Again, this passage has five separate sayings which were not intended to present a single cohesive thought. And when you look at the sayings individually, you might be forgiven for thinking, “How did Solomon get such a reputation for wisdom?

It’s not that these proverbs aren’t wise, per se – it’s just that they’re so obvious.

God intervened in this difficult situation David found himself in. His only escape from Saul at the time was to join the Philistine army. God worked though Philistine commanders to urge King Achish to not let David and his army go into battle with them.

Was David a valued defector or a threat to the Philistine army from within?

A farmer carefully prepares the soil to increase the chances of a good harvest. But the quality of the seed is of utmost importance. If one out of every ten seeds a farmer planted failed to grow, he would lose ten percent of his crop. If two out of every ten seeds failed to germinate, the farmer would lose 20 percent.

In this story the seed was the highest quality possible.

A friend of mine was a Marine in the Vietnam war. He was on reconnaissance patrol with a group of soldiers one day when they found themselves trapped on a hilltop as night fell. In the darkness they could hear the Vietcong in the surrounding jungle working their way up the slope chanting, “Marine you die. Marine you die.”

Suddenly, in the distance, the Marines could hear the faint sound of a chopper sent to rescue them.

As the disciples wrestled with the question, “Who is Jesus?” it was a slow learning process. They had already seen him heal a Roman centurion’s servant and raise a widow’s son from the dead. They ate with him, walked with him, talked with him. But did they really KNOW Him?

That day’s “lesson” began with a simple request from Jesus: “Let’s cross the lake” (v 22).

Some people playfully use the phrase, “The devil made me do it.” Usually they’re kidding. But they are flirting with a subject that is far more real than they know.

Mention the word “devil” and a Halloween street scene comes to mind with red-suited, barb-tailed, pitch fork wielding devils of all sizes mixed in with the princesses, witches and super heroes. But evil is a dark reality in the world today. And it has been since the seduction of Eve

Everyone experiences hopeless times, feeling cut off from the world, trapped far away from the comforts of home, family and friends. Life’s storms rage, all hell breaks loose, and it seems the proverbial ship is going down.

David was no stranger to this sort of bone crushing weariness.