It came to pass in those days— The Philistines, recruited about this time, as Sir Isaac Newton judges, by vast numbers of men driven out of Egypt by Amasis, resolve upon a new war with Israel; nor were Samuel's death, and David's disgrace, as we may well judge, inconsiderable motives to it. Achish, who appears to have been commander in chief of the combined army of the Philistines, knew David's merit, and had a thorough confidence in his fidelity; and therefore he resolved to take him with him to the war. Accordingly, he moved the matter to David, and David made him a doubtful answer. Surely thou shalt know what thy servant can do: upon which Achish replies, therefore will I make thee keeper of mine head for ever: that is, in the present military style, he promised to make him captain of his life-guard, and we find by the sequel that he did so; whence, it seems, that Achish understood his answer in the affirmative. But did David promise that he would join in battle against his own people? No such thing. David made no compliance or promise of this kind, but answered ambiguously.—He was undoubtedly in circumstances of great difficulty. But who reduced him to these difficulties? Who forced him to seek refuge among the Philistines? It was Saul, by his causeless, cruel, and unrelenting persecutions; Saul, therefore, was in a great measure answerable for all the evil consequences of it. But must not David have fought against his king and country, or else have fallen off to the Israelites, and ungratefully employed his arms against the Philistines, and Achish his protector? I am not sure that he was reduced to the necessity of doing either. David knew himself destined by Providence to the throne of Israel, and therefore could never have joined Achish to complete their destruction, which must have cut off every possible prospect of his succeeding to the crown. The particular favours that he had received from Achish, laid him under no obligation whatsoever to assist the Philistines in general against his own countrymen. He might have shewed his gratitude to Achish, by affording him protection in his turn, securing his person, and those of many of his people, had the Israelites been victorious over the combined armies. Being often under the divine impulse, he might have made this reply in obedience to the divine inspiration; without being acquainted with that concatenation of events which was foreseen by the Deity, who foreknew that it would be a means of extricating him out of his present difficulties, without exposing him to any in future. As David was frequently inspired with a knowledge of futurity, he might possibly have foreseen that event which freed him from the dilemma into which this promise might, in its utmost latitude, have drawn him; and then it could not have been looked upon by himself as an obligation to take up arms against his king and country, because he foreknew that he never should be put to that trial.
REFLECTIONS.—We have here,
1. The distress to which David is reduced in this war between the Philistines and Israel. Achish, as he justly might, insists on David's going with him to battle. David dared not refuse, though he, no doubt, resolved not to fight against God's people: he, therefore, gives an ambiguous answer, which Achish interprets of his fidelity and valour, and promises to make him captain of his guards for life if he should acquit himself well. Hereupon the Philistines march, and David with them, into the heart of Canaan, and encamp at Shunem, without opposition.
2. Saul, with his forces collected at Gilboa, appears greatly terrified at his danger; and now, no doubt, heartily wishes for David back again, whose presence in the opposite army gives such weight to his foes. The remembrance of his past guilt adds terrors to his present danger, while the sense of his present danger awakens his conscience to a deeper sensibility of his past wickedness. To accumulate his miseries, he receives no answer from God; he is vouchsafed no divine vision in a dream; has no Urim to consult, since the priest is fled with it to David; nor prophet to advise or direct him. At last, he is resolved to have recourse to the devil for advice; but his own former edicts against sorcerers make it difficult to find one, as he had, in pretended zeal for God, or at Samuel's instigation, put to death all such abominable workers of iniquity throughout the land of Israel. Note; (1.) They who refuse to seek God while he may be found, will cry in vain when he refuses to answer. (2.) The troubles of the wicked are doubly aggravated by the terrors of an evil conscience. (3.) To the very sins against which men professed once to be most zealous, they will readily abandon themselves, when they have thrown off the cloke of religion.