Truth in the Shadow

David flees, hungry and hunted; the psalm teaches us how such a man must pray; the apostle teaches us how such a man must live. In danger, holy men may be brought very low. David takes the consecrated bread and hides himself by dissimulation. The church does not flatter this. Peter of Alexandria speaks plainly of those "who have used dissimulation like David, who reigned himself to be mad to avoid death, being not mad in reality." Scripture does not hide the weakness of the saints. Yet neither does it cast them off without hope. David cries, “Enter not into judgment with thy servant,” and asks to be taught the way he should go. Repentance is not a mood but a return to truth.

So Paul says he has renounced hidden shame and refuses craftiness. Affliction does not excuse deceit in the service of God. We carry treasure in earthen vessels, and so we are pressed, perplexed, pursued, and struck down; but we do not yield the ministry to falsehood or lose heart under blows. The righteous man may be chased into caves and dark places, but he must still set his face toward the Lord, not toward schemes.

This is how present trouble becomes light: not because pain is small, but because the resurrection is weighty. As Chrysostom says, "How then light? While we look not at the things that are seen, but at the things that are not seen. So will both this present be light and that future great, if we withdraw ourselves from the things that are seen. For the things that are seen are temporal." Therefore pray at the appointed hours, speak truth without ornament, ask mercy without presumption, and endure hardship without turning aside to crooked means.