Success Through Failure

“I sought the LORD, and He heard me, And delivered me from all my fears.”

Psalm 34:4  


In studying the life of Peter I am reminded of something a friend shared with me years ago. He wrote me a letter explaining that he had come to know from personal experience that as a believer we understand its, “life through death, strength through weakness and success through failure.” Success through failure reveals to us the amazing grace of God. Have you ever made a bad choice where once you made it, its as if a light came on and you find yourself in the worst possible place, maybe even a life threatening place at that. If so, just know that you aren’t alone. In Psalm 34 David is on the run, hiding from Israel’s first King, Saul and his army who are out searching to kill him. The good news for David, God is about to deliver him from the very dumb decision he made. What was David’s dumb decision you might be thinking. David got a bright idea that he would go to the city of Gath, thinking Saul would never look for him there. The Philistines were the sworn enemies of Israel so David must have thought it would be the perfect place to hide as it was the last place Saul would look for him.

The problem for David became apparent once he arrived and there was no turning back. The city was sinful, its people were sinful, everything about the place was dark and ugly in how the people talked and acted and David’s eyes were immediately open, he had messed up. David comes walking into town with Goliath’s sword strapped to his side, a trophy from battle. This wasn’t just any old sword mind you, it had belonged to a giant of a man at 6’9” tall and the people would immediately recognize it as belonging to Goliath.

What could David do? David decided that he would pretend madness before King Abimelech, the king of Gath. David acted like he had gone mad and was allowing the saliva to run down his beard all over himself and then he began to scratch and claw on the gate of the city so that all those who saw him believed that this crazy man who is out of his mind couldn’t be King David of Israel. King Abimelech had enough deranged people around him and he said he didn’t need one more in the city so they opened the gate and put David out of town.

It’s in these moments we learn “Success Through Failure”. Failures Success is when we make a poor choice in life, one where if the Lord doesn’t intervene on our behalf and deliver us, we are going to pay the price maybe the ultimate one. God, for no other reason than that He is good all the time, rescues us. We know it immediately that our lives have been spared. What do we do now. How does our failure become a success?

Success Through Failure is possible each time we fail and get back up and turn to God not away from Him. David was being mistreated by the children of Israel, his very own people and in it he lost his focus. He ran right back into the enemies camp. When we fail there is something in us that is telling us to quit, to give up, to turn back to our old way of life. Successful failure happens when we face moments like that and we decide by faith right then and there to never run back to Gath, to never run to the world to escape mistreatment from among God’s people. Run to God. He has promised to never leave you nor forsake you!  Cry out to God and allow Him to rescue you!

David learned in psalm 34 what each of us must learn in our own lives along the way. “Many lessons of faith are learned in the dark.” Failure isn’t final, loved one, and the devil doesn’t win and he for sure doesn’t get the last word, hope does. If you have failed, fess up and then get up, turn to God and put your trust in Him. Only God can take our failures and gain us the victory!


“The LORD is near to those who have a broken heart, And saves such as have a contrite spirit. Many are the afflictions of the righteous, But the LORD delivers him out of them all.”

Psalm 34:18-19

I LOVE YOU!




Michael Osthimer

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