1 Samuel 29:6

DAVID AND HIS MEN RETURN TO ZIKLAG

"Then Achish called David and said to him, `As the Lord lives, you have been honest, and to me it seems right that you should march out and in with me in the campaign; for I have found nothing wrong in you from the day of your coming to me to this day. Nevertheless the lords do not approve of you. So go back now; and go peaceably, that you may not displease the lords of the Philistines.' And David said to Achish, `But what have I done? What have you found in your servant from the day I entered your service until now, that I may not go and fight against the enemies of my lord the king?' And Achish made answer to David, `I know that you are as blameless in my sight as an angel of God; nevertheless the commanders of the Philistines have said, "He shall not go up with us to the battle." Now then rise early in the morning with the servants of your lord who came with you; and start early in the morning, and depart as soon as you have light.' So David set out with his men early in the morning, to return to the land of the Philistines. But the Philistines went up to Jezreel."

One cannot help wondering if all that undeserved praise which Achish heaped upon David did not hurt his conscience. Another source of acute curiosity on our part is the question of, "What did David really intend to do during that approaching battle?" Was he planning to betray Achish, attack the Philistines and to aid Israel? Who knows?

"What have you found in your servant ... that I may not go and fight against the enemies of my lord the king" (1 Samuel 29:8). Of course, Achish conceitedly applied David's words here as a pledge that he would fight for Achish and the Philistines, but THE WORDS DO NOT SAY THAT. This is another of those ambiguous remarks which David so skillfully employed in his phenomenal deceit of Achish. David's fighting against the enemies of "my lord the king," applies to Saul as well as to Achish.

As was his custom for years during this period of David's life, he prevaricated continually. Here he pretended that he really wanted to go to battle with Achish, but it is very likely that such was not David's real wish at all. Still he kept up his persistent line of falsehoods to Achish, but his reason for doing so is by no means clear. It is difficult to realize that the David who appears in these chapters is the same David who wrote:

O Lord, who shall sojourn in thy tent?

Who shall dwell on thy holy hill?

He who walks blamelessly,

And does what is right,

And speaks truth in his heart (Psalms 15:1,2).

That the man's conscience was indeed wounded by such continual lying as is seen in these chapters is indicated by Psalms 51, in which David wrote:

Behold thou desirest truth in the inward being ...

Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean;

Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow ...

Hide thy face from my sins,

And blot out all my iniquities (Psalms 51:1-9).

"You are as blameless in my sight as an angel of God" (1 Samuel 29:9). "What Achish said of David here, God by the voice of his prophet said of `the house of David,' `On that day the Lord will put a shield about the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and the house of David shall be like God, like the angel of the Lord, at their head' (Zechariah 12:8)."[6] Of course, this reference in Zechariah has in view the Messiah and the new Israel of God, the heavenly Jerusalem.

"With the servants of your lord who came with you" (1 Samuel 29:10). This rather ambiguous statement was clarified by Cook. "The clue to this is in 1 Chronicles 12:19-21, where it appears that a considerable number of Manassites "fell" to David just at this time, and went back with him to Ziklag. It was to these newcomers that Achish applied the expression here."[7]

Philbeck's comment on David's professed reluctance to be sent back to Ziklag indicated that, "Although David was relieved, his role as a loyal subject of Achish required him to protest the decision. Nevertheless, he and his troops were ready to leave the next morning at daylight."[8]

Keil's concluding comment on this chapter catches the probable emotion of David regarding this development.

"In accordance with Achish's orders, David returned the next morning into the land of the Philistines, to Ziklag; no doubt very light in heart, and praising God for having so graciously rescued him out of the disastrous situation into which he had been brought, and not altogether without some fault of his own, rejoicing that he had not committed either sin, he had neither violated his loyalty to Achish nor had he fought against his own people."[9]