He said unto his men; either, first, Before he cut off Saul's lap. Or rather, secondly, Afterwards, when he returned with Saul's lap in his hand, and his soldiers were enraged that he had not killed him. This thing which you persuade me to do, even cut off Saul. Unto my master, whom I must still own for my sovereign lord and king, to whom I owe allegiance whilst he lives, although after his death the right of the kingdom be mine. To stretch forth mine hand against him, to wit, to kill him. A synecdochical expression. See Genesis 37:22. The anointed of the Lord, i.e. anointed by God to the kingdom; by which unction his person was made sacred and inviolable, and is so to be accounted by me, and you, and all his subjects. And as God only exalted him, and God only could pronounce a sentence of deprivation of his kingdom against him; so it belongs to God only to execute his own sentence, and actually to depose him.
Related Commentaries of 1 Samuel 24:6
1 Samuel 24:6
6 And he said unto his men, The LORD forbid that I should do this thing unto my master, the LORD'S anointed, to stretch forth mine hand against him, seeing he is the anointed of the LORD.