The Life of David

Encounter with David & Abigail:

Note, 1. God is to be acknowledged in all the kindnesses that our friends do us either for soul or body. Whoever meet us with counsel, direction, comfort, caution, or seasonable reproof, we must see God sending them. 2. We ought to be very thankful for those happy providences which are means of preventing sin. -Matthew Henry

On Sparing Saul's Life a 2nd Time

The tigerish lust for blood awoke in Abishai. Whatever sad, pitying, half-tender thoughts stirred in David as he looked at the mighty form of Saul, with limbs relaxed in slumber, and perhaps some of the gloom and evil passions charmed out of his face, his nephew’s only thought was,’ What a fair mark! what an easy blow!’ He was brutally eager to strike once, and truculently sure that his arm would make sure that once would be enough. He was religious too, after a strange fierce fashion. God-significantly he does not say ‘Jehovah’; his religion was only the vague belief in a deity-had delivered Saul into David’s hands, and it would be a kind of sin not to kill him. How many bloody tragedies that same unnatural alliance of religion and murderous hate has varnished over! Very beautifully does David’s spirit contrast with this. Abishai represents the natural impulse of us all-to strike at our enemies when we can, to meet hate with hate, and do to another the evil that he would do to us.-MacLaren

On Coming back to Ziklag after the Amalekites had burned it down and taken his family captive:

"At Ziklag in his distress, on his way to the Amalekites, and among the Amalekites.
I. David in his distress. See in it the frequent benefit, of affliction to the people of God. In this instance it did immediately two things for David.

1. It restored him to his spiritual courage and strength. Look ones more to chap. 27. We find there his heart failing him; and, like a frightened deer, he runs away from Judah into the land of the Philistines. Now when did this happen? You will say, “Doubtless when Saul was close behind him ready to take his life;” but no; it was at, a time when it seemed least likely to happen—when David had humbled Saul to the dust by his magnanimity. David says in his heart, “I shall now perish one day by the hand of Saul,” and there goes the once bold champion of Israel, timid and crouching, to seek the protection of a heathen king. See here what man is; see what even a servant of God is, when left to himself. He can fall down without a blow. Now, come again to the chapter before us. Here is this same David, the frightened runaway, calm and fearless, and where? In a situation of the utmost distress and danger; with his home burnt, his family in the hands of his enemies, and with six hundred half frantic men around him threatening to take his life. O, how God sometimes glorifies his grace in our world! “What time I am afraid,” not, in a quiet hour, no, in a fearful hour—“what time I am afraid, I will trust in thee.”

2. David’s affliction restored him also to a holy caution and self-distrust. It led him, though he feared nothing else, to fear himself. He seeks now counsel of the Lord. We should have expected him to have done this before in his fear when he fled into the land of the Philistines, or when he followed the army of Achish against Israel, but he did not do it. “David enquired of the Lord, saying, Shall I pursue this troop? shall I overtake them?” This is what the Scripture means by acknowledging God in our ways. And thus the affliction of David was a benefit to him—it restored him to his spiritual courage and strength, it led him to seek counsel of the Lord and submit his ways to Him. In His people’s case, the Lord turns even these bitter things to a blessed account. So does He love His people, that He cannot even smite them without blessing them. His very judgments become mercies. Thus we find David, in Psalm, of coupling together mercy and judgment, and saying He will rejoice in both and sing of both." - BI

"2. David’s encouragement. And let me say that in your journey go heaven, or in setting about any good work on that journey, you must calculate on meeting with both these things, with both discouragements and encouragements. Your path will not be a uniform one. David’s discouragement was the loss of two hundred men, apparently a formidable loss; it turned out nothing. His encouragement was what? It came from one man one sick man, a man scarcely alive; and he did all that David wanted. " BI

"Here, you observe, was help for David from one who could not help himself; and, as it turned out, effectual help; and help, observe, too, from the very host of his enemies. Anything will serve the Lord when the Lord has to overthrow his enemies or help His people, He needs not move heaven or earth, he needs not create powerful instruments to do it; anything in his mighty hand will do it—a castaway thing, a despised, abandoned thing." BI

"It is not only we who are safe in God’s hands if we are his, all that belongs to us is safe there. It is safe no where else. When we give it up to him, He remembers that we have done so, and takes it as His charge. There is an hour coming when God will let us see that He has taken good care of all that is ours as well as of us, such care as we had scarcely thought of. The health we have lost in His service, the property we may have expended in His cause, the earthly gain or earthly love or honour we have sacrificed for His cake—we shall hear of them again in heaven. O what a recompence for them awaits us there!" (C. Bradley, M. A.)


My own thoughts:

1. David started by doing the right thing and sparing Saul's life in 1 Samuel 26
2. Coming off that, he made a wrong self-protective decision to seek shelter among the Philistines. 1 Samuel 27.  This led him into an alliance with the Philistine King of Gath, Achish.

On Saul and the Witch, and Saul's Death

"As the flash of lightning reveals the hidden scenery around, so the reception of momentous news suddenly reveals character. Two such events we trace—the news of the terrible defeat brought to Saul, and the news of Saul’s death brought to David. Leading his people to meet the Philistines, at whose number he is astonished and affrighted, we come upon Saul as his army is encamped on the slopes of Gilboa." -

"On his predicament in being asked to fight his own people while seeking refuge from Saul in Philistia--

"First, notice we are not told why David does what he does. Under divine inspiration, our author is fully able to inform us of David’s motives and intentions. For example, earlier in 1 Samuel we are told why Saul gives David promotions in leadership and offers David his daughters in marriage. The reason may not be immediately evident to those around Saul, but the author of 1 Samuel informs his readers of Saul’s motivation and intention: he is jealous and threatened by David and fully intends to kill him, thus being rid of him as a rival for the throne. In chapter 27, we are told why David flees to King Achish for sanctuary from Saul: David is afraid and does not believe there is any way to save himself other than by seeking asylum in Philistia. Now, at a time we would very much like to know what David plans to do and why, we are not told.

We know one thing for certain: the author purposely withheld this information from us. The author does not wish us to know what David intends to do or why for several reasons. (1) The author seems to want us to wonder what David is thinking, which enhances the element of mystery and suspense. A good writer holds our interest as much by what he withholds as by what he reveals. (2) The author is not trying to nominate David for sainthood, but portray him as a “man of like passions,” who has doubts and fears and makes mistakes, just as you and I do. (3) Had we been told what David intended to do and why, we would go more easily with David. We would tend to make excuses for him."

We live in a day when situational ethics are common. Situational ethics do not judge an action – say immorality, for instance – as wrong, but seeks to discern “rightness” or “wrongness” on the basis of motives. If a man commits adultery, but out of a “loving,” “caring” concern for the other party, then his actions are not wrong. While there is a certain element of truth here, some things are just plain wrong, and our motivation and attitude in so doing won’t make them right. The author does not seem to want us to “understand” why David acted as he did, but rather to agonize over why David acted this way.

Second, the author departs from a strictly chronological order in these chapters. In chapter 28, we find the Israelites encamped at Gilboa, while the Philistines are at Shunem (28:4). This is quite far to the north and the scene of the actual battle between these two armies (see 31:1). But in chapter 29, the Philistines are gathered at Aphek, while the Israelites are at Jezreel. This is considerably south of the sight described in chapter 28, which means that the events of chapter 29 precede those of chapter 28. The author has purposefully departed from the chronological order of events to a more thematic order. He is more interested in making his point than providing us with a chronological time line. It would seem that the author’s intent is to alternate between Saul and David so as to continually contrast these two men." - Bob Deffinbaugh