1 Samuel 24:5,6 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

David's heart smote him His intention in cutting off Saul's skirt was only to give certain proof that he did not seek his life, in that he had spared it when it was wholly in his power; yet no sooner had he done it, but the consideration how Saul might be affected by it, whether it might not enrage him the more, and how the action might be esteemed by others, troubled him greatly. And he said to his men When he returned to them, and they again pressed him, as is probable, to kill Saul; The Lord forbid, &c. He considers Saul now, not as his enemy, and the only person that stood in the way of his preferment, (for then he would have been induced to hearken to the temptation,) but as his master, to whom he was obliged to be faithful, and as the Lord's anointed, whom God had appointed to reign as long as he lived, and who, as such, was under the particular protection of the divine law.