1 Samuel 25:32-39: a reflection

32David said to Abigail, “Blessed is the LORD, the God of Israel, who sent you today to meet me! 33Blessed is your discretion, and blessed are you, who have kept me today from blood guiltiness, and from avenging myself with my own hand. 34For indeed, as the LORD the God of Israel lives, who has withheld me from harming you, unless you had hurried and come to meet me, surely there wouldn’t have been left to Nabal by the morning light so much as one who urinates on a wall.” 35So David received from her hand that which she had brought him. Then he said to her, “Go up in peace to your house. Behold, I have listened to your voice and have granted your request.” 36Abigail came to Nabal; and behold, he held a feast in his house like the feast of a king. Nabal’s heart was merry within him, for he was very drunk. Therefore she told him nothing until the morning light. 37In the morning, when the wine had gone out of Nabal, his wife told him these things; and his heart died within him, and he became as a stone. 38About ten days later, the LORD struck Nabal, so that he died. 39When David heard that Nabal was dead, he said, “Blessed is the LORD, who has pleaded the cause of my reproach from the hand of Nabal, and has kept back his servant from evil. The LORD has returned the evildoing of Nabal on his own head.” David sent and spoke concerning Abigail, to take her to himself as wife.

David, insulted by the wealthy Nabal, had set out in a rage to kill him and every male of his household, until Abigail, Nabal's wise wife, intercepted him with humility and gifts and talked him down. And David's response is striking gratitude, not for being spared harm, but for being spared sin. Blessed be the LORD, he says, who sent you to meet me, and blessed be your discretion, who have kept me this day from bloodguilt and from avenging myself with my own hand. He thanks God for stopping him before he did something he would have regretted.

Notice what David is grateful for: being restrained from vengeance. In his anger he had been about to take matters violently into his own hands, and Abigail's intervention, which David recognizes as God's doing, held him back from a sin that would have stained him. And he leaves Nabal's fate to God, who in time repaid Nabal himself. David was kept from avenging his own reproach, and God pleaded his cause instead.

That is worth learning from, both the restraint and the gratitude. When we are wronged, the impulse to avenge ourselves can be strong, and we may be closer than we think to doing something we would deeply regret. God often restrains us, sometimes through the wise words of another, as he restrained David through Abigail. Be grateful for those who hold you back from acting on your anger, and leave vengeance to God, who is able to plead your cause far better than your own hand could. When you are wronged, do not avenge yourself; let God repay, and thank him for whoever, or whatever, keeps you from sin in the heat of your anger.

Lord, when David set out in anger to avenge himself on Nabal, you sent Abigail to restrain him, and David blessed you for keeping him from bloodguilt and from taking vengeance with his own hand. When I am wronged and the impulse to avenge myself rises, restrain me as you restrained David. Thank you for those who hold me back from acting on my anger, the wise words and timely interventions that keep me from sin I would regret. Help me leave vengeance to you, who plead my cause far better than my own hand could. Keep me from avenging myself, and make me grateful for whatever you use to stop me in the heat of my anger.