1 Samuel 19:15-19: a reflection

15Saul sent the messengers to see David, saying, “Bring him up to me in the bed, that I may kill him.” 16When the messengers came in, behold, the teraphim was in the bed, with the pillow of goats’ hair at its head. 17Saul said to Michal, “Why have you deceived me like this and let my enemy go, so that he has escaped?” Michal answered Saul, “He said to me, ‘Let me go! Why should I kill you?’” 18Now David fled and escaped, and came to Samuel at Ramah, and told him all that Saul had done to him. He and Samuel went and lived in Naioth. 19Saul was told, saying, “Behold, David is at Naioth in Ramah.”

Saul, determined to kill David, sends messengers to seize him even from his sickbed. But David's wife Michal has helped him escape through a window and placed an idol in the bed to buy time, and by the time the deception is discovered, David is gone. And where does David flee? He goes to Samuel at Ramah, tells him everything Saul has done, and stays with him at Naioth, among the prophets. Fleeing for his life, David runs toward the man of God and the community of prophets, toward God's presence.

Notice where David goes when his life is threatened. He does not flee just anywhere; he goes to Samuel, the prophet who had anointed him, and to Naioth, where the prophets gathered, a place associated with God's presence and word. In his danger, David instinctively runs toward God, toward the people and place where God was known and sought. When threatened, he moved not away from God but toward him.

That is a wise instinct worth cultivating. When danger, trouble, or fear presses on us, there is a pull to run in many directions, toward our own schemes, toward distraction, toward panic. David's instinct was to run toward God, to seek out God's presence and God's people. When you are threatened or afraid, do not run away from God or toward lesser refuges; run toward him, toward his presence, his word, his people. Like David fleeing to Samuel and the prophets, make God your refuge in danger. The safest place in trouble is nearer to God, not further from him.

Lord, when Saul threatened his life, David fled toward you, to Samuel and the community of prophets, toward your presence. Give me that instinct. When danger, trouble, or fear presses on me, keep me from running toward my own schemes, distraction, or panic. Help me run toward you, toward your presence, your word, and your people. Make you my refuge in danger. When I am threatened, let me draw nearer to you, not further away, for the safest place in trouble is with you.