CRITICAL AND EXPOSITORY NOTES
1 Samuel 23:9-12. “It is evident from these verses that when the will of God was sought through the Urim and Thummim, the person making the inquiry placed the matter before God in prayer, and received an answer—but always to one particular question. For when David had asked the two questions given in 1 Samuel 22:11, he received the answer to the second question only, and had to ask the first again.” (Keil.)
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH— 1 Samuel 23:7-12
SAUL MARCHES AGAINST KEILAH TO SEIZE DAVID
I. Men often put a false interpretation upon circumstances. Saul never made a greater mistake than when he said of David in Keilah, “God hath delivered him into mine hand.” If this was indeed his belief, it shows us how very greatly men may err in their interpretation of the events of Providence, and how far they may be from a right conception of the light in which God regards both their character and their actions. It seems impossible that Saul could either have misunderstood or forgotten the word of the Lord delivered to him by Samuel; and yet he here speaks as though his pursuit of David was undertaken with the Divine approval, and puts an entirely false meaning upon his present position. When men misinterpret human language, they do so either through ignorance or wilfulness. A man who is but imperfectly acquainted with a language may put a false construction on words spoken or written, and so come to a false conclusion as to the intention of the speaker or writer. So sometimes men, through ignorance, misread God’s providential dealings. Job’s friends entirely misinterpreted the circumstances in which they found the patriarch, concluding that his afflictions were to punish his sin when they were to develop and strengthen his godliness; and other men, who have had no revelation from God, have often doubtless erred in like manner. But by far the most destructive and the greater number of such misinterpretations arise not from ignorance but from wilfulness, as was certainly the case with Saul at this time. Such a wilful mistake was made by the Egyptian host at the Red Sea, when they said of Israel “They are entangled in the land, the wilderness hath shut them in.” The miracles of judgment which had just been wrought in the land of Egypt spoke concerning the character and purposes of the Lord God of the Hebrews in language which could only be wilfully misinterpreted, and hence they had only themselves to blame for their destruction. But such misreadings of God’s providential dealings have not been confined to Old Testament times. We need not wonder that they have been abundant in the history of the Christian Church, when we remember how men misinterpreted the death of Him who founded it, and concluded, when they saw Him hanging upon the cross, that “Himself He could not save.”
II. For a good man in such circumstances there is always a final court of appeal. A child when misjudged or perplexed goes to his father for a verdict or an explanation concerning that which troubles him. To his young mind the wisdom and the goodness resident in his parent constitute him the judge in all disputes, and the one who can solve all difficulties. Every good man thus instinctively turns to God when a wrong interpretation is put either upon his character or his circumstance, or upon both. Conscious of his own sincerity, and fully persuaded, even in the midst of his perplexities, of the wisdom and righteousness of his Heavenly Father, he looks heavenward for help and guidance when every human support fails him. Even Job, amid the terrible storm of afflictions which drew from him many expressions of impatience, and some which seem to impugn the justice of the Most High, ever and anon turns from the charges and expostulations of his mistaken human friends to Him whom he feels in his inmost soul is the final court of appeal, and the only Judge to whom he can safely commit his cause. So David here, perplexed no doubt by the providence which seemed to grow darker at every step, and pained at the ingratitude of the men upon whose gratitude and friendship he must surely have counted, turns again and again to his Father in heaven, and by his appeals and inquiries shows that, although the waves and the billows of adversity are all around him, his faith has not lost her hold, and that he can still hear the “voice of the Lord upon the waters,” and see Him “sitting on the flood” (Psalms 29).
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS
The men of Keilah were neither chivalrous nor grateful. They regarded their own interests as supreme. Like many in our own day, they might profess to aim after the greatest happiness of the greatest number, but when you came to analyse their views, you would find that with them, to use the words of Joseph Hume, “the greatest number was number one!” It was not for their advantage to serve David, and they did not serve him; and I am free to say that all my observation and experience convince me that a large proportion of the present generation would have done as they were willing to do. Of course that does not excuse them, but it should make us cautious as to what we say in their condemnation, lest, haply, we may some day be judged out of our own mouths. Gratitude, chivalry, enthusiasm for the cause of the wronged—what are these words in the mouths of many to-day but words? they sound well, and they are very fine so long as they cost nothing; but let adherence to them put property or life in peril, and too many would cling to the property and the life, and let the others go. Ye who condemn the inhabitants of Keilah because they were willing to betray David, how long would you show gratitude at the risk of the loss of all things? It was a disgrace to them that they would not stand by him who had delivered them; but is it anything less to us, when we allow our worldly interests to blind us to the obligations under which we lie to those who befriended us in our time of need? Is it anything less to us when, for the sake of fashion, or fortune, or fame, we turn our backs upon the Christ, who has borne the agony of Gethsemane and Calvary on our behalf? Idolatry of self is as hideous now as it was in David’s time. Let those who are guilty of it, therefore, look here, and, in the pitiful poltroonery of the men of Keilah they will see how mean and contemptible they look.—Dr. W. M. Taylor.
1 Samuel 23:12. Here is a second inquiry. God loveth to be often sought unto by His praying people (Luke 18:1), and therefore answereth them by degrees, that He may frequently hear from them. Thus the cloud empties not itself at a sudden burst, but dissolved upon the earth drop after drop. Trapp.
Whereas the Lord answereth, that Saul would come down to Keilah, and that the men of Keilah would deliver David into Saul’s hands, and yet neither of these came to pass; hence it cannot be inferred that the predictions of the Lord are uncertain, for the Lord’s answer is here to be understood conditionally.… A difference is here to be made between the prescience of God and the predestination: for the Lord as well seeth what shall be done as what is likely to be done in respect of the second causes; but His decree of predestination is only of those things which shall most certainly be effected.—Willet.
The origin of the thirty-first Psalm is to be traced to this period of wandering, although there is nothing contained in the title of it which authorises this supposition. We meet, however, with many passages in the psalm which quite correspond with the circumstances in which David was then placed. The singer begins with the humble but confiding prayer that God would never let him be put to shame (he was so at that time, when the citizens of Keilah would no longer suffer him to dwell amongst them); but that he would deliver him (the guiltless outlaw) in his righteousness. He prays that the Lord would bow down His ear to him, and deliver him speedily, and be a strong rock to him, and a protecting fortress. The imagery here is plainly suggested by the wild scenes of nature which surrounded the singer. He prays that, for his name’s sake, the Lord would lead him and graciously be near him in the pathless and inhospitable wilderness, and that he would guard his feet from the net which they had laid on all sides to catch him. “Into thine hand,” he coutinues, “I commit my spirit: thou hast redeemed me, O Lord God of truth,” namely, from the violence to which they would surrender me. Moreover, David speaks of himself as one who was forsaken by all the world, and was covered with unmerited reproaches and slanders. He was even guilty of high treason, and had placed himself in opposition to the greatest part of the people, because he was the object of the king’s displeasure. Yet he is far from speaking of himself as free from all guilt. He feels himself as a poor sinner before God, and, with a sigh, gives utterance to the prayer, “Have mercy upon me, O Lord.” Nevertheless he trusted in His mercy whom he confidently called his God; and, after giving praise to the Lord for all the wonderful goodness and the help which he had hitherto vouchsafed to him “in his flight,” he concludes with this call to his brethren in the faith: “O love the Lord, all ye his saints: for the Lord preserveth the faithful, and plentifully rewardeth the proud doer. Be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart, all ye that hope in the Lord.”—Krummacher.