IN THE VERBAL EXCHANGE between David and Saul in verses 17 to 25, David kept God at the heart of his discussion (vv.19, 20, 23, 24). Saul responded to David’s first speech (vv.18-20) with a confession, “I have sinned” and “I have played the fool”, and called David to “return”, with the promise of not harming him again (v.21). Saul sounded sincere, but it was just momentary sincerity, or deranged sincerity or deceptive sincerity;⁴¹ and if anything, it was “a temporary state of repentance and reconciliation”⁴². This should caution us about our sincerity – with God or with people. At the end, Saul parted ways with David with a blessing that David “will both accomplish much and surely prevail” (v.25). It is noteworthy that there is no mention of God in Saul’s two speeches. Saul’s spiritual condition had reached a point where he no longer speaks theologically even in his confession and blessing. As for David, he showed how we can triumph over evil oppressors. Walk before God in “righteousness and faithfulness” by refusing to take matters into our own hands, but wait patiently for God to resolve the difficulty of our enemies, with the assurance that God will “repay” our righteousness and faithfulness, and “deliver” us “from all distress” (vv.23-24). Why? Because the lives of such people of God are “highly valued in the sight of the LORD” (v.24). 

⁴¹ Dale Ralph Davis, 276

⁴² Robert D. Bergen, 258