Sermon 97: 1 Samuel 27:1-12

1. And David said in his heart: One day I shall fall into the hands of Saul: is it not better that I flee and be saved in the land of the Philistines, and Saul despair and cease to seek me in all the borders of Israel? I will therefore flee from his hands. 2. And David arose and departed, he and the six hundred men with him, to Achish son of Maoch king of Gath. 3. And David dwelt with Achish in Gath, he and his men, each man and his household, David and his two wives, Ahinoam the Jezreelite, and Abigail the wife of Nabal of Carmel. 4. And it was told to Saul that David had fled to Gath, and he no longer continued to seek him. 5. And David said to Achish: If I have found favor in your eyes, let a place be given me in one of the cities of this region that I may dwell there: for why does your servant dwell in the royal city with you? 6. And Achish gave him on that day Ziklag: for which cause Ziklag has belonged to the kings of Judah to this day. 7. And the number of the days that David dwelt in the region of the Philistines was four months. 8. And David went up, and his men, and they made raids upon the Geshurites, and the Girzites, and the Amalekites: for these villages had been inhabited in the land of old, in the way as one goes to Shur even to the land of Egypt. 9. And David smote the whole land, and left neither man nor woman alive, and he took away sheep, and oxen, and asses, and camels, and clothing, and returned and came to Achish. 10. And Achish said to him: Against whom did you make a raid today? And David replied: Against the south of Judah, and against the south of Jerahmeel, and against the south of the Kenite. 11. And David did not preserve alive man or woman, nor brought them to Gath, saying: Lest perhaps they speak against us. These things David did: and this was decreed for him all the days that he dwelt in the region of the Philistines. 12. Therefore Achish believed David, saying: He has wrought much evil against his own people Israel: he shall therefore be my perpetual servant.

David at last, having endured many labors and overcome many difficulties and temptations, is finally compelled, an exile from his fatherland, to flee into a foreign region; and indeed this temptation was the gravest of all, when he was forced to live in exile from the land which God had granted to the posterity of Abraham as an inheritance: so that it is likely that David bore this exile as more grievous than death itself... ...to bear, and indeed this was the design of his enemies, as we saw before when he was expostulating with Saul in these words: Because they expel me today that I may not, having been received, cleave to the inheritance of Jehovah, saying: Go, worship strange gods. David indeed abstained from this last thing: for it is certain that he was not polluted by any idolatrous worship; but nevertheless he was compelled to flee for refuge to the mercy of unbelievers and the most hostile enemies of the Jewish people, and to implore their help: although already before he had been imperiled among them, as we saw him captured by the Philistines and accused before the king brought into capital danger, so that there was no other way of escaping that danger than to feign madness, foaming and imitating the gestures of an insane and frenzied man. Therefore when he was again driven into this necessity, undoubtedly he came into great straits, in being compelled as a foreigner to live in exile in a foreign land. For although we may conjecture that this was not the same king (for not without reason is Achish called the son of Maoch, that it may be shown that he is not the one to whom David some years before had been led), nevertheless it is certain that there was perpetual war between the Israelites and the Philistines. Although therefore David had free access from his fatherland into the region of the Philistines, and was kindly received by king Achish, nevertheless he was in continual straits. And so we see that God willed to test his patience, since after many grave and long difficulties, he was compelled to leave the land in which the worship of God was, and flee into a land polluted with idolatrous worship. How unlike was this condition to that for which the kingdom was owed to him over the people chosen and adopted by God: so that, in place of the headship that was due him, he was not even allowed to be the smallest member. Without doubt David would have been satisfied if he could have been, so to speak, one of the joints of the feet, just as he himself professes in the Psalms that he preferred to dwell in the courtyard of the house of the Lord rather than in the midst of unbelievers, and preferred to be a doorkeeper of God's house, joined with the assembly of the faithful, rather than, raised to royal dignity, to be separated from the people of God. There is no doubt therefore that this was a most grievous temptation and the highest distress, not to be able to sustain his life in some corner in the mountains and caves of Judea. And this example must be highly esteemed by us. For who, taught by experience itself, does not know that men are too soft and delicate when God tests them with various calamities? Indeed each one indulges himself, and complains that he is treated more harshly than is fair. Therefore David's example is so much the more diligently to be weighed and compared with all the calamities with which it has befallen us to wrestle. For if, for example, God today subjects us to examination, and we suffer persecution because of the profession of the gospel, are we yet tested in the way David was? Are we banished as if utterly cast out by those who invoke the name of God, so that nowhere is a place open to us except in the midst of enemies, and we can defend our life by no other means than in death itself, and that not for one or two days but for many years? Therefore the favor of God toward us must be acknowledged, who bears with our weakness and has mercy on us. Truly we should be ungrateful if we do not patiently wait until he himself supplies us with strength to overthrow our enemies.

If anyone object that David was far stronger than we, it must be known that this fortitude came from no other source than from the faith by which he rested in God, by whose Spirit he was sustained in the greatest difficulties. Let us therefore imitate David, and conscious of our common frailty, let us seek a remedy against it, and pray God to lift us up when cast down, and to sustain us when more vehemently agitated and wavering, and to supply the strength which it is most certain he will furnish at the opportune time: for whatever happens, it is most true what we saw in the second chapter of this book, that God first delivers his own to death whom he afterwards restores to life, and casts them into the sepulcher before he takes them out from there. Without doubt God could, if he had willed, have protected David in Judea and shielded him against the snares of Saul, but yet, having so often snatched him from death, he willed at last that he should fall from all hope of life, unless he cast himself into the hands of the enemies of God. Therefore he willed that David, hitherto miraculously delivered, should come into this danger among the Philistines, that in him the divine work might appear and be perfected more and more. From which it appears that not without reason does God test his faithful ones to the quick, since indeed his grace was the more illustrious in proportion as the testing was the graver. And indeed by this reasoning we see that David was not only given the occasion and ground for praising God, and acknowledging him as the defender to whom alone he owed his life as a gift, but also that his example today is in the place of doctrine for us, by which we are stirred up to imitate him, persuaded that as often as God lets loose the reins to enemies, so that our salvation seems given up for lost, God nonetheless has the issues of death in his power: and accordingly that he will at last have mercy on us, just as long ago on David. But such is the unbelief of men, that they always fluctuate uncertain and dispute against the most certain promises of God: for God commands us to be secure, and to depend on him persuaded with certainty that he watches over our salvation: but men perpetually wander uncertain, and so dread any dangers, as if there were never to be any escape from them, and so of their own accord they resist God's promises, as if of themselves they would reduce them to nothing. Therefore the greater is men's unbelief, the more diligently are the examples to be noted by which we can be instructed: since we hear not only God teaching, but also stirring us up to apply faith to his promises by the examples of his servants. For example... For example, when we see David coming into capital danger, and afterwards an occasion of joy offered him by God, we are taught that God must be invoked with true faith, and that we must flee for refuge to his goodness, in no way doubting that by his infinite and immutable power he can rescue us from a thousand perils of death, and even restore the dead to life. Finally, this one thing remains, that whatever our condition shall be, we deposit our life in his hands, which will happen when we have acknowledged him as our defender, and when we have prayed him from the heart that he have mercy on us, and when we have embraced his promises, persuaded that they pertain to us whom from enemies he has made his sons, and through faith of the gospel members of his Son our Lord Jesus Christ: finally, in order that we may more surely embrace this doctrine, let us know that David is set before us as a figure of our Lord Jesus Christ, and as an exemplar which we ought to imitate, since what is recounted of him is common to him and to us. For if his condition had been special and unlike ours, we would object that the things which befell him cannot be useful to us, nor be set forth as an example: but since he is exhibited to our eyes as a figure of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is our head, we can certainly infer that the deliverances which he experienced are promised to us also today, and pertain to us, so that we may not at all doubt that God, holding us by the hand, will rescue us from all perils at the opportune time, although on every side we are pressed by perils of death.

Moreover, that these things cannot happen without great distresses and difficulties is most certain, just as we see David also affected with grave temptation when he says with troubled mind: One day I shall fall into the hands of Saul, is it not better that I flee and be saved in the land of the Philistines? Truly, by pouring out these words, and thinking that no other means remained of safeguarding his life than to flee to enemies, he sufficiently indicated that his soul was disturbed, which had no doubt fluctuated to this side and that, and after vehemently struggling with himself had finally taken this counsel of fleeing to the Philistines. Why so, I pray? Did David value his life so much that he would rather converse with unbelievers than longer suffer persecution in Judea? For he could scarcely keep himself immune from every stain of corruption: but yet there is no doubt at all that he retained intact the seal and faith of the promise made to him by the Lord, and that he was wholly free from all ambition and avarice. For, as he himself testifies in the Psalms, he placed his life in God's hands, and did not cast away the right of royal dignity due to him, because in this was placed the hope of his eternal salvation, since the matter at hand was not some earthly and perishable good, but the certain pledge of the future kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore it was necessary that he should be affected with various cares and troubles, and wrestle with many difficulties: although death would have been sweeter to him than the prolongation of life amid anxieties and difficulties. Indeed we see that even Abraham himself was reduced to the point of exposing his wife Sarah, whose disgrace he would surely have preferred to redeem with death: but because God had promised him that there would arise from his seed one in whom all should be blessed, therefore he tries to preserve his own life, because he saw that on this safety his own and that of all somehow depended, and were joined as if by some bond. Therefore unless he had lived, the whole world would have had to perish: for no other hope of salvation appeared except in that blessed seed, which God was about to raise up from him. Therefore in order to preserve his life he spares nothing, until he obtain from God what he was awaiting. The same is the reasoning of David, who would have chosen, if it had been possible, to die a thousand times rather than to sojourn among foreigners: but meanwhile, relying on the divine promise that he would be raised to royal dignity, he provided for his own safety among idolaters as long as until his redeemer should appear, since he could not do so elsewhere.

Further, when it is said that David dwelt in Gath with king Achish, he and his men and his household, and his two wives, from this it appears that God by a marvelous reason bent the hearts of the Philistines, so that they received David with his family so kindly. For it is not likely that there had slipped from their memory that song sung by the women and girls, that Saul had slain his thousands but David his ten thousands of Philistines, and they knew well enough what damages David had inflicted on them: and accordingly it could not be but that they should be gravely angry with him, and therefore aim a thousand swords at his throat. Therefore it must be confessed that it came to pass by divine providence that David found favor with these men, who otherwise seemed about to rage cruelly against him. This holy Scripture often testifies, that God bends the hearts of men to his own will, and indeed of wicked men, and breaks the wraths of lions so that they are changed into lambs as often as it seems good to him, not indeed so that they always change their nature, but yet so that he restrains and checks their fury and rage against his own. So we see the Israelites finding favor with the Egyptians, from whom they received the most precious vessels of gold and silver: so also on the contrary in the Psalms we hear God changing the minds of the Philistines, that they might persecute the Israelites who had provoked God against themselves by their sins. Therefore each of these things must be observed to be placed in the hand of God, namely, that as often as it seems good to him, those who previously were friends he makes our enemies, and stirs up against us, and uses them as scourges with which he chastises us for our sins, so that we are struck by God's own hand when wicked men afflict us, because he wishes to use their work for our correction. Or on the contrary, by his immense goodness, those who previously... ...had been adversaries and most hostile enemies he makes friends, who bring help in adverse circumstances: for this reason often in the prophets the Lord consoles his people, saying that he will bring it about that they find favor with enemies and foreign nations, in order to indicate that, when he has chastised his own, if with true repentance and humility they flee for refuge to him, and ask pardon by entreaty, that he will heal the wounds which he himself inflicted, and will bring it about that the most cruel enemies, by whose teeth they seemed about to be torn and by whose claws to be ripped, with their minds suddenly changed, will study our advantages, and receive us with the highest humanity. Moreover there is no doubt that when Achish received David into his presence he carefully looked into David's deeds, and had trustworthy men who would investigate his deeds and words. For although he had received David so kindly, he could not but somehow distrust him, even if he hoped that, with the passage of time, David, having been received into favor, would be a faithful servant to him. From which it appears that the mind of his counselors and indeed also of the people was bent by God. For there is no doubt that from the common people themselves many looked upon David with hostile eyes, and rubbed up the memory of friends, or kinsmen, or relatives slain by David: and accordingly desired to take vengeance on him, and at once make away with him. Therefore divine providence covered David, and was for him a shield against those assaults, that under its shadow he might be safe.

Next follows that David asked the king to grant him some city in which he might dwell safely, with these words: If I have found favor in your eyes, let a place be given me in one of the cities of this region, that I may dwell there. For why does your servant dwell in the royal city with you? By which words David, by setting forth disadvantages, strives to bend the king of the Philistines toward more easily granting his petition: for kings for the most part are intent on their own advantages and quiet. David therefore teaches that it is not to the king's advantage if he dwells in the royal city, and besides, since he was surrounded by many soldiers, it could not be but that the king would receive some inconvenience from it. And these reasons of David were specious: although there is no doubt at all that his own purpose was far other, just as also the outcome makes credible. He therefore dissimulates with king Achish what he was nourishing within, and yet brings forth nothing that did not have the appearance of truth, and so it was not easy to discern whether he was lying and knowingly and prudently deceiving. Therefore with specious reasons he adorns his petition: but yet what was his mind? Namely, he hoped first that, separated from unbelievers, he would more easily be free for the sincere worship of God, and would take care lest he be heard as a profane man, as if he despised the religion known in Judea. Then that a better occasion would also be offered him for inflicting damage on the enemies of the people of God, and for gratifying king Achish without nevertheless any injury to the Israelites. Thus far therefore David somewhat dissimulates with him: yet he does not lie, for as a little later we shall hear him lying, but in the present he dissimulated something, and proposed what had the appearance of truth, even if he hid something else in his breast. If anyone therefore should ask whether this was permitted to David, we answer that not all dissimulation is always vicious and to be condemned. For to dissimulate is to cover part of our counsel. Nor are we bound to lay open all our counsels to our enemies, indeed we are not always compelled to lay open our thoughts even to our brothers, but only to converse with our neighbors with candor and integrity. So Paul exhorts the faithful, that they should live among men with integrity and candor of soul. Therefore dissimulation is not always in vice, but when one dissimulates so as to speak falsehood, then that dissimulation is vicious and a mere lie. We answer therefore that David, dissimulating his counsel with king Achish, did not sin, nor offend God; further we learn that his counsel is to be praised by which he foresaw the hatreds and murmurs of the Philistines against him if with his soldiers and family he should remain longer in the royal city, and besides, that they would solicit David to their religion, and would wish to compel him, taking it ill that he held a religion separate from theirs. Foreseeing all of which, and in order that he might have liberty to preserve himself pure from idolatrous superstitions and pollutions, he asked that the faculty of dwelling apart be granted him: although there is no doubt that, not destitute of counsel and reason, he foresaw that in a small town he could easily be intercepted by enemies: and that if the Philistines should conspire against him he would be exposed to their injuries, and shut up in the city would have no way of escape: and accordingly that his life would be in great peril at every moment. But whatever might happen, having overcome these difficulties, he prefers, with these dangers and inconveniences, to have liberty for serving God purely and sincerely, and for preserving himself pure from idolatrous pollutions. Finally, David prudently avoided all hatred of enemies, and the suspicion of ambition as if he were striving for some grade of dignity, content to lead and protect his life in an obscure place. King Achish therefore gave him Ziklag. From which it appears again that the king was impelled by God by no ordinary motion: for it is certain that king Achish was blinded by God when he granted his enemy David a city of Judea on his border: for if he had him as suspect, why did he place him in a city bordering Judea, and not rather in the middle of the region, that all power of harming him might be taken away? But there is no doubt that the avarice of king Achish drove him and incautiously deceived him, as fishes gaping after prey are wont to be deceived by the hook. For by placing David in a border city, he reckoned that David, by perpetual raidings and incursions... ...would seek his sustenance against the enemies, and accordingly he was glad that he was a neighbor to the Israelites, that they might be contained and, continually harassed by incursions, the more easily afterwards subdued. But God turned that counsel to his confusion. So God is wont to avenge the burning avarice of wicked men, and although sometimes he permits them loose reins, yet he turns the evil counsel back upon their own head, and makes the outcomes of their counsels empty. Let us therefore, by the example of king Achish and others, learn to desire nothing beyond measure, lest the wealth scraped together from all sides become for us a noose by which we are strangled: but, content with what God bestows, let us not desire to grow rich by the inconveniences and detriments of others.

Moreover, in what follows we cannot free David from all blame, because first he is held guilty of a lie, since pretending that he was making an attack upon the people of Judah, and being asked by the king against whom he had made a raid, he answered that he had raided against the south of Judah and against the south of the Kenite: when nevertheless he was driving prey from the Geshurites and Girzites and Amalekites, against whom however he had no cause of hatred, and accordingly he was sinning gravely against the king. For since he had been so kindly received by Achish, why was he injurious to him, why does he stir up against him, so far as in him lies, complaints and wars: for the Philistines and the Geshurites and Girzites and Amalekites exercised no hatreds among themselves. Why therefore does David sow causes of hatreds and wars? Why does he not better acknowledge the benefit received from the king? Therefore David sinned gravely against the king: then he seems also to have been injurious to the others, because, provoked by no injuries nor stirred up by them, he nevertheless made an attack on them and drove away the prey, so that the Amalekites afterwards seem to have had a just cause for waging war against him and laying waste the city of Ziklag with fire: because he had of his own accord provoked them and plundered them. Although as to that which pertains to this point, it is easy to answer that it was permitted David to destroy those peoples, namely the enemies of the people of God. For if anyone should object that he had not yet attained to royal dignity, nor yet received power of arms: we have already taught before that David did not indeed have power of taking action against Saul, or of changing the state, until he should be called by God: but yet that he had authority of slaying and exterminating the enemies of the people of God: by which right also he was surrounded by those soldiers who had fled to him: although he could attempt nothing for the destruction of Saul. The Amalekites however had been so long obstinate enemies of the people of God, that they deserved to be exterminated. Therefore David, although he did not at one stroke utterly exterminate them, yet routed them in many battles. For God had so long beforehand foretold that he would fight against them, and that he would be opposed to them until they should be removed by one slaughter. Therefore since by such a sentence of the Lord the Amalekites had been condemned, deservedly David demanded penalty from them, and shed their blood: and accordingly he is not on this account to be reproved: and the same is the reason for the rest of the peoples who were enemies of God's people. Here therefore we ought to admire the marvelous work of divine providence unknown to us and inscrutable. For if David had perpetually lain hidden in the deserts of Judea, he would not have had the occasion of attacking the Amalekites: since Saul did not assail them, and preferred to make an attack on David rather than on those enemies, concerning whose extermination he had an express command. David therefore, an exile from his country, and reduced to such a state that he seemed cut off from the people of God, and to have no further authority: from this he seizes an occasion of overthrowing the enemies of God, who first had dared to bar the people from entering the land of Canaan which God had promised to his people, and to provoke with injuries, when the people of God were fleeing from the land of Egypt. God therefore through David's ministry pursues the Amalekites and avenges himself on them: when David seemed to have most utterly perished. From this let us learn that God, when he has determined to punish his enemies and ours, raises up enemies for them, in the opinion of men of indeed no moment: but who nevertheless suffice for executing the divine judgments, no otherwise than as if God had stirred up many huge armies against them. Which doctrine today we ought to draw to our use: for we are for the most part too precipitate: and we wish in a moment that whatever is contrary to us be uprooted, and we desire only leisure and triumphs. But God tempers these affections, and represses that fervor by throwing cold water on it: and nevertheless if he does not in one moment overthrow our enemies with great force, yet little by little he consumes them. But by what means does God effect this? Truly, if we patiently await God's help, we shall sooner than we think marvel at the matter accomplished.

These therefore ought to be our exercises in those difficulties, namely the serious invocation of God. For although each one ought to strive according to his own strength, and to dare something, as we see David did not spare himself, in proportion as God assisted him with help: yet the chief arms for obtaining victory are assiduous prayers. Indeed in our times we experience the same thing as David here did: for we see those who in the opinion of men seemed most contemptible, called by God, and to have means by which they may defend themselves far more ample than when they were left in leisure by their adversaries. For example, as long as peace lasted, how miserable was the condition of the wretched faithful over whom enemies were lording it, and were laying the sword to their throats, and triumphing over them? Did not the enemies, conspired together, threaten every extremity, and thirst for the blood of the wretched, so that the safety of the Church seemed to hang by a thin thread? Therefore if that condition and neutrality full of snares had lasted longer, it is certain that scarcely a place would have been given to the gospel... But although God permits the wicked to run wild, and to insult the wretched, and to celebrate triumphs as if victory had already been won, nevertheless all their efforts will be in vain. For God in a moment confounds those who exult and triumph, and makes manifest in fact that he has in his secret counsel things which we could not even have suspected. Therefore we ought all the more ardently to flee to him, and to ask that he may complete the work he has begun: for it is nothing to have begun unless he completes it. Therefore God must work by extraordinary power and bring help to his own. God indeed never leaves a work he has begun unfinished, unless provoked by the ingratitude of men: and so when he has begun to work, he opens our eyes by which we may contemplate his favor and goodness toward us. Therefore we ought to be more and more stirred up to call upon him then with more ardent prayers; and beware lest we grow numb in sloth, and indulge ourselves as if the matter were already accomplished. But while we wait for God to complete his work, let us acknowledge our wretchedness and weakness and need of his help, so that, mindful of our want, we may have a greater opportunity for advancing the glory of God. Meanwhile let us rest in him, in no way doubting that he will overcome all difficulties beyond our hope and expectation. And if he does not finish the business so quickly, nor by those means by which we would wish, let it suffice that God is completing his work according to his own judgment; and that, when we have persevered in calling upon him, an ever greater proof of giving him thanks, of invoking him in all difficulties, and of hoping in his grace will be afforded us.

Furthermore, in that David, when asked by Achish from where he was bringing back the spoils and driving the booty, answered that it was from the southern district of Judea -- in this, as we have said, he is to be condemned: yet God forgave him this fault, and did not cease to impart his grace to him notwithstanding this hindrance. Hence therefore let us learn that, although we labor under some weakness and are not as perfect as would be fitting, God nevertheless looks upon us, and has mercy on us; but meanwhile let us beware of imitating David's sins, as many profane men are accustomed by such examples to foster their vices: God indeed bore with David sinning, why then would he deal more severely with us? And from this they take occasion for indulging vices. Rather let us from this acknowledge how great is the weakness of men, who, though they apply their effort to virtues to the best of their ability, nonetheless very often offend in many things. David indeed never had affections so disordered that he wished to depart from obedience to God: but on the contrary he leaned upon it with all zeal: yet meanwhile he was reduced to such straits that he could not but stumble. But if this happened to so great a man, illustrious and distinguished by so many virtues, what, I beseech you, will happen to us wretches? Therefore David's example is set before us, that we may know how to keep ourselves within the limits set, and not depart a hair's breadth from God's commands: and if anything is sinned by us, that we may flee to his mercy, and although we are not such as we ought to have been, nonetheless we may aim at the proposed mark, in no way doubting that we shall experience God favorable, easily excusing our weakness: and never permitting that, however great our weakness may be, we should fall into disgrace and ignominy, and that enemies should triumph over us.

Moreover, we see king Achish, with his princes and counselors, baited by the spoil which David was making, in a share of which there is no doubt that he himself came: and so blinded by it that he did not notice that this was being done to his own loss; since he persuades himself that the booty was driven from Judea, although it was being led from neighbors, against whom he would have wished to undertake nothing. Hence let us observe that those who are carried away by their affections are utterly blind, and provided they do the thing even with another's loss, they make little of it: and so they become destitute of reason and counsel. Therefore, since such is the power of avarice in blinding men, and makes them destitute of counsel and reason, let us flee it as a pestilential plague. Next, the work of God is to be observed in deluding king Achish, while David with far other forces should attack his people, and rout them. David indeed, as we said before, we cannot free from all blame, but God nevertheless advanced his work. Therefore when Achish persuades himself that David is hostile to his Israelite people, and will in the future render him faithful service, he is blinded by God, so that meanwhile David might be preserved safe and sound, and the Israelite people might obtain some tranquility. For previously the Philistines were continually harassing the Israelites with wars, who now they let rest, supposing David hostile to them, and to weary and despoil them daily with new incursions. From which it appears that God is accustomed to preserve his own by wonderful means, surpassing all human opinion. Who, although in many things they often stumble, are not therefore deserted by the Lord, because he does not wish to leave the work begun in them unfinished: but he so heals their imperfections that he leads them step by step to full perfection.

Now then come, etc.

## HOMILIA XCVIII.

1. David said in his heart: One day I will fall into the hand of Saul. There is nothing better for me than to escape to the land of the Philistines. Then Saul will despair of searching for me any more in all the territory of Israel, and I will escape out of his hand. 2. So David arose and went over, he and the six hundred men who were with him, to Achish the son of Maoch, king of Gath. 3. And David lived with Achish at Gath, he and his men, each with his household — David with his two wives, Ahinoam of Jezreel and Abigail the widow of Nabal of Carmel. 4. When it was told Saul that David had fled to Gath, he no longer continued to seek him. 5. Then David said to Achish: If I have found favor in your eyes, let a place be given me in one of the country towns, that I may live there. For why should your servant live in the royal city with you? 6. So Achish gave him Ziklag that day, and Ziklag has belonged to the kings of Judah to this day. 7. The time that David lived in the country of the Philistines was four months. 8. Now David and his men went up and raided the Geshurites, the Girzites, and the Amalekites — for these peoples had inhabited the land from ancient times, in the region leading toward Shur, as far as the land of Egypt. 9. David struck the land and left neither man nor woman alive, and he took the sheep, the oxen, the donkeys, the camels, and the clothing, and returned and came to Achish. 10. Achish asked: Where have you raided today? And David said: Against the Negeb of Judah and against the Negeb of the Jerahmeelites and against the Negeb of the Kenites. 11. David would leave neither man nor woman alive to bring back to Gath, saying: Lest they speak against us. So David did this — it was his practice all the days he lived in the country of the Philistines. 12. And Achish believed David, saying: He has made himself utterly odious to his people Israel. He will be my servant forever.

David, having endured many hardships and overcome many trials and temptations, is at last compelled as an exile from his homeland to flee into a foreign land. This was the heaviest temptation of all — being forced to live in exile from the land God had given to Abraham's descendants as their inheritance. David most likely felt this exile as worse than death itself. This had in fact been the design of his enemies, as we saw when he complained to Saul: 'Because they drive me out today so that I cannot hold to the inheritance of the Lord, saying: Go, worship foreign gods.' David did abstain from idol worship — there is no doubt he was not defiled by any idolatrous practice. But he was still compelled to seek refuge with unbelievers, the fiercest enemies of the Jewish people, and to implore their help. He had already been in danger among them before, as we saw when he was captured by the Philistines, brought before the king, and facing death — with no way of escape except to feign madness, foaming and imitating the gestures of an insane man. So when driven into this same situation again, he was undoubtedly in extreme distress — forced as an outsider to live as an exile in a foreign land. Although this may not have been the same king — Achish is called 'the son of Maoch' to distinguish him from the Achish of years earlier — there was still perpetual war between Israel and the Philistines. So even though David had free passage from his homeland into Philistine territory and was received kindly by King Achish, he was in continual difficulty. God, then, was clearly testing his patience: after many long and severe hardships, David was compelled to leave the land where God was worshiped and flee into a land polluted with idolatrous worship. How unlike this was to what was rightfully owed him — the kingship over God's own chosen and adopted people. Instead of being head, he was not even allowed to be the smallest member. No doubt David would have been satisfied simply to be, as it were, a small joint in the body — just as he declares in the Psalms that he would rather dwell in the courts of the Lord than live among unbelievers, that he would rather be a doorkeeper in God's house among the assembly of the faithful than be raised to royal dignity separated from God's people. There is no doubt that this was an extreme temptation and the deepest distress — not even being able to sustain his life in some corner of the mountains and caves of Judah. This example must be held in high regard by us. Who, taught by experience, does not know how soft and fragile people are when God tests them with various troubles? Each person indulges himself and complains that he is being treated more harshly than is fair. David's example is therefore all the more worth carefully weighing and measuring against whatever troubles we have had to wrestle with. For example, if God puts us through an examination today and we suffer persecution because of our confession of the Gospel — are we tested the way David was? Are we banished as utterly cast out by those who invoke God's name, so that no place is open to us except in the midst of enemies, and we can defend our lives by no other means than by facing death itself — and this not for one or two days but for many years? We must therefore acknowledge God's favor toward us. He bears with our weakness and has mercy on us. We would be truly ungrateful if we did not patiently wait until He Himself gives us the strength to overcome our enemies.

If anyone objects that David was far stronger than we are, let it be known that this strength came from no other source than the faith by which he rested in God, sustained by His Spirit in the greatest difficulties. Let us therefore imitate David. Conscious of our common weakness, let us seek the remedy for it and pray that God would lift us when we are cast down, sustain us when we are more violently shaken and wavering, and supply the strength He will certainly provide at the right time. For whatever happens, that word from the second chapter of this book stands absolutely true: God first brings His own to death and afterward restores them to life; He casts them into the grave before He brings them out again. God could certainly have protected David in Judah and shielded him from Saul's traps if He had chosen to — but after snatching him from death so many times, He chose at last to let him reach the point where there was no hope of life unless he threw himself into the hands of the enemies of God. God therefore willed that David, having been so often miraculously delivered, should come into this danger among the Philistines, so that the divine work in him might appear and be completed more and more. This shows clearly that God does not test His faithful without reason — His grace was more glorious in proportion to how severe the testing was. And by this same process we see that David was given not only an occasion and ground for praising God and acknowledging Him as the sole defender to whom he owed his very life as a gift, but also that his example today stands as instruction for us — stirring us to imitate him, persuaded that as often as God loosens the reins on enemies so that our salvation seems given up for lost, God nevertheless holds the keys of death in His hand. He will at last have mercy on us, just as He did long ago on David. But such is human unbelief that people always waver uncertainly and argue against God's most certain promises. God commands us to be at peace and depend on Him, fully persuaded He watches over our salvation — and yet people perpetually wander in uncertainty, dreading every danger as though there could never be any escape, as though by their own insistence they would reduce His promises to nothing. Therefore, the greater people's unbelief, the more diligently must the examples be noted by which we can be instructed. We hear not only God teaching, but also stirring us to apply faith to His promises through the examples of His servants. For instance, when we see David come into mortal danger and afterward find God giving him fresh reason for joy, we are taught to invoke God with genuine faith, to flee for refuge to His goodness, doubting not at all that by His infinite and unchanging power He can rescue us from a thousand perils of death and even raise the dead to life. Finally, one thing remains: whatever our condition, let us deposit our life into His hands. This will happen when we have acknowledged Him as our defender, when we have prayed from the heart that He have mercy on us, and when we have embraced His promises — persuaded that they pertain to us, those whom He has made His sons out of enemies and through faith in the Gospel, members of His Son our Lord Jesus Christ. And so that we may embrace this teaching more surely, let us know that David is set before us as a figure of our Lord Jesus Christ, and as an example for us to imitate — because what is told of David is common to him and to us. If his condition had been unique and unlike ours, we might object that what happened to him cannot be useful to us or held up as an example. But since he is shown to our eyes as a figure of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is our Head, we can surely conclude that the deliverances he experienced are promised to us today as well — they pertain to us — so that we need not doubt at all that God, holding us by the hand, will rescue us from all dangers at the right time, even when we are pressed on every side by the perils of death.

That all this cannot happen without great anguish and difficulty is absolutely certain — as we see in David himself, who is clearly affected with deep temptation when he says with a troubled mind: 'One day I shall fall into Saul's hands. Is it not better that I flee and save myself in the land of the Philistines?' By pouring out these words — concluding that no other means of saving his life remained except to flee to enemies — he shows plainly that his soul was disturbed. No doubt his mind had been tossing back and forth, and after a violent inner struggle he finally settled on this plan of fleeing to the Philistines. Why? Did David value his life so highly that he preferred to live among unbelievers rather than keep suffering persecution in Judah? He could barely keep himself from every taint of corruption in that situation — yet there is absolutely no doubt that he retained intact the seal and promise the Lord had made to him, and that he was entirely free from ambition and greed. As he himself testifies in the Psalms, he had placed his life in God's hands and had not thrown away the right to royal dignity that was owed him — because on this his hope of eternal salvation rested. The issue at stake was not some earthly and passing good, but the certain pledge of the future kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ. It was therefore necessary that he be pressed with various cares and troubles and wrestle with many difficulties — though death would have been sweeter to him than a prolonged life full of anxiety. We see that even Abraham himself was reduced to exposing his wife Sarah — whose dishonor he would certainly have preferred to redeem with his own death. But because God had promised him that from his seed would come one in whom all nations would be blessed, he struggled to preserve his life — because he saw that his own salvation and that of all were somehow bound up with his surviving. Unless he had lived, the whole world would have perished — no other hope of salvation appeared except in that blessed seed God was to raise up from him. For that reason he spared nothing to preserve his life, until he obtained from God what he was waiting for. David's reasoning was the same. He would have chosen, if he could, to die a thousand times rather than live among foreigners. But meanwhile, relying on the divine promise that he would be raised to royal dignity, he provided for his own safety among idolaters until his Redeemer would appear — since he could do so nowhere else.

When it is said that David lived in Gath with King Achish — he and his men and his household, and his two wives — this shows that God by a remarkable working bent the hearts of the Philistines to receive David and his family with such kindness. They could hardly have forgotten the song the women and girls had sung: that Saul had killed his thousands, but David his ten thousands of Philistines. They knew very well what harm David had inflicted on them — so it was inevitable that they should be deeply angry with him and want him dead. It must therefore be confessed that by divine providence David found favor with these people, who otherwise should have raged cruelly against him. Scripture often testifies to this: God bends the hearts of people — even wicked people — to His will, and breaks the fury of lions so they become lambs whenever it pleases Him, not by permanently changing their nature, but by restraining and checking their rage against His own. So we see the Israelites finding favor with the Egyptians, from whom they received precious vessels of gold and silver. And conversely, in the Psalms we see God turning the Philistines' minds the other way, stirring them to persecute the Israelites who had provoked Him by their sins. Both of these things are in God's hand: as often as it pleases Him, those who were formerly friends He makes our enemies and stirs up against us, using them as instruments to chastise us for our sins — so that when wicked people afflict us, God's own hand is at work, using their actions for our correction. Or on the contrary, by His immense goodness, those who were formerly enemies and fiercest opponents He turns into friends who bring help in difficult times. For this reason the Lord often consoles His people through the prophets, saying He will bring it about that they find favor with enemies and foreign nations. This shows that when He has chastised His own, if they flee to Him with genuine repentance and humility and beg His pardon, He will heal the wounds He Himself inflicted — and will bring it about that their cruelest enemies, by whom they seemed about to be torn apart, will suddenly have their minds changed and will seek their good and receive them with the greatest kindness. Without doubt, when Achish received David, he carefully watched David's actions and had reliable people to report on his conduct and words. For though Achish had received David kindly, he could not entirely trust him — though he may have hoped that with time, David, having been brought into favor, would become a faithful servant. This suggests that the minds of Achish's counselors and indeed of the wider population were bent by God. No doubt many among the ordinary people looked at David with hostile eyes and nursed the memory of friends, relatives, or kinsmen David had killed — and so desired revenge and wanted to do away with him at once. Therefore God's providence covered David and served as a shield against those threats, so that under its protection he was kept safe.

Next, David asks the king to give him a town to live in, saying: 'If I have found favor in your eyes, let a place be given me in one of the towns of this region, that I may live there. For why should your servant live in the royal city with you?' By pointing out the disadvantages, David was working to make it easier for the Philistine king to grant his request — for kings generally look first to their own advantage and peace. David suggests it is not to the king's advantage to have him in the royal city, and that with so many soldiers around him, the king would inevitably face some inconvenience. David's reasons were plausible — though there is absolutely no doubt that his actual purpose was very different, as the outcome makes clear. He kept hidden from King Achish what he was really planning, while saying nothing that did not at least have the appearance of truth — making it difficult to tell whether he was deliberately and cleverly deceiving. He dressed his request in plausible reasons. But what was he actually thinking? First, he hoped that by being separated from unbelievers he would more easily be free to worship God sincerely, and could avoid being heard as a godless man who despised the religion of Judah. Second, a better opportunity would be presented to him to strike against the enemies of God's people — satisfying King Achish without actually harming the Israelites. So David was to some degree concealing his intent from Achish. But he was not lying — as we will see him do a little later. Here he only concealed part of his mind while presenting what had the appearance of truth. If anyone asks whether this was lawful for David, the answer is that not all concealment is sinful and deserving of condemnation. To conceal is to cover part of one's thinking. We are not obligated to lay open all our thoughts to our enemies — indeed we are not always compelled to reveal our thoughts even to our brothers. We are only bound to deal with our neighbors with honesty and integrity. Paul exhorts the faithful to live among people with integrity and openness of soul. Concealment, therefore, is not always a vice — it becomes a vice only when someone conceals in order to speak falsehood. Then it is simply a lie. So we say that David, in concealing his purpose from King Achish, did not sin or offend God. Furthermore, his prudence deserves praise — he foresaw the hostility and grumbling the Philistines would direct at him if he remained longer in the royal city with his soldiers and family. He also foresaw that they would press him toward their religion and try to compel him to abandon his own, taking offense at his separate worship. Foreseeing all of this, and in order to preserve his freedom to keep himself pure from idolatrous corruption, he asked to live apart. There is no doubt that, not lacking in judgment, he also foresaw that in a small town he could easily be cut off by enemies — that if the Philistines conspired against him he would be exposed and trapped with no way of escape. His life would be in serious danger at every moment. But weighing all these risks, he chose — over all the dangers and inconveniences — to have the freedom to serve God purely and sincerely and to keep himself free from idolatrous pollution. David also wisely avoided stirring up hatred from his enemies or the suspicion that he was aiming at some position of power, being content to live and protect his life in an obscure place. King Achish gave him Ziklag. This again shows that the king was moved by God in no ordinary way. Achish was clearly blinded by God when he gave his enemy David a city on the border of Judah — for if he truly suspected David, why place him on the border near Judah rather than deep within his own territory where David could do no harm? No doubt Achish's own greed drove him and led him astray carelessly — like fish gaping after bait who are caught on the hook. By placing David in a border town, Achish calculated that David would provide for his own support through constant raids and attacks on enemy territory. He was pleased that David would be a thorn in Israel's side, continually harassing them — which would make them easier to subdue later. But God turned that plan to Achish's own ruin. This is how God commonly avenges the burning greed of wicked men. Though He sometimes gives them free rein, He turns their own evil counsel back on their own heads and empties their plans of any lasting result. Let us therefore, by the example of King Achish and others like him, learn not to desire anything beyond measure — lest the wealth grabbed from every side become the noose by which we are strangled. Being content with what God provides, let us not seek to enrich ourselves at others' expense and loss.

In what follows, we cannot free David from all blame. He is guilty of lying — he pretended to be raiding the people of Judah, and when Achish asked where he had raided, he answered that he had struck the Negeb of Judah and the Negeb of the Kenites. In reality he was driving off plunder from the Geshurites, the Girzites, and the Amalekites. He thus gravely wronged the king. Since Achish had received him with such kindness, why did David injure him and, as far as he was able, stir up for him complaints and conflict? The Philistines had no existing quarrel with the Geshurites, the Girzites, or the Amalekites. Why then did David sow the seeds of quarrels and wars? Why did he not better acknowledge the benefit he had received from the king? David sinned seriously against the king in this. He also appears to have wronged the others — for he attacked them and carried off their goods without being provoked or stirred up by any injury from them. The Amalekites afterward seem to have had a legitimate cause for making war on him and burning Ziklag, because he had provoked and plundered them of his own accord. On that specific point, however, it is easy to answer: David was permitted to destroy those peoples, who were enemies of God's people. If someone objects that he had not yet attained royal dignity or received the authority to wage war — we have already explained that David had no authority to act against Saul or change the state of affairs until God called him to do so. But he did have authority to strike and destroy the enemies of God's people. That is the very right by which the soldiers who had fled to him were gathered around him — even though he could attempt nothing against Saul's life. The Amalekites had been hardened enemies of God's people for so long that they deserved to be destroyed. David, though he did not wipe them out completely in one stroke, struck them in many engagements. God had long foretold that He would fight against them and be their opponent until they were removed by a final slaughter. Since the Lord had already pronounced this sentence against the Amalekites, David was fully within his right to demand justice from them and shed their blood — and for that reason he is not to be condemned. The same holds for the other peoples who were enemies of God's people. Here we must marvel at the remarkable work of divine providence — hidden and inscrutable to us. Had David remained constantly hidden in the deserts of Judah, he would never have had occasion to strike the Amalekites. Saul himself was not pursuing them — he preferred to attack David rather than obey the express command to wipe out those enemies. David therefore — exiled from his homeland, reduced to a state where he seemed cut off from God's people and stripped of all authority — seized from this very situation the occasion to strike down the enemies of God who had first dared to block the people from entering the land of Canaan God had promised, and had provoked them with injuries when they were fleeing from Egypt. God therefore pursued the Amalekites through David's service and took vengeance on them — at the very moment when David seemed to have utterly perished. Let us learn from this that when God has determined to punish His enemies and ours, He raises up adversaries against them who seem in human eyes to be of no significance — yet they are enough to execute His judgments, no less than if He had raised up many great armies against them. This teaching we ought to apply to ourselves today. We are for the most part too impatient — we want everything that opposes us uprooted in a moment, and we long only for rest and triumphs. But God tempers these passions and damps down that fervor with cold water. Even if He does not overthrow our enemies all at once by great force, He consumes them little by little. By what means does God accomplish this? If we patiently await His help, we will sooner than we think be amazed at what He has done.

In our difficulties, these must be our chief exercises: earnest calling on God. Though each person should strive with his own strength and dare something — as we see David did not spare himself, in proportion to the help God gave him — yet the chief weapon for obtaining victory is constant prayer. In our own time we see the same thing David experienced here. Those who seemed most contemptible in human eyes have been called by God and given means of defense far more ample than when their enemies left them undisturbed. For example, as long as outward peace lasted, how wretched was the condition of the faithful, over whom enemies were lording it, putting the sword to their throats and triumphing over them? Did not those enemies, conspired together, threaten every extremity and thirst for the blood of the helpless — so that the safety of the church seemed to hang by a thin thread? Had that condition of dangerous neutrality lasted much longer, there would scarcely have been a place left for the Gospel. But even though God permits the wicked to run wild, insult the helpless, and celebrate as if victory were already theirs — all their efforts will be in vain. For God in a moment confounds those who exult and triumph, and shows in practice that He holds in His secret counsel things we could never have suspected. We ought therefore all the more urgently to flee to Him and ask that He complete the work He has begun — for it is nothing to have begun unless He finishes it. God must therefore work by extraordinary power and bring help to His own. God never leaves unfinished a work He has started, unless provoked by human ingratitude. When He begins to work, He opens our eyes to see His favor and goodness toward us. Therefore let us be more and more stirred to call on Him with more earnest prayer, and beware of growing numb in sloth and acting as though the matter were already settled. While we wait for God to complete His work, let us acknowledge our wretchedness, weakness, and need of His help — so that, mindful of our need, we may have all the greater opportunity for advancing God's glory. Meanwhile let us rest in Him, doubting not at all that He will overcome all difficulties beyond our hope and expectation. And if He does not complete it as quickly as we wish, or by the means we would have chosen — let it be enough that God is completing His work according to His own judgment. And as we persevere in calling on Him, ever greater occasion for thanksgiving, for calling on Him in all difficulties, and for hoping in His grace will be given to us.

When David, asked by Achish where he had brought back the spoil, answered that it was from the southern district of Judah — in this, as we said, he is to be condemned. Yet God forgave him this fault and did not stop extending His grace to him despite this failure. Let us learn from this that, even when we struggle under some weakness and are not as perfect as we should be, God nonetheless looks on us and has mercy on us. But at the same time, let us beware of using David's sins as an example to justify our own vices — as many irreverent people do, arguing: 'God bore with David when he sinned — why should He deal more strictly with us?' And from this they take license to indulge their failures. Instead, let us recognize from this how great is human weakness — people who apply their best efforts toward virtue still fail in many things. David never had affections so disordered that he wished to abandon obedience to God — quite the opposite; he pursued it with all zeal. Yet he was pressed into such extremity that he could not avoid stumbling. But if this happened to so great a man, distinguished and illustrious for so many virtues — what will happen to us? David's example is therefore set before us so that we may know how to stay within the bounds God has set, not departing even a hair's breadth from His commands. And if we do sin, we should flee to His mercy — and though we are not what we ought to be, we should press on toward the goal, doubting not at all that we will find God favorable, readily forgiving our weakness, and never permitting — however great our weakness — that we should fall into permanent disgrace, or that enemies should triumph over us.

We also see that King Achish, along with his princes and counselors, was baited by the plunder David was bringing in — a share of which Achish himself no doubt enjoyed. He was so blinded by it that he did not notice it was happening at his own expense, persuading himself the booty was coming from Judah when in fact it was being taken from neighboring peoples against whom he would never have wanted action taken. Let us observe that those who are ruled by their desires are completely blind. As long as they get what they want — even at another's loss — they pay no attention to the harm, and become stripped of reason and good judgment. Since greed has this power to blind people and leave them without wisdom or sound judgment, let us flee it like a deadly plague. Next, God's work must be noticed in deceiving King Achish — while David would eventually strike his people with far greater force and rout them. David, as we said, we cannot fully excuse — but God advanced His work nonetheless. So when Achish became convinced that David was hostile to his Israelite people and would serve him faithfully in the future, he was blinded by God — so that meanwhile David might be kept safe, and the Israelite people might enjoy some relief. Previously the Philistines had been continually harassing the Israelites with wars — but now they left them at rest, supposing that David was already harassing and despoiling them daily. This shows that God is accustomed to preserve His own by remarkable means that surpass all human expectation. Though His own stumble often in many things, they are not therefore abandoned by the Lord — for He does not wish to leave unfinished the work He has begun in them. Instead, He heals their imperfections and leads them step by step to full completion.

Now then come, etc.

## HOMILIA XCVIII.