1 Samuel 27:1-4

DAVID AT GATH THE SECOND TIME, 1 Samuel 27:1-4.

David had now good reason to believe that his life would be in continual jeopardy as long as he remained in the land of Saul; and seeing in that monarch’s conduct so striking a display of human treachery and deceitfulness, he may have even felt that some of his own men might find occasion at some time to betray him into the hands of his enemy. But the method by which he sought to escape from danger was a very questionable one. Far better for him to have gone away into the wilds of Horeb, as did Elijah in the time of his persecution, and to have there awaited the death of his royal foe. Dr. A. Clarke’s comments on this wrong step in David’s life are not too strong. “There is not one circumstance in this transaction that is not blamable. David joins the enemies of his God and of his country; acts a most inhuman part against the Geshurites and Amalekites, without even the pretence of Divine authority; tells a most deliberate falsehood to Achish, his protector, relative to the people against whom he had perpetrated this cruel act, giving him to understand that he had been destroying the Israelites, his enemies. I undertake no defence of this conduct of David; it is all bad, all defenceless; God vindicates him not.” “This measure was calculated to alienate the affections of the Israelites, and to give credit to the slanders of his accusers; he thus ran himself and his men into the temptations to idolatry; and he laid himself under obligations to those whom he could never favour without betraying the cause of God.” Scott.