Saul concludes.
[36:11] But Samuel himself has left the scene of time and his name is heralded and highlighted as a servant who lived in obedience to God and who lived his life from the beginning to the end as one dedicated to that God.
[36:37] And as we said the Lord honoured him in his life and he honoured him in his death. And the glory that he enjoys today is the glory that God's people enjoy.
[36:50] Same glory. I won't go into the detail of who gets the greater glory. That's the Lord's people speculating on who deserves more from God.
[37:10] where there's a tear system in heaven where the faithful are rewarded and those who are less faithful will get a lesser reward.
[37:23] Well that's something for another day. But we know that from the scripture that whatever the reward is that all the saints will cast their crowns at the feet of their saviour rejoicing in the fact that he has taken them to be with himself and no one.
[37:45] Not even God will take them from that place that he has prepared for them and that he has prepared them for. And that is what we believe concerning this man of God.
[37:58] We pray that these thoughts would be blessed to us. Let us pray. O Lord our God we give thanks for your word. We pray forgiveness for anything that we have said in connection with it that is not in conformity to your own word and your will for us in it.
[38:23] We pray for light in darkness at all times. We pray for the guidance of your spirit, the teachable heart to remedy even the wrongs that we are guilty of.
[38:39] May we always come to you to seek that and to seek you to be our guide and our stay in all things. We pray for your blessing upon our congregation here and upon all who are a part of it.
[38:59] Particularly we think of those whose hearts may be heavy as they hear the news of their former pastor removed from this scene of times.
[39:10] But thankful at the same time that those who have served you in this world and who did their utmost with gifts and the graces you entailed them with to present Christ and to sing his praises that when their races run in this world that what you have provided for them will never be found wanting.
[39:39] So remember the grieving families and remember all who join with them in their grief. We are aware of some who have no knowledge of the comfort that your word brings.
[39:52] But we pray that even in the darkest hour of death that you would bring your light. Forgives in Jesus' name. Amen. The closing Psalm is Psalm 88.
[40:08] Psalm 88. And we're singing in Gaelic. Ye hotha ye malvaniar or hithmi u'eill isawah.
[40:22] A diagonal five hich another type.
[40:41] The Horn seu sa He's not the best in love.. Stories about UFO people.. ..and the kids behind them..
[40:54] ..that is to say nothing but people who want to为 them are open among them. Kindly it'siku, the creates surprise.
[41:05] That is my second bond. There is no letterboxd translating.. ..then someone else can talk to you happily. For since I was still there, for handle two verses from the beginning of Psalm 88.
[41:21] Jehovah, Jeh человек! Or God will I come to do so? Thank you.
[42:13] Thank you.
[42:43] Thank you.
[43:13] Thank you.
[43:43] Thank you.
[44:13] Thank you.
[44:43] Thank you. Thank you.