A walk according to the thoughts of his natural heart had deprived David of fellowship with his God. In the path he was following he could not like Enoch have “the testimony that he had pleased God.” Left to himself he, one of the excellent of the earth, had been in danger of making shipwreck of the faith just like another and in danger of embracing the cause of his people’s worst enemies. Their leader recognized in him an upright and irreproachable character, but this was just one more danger for his soul. In the midst of these reefs when he would surely have gone down had he been left to his own strength, God, no longer able to lead him by His eye, had used the “bit and bridle” (Psa. 32:9)-that is to say, a series of circumstances contrary to the will of His servant-in order to preserve him from an irremediable fall.
In our chapter we see how God restores David, using the discipline that his lack of holiness had made necessary. But there in the midst of this discipline God (and this is infinitely precious) could be with him. God who was absent in the day of Achish’s favor is now present in the midst of disaster. David is stricken in that which is dearest to him and this is a cause of great sorrow, but it produces the peaceable fruit of righteousness. How could we then regret that God’s hand weighed heavily on His servant? The character of this man of God, formed by discipline, is of great beauty and full of instruction for our souls.
In David’s absence Amalek, no doubt in order to avenge themselves (cf. 1 Sam. 27:8), had seized Ziklag, David’s city (1 Sam. 27:6), and after having burned it had taken the entire population away captive with the spoil, but “they had put none to death.” What grace of God! In this cruel attack of a pitiless enemy all the captives had been spared. Thus God was judging His servant by measure and with a judgment which had his restoration as its object. Nevertheless the discipline must be felt deeply in order to bring forth its fruits: “David and the people that were with him lifted up their voice and wept, until they had no more power to weep” (1 Sam. 30:4). Those dearest to David are among the captives: noble Abigail, linked by faith to her husband’s wandering life and sufferings, innocent of his conduct at the court of Achish, is taken into captivity. And to make the cup of bitterness overflow, the companions whom he had directed until now, full of vexation because of their sons and daughters, consider him responsible for this calamity, turn against him, and speak of stoning him (1 Sam. 30:6).
But for the man of God discipline is a bitter cordial that strengthens his soul instead of weakening it. When he has lost everything David again finds God as his resource. He “strengthened himself in Jehovah his God” (1 Sam. 30:6). This faithful God known by him, who had helped him in times past in all his distresses, had not changed, and again today he finds Him to he the same as He was yesterday and will he for eternity.
And David also finds again that which had previously characterized him. He “said to Abiathar... Bring near to me, I pray thee, the ephod. And Abiathar brought the ephod near to David. And David inquired of Jehovah” (1 Sam. 30:7-8). As Samuel was the man of prayer and intercession, so David at the time of his strength was the dependent man who consulted and inquired of the Lord. He returns to this. The Lord who had refused to answer Saul answers David. “Shall I pursue after this troop? shall I overtake them? And He said to him, Pursue; for thou shalt assuredly overtake them, and shalt certainly recover” (1 Sam. 30:8).
Strengthened by this answer David takes up the pursuit without hesitation. At the torrent Besor two hundred men too weary to follow the troop stop and are left behind to guard the baggage. They lacked strength; nonetheless their function was useful to David and their brethren and should not be despised. The function of active combatants is highly visible and exposes us much more to spiritual pride than does a more humble position. David’s companions prove this in what follows in this account by attributing to their own prowess the victory which was prepared for them and then granted by God alone (1 Sam. 30:22).
An Egyptian slave left behind to die puts David on the enemy’s track. One sees God’s hand in this circumstance. Without this poor man dying of hunger the expedition would have failed miserably. When we strengthen ourselves in the Lord our God, what mighty help He accords us, and how unexpected! (1 Sam. 30:11-15).
While the enemy is eating, drinking, and dancing, “sudden destruction comes upon them.” “David recovered all that the Amalekites had taken: and David recovered his two wives. And there was nothing missed by them, neither small not great, neither sons nor daughters, neither spoil nor anything that they had taken: David brought all back” (1 Sam. 30:18-19) together with an abundance of spoils (1 Sam. 30:20).
The trial is over; Discipline has borne its fruits; but by the grace of God it continues to bear yet more. See with what wisdom David, now restored, confronts the “wicked men, and men of Belial, of those that had gone with” him (1 Sam. 30:22), how he reproves them by giving the Lord all the place, all the merit: “Ye shall not do so, my brethren, with that which Jehovah has given us, who has preserved us, and given the troop that came against us into our hand” (1 Sam. 30:23). God distributes the various services among His own; He is the only judge of the activity that they display; He does not measure the reward according to the value of the gift but according to faithfulness in the administration of that which He entrusts to us. That is why the share of those who stay with the baggage is like the share of those who go down to the battle (1 Sam. 30:24). This principle established by David has become “a statute and an ordinance for Israel to this day” (1 Sam. 30:25). It was the principle of grace joined to righteousness that a restored David proclaimed, and how can we be surprised that its consequences have been lasting?
In his prosperity (1 Sam. 30:26-31) David forgets none of those who had helped in the time of his adversity. He overwhelms them, and I see scarcely any but the Ziphites who were excluded and had no part in his generosity: those informers who had desired to deliver up the king of Israel. David’s liberality gives all the faithful tangible proof that the Lord is with him and that it is good to accept him as master and to place one’s self under his law—whereas infidelity toward Christ will one day, perhaps long afterward, bring its inevitable consequences. And in contrast, a glass of water given to David in the wilderness is recorded in the book of Him who values all our deeds according their usefulness, whether more or less, to Christ.