Deeper Reflection
WE HAVE BEEN FOLLOWING David in his discipleship journey thus far, from being anointed as the next king of Israel (1 Sam 16:12-13) to his recent triumph in sparing Saul’s life the second time (1 Sam 26), which, rather surprisingly, leads to an anti-climax. David slipped from faith to fear: “Now I will perish one day by the hand of Saul” (v.1). It was like just yesterday, that David said to Abishai with confidence concerning Saul: “As the LORD lives, surely the LORD will strike him, or his day will come that he dies, or he will go down in battle and perish” (1 Sam 26:10). Ironically, David’s speaking of Saul “will perish (sapah)” under God’s hand (1 Sam 26:10) shifts abruptly to being convinced that “I will perish (sapah)…by the hand of Saul” (v.1). And for David, “the best thing I can do” was, not trust and rely on his God (cf. Isa 50:10), but “escape to the land of the Philistines” (v.1). Realistic biblical discipleship is three steps forward two steps back. Just like David, we have our own share of the two steps back – but only that we are on a path of progressing three steps forward. The narrator tells us that David “said to himself” those words of fainting faith. And what David “kept saying to himself determined his action”²². “What you say and keep saying to the centre of you will direct your way…be careful what you speak to your heart.”²³

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²² Dale Ralph Davis, 1 Samuel, Focus on the Bible (Christian Focus, 2000), 283 ²³ Dale Ralph Davis, 283, 284