David didn’t have trouble waiting for God to take vengeance on Saul for his attempts on David’s life, but he lost his head with Nabal over a rude refusal to throw him a feast, and immediately took action to take vengeance. Likely the stress of living in exile under the conditions we saw in yesterday’s psalms had gotten to David. I take comfort in the man after God’s own heart, who had God’s Spirit living in him, succumbing to stress, because I can relate. However, we must also understand that the stress would not have excused him if he had indulged his impulse to take vengeance into his hands. God doesn’t excuse our indulgences in moments of stress, either. We need to welcome people like Abigail in our lives, who will be our accountability partners and voices of reason. And we need to be Abigails to others who need that voice of reason.
Twice David had the opportunity to take Saul’s life, twice he was encouraged by his companion to take the life that God had delivered into his hand. And this time he did have undeniable help from God. How did he know that he wasn’t the means by which God would strike Saul? He knew what was wrong and what was right, and he knew that circumstances don’t change wrong and right. We need to understand the same, and not be confused by what our postmodern culture tells us about right and wrong.
And then David lied to Achish for his own protection. I have no insight on that. Lying of course would be the only way he could live safely among the Philistines, but were the Philistines the only safe haven he had? Who couldn’t understand David’s lying to protect himself and his men and their families; who wouldn’t understand if he had taken vengeance? They are both understandable in the mind of men. In the word of God, however, if there was no excuse for taking vengeance against those who treat one wrongly, there was no excuse for lying. Sin is sin.
So we see that the man after God’s own heart was still a man. What a contrast he reveals between the man who scrupulously wouldn’t take vengeance, even the man who was pacified by Abigail’s voice of reason when he set out to take vengeance, and the one who lied for his own protection so that he could live an easier life among the Philistines. This is the contrast between the loveliness of following God’s way and the unlovely way of sin. Let us understand this from David’s actions: following God’s way bears lovely fruit, but following the way of sin bears rotten fruit.