Bird's-eye view
In this chapter, we find David at a spiritual low point. Despite having been anointed as the future king, and despite having seen God's remarkable deliverance time and again, most recently in sparing Saul's life a second time, David succumbs to a fit of despairing pragmatism. He reasons in his heart that his luck is about to run out and that Saul will eventually succeed in killing him. His solution is not to cry out to God, not to consult the prophet Gad or the priest Abiathar, but to devise a carnal strategy: flee to the land of the Philistines. This is a man walking by sight and not by faith. He calculates that this move will force Saul to give up the chase, effectively trading a life of fugitive faith in the promised land for a life of compromised security among the uncircumcised. The plan appears to work, as Saul does indeed call off the hunt. But this entire episode, which lasts for sixteen months, is a case study in the spiritual dangers of letting our circumstances, rather than God's promises, dictate our actions. It is a season of spiritual decline for David, marked by fear, deception, and a troubling silence from God.
Yet, even in David's faithlessness, God remains faithful. The Lord, in His inscrutable sovereignty, uses this misguided sojourn in Gath to preserve David's life, to position him for the throne, and to accomplish His purposes, all without endorsing David's sinful methods. This passage serves as a stark reminder that even the greatest saints can falter, and that our security is never found in our own cleverness, but only in the steadfast covenant love of God, who works all things, including our blunders, together for the good of those who love Him.
Outline
- 1. A Crisis of Faith (1 Sam 27:1-4)
- a. David's Despairing Soliloquy (1 Sam 27:1)
- b. The Pragmatic Solution: Flee to Gath (1 Sam 27:2)
- c. An Unholy Alliance: Settling Among the Philistines (1 Sam 27:3)
- d. A Carnal Peace: Saul Abandons the Pursuit (1 Sam 27:4)
Context In 1 Samuel
This chapter marks a significant shift in the narrative. It follows directly on the heels of the dramatic encounter in the wilderness of Ziph (1 Samuel 26), where David, for the second time, had Saul's life in his hands and refused to kill the Lord's anointed. That event ended with a seeming reconciliation, with Saul blessing David and acknowledging his future kingship. One would expect David to be spiritually encouraged, his faith bolstered by yet another display of God's providential care. Instead, we find the opposite. The emotional and spiritual exhaustion of being hunted has finally caught up with him. This flight to the Philistines is David's second attempt; the first, in 1 Samuel 21, ended with him feigning madness to escape. This time, he comes not as a lone fugitive, but as a commander of 600 men, a formidable mercenary force. This section of David's life, his time in Ziklag, will be characterized by deep moral and spiritual compromise, culminating in the disastrous situation where he is expected to march with the Philistines against Israel. It is a dark chapter, a necessary prelude to the final fall of the house of Saul and the eventual, and gracious, ascent of David to the throne.
Key Issues
- Faith vs. Fear
- Pragmatism and Carnal Reasoning
- The Sovereignty of God in Human Sin
- The Dangers of Worldly Alliances
- Discouragement in the Life of a Believer
- Walking by Sight, Not by Promise
The Logic of Despair
When a man's faith gives way, it is not replaced by a vacuum. It is replaced by another kind of logic, another way of calculating the odds. David, who had faced Goliath with nothing but a sling and a robust confidence in the God of Israel, is now a seasoned warrior with 600 loyal men at his back, and yet he is terrified. Why? Because he stopped looking at God and started looking at Saul. He stopped rehearsing God's promises and started rehearsing his own fears. "One day," he says. This is the language of weary attrition. He has run the numbers, and in his own mind, the house always wins. Saul will keep rolling the dice, and one of these days, David's number will be up. This is the logic of despair, and it is profoundly atheistic. It writes God out of the equation. Once God is removed, the only thing left is to play the odds, to make the "smart" move. And for David, the smart move, the pragmatic move, was to seek refuge with the very enemies of God he was anointed to destroy. This is what happens when we listen to ourselves instead of talking to ourselves, as the Psalmist so often does. David listened to his heart, and his heart gave him some monumentally bad, albeit logical, advice.
Verse by Verse Commentary
1 Then David said in his heart, “Now I will be swept away one day by the hand of Saul. There is nothing better for me than that I should utterly escape into the land of the Philistines. Saul then will despair of searching for me anymore in all the territory of Israel, and I will escape from his hand.”
The whole sorry episode begins with a conversation David has with himself, a soliloquy of unbelief. Notice the source: "David said in his heart." He is not inquiring of the Lord through the Urim and Thummim, which he had with him (1 Sam 23:6-9). He is not consulting with the prophet Gad. He is counseling with his own fears. His conclusion is stark: "I will be swept away one day." This is not the language of faith. Faith looks at the promise of God, which was that David would be king. Despair looks at the probabilities of the circumstance. He had been delivered a dozen times, but his heart tells him the next time will be the last. His solution is equally carnal: "There is nothing better for me." Nothing better? Is God not better? Is His promise not better? In this moment of weakness, David cannot see any alternative beyond his own clever, pragmatic scheme. His goal is no longer to trust God within the land of promise, but simply to "escape from his hand," meaning Saul's hand. He has exchanged a trust in God's hand for a flight from Saul's hand, and the exchange rate is terrible.
2 So David arose and crossed over, he and the six hundred men who were with him, to Achish the son of Maoch, king of Gath.
Action immediately follows the bad counsel of his heart. He doesn't sleep on it; he acts. He "arose and crossed over." This is a significant geographical and spiritual move. He is leaving the territory of Israel, the land of the covenant, and entering the land of the uncircumcised Philistines. And not just any Philistine territory, but Gath, the hometown of Goliath. This is the very same King Achish before whom David had previously drooled and scrabbled on the doors like a madman to save his skin (1 Sam 21:10-15). This time he comes not as a pathetic fugitive, but as a warlord with a private army of 600 men. He is no longer a sheep without a shepherd; he is a wolf looking to be hired out. This is a picture of a believer who has decided that the world's system offers more security than God's promises. He is seeking a truce, an alliance, with the very forces he is called to conquer.
3 And David lived with Achish at Gath, he and his men, each with his household, even David with his two wives, Ahinoam the Jezreelitess, and Abigail the Carmelitess, Nabal’s wife.
David doesn't just make a tactical visit; he settles down. He brings his entire company, every man "with his household." This was not a short-term raid; it was a relocation. The mention of his two wives, Ahinoam and Abigail, underscores the domestic nature of this move. He is setting up house in enemy territory. He is making himself comfortable in exile. This is a man nesting in the land of compromise. Abigail, the wise woman who had turned David from a foolish and bloody course of action back in chapter 25, is present here, but we hear no word of counsel from her. We see a man leading his family and his followers down a path of spiritual peril, all based on a panicky decision made in the echo chamber of his own fearful heart.
4 And it was told to Saul that David had fled to Gath, so he no longer searched for him.
On a purely pragmatic level, David's plan works perfectly. Saul gets the news, and he gives up the chase. And this is one of the great dangers of carnal strategy. When it "works," it seems to validate the unbelief that generated it. David could have looked at this and said, "See? I knew what I was doing. I made the right call." Saul would not dare pursue David into the heart of Philistia's military power. So David gets what he wanted: relief from the immediate pressure. He has escaped the hand of Saul. But in doing so, he has placed himself in a far more dangerous position. He has traded the hot pursuit of a fallen anointed king for the cold, calculating patronage of a pagan king. He has gained a measure of physical safety at the cost of his spiritual integrity. The silence of Saul is purchased with the silence of God. For the next sixteen months, we have no record of David writing a psalm, receiving a prophetic word, or inquiring of the Lord. He got his peace, but it was the peace of the world, not the peace of God.
Application
Every believer, no matter how mature, will face their own "Gath" moments. These are the times when the unrelenting pressure of our circumstances begins to wear down our faith. The trial goes on longer than we expected, the deliverance doesn't come when we wanted, and we begin to listen to the whisper in our hearts that says, "God has forgotten you. You're going to go under. You need to do something." In that moment, the pragmatic, worldly solution starts to look very appealing. It might be a small compromise at work, a dishonest answer to avoid trouble, or seeking comfort in something other than God. It is the temptation to walk by sight, to make a decision based on what seems to work in the world's economy.
David's failure here is a profound warning to us. First, we must be ruthless with the counsel of our own fearful hearts. We must learn, as David himself teaches us in the Psalms, to preach to our own souls. We must command our souls to hope in God, rehearsing His promises when our feelings are screaming the opposite. Second, we must stay in the land. For us, that means staying planted in the means of grace God has provided: the fellowship of the saints, the preaching of the Word, and prayer. David cut himself off from the prophets and priests, and his spiritual life withered. When we are tempted to despair, the answer is not to run away from the church, but to run to it. Finally, we must remember that even when our faith falters, God's faithfulness does not. God did not abandon David in Gath, and He will not abandon us in our foolishness. His sovereign plan cannot be derailed by our sinful pragmatism. Our hope is not in the strength of our grip on Him, but in the strength of His grip on us. He will see us through, even through those seasons when we, like David, take a disastrous detour through the land of the Philistines.