1 Samuel 29:1-5: a reflection

1Now the Philistines gathered together all their armies to Aphek; and the Israelites encamped by the spring which is in Jezreel. 2The lords of the Philistines passed on by hundreds and by thousands; and David and his men passed on in the rear with Achish. 3Then the princes of the Philistines said, “What about these Hebrews?” Achish said to the princes of the Philistines, “Isn’t this David, the servant of Saul the king of Israel, who has been with me these days, or rather these years? I have found no fault in him since he fell away until today.” 4But the princes of the Philistines were angry with him; and the princes of the Philistines said to him, “Make the man return, that he may go back to his place where you have appointed him, and let him not go down with us to battle, lest in the battle he become an adversary to us. For with what should this fellow reconcile himself to his lord? Should it not be with the heads of these men? 5Isn’t this David, of whom people sang to one another in dances, saying, ‘Saul has slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands’?”

David, on the run from Saul, had taken refuge among the Philistines, and now finds himself in an impossible position: the Philistine armies are marching out to fight Israel, and David and his men are expected to march with them, against their own people. It is a corner David had backed himself into by his alliance with the Philistine king. But then the Philistine commanders object: they distrust David, fearing he will turn on them in battle, and they insist he be sent back. Their suspicion, in God's providence, rescues David from having to fight against his own people.

Notice the deliverance, and how it came. David was in a genuine bind, a compromising position of his own making, from which there seemed no honorable exit. And God delivered him, not through David's own cleverness, but through the very suspicion of the Philistine lords, who, distrusting him, sent him away. What looked like rejection was actually rescue; God used others' distrust to extract David from a corner he had backed himself into.

There is quiet grace in that for the tangles we get ourselves into. Sometimes, through our own compromises or unwise choices, we back ourselves into corners from which there seems no good way out. And God, in his mercy, sometimes rescues us from these self-made binds, often through unlikely means, others' decisions, circumstances beyond our control, doors that close in our faces but turn out to be deliverances. When you find yourself in a compromising corner of your own making, do not despair. God is able to rescue you from the tangles you have gotten into, sometimes through the most unlikely means. What feels like rejection may be his rescue.

Lord, David had backed himself into an impossible corner among the Philistines, and you rescued him through the very suspicion of the Philistine lords, turning what looked like rejection into deliverance. When I get myself into tangles through my own compromises or unwise choices, and see no good way out, remind me that you are able to rescue me, often through unlikely means. Help me not to despair in the corners of my own making, but to trust your mercy. What feels like rejection may be your rescue.