1 Samuel 29

27 1 And David said in his heart, I shall now perish one day by the hand of Saul: there is nothing better for me than that I should escape into the land of the Philistines; and Saul shall despair of me, to seek me any more in all the borders of Israel: so shall I escape out of his hand. And David arose, and passed over, he and the six hundred men that were with him, unto Achish the son of Maoch, king of Gath. And David dwelt with Achish at Gath, he and his men, every man with his household, even David with his two wives, Ahinoam the Jezreel- itess, and Abigail the Carmelitess, Nabal’s wife. And it was told Saul that David was fled to Gath: and he sought no more again for him. 5 And David said unto Achish, If now I have found grace in thine eyes, let them give me a place in one of the cities in the country, that I may dwell there: for why should thy servant dwell in the royal city with thee? Then Achish gave him Ziklag that day: wherefore Ziklag pertaineth unto the kings of Judah unto this day. And the number of the days that David dwelt in the country of the Philistines was a full year and four months.

Verses 8-12. David makes a destructive raid upon the Geshurites, Girsites, and Amalekites, but gives a false account to Achish.

28 1 And it came to pass in those days, that the Philistines gathered their hosts together for warfare, to fight with Israel. And Achish said unto David, Know thou assuredly, that thou shalt go out with me in the host, thou and thy men. And David said to Achish, Therefore thou shalt know what thy servant will do. And Achish said to David, Therefore will I make thee keeper of mine head forever.

29 2 And the lords of the Philistines passed on by hundreds, and by thousands: and David and his men passed on in the rearward with Achish.

Verses 3-8. At the demand of the Philistine lords, Achish dismisses David with kindly words of warm approval.

9. And Achish answered and said to David, I know that thou art good in my sight, as an angel of God: notwithstanding the princes of the Philistines have said, He shall not go up with us to the battle. Wherefore now rise up early in the morning with the servants of thy lord that are come with thee: and as soon as ye be up early in the morning, and have light, depart, 11 So David rose up early, he and his men, to depart in the morning, to return into the land of the Philistines. And the Philistines went up to Jezreel.

Notwithstanding Saul’s seeming contrition and request for David’s kindness to his family, David’s faith in Saul’s word was utterly broken, and his fortitude and faith in God again yielded to despondency because of his outcast, fugitive condition. Then followed the invariable consequence of a failing faith, lapse into self-trust, and the following of one’s own plans, in practical disbelief of God’s care and disregard of His purposes. And so David sinned, in seeking that protection from Israel’s inveterate foes, the Philistines, which he should have continued to find in God alone; and during the eighteen months that he abode in the Philistine city of Ziklag, until Saul’s death, his false position required repeated deceits and falsehoods. But God protected him and forbore with him, for he saw the truth that still was in his heart, and out of the sad infirmity and sin which for a time overlaid and deadened that truth, He wrought a conviction and contrition in David’s soul, by which his future was made better and greater, and the lessons of his life, shown in his after history and taught in his Psalms, have become far more effective and blessed. B.

1. In his collision with Nabal we saw David fail in what seemed one of his strong points—the very spirit of self-control which he had exercised so remarkably toward Saul; and now we see him fail in another of his strong points—the spirit of trust toward God. Could anything show more clearly that even the most eminent graces of the saints spring from no native fountain of goodness within them, but depend on the continuance of their vital fellowship with Him of whom the Psalmist said, “All my springs are in Thee”? Carelessness and prayerlessness interrupt that fellowship; the supply of daily strength ceases to come; temptation arises, and they become weak like other men. “Abide in Me,” said our Lord, with special emphasis on the need of permanence in the relation. W. G. B.

David’s faith failed, and he was afraid. There is no mention of his having prayed, or consulted God through the priest, as at other times. In his unworthy fear he took counsel with himself, and “said in his heart” that he would surely perish. He fails at a strong point. The real clew to his misconduct lies here—that he lost hold of God and fell through unbelief, allowed himself to doubt whether God would or could keep him in some strait, and took to trusting and keeping himself. So he fell into unworthy company, or betook himself to unworthy devices; and the end is what you see—dishonesty, duplicity, prevarication. David’s cries to God in the Psalms, and his way of repeating to himself that God was on his side, and was able to defend and deliver him, indicate not obscurely his inward struggle. If he had felt no fear he would not have thought of writing, “I will not fear what man can do to me.” If he had known no failure of faith he would not have said so much as he has of crying after God and putting his trust in him. D. F.

How many evident experiments had David of God’s deliverances; how certain and clear predictions of his future kingdom; how infallible an earnest was the holy oil wherewith he was anointed, of the crown of Israel? And yet David said in his heart, I shall now perish one day by the hand of Saul: the best faith is but like the twilight, mixed with some degrees of darkness and infidelity; we do utterly misrecon the greatest earthly holiness, if we exempt it from infirmities; it is not long since David told Saul that those wicked enemies of his, which cast him out from abiding in the inheritance of the Lord, did as good as bid him go serve other gods; yet now is he gone from the inheritance of God into the land of the Philistines; that Saul might seek him no more, he hides himself out of the lists of the church, where a good man would not look for him. Bp. H.

God had appointed him to set up his standard in the land of Judah (ch. 22: 5); there God had wonderfully preserved him, and employed him sometimes for the good of his country; why then should he think of deserting his post? How could he expect the protection of the God of Israel, if he went out of the borders of the land of Israel? H.—David was just as secure in Israel as in Gath; and this he might have known from repeated providential deliverances. Great evils came upon David, and he was led into sins and sacrifices, because in a hasty moment of discouragement he lost his confidence in God, and turned aside from the plain path of duty. By that one rash resolution, formed in a moment of despondency, he was led into falsehood, and cruelty, and the sacrifice of religious principles; and in consequence of it his family were carried into captivity, and his own life endangered. He could hardly have suffered more if he had remained in Judea under Saul’s persecutions; and certainly he would not have been led into so many sins. Had he continued there, he might indeed have been driven from place to place, but his life would have been secure; and, moreover, he would have been in the midst of his countrymen of the same religion, and perhaps had he been there at the time of Saul’s death, his presence might have prevented the evils of a disputed succession, and the long civil wars that ensued. But he became discouraged; and then, not satisfied with the Lord’s way of taking care of him, he must mark out some better plan of his own. W. Lewis.

Nevertheless, David entered the land of the Philistines in a far different attitude from that in which he had before appeared there. The inveterate hatred of Saul, now so well known, was his recommendation, and no distrust could be entertained of a man who fled for his life to the enemies of his country—exasperated by wrongs, and willing, it might be supposed, to avenge them. Won by these considerations, and by the assurance that this able leader and valiant troop were withdrawn from the defensive force of Israel, and added to the strength of the Philistines—David found a most friendly reception from the king of Gath. Kit.—Achish bade him welcome, partly out of generosity, being proud of entertaining so brave a man; partly out of policy, hoping to engage him forever to his service, and that his example would invite many more to desert, and come over to him. No doubt he gave David a solemn promise of protection, which he could rely upon, when he could not trust Saul’s promises. H.

6. He brings his wives and families into the royal city (verse 3), which gives the Philistine king security that these Hebrews are his own subjects. David gains favor by his demeanor and the demeanor of his people in the royal city. His request for a town of his own—indicative of his spirit and foresight—is granted. Knox.—Ziklag was assigned to David. It lay near the southern border of the Philistines, close to the southern desert. At Ziklag he was away from the eye of the lords of the Philistines that had always viewed him with such jealousy; he was far away from the still greater jealousy of Saul; and with Geshurites, and Girzites, and Amalekites in his neighborhood, the natural enemies of his country, he had opportunities of using his troop so as at once to improve their discipline and promote the welfare of his native land. W. G. B.—As a matter of fact, David in this city laid the foundation of all his kingdom. Here he could already rule with greater freedom and independence, collect fugitives and deserters around him in larger and larger numbers, send or receive embassies like a prince, and, as a ruler over soldiers and over peaceable citizens, rehearse, on a small scale, those arts by which he afterward acquired and maintained his great kingdom. Ewald.

8,9. The narrator means to say that these three Bedouin tribes were the aboriginal inhabitants of the northwestern portion of the desert between Egypt and South Palestine. R. P. S.—No sooner is he free from Saul’s sword, than he begins an offensive war against the Amalekites, Girzites, Geshurites. He knew these nations branded by God to destruction: neither could his increasing army be maintained with a little: by one act, therefore, he both revenges for God and provides for his host. Had it not been for that old quarrel which God had with this people, David could not be excused from a bloody cruelty in killing whole countries only for the benefit of the spoil; now, his soldiers were at once God’s executioners and their own foragers. Bp. H.

10. He hid it from Achish, with an equivocation. Being asked which way he had made his sally, he answered, Against the south of Judah. It was true, he had invaded those countries that lay south of Judah, but he made Achish believe he had invaded those that lay south in Judah, the Ziphites, for example, that had once and again betrayed him; so Achish understood him, and from thence inferred that he had made his people Israel to abhor him, and so riveted himself in the interest of Achish. The fidelity of Achish to him, his good opinion of him and the confidence he put in him, aggravate his sin in deceiving him thus; which, with some other such instances, David seems penitently to reflect upon, when he prays, Remove from me the way of lying. H.—He meant to deceive him under whom he lived and by whom he was trusted. If Achish were a Philistine, yet he was David’s friend; and if he had been neither, it had not become David to be false. The infirmities of God’s children never appear but in their extremities. It is hard for the best man to say how far he will be tempted. If a man will put himself among Philistines, he cannot promise to come forth innocent. Bp. H.

28 : 1, 2. This chapter opens with preparations among the Philistine lords for vigorous war upon Israel. Achish thinks highly of David as a warrior, and assures him that he and his men must go. David’s reply is skilfully indefinite: “Surely thou shalt see what thy servant can do.” Achish is so much pleased that he would fain make David and his band his own body guard. So Achish retained all confidence in David and was quite ready to take him and his band into the pending invasion of Israel—a fact which made the condition of David intensely critical. Shall he break friendship with Achish, or shall he go with him and fight against Saul and Israel? Unless God interpose to help in this dilemma, who can? H. C.—David could not refuse the confidence he had sought from Achish. He could not renounce the allegiance he had so recently pledged. If he should disobey the king of Gath, he could look for nothing but indignant reproach and a traitor’s doom. If he should obey him, he would, in course of a few days, be fighting against his own nation, and bringing them again under the yoke of the Philistines; and this would be worse than death. Perplexed and reluctant, he marched in the rear of the invading army, suffering inwardly all the more that he was obliged to hide his unwillingness, and to affect a zeal against Israel which his heart disowned.

3-8. How to escape from the dilemma in which he was caught baffled even David’s ready mind; but the Lord always knows how to deliver. He does so through means and agencies that are natural; in this case through the very natural jealousy of the Philistine lords, and their proper military prudence, objecting to have the person of the king intrusted to the keeping of a band of Israelites, and that band commanded by a skilful and daring captain in the rear of their army, where their defection would be most dangerous. D. F.—What peculiar providence was here, that David should be delivered out of his great strait, of either being false to his patron, or fighting against Saul and his own nation! Bp. Wilson.

9,10. The only bright spot in this transaction was the very cordial testimony borne by Achish to the faultless way in which David had uniformly served him. It is seldom indeed that such language as Achish employed can be used of any servant—“I know that thou art good in my sight, as an angel of God.” Achish must have been struck with the utter absence of treachery and of all self-seeking in David. David had shown a singular, unblemished trustworthiness, and in this respect he had kept his light shining before men with a clear, unclouded lustre. Even amid his spiritual backsliding and sad distrust of God, he had never stained his hands with greed or theft, he had in all these respects kept himself unspotted of the world. W. G. B.—The relations of Achish and David appear to have been most honorable to both, and there is something beautiful in the respect and consideration with which this heathen ruler treats the refugee. He does his best to lessen the pain which the communication of the resolve of the princes will cause him, and sends him away with the strongest assurances of interest and confidence. On the other hand, while keenly feeling the implication of the princes, David displays in his self-vindication the art of a skilled diplomatist. He does not say that he wishes to go against Israel, or that he regrets not being permitted to go, but shrewdly asks whether, so far as concerns his past conduct while with Achish, he might not be trusted in conflict with a foe. Chapman.

11. Thus happily relieved from a most difficult position, the son of Jesse marched his men slowly back to Ziklag. Kit.—If it was on the second day’s march that the Philistine lords objected to David’s continuance with them, he would be back at Gath in two days, and on the third day reach Ziklag, as is said in ch. 30 : 1. However difficult David’s position may have been, still every one must condemn his conduct toward Achish as dishonorable; but God, who often deals with men more mercifully than they deserve, nevertheless rescued him from his state of perplexity, and saved him from the necessity of either fighting against his own countrymen or of still more dishonorably breaking his word to Achish by deserting in the battle. He also sent him home just in time to rescue from a miserable fate those whom he loved. R. P. S.

ZIKLAG RAIDED BY AMALEKITES. BY SOUGHT DIVINE DIRECTION, DAVID PURSUES AND DESTROYS INVADERS, AND RECOVERS WIVES AND SPOIL.