June 02, 2025
• Rev. Mindie Moore
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JUNE 1: 1 Sam 29
David Among the Philistines
Today we’re continuing our sermon series on David, where we are exploring some of the familiar and maybe less familiar stories of King David’s life. And today, while this may be one of those less familiar narratives, what David experiences is certainly something we have all been through. Because today we get to see David have what is a universal human experience: facing rejection.
Now rejection can take on a lot of different forms. It can be as low key as getting picked last for a team in PE (or maybe that doesn’t feel so low key to some of us...bad middle school memories incoming!) or it can be as jarring as a breakup or losing out on a promotion at work. Whatever form it takes, rejection IS universal...and it is just sort of universally not great.
We come into this story today and we find David in a season of rejection and crisis. His identity is at stake, he’s in a bad place. All of a sudden, the young man who was deemed to be so special...who was anointed king out of all of his brothers...who takes on the undefeatable giant Goliath and wins...the man after God’s own heart...all of a sudden, David moves from being the one who is clearly chosen...to being someone who is clearly rejected.
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No one wants anything to do with him. He doesn’t belong anyplace he goes. He’s become an outsider, longing for a place where he fits.
Now, to be clear, I don’t think that the way God sees David has changed. God's love for him, God’s specific anointing...none of that has gone away. But the circumstances that David is living in are tough and they’re taking a toll.
If you’ve been with us the last couple of weeks, we’ve been exploring the dynamic between David and Saul, who is the current king, the one who immediately preceeds David’s own kingship. And just to summarize their relationship: Saul hates David. And I’m not exaggerating—repeatedly, he’s tried to kill him. He’s unimpressed with David’s anointing and he’s fiercely jealous of him and kind of projects every bad thing that is happening in his life ON David. Things have gotten in such a bad place between David and Saul that David feels like he has no choice but to get as far away from the situation as he can. He’s facing total rejection from Saul and he can’t see any other way forward.
And so David joins up with an unlikely group of people...the Philistines. You can read a little bit more about the Philistines in the insert in your bulletin, but the basic gist of it is that they were sea people, living in places like modern day
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Gaza, and the Israelites were hill country people. And, in what feels like a familiar story, for years and years, they fought over land. They were each other’s enemies. There was no goodwill, compassion, any of that. Just animosity and war. And so you wouldn’t expect that THIS is who David decides to start a new chapter with.
But if you’re David here...you probably think that you don’t have a lot of other options. Because (SLIDE) Rejection can feel like the end of our story. And when we think it’s the end, when we feel like we’ve lost all sense of belonging and purpose...we can go to places and become someone we would never expect to be.
My daughter and I are on a kick right now of watching early 2000s movies. Lindsey Lohan, Reese Witherspoon, Anne Hathaway...I mean, this was the golden age of cinema and I will not be convinced otherwise! And it’s interesting rewatching these movies as an adult, because I’m seeing different themes in them. Mean Girls (SLIDE) is a perfect example of what can happen to us when we face rejection. In this movie, you see this brilliant, kind high schooler named Cady do whatever it takes to belong and as she does that, she becomes this mean, dishonest version of herself. You watch her lose everything about who she is hoping that she will find acceptance.
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Now, I’m not sure I had comparing a Lindsey Lohan movie to a biblical account of King David on my sermon series bingo card, but here we are. Because it is a good reminder that no matter who you are—a king, a high schooler, a middle-aged adult...rejection does something to us. It wounds us. It tells us a narrative about who we are and what our life can look like and if we let it, this narrative can change us in ways that can be so hard to heal from.
If you go back a couple of chapters, starting in Chapter 27, you get more of a complete picture of what begins to happen to David as he puts down roots with the Philistines. He cozies up to Achish, one of the Philistine leaders, and he begins to change. He becomes this incredibly violent and successful raider in order to gain and keep Achish’s trust. He attacks all these groups of people and leaves not a single witness behind. It’s this terrible, bloody legacy that he’s leaving...and it’s got this extra layer of dishonesty to it. Because Achish thinks David is doing the Philistine’s bidding, but really David is taking out all these enemies of his OWN people.
And the text sets up the relational tension that’s building here. It says (SLIDE): 11 David never spared a man or woman so they could be brought back alive to Gath. “Otherwise,” he said, “they
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might talk about us, and say, ‘David did this or that.’” So this was David’s practice during the entire time he lived in the Philistine countryside. 12 Achish trusted David, thinking, David has alienated himself so badly from his own people in Israel that he’ll serve me forever.
What David is building here isn’t sustainable. It’s not honest. It’s not GOOD. It’s not who God has called him to be.
But it’s something.
And that’s the danger when we feel rejected is that sometimes we will be so desperate for belonging that we will hold on to ANYTHING we can get our hands on. Even if it’s not good for us. Even if it’s not true to who we are. Even if it doesn’t serve us.
What’s so unfortunate about David’s choices here is that he doesn’t even find the true acceptance he’s longing for. You heard it in the Scripture reading—David gets full on rejected by the rest of the Philistine leaders when it comes time to go to battle with the Israelite army, led by his old foe King Saul. Achish has told David, “you can count on it—you and your troops are coming into battle with us.” David is here for it. They’ve got an agreement. It’s go time.
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And then the military commanders show up and see what’s happening and they’re like, “I don’t think so.” They want David and his men gone because they don’t for one minute trust this situation that’s developing and they are incredibly suspicious that David is some kind of double agent, just waiting to turn on them.
And so now David is right back where he started: rejected. Without people on his side. Unsure where he fits and what his purpose might be. And it has to be so disappointing because he’s been so tactical. He’s been moving the chess pieces and doing everything he can think of to establish his good name, no matter what it costs him and it STILL doesn’t work!
We see David learn a hard lesson here. A lesson that we all run into at some point in our lives. No matter who we are, no matter what we do, (SLIDE) Sometimes rejection is outside of our control.
This can be such a painful truth to encounter. Sharon McMahon is a New York Times Bestselling author. She runs an Instagram account called “Sharon Says So” that has 1.3 million followers. She’s a big deal. AND I heard her tell a story on a podcast of having this exact same experience. She lives in a really small town and a few years ago, she found herself basically blanket rejected by the moms at her
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kids’ school. One day, she was on group texts, she was going to lunches and after school hangouts...and then, seemingly overnight, she was out. She tried to understand what had happened and if she had done something...and there were no answers. Just a relational wall of rejection. Totally out of her control, nothing she could do to change it. These relationships were just over. That part of her life was just done.
It can be really hard to know what comes next when we find ourselves in that kind of place. Healing from rejection is one of those things that takes a whole lot of time, probably a good amount of therapy, and likely some really honest talks with God. And what I want us to know is that as HARD as this is...and it IS hard, we have to remember that even when it seems like someone else is done with us, God is absolutely NOT. God sees us for who we truly are—beloved, chosen, cared for, good exactly as we are. And I think if we can hold on to THAT reminder, that lets us be open to the possibility that sometimes, as painful and terrible as it is, sometimes (SLIDE) rejection can clear the way for something else.
Here's what we need to understand about David and his rejection. That battle that David misses out on? The one he SO BADLY wants to be part of? Being in that battle would have ruined his life. Because in this specific battle, King Saul
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dies. And that means David would have found himself trying to make an impossible choice...does he participate in the killing of King Saul, which will haunt him forever; which will tarnish his reputation among his people and make his kingship so very complicated? OR does he turn on the Philistines in order to NOT do that, confirm the suspicions of these army commanders, and end up dead himself?
Being rejected ends up saving him from the very thing that would have destroyed him. Now, I know that it’s not always that simple in our stories. And I don’t tell you this about David because I think you should gloss over the rejections you’ve faced in your life and create some kind of fake meaning from them. To be as transparent as I can possibly be with you today, the places I’ve experienced rejection are some of the places that have been the SLOWEST to heal in my own life. I wish that wasn’t true, but it just is. It cuts in a really unique way.
But I think what God invites us to do is to both tell the truth about the pain of rejection...and to be open to the reality of possibility. To let ourselves even just start with being curious about what God could be up to. To be on the lookout for what doors might be open, even just a little crack. It might actually be a really helpful spiritual practice for you to take some time this week and reflect on your story and your own
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moments of experiencing rejection. Give yourself the space to really examine it. Maybe ask yourself these questions (SLIDE):
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Where did I experience rejection?
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How was God present during that time?
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How might that rejection have paved the way to something else?
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What people or situations showed up to be lifegiving in the middle of pain?
I don’t always understand how God works. I can’t predict the timeline and the way things unfold often leaves me with a lot of questions. But alongside my doubt and frustration, I’ve had so many moments, and maybe you have too, where I’ve seen God at work.
And maybe one of the most important things for us to remember is that rejection shows up again and again throughout Scripture. God is not a stranger, people of faith are no strangers, to what it’s like to go through this.
Isaiah 53:3 "He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief,"
John 1:11 says, "He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him,".
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Matthew 21:42 and Mark 12:10 mention the "stone the builders rejected," referring to Jesus, which became the cornerstone.
Even in the story of Jesus’ crucifixion, Pilate and Jesus have this heartbreaking conversation where Pilate tells him, “I find no fault with you” but then Jesus faces the ultimate rejection of being sent to the cross like a criminal.
Rejection will be part of our stories, at some point, some time, no matter who we are. Maybe this is something you’ve experienced recently. Maybe it’s a part of your past. Whatever role rejection has played in your story, here’s what I hope: I hope that in the midst of the confusion, the wounds, the anger, the sadness...I hope you can hold on to the truth that you have a place of belonging that can never be taken away. That you have a God who not only makes space for you but who CELEBRATES you. Who loves you without question or condition. And that this love goes with you into every situation of your life. It won’t leave you. It won’t abandon you. And this love absolutely never will reject you.
And what is beautiful is that we have a practice, right here in the church, every single month, where we remember that love. We remember that belonging. We eat bread and drink juice like it is an antidote to rejection. Because when we
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come to this table, every single person is welcome. Full stop, no hoops to jump through. Just you. Exactly as you are.
So as we go to the Communion table together now, I invite you to receive the love, the grace, the BELONGING of Jesus. This belonging is for you, from God, and to experience and live out every single day.
Transition to communion.