‘All day long they wrest my words,
All their thoughts are against me for evil.'
So now that he is in Philistine territory David finds that he has not escaped from trouble. It still dogs him ‘all day long'. The Philistines are suspicious of this Israelite fugitive who has come among them, and they are questioning him and twisting his words. It is quite clear that they intend trouble against him. Their thoughts are against him. They are for evil and not for good.
‘They gather themselves together,
They hide themselves,
They mark my steps,
Even as they have waited for my life.'
A group of Philistines have apparently got together. They are watching him continually. They try to remain unobserved, although to no avail, and they watch his every step. It is quite clear that they bode no good, and are waiting for his life. He had escaped from Saul only to find himself pursued by the Philistines. If at this stage they were already fairly sure that he was David, one of Saul's most successful commanders (1 Samuel 21:21-22), we can understand why they were suspicious. But it seems that they were not absolutely sure of their ground. Later they would detain him and bring him before Achish, one of the five Philistine Rulers (1 Samuel 21:14), but by this time David, aware of his great danger, had begun to feign madness so that Achish dismissed him in contempt.
‘Will they escape by iniquity?
In anger cast down the peoples, O God.'
In David's eyes these men are accountable to God, and what they are planning is iniquitous. He feels that as a fugitive (and as the anointed of YHWH) he deserves consideration, and that all they are doing is make things worse for him. He had come in good faith and sought refuge among them. Did they think that they could escape any threat that he posed by failing to show hospitality and doing him harm? Was he not only one among many? To David's pure soul this was not acceptable conduct, it was inexcusable (it was the opposite of what he would have done). And he calls on God in His anger against their perfidy to ‘cast down the peoples', that is, all who are causing him trouble, whether Israelite or Canaanite or Philistine, and all who are like them. At present he sees the whole world as against him. Everyone has proved to be his enemy.