Joel M Bradshaw

1Then David said in his heart, “Now I shall perish one day by the hand of Saul. There is nothing better for me than that I should escape to the land of the Philistines. Then Saul will despair of seeking me any longer within the borders of Israel, and I shall escape out of his hand.” 2So David arose and went over, he and the six hundred men who were with him, to Achish the son of Maoch, king of Gath. 3And David lived with Achish at Gath, he and his men, every man with his household, and David with his two wives, Ahinoam of Jezreel, and Abigail of Carmel, Nabal’s widow. 4And when it was told Saul that David had fled to Gath, he no longer sought him.–1 Samuel 27

We know David trusted God. In Psalm 23, David famously saw himself as a sheep with a shepherd! But trust has two sides here. You could argue both sides…that David was not really trusting God and that David in fact was still trusting God. What we do know is that by the end of the previous chapter, Saul was saying he wouldn’t try to hurt David anymore and that David was blessed by God. And obviously David didn’t believe it, for here he was saying these things to himself!

1. LACK OF TRUST. David was a fugitive on the run from a powerful, unstable, committed madman of a king. David had trusted God to provide all this time. But now David wanted out of the game and desired to wait out the rest of Saul’s days in a foreign land. You could argue that his trust in God lessened here as David ran away from his people and his land for the sake of sanity and safety!
2. FURTHER TRUST. The last time David hung out in King Achish’s land, he pretended to be a madman himself with slobber dribbling down his face. Here David was coming in with full diplomacy and intentionality. He asked for a city of his own to dwell in. You could argue that David was trusting God even more. As the chapter played out, David still fooled Achish with the battles he fought. Achish thought he was attacking the Israelites (hence, Saul). David was actually defeating enemies of his people that lived nearby and had been harassing Israel. Even from a neighboring country, shepherd David was still protecting his future sheep from wolves!

Trust has two sides. The text doesn’t give us more information here. Most people would choose option 2, and I would agree. It gives an opportunity to consider your own life and heart. Just like with David, what you tell yourself influences what you most likely do.–JMB