Saul answered, “Am I not a Binghamite from the least of the tribes of Israel? Is not my clan the humblest of all the clans of the tribe of Benjamin? Why then have you spoken to me in this way.”
– 1 Samuel 9:21
When we read this passage, we think about how we’ve seen in Moses and Gideon and we’ll see later in David and other places in the Bible where people feel unfit for that to which God has called them, and we’ve talked about this on previous podcast episodes. What’s interesting though is that Saul has that kind of humility, as God is calling him to be king, his first reaction is, “Who am I? Like I’m the least, one of the least tribes of Israel, the humblest of all the clans, why has God spoken to me in this way?”
So he’s humble at the start of his life, but that humility, as we read in the pages to come, turns into pride, and Saul forgets who he is apart from God. Saul ends up rising up in defiance against God and his words, and this is such a clear reminder that humility in the beginning does not guarantee humility in the end.
This Verse Calls Us to Lay Down Our Pride before God
May we lay our pride down daily before God. Let’s pray for lives that are marked by humility in light of God’s grace.
This kind of integrity before God in the beginning, faithfulness to God in the beginning, does not guarantee integrity before God and faithfulness to God in the end, and this is a warning to all of us, to stay, to remain humble before God, to live every single day with a posture of humility and integrity before God, and we should pray for this because we are all prone to pride.
I’m prone to pride, you are prone to pride, to focus on yourself, to trust in yourself, to desire, to exalt yourself, to think about what others think about you more than what God thinks about you, to look for opportunities, to advance yourself, and this is where we need to lay our pride down every day before God and to pray that he would make us humble, that he would make us men, women and children, students with integrity and faithfulness and humility before him.
1 Samuel 9:21 Prays for Humility
God, we pray for these things. I pray for these things in my life. God, I confess my pride before you in so many different ways. God, I want to be rid of it. I want to be rid of pride. I pray for humility, I pray for humility for others who are listening right now. God, help us to see ourselves rightly before you, in need of you. God, please keep us from rising up in pride and desirous for self-advancement, in confidence and self-provision and what we can do on our own.
Keep us from rising up in defiance against your word to us. Help us to humble ourselves under your word every day to live every day for your glory, to live every day in humble obedience to you. God, in every moment, deliver us from pride. We pray for humility. God, we pray for integrity before you. We pray for that today, and God we pray that that would mark our lives every day to the end.
1 Samuel 9:21 Warns against Pride
God, please keep pride from growing in us. Crucify pride in us, we pray. Make us humble men and women before you, before others. Men and women of integrity before you and before others. Men and women who are faithful to love others, to care for others in a Philippians Chapter Two kind of way to put others’ interest above our own, ultimately to put your word above all, your glory above all in our loves, just like we see in Philippians Chapter Two in Jesus. Jesus, we pray that you would help us to live with your humility. In your name. Amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
