Last  Wednesday Bucky  covered Psalm 37 and 1Samuel 24 (where David spares Saul’s life).  Please take a few minutes and read both of those before you continue.  Remember, your relationship with God is only as good as what you put into it.  I like how Bucky has connected a Psalm each week to a part of David’s story.  These two (now that you’ve read them) relate because David’s prayer in Psalm 37 revolves around not paying evil with evil but leaving the revenge to the Lord.  And, as usual, David speaks from experience.  David knows if we repay evil with evil, evil will come back to us (our moment of power will be short-lived).  If we truly trust God then we will trust in the justice of God.  Bucky made it clear this Psalm is about one-to-one situations; it generally does not apply to nations. In other words, we must turn the other check and pray for the person, not seek out our own vengeance.  This applies to our families, work, neighbors, etc.  Bucky really threw me when he said David showed meekness when Saul entered that cave to “relieve himself” giving David the chance to kill him (it is amazing the restraint David showed because his men were urging him to kill Saul – a sign of a true leader).  The word meekness just didn’t seem to fit, you know, like,” themeek shall inherit the earth,” from the Beatitudes.  I always thought of the meekas being the wimpy, quiet, nerdy types.  Then Bucky gave the following definition of meekness:  meekness is power and aggression under control and channeled in a different way.  Wow!  David was showing his controlled power by cutting Saul’s robe to let him know he could have killed him.  He was channeling his aggression by pulling back and letting Saul know, “I am not the bad guy here.”    Even though David was on the run from Saul; even though David lost everything (remember the five things he lost from Bucky’s message on Sunday – his job, his wife, his best friend, his spiritual leader and his self respect), David did not repay evil with evil when he had the chance.  David left justice up to God, and even though Saul pulled back in tears this time, he still pursued David and David went through more gut-wrenching situations before God brought that justice.  After all, it is in God’s time, not ours, right?  Imagine if we lived this way in our jobs, with our families and in our neighborhoods.