David marched out with the army and was successful in everything Saul sent him to do. Saul put him in command of the fighting men, which pleased all the people and Saul’s servants as well. As the troops were coming back, when David was returning from killing the Philistine, the women came out from all the cities of Israel to meet King Saul, singing and dancing with tambourines, with shouts of joy, and with three-stringed instruments. As they danced, the women sang, ‘Saul has killed his thousands, but David his tens of thousands.’ Saul was furious and resented this song. ‘They credited tens of thousands to David,’ he complained, ‘but they only credited me with thousands. What more can he have but the kingdom?’ So Saul watched David jealously from that day forward.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

When you are a professional “God-botherer,” as I am sometimes called, you never know when God is going to bother back with a message that needs to be shared. Sometimes it’s just for one person. Sometimes it’s for a whole community. Sometimes it’s for a specific group in a community. This one fits in that last category. Still, though, give this one a read because there just might be something in this you need to hear too. There is a group of individuals in my community who have been through the wringer lately. This post is just a reminder to them that what they do matters. I won’t pull back the curtain on who they are, but when they read this, I suspect they’ll know. Let’s talk about David and work that nobody appreciates.

First, can we just appreciate together the foresight and perfect timing of our God? This post was inspired by the Sunday school lesson my church will use this coming Sunday. (Yes, if you are reading this and in one of those Sunday school classes, this counts as preparing for class.) This lesson was planned out in terms of theme and even detail more than a year ago. It was first devised by someone in one state. It was actually written by someone who lives in another state. The commentary was written by someone living in a third state. None of those are my state. It could go without saying (but I won’t let it) that none of them had any idea what would be going on in my community right now. In fact, when they devised and wrote the lesson, none of the present issues were even on anyone’s radar.

All of that went on in the background, long before this week, and with no knowledge of anything beyond their own circumstances at all. Yet all of those folks did their work faithfully and prayerfully, trusting that God would use their work to accomplish His purposes where and when He had them. As a result, I read it this week and it struck me as just the kind of thing some folks here needed to hear right now. That’s a whole lot of coincidences to all fall into place at just the same time. Why, it’s almost like there really was someone overseeing the whole process so that things turned out here like they did. I wonder how many other churches using this same material across the country are having a similar experience, but one neatly tailored to their own unique circumstances. God is good like that.

In any event, this story comes on the heels of David’s killing of the Philistine giant, Goliath. David’s introduction to the story of Israel is an interesting one. Trying to make it all fit together in a way that is sequentially neat and tidy is a little tricky. Either way, in the wake of David’s dramatic military victory, he was promoted to be an officer among the forces of Israel’s first king, Saul. He was eventually given a command of his own. And as it turned out, this family runt who exactly no one expected to amount to much of anything turned out to be a strategy genius and a pretty proficient warrior in his own right. Everything he touched turned to gold and he found himself experiencing success after success.

Well, nations have always held a special place in their heart for military heroes. Of course, there are exceptions to that rule, but I’m speaking in general here. David was no exception. As his stock began to rise nationally, he became a more and more celebrated hero of the people. His work was making a difference in the nation, and all the people recognized it. What’s more, from what we can see in the text, he had the character to go along with his newfound fame. And he wasn’t just a one-hit wonder either. In addition to leading Saul’s armies, he was an accomplished musician whose skill on the lyre was beloved by Saul to help soothe his mind when he was struggling with anxiety.

David was doing everything well.

That was the problem. He was doing everything so well that the people began to celebrate him more than they were celebrating their paranoid and jealous king. As the women of Israel feted David’s accomplishments with an order of magnitude’s more glory than they did Saul’s, the latter began to lean into his jealous and paranoid nature. He fumed that the only David had left to take from him was the throne itself. Of course, he didn’t know that God had already planned for that, but the thought of it was enough to send him into a tailspin.

What happened next would shape the next decade or more of David’s life. Saul turned on David. He lied to him. He tried to kill him. He managed even finally to turn public opinion against him. The whole time David was faithful to his people and even to the task Saul had given him of keeping Israel safe, but none of his work was appreciated. Little of it was seen or noticed. Some of it was misunderstood. He made some poor choices along the way, but he also quickly repented of those when confronted with them and remained remarkably faithful to the character of God and his own integrity.

Because we know the story, we know that David was eventually fully vindicated. Saul met his just end. This end came in God’s timing and direction. David twice had the opportunity to hasten this justice himself. Both times close friends and counselors insisted this was clearly God’s will for David to take this shortcut to seeing his bitter journey finally come to an end. Both times David was able to recognize the opportunity as a shortcut, and not in fact the path God was calling him to walk. He waited even when everyone told him to act until God made things so abundantly clear that they couldn’t possibly be missed or ignored. And he never stopped doing the work he had been called to do. He recognized who he was doing it for.

When Jesus was preparing to send the disciples off on their first missionary journey, He took some time to prepare them for what they are going to experience along the way. It wasn’t a very encouraging picture. He assured them that people would hate them, abuse them, persecute them, intentionally misunderstand them, willfully mischaracterize their work, and so on and so forth. There would be a price to pay for their faithfulness to the task He was giving them to complete. Even friends and family would potentially turn on them. You can read all about it in Matthew 10. He called them to it anyway. He called them to it anyway because the work was more important than the things they would lose because of their pursuit of it.

It may be that you are in a place where you are facing pushback and even persecution because of the work you are seeking to do. If you are there, you need to ask yourself some questions. First, why are you doing this work? Is this just something you wanted to do, or are you pursuing this because of a calling higher than what most people understand? How are you going about this work? Are you maintaining your character no matter what the world around you does or says? Are you doing the work in a way that honors God by reflecting His character in your approach to it? Is there anything you are doing to invite that pushback or persecution beyond simply doing the work?

If you can say in good conscience that you are innocent of any wrongdoing (and remember: the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately sick; who can understand it?), then if the work you are doing you are doing for the Lord, keep on doing it even when it isn’t understood or appreciated. Keep on doing it faithfully and well even when you are disrespected and falsely accused. The labor you do in and for the Lord will never be in vain. Ever. The one for whom you are really working will see your faithfulness and will reward it when the time is right. That’s a promise. It’s a promise from the same God who predicted and pulled off His own death and resurrection. You can count on it with absolute assurance.

Do not lose hope. The God you serve will have your back as you remain faithful in your pursuit of the task He has called you to complete. And even if there should come a time that you need to quietly move on and keep pursuing the task somewhere, as long as you keep on following God’s lead, He will cover you even then. Keep on pursuing faithfulness even when nobody appreciates it. God does.