II. REMINDED OF DAVID'S FOLLY. "There is nothing better for me than that I should speedily escape into the land of the Philistines." But nothing could have been worse. For by this step — he would alienate the affections of the Israelites from him — be would justify the reproaches of the enemy — he would deprive himself of the means of grace and the ordinances of religion — he would grieve his soul with the vice and idolatry of the heathen — he would put himself out of the warrant of Divine protection — and lay himself under peculiar obligation to those whom he could not serve without betraying the cause of God.

1. How much depends on one improper step. The effects may be remediless, and give a complexion to all our future days. Our reputation, our comfort, our usefulness, our religion, our very salvation, may binge upon it.

2. Let us learn how incompetent we are to judge for ourselves.

(W. Jay.)

I. LET US EXAMINE THIS SUDDEN RESOLUTION.

1. It was the suggestion of worldly policy. "David said in his heart." Never act in a panic; nor allow man to dictate to thee; calm thyself and be still; force thyself into the quiet of thy closet until the pulse beats normally and the scare has ceased to perturb. When thou art most eager to act is the time when thou wilt make the most pitiable mistakes.

2. It was very dishonouring to God. Surely, then, it, was unworthy of David to say, in effect: "I am beginning to fear that God has undertaken more than He can carry through. True, He has kept me hitherto; but I question if He can make me surmount the growing difficulties of my situation. Saul will. sooner or later, accomplish his designs against me; it is a mistake to attempt the impossible. I have waited till I am tired; it is time to use my own wits, and extricate myself while I can from the nets that are being drawn over my path." How much easier it is to indicate a true course to others in hours of comparative security, than to stand to it under a squall of wind!

3. It was highly injurious. Philistia was full of idol temples and idolatrous priests (2 Samuel 5:21). What fellowship could David look for with the Divine Spirit who had chosen Israel for his people and Jacob for the lot of his inheritance? How could he sing the Lord's songs in a strange land?

4. It was the entrance on a course that demanded the perpetual practice of deceit. The whole behaviour of David at this time was utterly unworthy of his high character as God's anointed servant.

5. It was also a barren time in his religious experience. No psalms are credited to this period. The sweet singer was mute.

(F. B. Meyer, B. A.)

1. We might conclude it to be false upon the very face of it, because there certainly was no evidence to prove it. On no one occasion had the Lord deserted his servant. Now, mark. When you and I doubt God's Word there is this to be said of it, we mistrust it without a cause.

2. But, again, what David said in his heart was not only without evidence, but it was contrary to evidence. What reason had he to believe that God would leave him? Rather, how many evidences had he to conclude that the Lord neither could nor would leave him?

3. This exclamation of David was contrary to God's promises. Samuel had poured the anointing oil on David's head — God's earnest and promise that David should be king. Let David die by the hand of Saul, how can the promise be fulfilled?

4. But further, this wicked exclamation of David was contrary to what he himself had often said. Yet once more, this exclamation of David was contrary to the facts. I mean not merely contrary to the facts that were in evidence, but contrary to the facts that were transpiring at that very moment. Where was Saul?

II. HOW WAS IT THAT DAVID CAME TO THINK THUS OF HIS GOD?

1. The first answer I give is, because he was a man. The best of men are men at the best; and man at the best, is such a creature that well might David himself say, "Lord, what is man?"

2. But again, you must consider that David had been exposed to a very long trial; not for one week, but for month after month, he had been hunted like a partridge upon the mountains. Now, a man could bear one trial, but a perpetuity of tribulation is very hard to bear.

3. Then again, you must remember, David had passed through some strong excitements of mind.

III. WHAT WERE THE ILL-EFFECTS OF DAVID'S UNBELIEF?

1. It made him do a foolish thing, the same foolish thing which he had rued once before. He goes to the same Achish again! Yes, and mark ye, although you and I know the bitterness of sin, yet if we are left to our own unbelief, we shall fall into the same sin again.

2. But next: for the beginning of sin is like the letting out of water, and we go from bad to worse, he went over to the Lord's enemies. He that killed Goliath sought a refuge in Goliath's land; he who smote the Philistines trusts in the Philistines; nay, more, he who was Israel's champion, becomes the chamberlain to Achish.

3. That not only thus did David become numbered with God's enemies, but that he actually went into open sin. David did two very evil things. He acted the part of a liar and deceiver. He went out and slew the Geshurites, and sundry other tribes, and this he did often. When he came back, Achish asked him where he had been, and he said he had been to the south of Judah — that is to say, he made Achish believe that his incursions were made against his own people, instead of being made against the allies of Philistia. This he kept up for a long time; and then, as one sin never goes without a companion, for the devil's hounds always hunt in couples, he was guilty of bloodshed, for into whatsoever town he went he put all the inhabitants to death; he spared neither man, nor woman, nor child, lest they should tell the king of Philistia where he had been. So that one sin led him on to another. And this is a very sorrowful part of David's life. He that believes God, and acts in faith, acts with dignity, and other men will stoop before him and pay him reverence; but he who disbelieves his God, and begins to act in his own carnal wisdom, will soon be this, and that, and the other, and the enemy will say, "Aha, aha, so would we have it," while the godly will say, "How are the mighty fallen! how hath the strong man been given up unto his adversary!"

4. Furthermore, not only was David guilty of all this, but he was on the verge of being guilty of still worse sin — of covert acts of warfare against the Lord's people; for David having become the friend of Achish, when Achish went to the battle against Israel, David professed his willingness to go. We believe it was only a feigned willingness; but then, you see, we convict him again of falsehood.

5. The last effect of David's sin — and here it blessedly came to close — was this: it brought him into great trial. While David was away with king Achish, the Amalekites invaded the south, and attacked Ziklag, which was David's town. For some reason or other they did not put to death any of the inhabitants, but they took away the whole of the men, the few who were left, the women and children, all their household goods, and stuff, and treasures; and when David came back to Ziklag, there were the bare walls and empty houses, and Ahinoam and Abigail, his two wives, were gone, and all the mighty men who were with him had lost their wives and little ones; and as soon as they saw it, they lifted up their voice and wept. It was not that they had lost their gold and silver, but they had lost everything. That exiled band had lost their own flesh and blood, the partners of their lives. Then they mutinied against their captain, and they said, "Let us stone David." And here is David, a penniless beggar, a leader deserted by his own men, suspected by them probably of having traitorously given up the town to the foe. And then it is written — and O how blessed is that line! — "And David encouraged himself in the Lord his God." Ah! now David is right; now he has come back to his proper anchorage. Sin and smart go together; the child of God cannot sin with impunity. Other men may. Ye that fear not God may go add sin as ye like, and often meet with very little trouble in this world as the consequence of it; but a child of God cannot do that.

( C. H. Spurgeon.)

     8354   trustworthiness

1 Samuel 27:1-12

     8830   suspicion

The Exile --Continued.
As our purpose in this volume is not a complete biography, it will not be necessary to dwell on the subsequent portions of the exile, inasmuch as there is little reference to these in the psalms. We must pass over even that exquisite episode of Abigail, whose graceful presence and "most subtle flow of silver-paced counsel" soothed David's ruffled spirit, and led him captive at once as in a silken leash. The glimpse of old-world ways in the story, the rough mirth of the shearers, the hint of the kind …
Alexander Maclaren—The Life of David

Samuel
Alike from the literary and the historical point of view, the book[1] of Samuel stands midway between the book of Judges and the book of Kings. As we have already seen, the Deuteronomic book of Judges in all probability ran into Samuel and ended in ch. xii.; while the story of David, begun in Samuel, embraces the first two chapters of the first book of Kings. The book of Samuel is not very happily named, as much of it is devoted to Saul and the greater part to David; yet it is not altogether inappropriate, …
John Edgar McFadyen—Introduction to the Old Testament