1 Samuel 23:19-29

The unobserved side of life.

The facts are—

1 . The Ziphites send to Saul, offering their services to secure David if only he will come to their country in pursuit of him.

2 . Saul, indulging in pious language, thanks the Ziphites for their sympathy, and promises to comply with their request when properly informed of David's movements.

3 . Going in pursuit of David in the wilderness of Maon, Saul encompasses him with his men.

4 . At this critical juncture Saul is called away to repel an invasion of the Philistines, whereupon David seeks refuge in Engedi. This brief narrative is full of suggestion of profitable topics, such as the intense zeal of men in sinful courses, its reasons and its issue; the pernicious influence of local jealousy in determining the bearing of men towards others; the blindness and folly of combinations of men against the quietly developing purposes of God; the power of the love of gain, leading, as it does, men to adopt a course of evil from which others shrink; the causes of the indifference or aversion of sections of the community to the governing and advancing sentiment of a nation, as seen in the attitude of the Ziphites contrasted with the general feeling in relation to Saul and David; the moral causes of disregard for the signs of the times; the tendency to cover up deeds of wrong under the plea of patriotism and loyalty; the degree to which religious forms of speech and professions of sanctity may survive the utter decay of vital godliness; and the moral uses of protracted trouble to the children of God. But leaving these, we may generalise the most prominent teaching in the following way:—

I. THERE IS AN IMPORTANT UNOBSERVED SIDE OF LIFE WHICH MUST BE TAKEN INTO ACCOUNT IN FORMING A PROPER ESTIMATE OF CONDUCT . In this section we have a record of facts as they appeared to an observer. The acts of the Ziphites are recorded, and not the reasons from which they proceeded. Our knowledge of men compels us to believe that there were intellectual and moral causes of the active zeal against David which they alone of all Israel manifested; but, so far as the narrative itself informs us, their conduct may have been inspired by loyalty to a recognised king. Thus, also, Saul's conduct as here described is only that which appears to the casual observer. There is nothing wrong in a monarch endeavouring to capture a subject who holds a strong potation by the aid of armed men; nor is there anything but an appearance of piety in imploring the Divine blessing on men who express in tangible form their sympathy with his troubles. Again, the conduct of David as here recorded embraces only that side of life on which men can gaze, for he here appears as one acting as though his entire safety depended alone on his exertions, and not on any other power. The inner, religious side of his life is not noticed. And, finally, the acts of the Philistines are narrated as they would appear to a historian—simply as the movements of men bent on some of the ends common to the warlike and restless, no reference being made to the over ruling power which silently worked on the inner side of life, causing their action to synchronise with the perilous position of David. What is thus true of the Ziphites, Saul, David, and the Philistines, as their acts are set forth in the history, is also true of all men whose deeds are recorded in history, and of every individual in the prosecution of his daily course. The main purpose of history is to state fact in such a connection as to show the dependence of one on the other. There is always presupposed a vast area of life, which furnishes the immediate moral causes of what appears in the field of human observation. In so far as historians profess to trace actions back to their governing principles, and thus reveal the other and inner side of life, they become philosophers, and must not expect the same deference for their conclusions as for their statements of fact. The Ziphites would have Saul think that their zeal was the offspring of a cherished patriotism and loyalty, whereas there is reason for believing that other causes were chiefly in operation. It is the characteristic of sacred history that sometimes it gives an authoritative record of the inner life, assigning the true causes of the actions described. The practical use of the fact that there is an unobserved side of life is—

1 . To induce more care with respect to our unobserved life. When we believe that there is more real life lived within than without, that the causes and germs of things are all nurtured beyond human observation, that the moral value of what is observed is determined by the quality of what is unobserved, and that though, like the Ziphites, we may seem to do only what may possibly proceed from worthy motives, God looks at the actual spring of conduct—then shall we be more earnest in seeking a pure heart, an unobserved life which shall be acceptable to God.

2 . To regulate our judgment of human actions. The knowledge that there is an unobserved side of conduct cannot but induce caution in our estimate of character. The apparent loyalty of a Ziphite and the pious language of a Saul may be the expression of a good or of an evil condition of the unobserved life. Our own deceitful hearts tell us how possible it is to appropriate virtues to ourselves before others when in our deepest consciousness we know that no just claim can be made to them. On the other hand, as it would be unjust to infer that because in this historical section there is simply a record of David's exertions to escape Saul, therefore he was destitute of the pious trust which seeks refuge in God ( Psalms 54:1-7 .), so, in viewing the outward life of men, we must not conclude that that is all; for in the unobserved life, spent concurrently with the observed, there may be a devout, holy trust in God which, beyond all human view, sustains and strengthens the entire man. There is a vast demand on our pity and sympathy in the life which underlies many a calm and brave endurance of toil and care; and beneath many a fair exterior there is a secret second life deserving scorn and indignation.

II. ANTAGONISM TO RELIGION IS USUALLY TRACEABLE TO MORAL CAUSES . Although the record does not state the reasons for the conduct of the Ziphites, we, taking it in connection with the entire history of the period, may approximately arrive at their real nature. Remembering that these men belonged to a nation whose very existence was due to the predominance in public affairs of religious considerations, that government with them was a question of allegiance to God as well as to man, that the national life of their own period had been one in which religious principles had become increasingly prominent in public affairs, that they were well aware of Saul's recognition as king on the understanding that be acted in subordination to the higher principles of which Samuel was the assertor, that it was within their knowledge that Samuel and the high priest Abiathar had disowned Saul and favoured David, and that David's prowess had been distinctly approved of God and beneficial to the nation, while his holy, beautiful life was in striking contrast with the life which had secured the slaughter of the .priests at Nob, alienated the head men of his own tribes and become an occasion of sorrow to the land it follows from all this that these men could not have set themselves against the most renowned and honoured man of their own tribe unless they were under the influence of motives sufficiently strong to overbear the evidence, on the one side, of David's integrity and recognition by God, and, on the other, of Saul's debasement and rejection. That they did not reason and act in harmony with facts admitted arose from two circumstances.

1 . That David was now, and for some time had been, an outlaw, isolated and sorrowful, a fact seemingly inconsistent with the previous honours conferred upon him by God, and with the continued sanction of Samuel and Abiathar.

2 . That lack of sympathy with the holy aspirations of David and jealousy against one of their own tribe induced them to take his present unfortunate position as disproof of any value to be attached to the earlier evidences of his being a chosen servant of God. We have in this case an illustration of the antagonism of men towards Christ while he was on earth, and towards Christianity in the present age. In the case of our Saviour there was the most clear and convincing evidence that he was the Anointed, resembling that of David's call. Only resort to the absurd supposition that he was influenced by Beelzebub could afford an appearance of logical consistency in disputing his Messiahship. But a further point of resemblance arises; for the Pharisees construed the lowly life, the unostentatious bearing, the manifest sorrows, in fact, the strange delay in rising to complete dominion, as inconsistent with their idea of what became an Anointed of the Lord. Moreover, as with the Ziphites, so with the Pharisees; there was a moral offence because of Christ's insistence on internal holiness, and they were averse to the kind of government over men which he alone cared to establish. But as aversion to holiness and jealousy of distinction are strong principles of action, the Pharisees, like the Ziphites, could not await the development of events; they must needs take active measures to capture and destroy One who had proved by his deeds of power the greatest benefactor of the age. In the case of modern antagonism to Christianity we find the same causes at work under analogous conditions. Given the existence of a Supreme Being, interested in the spiritual condition of his creatures and free to act for their welfare, and givens also, as can be well established to every mind free from preconceived ideas on the impossibility of the supernatural, the veracity of the evangelical records, we have then a body of evidence concerning the supernatural origin and character of Christianity as clear as, and much fuller than, the evidence to the Hebrews of David's selection through Samuel and distinct approval by God; and this becomes overwhelming when taken in conjunction with that wondrous life which no other hypothesis can possibly explain. Yet men seek to set aside this evidence because, forsooth, it does not fall in with their conception of what a revelation from God to man should be; much after the model of the Ziphites, who could not believe a wanderings sorrowful outlaw to be the coming king, notwithstanding that some earlier events seemed to point in that direction. No doubt in many theoretical objectors to Christianity there is a positive aversion more or less pronounced to the inward holiness and entire submission of heart and intellect and will which Christ makes the invariable condition of being his subjects, and this perverts the judgment.

III. STRONG FAITH IN GOD IS THE PROPER COMPLEMENT OF THE MOST EARNEST EXERTION , AND IS A POWER IN BRINGING ABOUT THE DESIRED RESULT . Confining our attention to this narrative, we should conclude that David not only strove with all his energy to avoid a conflict with Saul, but that he was conscious that success rested entirely on his exertions. But there was an unobserved side of David's conduct of which the narrative says not a word. The fifty-fourth Psalm reveals that other side, and we there learn that though he strove to escape as though everything depended on his skill and discretion, yet he trusted in God as though hope were alone to be found in him. This double life is well known to every child of God. Whatever metaphysical questions may be started concerning it, as a fact it is unquestionable. Faith is a power acting in the unseen, spiritual sphere concurrently with our exertions in the visible, material sphere. Both are real powers in God's government of man. We are apt to underestimate faith because we do not see its incidence; or we are disposed to doubt its utility because we cannot trace the intricate operations by which events are brought to pass. It is some aid to our faith to remember that the Divine energy is immanent in every mind and in every ultimate force, and can carry out millions of lines of action concurrently for definite ends as readily as we by concentration can carry out one to a single end. God does rule among the armies of heaven and the inhabitants of the earth. His control of men's movements is evidently not a mere general survey of hard, rigid lines of force originally set in motion, but the free exercise of his personal energy on the deepest springs of human action, so as to insure a concurrence of events at such times and places as may subserve some advantage to those whose lives are moving in harmony with his holy purposes. God becomes a reality to us in so far as we believe this and act on the belief. Our Christian enterprises, private conflicts with sin and sorrow, and daily occupations should be pursued with all zeal, and yet with all faith in the need and certainty of God's help. If we wish men to be moved, money to be raised for Christ's service, hindrances to religion to be overcome, and events to be brought about for which we have not the adequate means, there is no presumption, but rather there is profound wisdom and piety, in asking God to exercise his boundless power for the glory of his name. "When the Son of man cometh" to visit his Churches, as when once he walked among the seven golden candlesticks ( Revelation 1:13-17 ), " shall he find faith on the earth "? ( Luke 18:8 ).

General considerations : —

1 . It is worthy of consideration how far the outward life observed by men is a genuine expression of the inner, and to what extent our secrets are holy and lawful.

2 . A study of the intellectual and moral causes of unbelief, as manifested by various grades of intellect and during many centuries, would furnish instruction and warning to the tempted.

3 . It is to be feared that the extreme development of man's activity in all departments of life and the insistence on personal effort have withdrawn the attention of Christians too much from the great part which faith in God is ordained to play in the government of the world and salvation of men.

HOMILIES BY B. DALE