Bird's-eye view
In this brief but significant passage, we find David, the anointed king of Israel, living as a fugitive among the Philistines. Having concluded in a moment of despair that Saul would eventually kill him, David has taken the drastic step of seeking refuge with Achish, the king of Gath. This text details the savvy, and somewhat manipulative, request David makes to relocate from the royal city to a town on the frontier. Achish grants this request, giving him Ziklag, a town that would become strategically important for David and historically significant for Judah. This episode is a master class in God's gritty providence. David is not at his spiritual high point; he is operating out of fear and human cunning. And yet, God is sovereignly working through David's compromised decisions to position him, provide for his men, and prepare him for the throne. It is a stark reminder that God's purposes are not thwarted by the wavering faith of His people. He writes straight with crooked lines.
The passage highlights the tension between faith and pragmatism. David, the giant-slayer, is now a vassal to a Philistine king. He uses courtly flattery and shrewd logic to secure a base of operations. While his methods are worldly, God's hand is not absent. The granting of Ziklag is both a result of David's craftiness and a gift of God's providence. It gives David a measure of autonomy, removes him from the direct and corrupting influence of the Philistine court, and provides a staging ground for the raids he will conduct in the coming months. This is God working in the mess, accomplishing His sovereign will through the tangled motivations of His chosen servant.
Outline
- 1. A Servant's Shrewd Request (1 Sam 27:5-7)
- a. The Diplomatic Appeal (1 Sam 27:5a)
- b. The Strategic Rationale (1 Sam 27:5b)
- c. The Favorable Response (1 Sam 27:6)
- d. The Providential Timeframe (1 Sam 27:7)
Context In 1 Samuel
This section comes after a long and harrowing period of David being hunted by Saul. Twice David has had the opportunity to kill Saul and has refused, choosing to honor the Lord's anointed and trust God for his vindication (1 Sam 24, 26). However, immediately preceding this chapter, David has a crisis of faith. He says in his heart, "I shall now perish one day by the hand of Saul" (1 Sam 27:1). This is a moment of profound discouragement, where David takes his eyes off God's promises and looks instead at his circumstances. His solution is not to cry out to God, but to flee to the land of Israel's sworn enemies, the Philistines. He presents himself to Achish, king of Gath, the very city of Goliath. This move is a desperate gamble, born of fear. The verses that follow our passage detail how David uses Ziklag as a base to raid Israel's southern enemies while deceiving Achish into thinking he is fighting against Judah. This entire sixteen-month period is a low point for David, a time of exile and compromise, yet it serves as the backdrop against which God will ultimately exalt him.
Key Issues
- Faith vs. Fear
- God's Providence in Compromise
- The Ethics of Deception
- Political Cunning and Piety
- The Significance of Ziklag
God's Man in a Foreign Land
We have to get our heads around the fact that God tells stories that are far more rugged than our tidy devotional thoughts would prefer. Here is David, the man after God's own heart, the sweet psalmist of Israel, living a lie in enemy territory. He has fled the promised land and is now a subordinate to a pagan king. This is not a vacation; it is exile. And in this exile, he has to be shrewd to survive. He is a sheep in the midst of wolves, and so he must be wise as a serpent. Some might be tempted to wag a finger at David for his duplicity, but we must remember the situation Saul's madness has forced him into. He is in a state of war, and in a war, deception is a necessary tool. David is not bound by a covenant of peace with the Philistines who seek Israel's destruction. His cunning here is not a mark of sin, but rather a mark of a savvy leader trying to protect his men and his mission in a hostile environment.
More importantly, we must see God's sovereign hand over all of it. David thinks he is securing his own safety through clever maneuvering, but God is the one who is truly securing him. God is the one who gives him favor with Achish. God is the one who provides Ziklag. God is using this time of exile to train David in statecraft, to wean him off self-reliance, and to set the stage for Saul's final downfall. God is not scandalized by the messiness of David's situation. He is in the thick of it, working all things, even David's fear and scheming, for the good of his servant and the glory of His name.
Verse by Verse Commentary
5 Then David said to Achish, “If now I have found favor in your sight, let them give me a place in one of the cities in the country, that I may live there; for why should your servant live in the royal city with you?”
David begins with the standard courtly language of the day. "If now I have found favor in your sight" is not just empty flattery; it is a shrewd diplomatic maneuver. David is a famous warrior, and he has arrived with 600 fighting men and their families. He is both an asset and a potential threat to Achish. By adopting the posture of a humble servant, David defers to Achish's authority and disarms his potential suspicion. He then makes his request: a town of his own out in the country. The rationale he provides is brilliant political theater. He frames it as a matter of propriety: "Why should your servant live in the royal city with you?" This makes the request sound like an act of humility. David is saying, "I am not worthy to be here in the capital, rubbing shoulders with you. It is too great an honor, and it is a drain on your resources." Of course, his real motives are strategic. He wants to get out from under the king's constant supervision, gain some autonomy, and create a buffer between his men and the pagan influences of the Philistine court. It is a masterful request, couched in humility but aimed at independence.
6 So Achish gave him Ziklag that day; therefore Ziklag has belonged to the kings of Judah to this day.
Achish, a man who is apparently not the sharpest tool in the shed, buys it completely. He grants the request immediately. He likely sees it as a win-win. He gets David's fighting force as a buffer on his southern frontier, and he removes a large contingent of foreign soldiers from his capital city, which is always a prudent move for a king. But the narrator adds a crucial theological and historical note: "therefore Ziklag has belonged to the kings of Judah to this day." This tells us that God was the ultimate actor here. Through the pagan king's decision, a piece of Philistine territory is being deeded over to the future king of Judah. Ziklag was originally allotted to the tribe of Simeon within Judah's territory (Josh 15:31, 19:5), but it had evidently been retaken by the Philistines. Now, God uses David's compromised circumstances to reclaim it for His people. David got Ziklag because of his cunning, yes, but fundamentally he got it because God gave it to him. This is how God works. He uses the secondary causes of human politics and persuasion to accomplish His primary, sovereign will.
7 And the number of days that David lived in the country of the Philistines was a year and four months.
The inspired historian gives us the precise duration of this sojourn: sixteen months. This is not just a passing detail. It is a significant period of David's life, a season of exile that shapes him profoundly. For a year and four months, the anointed king of Israel lived outside the promised land, serving a Philistine lord. This was a time of testing, a time of learning to lead his men in difficult circumstances, and a time of living with the constant tension of his deception. It was a long, hard providence. God did not deliver him overnight. He let him sit in the consequences of his fear-driven decision for sixteen months. This period would end in disaster, with the Amalekites sacking Ziklag and taking all the families captive (1 Sam 30), which would drive David back to a place of utter reliance on God. This timeframe reminds us that God's school of character-building often involves long semesters in difficult places.
Application
This passage should be a profound encouragement to any believer who feels they have made a mess of things. David is not in Gath because he followed a clear word from the Lord. He is there because he gave way to fear and despair. He is operating in the flesh, using human wisdom and cunning to navigate a situation he created. And yet, God does not abandon him. God meets him right there in the middle of his compromise and continues to work out His sovereign plan. This is the gospel. God does not wait for us to be perfect before He works in our lives. He comes to us in our sin and failure, and He is able to weave even our foolishness into the tapestry of His redemption.
We should also learn from David's shrewdness. While his motives were mixed, his actions were wise. He understood the political landscape and acted accordingly. Christians are not called to be naive simpletons. We are to be wise as serpents and innocent as doves. In our dealings with the world, whether in business, politics, or neighborly relations, we are to be savvy. We should understand how the world works without being captured by its values. David's request to Achish was a model of respectful, strategic communication. He showed deference while pursuing his own objectives. This is a skill we must cultivate. We can be gracious and humble while also being clear-eyed and purposeful, seeking to create space where we can live faithfully for God, even when we find ourselves, like David, living for a time in a foreign land.