1 Samuel 24

Let us pray for our enemies, and conquer them by love. David's kindness melted Saul's heart (1 Samuel 24:16). A frozen heart will be thawed with the fire of love.

3. To stain one's hands with royal blood. David's heart smote him, because he did but cut off the lap of King Saul's garment (1 Samuel 24:5). How would David's heart have smote him, if he had cut off Saul's head?

Saul having pursued David with malice, and hunted him as a partridge upon the mountains, yet David would not do him a mischief when it was in his power. David's kindness melted Saul's heart (1 Samuel 24:16-17): Is this your voice, my son David? And Saul lifted up his voice and w…

He gave David the kingdom of Israel, and anointed him by Samuel, 1 Samuel 16.13. But he attained it not of many years after; and in the mean time, was persecuted and hunted by Saul, as a flea in a man's bosom, or as a Partridge in the mountains, 1 Samuel 24.15. and 26.20. And th…

We dare not so much as speak of an earthly king irreverently; what reverence then do we owe to Christ the king of heaven and earth? David's heart was touched in that he had cut off but the lap of Saul's garment, when he might have slain him, because he was the Lord's anointed (1…

But this way you may obtain a truly glorious conquest. What an honorable victory did David this way obtain over Saul — 1 Samuel 24:16-17: 'And it came to pass, when David had made an end of speaking these words, that Saul lifted up his voice and wept; and he said to David, You a…

And it is the property of a good man, not to take up a false report (Psalm 15). And David reproves [reconstructed: Saul] because he did but lend the ear to tale-bearers saying, why do you give ear to men's words that say, behold, David seeks evil against you? (1 Samuel 24:10). I…

You have rewarded me Good, whereas I have rewarded you Evil? And at another Time, I have sinned, I have played the Fool, I have erred exceedingly, 1 Samuel 24:16, 17 and Chapter 26:21. And yet Saul seems then to have had very little of the Influences of the Spirit of God, it bei…

The title tells us this Psalm was composed by him when he hid himself from Saul in the cave. This cave was in the wilderness of Engedi among the broken rocks where the wild goats inhabited — an obscure and desolate hole; yet even there the envy of Saul pursued him (1 Samuel 24:1…

To be smitten by a friend whose very smiting is friendship, and who heals us by wounding cannot be offensive. Hence David's choice, Let us fall now into the hands of the Lord (for his mercies are great) and not into the hand of man (1 Samuel 24:14). Hence a third observation fro…

How should it be otherwise? Men must needs act as they are: It was a proverb of the ancients, "Wickedness proceeds from the wicked" (1 Samuel 24:13). Such as the fountain is, such must needs be the streams; the fruit is answerable to the nature of the root and tree.

It is the evil of passion that it turns our friends into enemies, but it is the excellency of meekness, that it turns our enemies into friends, which is an effectual way of conquering them. Saul, as inveterate an enemy as could be, was more than once melted by David's mildness a…

When Saul persecuted him with such an unwearied malice, he did not take the advantage which providence seemed to offer him, more than once, to revenge and right himself, but left it to God to do it for him. David's meek spirit concurred with the proverb of the ancients, wickedne…

Second, Christ sometimes by some strong impulse of actual grace recovers the soul from the very borders of sin. So it was in the case of David, 1 Samuel 24:4-5. The temptation was at the door of prevailing when a mighty impulse of grace recovers him.

My Mother, says Solomon to Bathsheba (1 Kings 2:20). I find also the title of Sir or Lord, used: a title of honor (1 Samuel 24:12; 2 Kings 5:13; Judges 18:19; 2 Kings 6:21; 1 Corinthians 4:15; 1 Timothy 5:1; Genesis 22:7; Genesis 27:18; Matthew 21:30; Genesis 31:35). 2. By using…

Great was that esteem which Potiphar had of Joseph, when of a bondservant he made him overseer over his house (Genesis 39:4). Why is the title Father given to masters (2 Kings 5:13), and the title Sons to servants (Joshua 7:19 and 1 Samuel 24:16), but to show that servants shoul…

And it is God's way to shame the party that did the wrong, and to overcome him too; it is the best way to get the victory over him. When David had Saul at an advantage in the cave, and cut off the lap of his garment, and did forbear any act of revenge against him, Saul was melte…

The odiousness of sin does most appear in the unkindness of it; that infinite goodness has been abused, and infinite goodness despised, and that you are willing to lose your part in infinite goodness, rather than not satisfy some base lust, or look after some trifling vanity. Sa…

We are froward in our relations; Hagar was proud in Abraham's house (Genesis 16:4): her mistress was despised in her eyes; but very humble in the desert (Genesis 21:16). David's heart was tender and smote him when he cut off the lap of Saul's garment (1 Samuel 24:5), but how stu…

So (Ezra 4:1[...]), Be it known to the king, that the Jews which came up to you from us, are come to Jerusalem, building the rebellious and the bad city, etc. So Saul against David, as appears by his expostulation with him about it (1 Samuel 24:9), Why do you hear men's words, s…

This gives, as I may say, encouragement to conscience and helps forward the work, and honors that authority which it exercises. Thus David was at the beck of his conscience even for the appearance and bordering of evil (1 Samuel 24:[illegible]): his heart smote him because he ha…

Fifth, meekness is the best way to conquer and melt the heart of an enemy. When Saul lay at David's mercy, and David only cut off the skirt of his robe, how was Saul's heart affected with David's meekness (1 Samuel 24:16-17)! Is this your voice, my son David?

The Spirit in his office cannot step one foot with the unbeliever. Hence much tenderness and smiting of heart where the Spirit is (1 Samuel 24:5). Indeed conscience to weep as one over his mother's grave, for his enemies (Psalm 35:13, 14), and strict doubling of faith in greates…

Can we say that God promises grace and mercy to any acts of the flesh, or of unbelief? 4. It is a mark of a conscience in a right frame, to be affected with the sense of the least sin as David was — one in whose conscience there remained the character of a stripe, when he but cu…

2. A writ written with a pen of iron, and diamond, to endure for eternity. 3. Not written only, but engraved, and indented upon the conscience (1 Samuel 24:5). When David rent the robe of Saul, his heart smote him, so that it left a hole, or the mark of the stripe behind it; as…

His conscience was now daubed and smothered; tract of time will sometimes heal such anguishes. So Saul (1 Samuel 24:17-18) and (1 Samuel 26:2), but it is not so with a pierced heart, it never leaves braying after the Lord (Psalm 42:1-2) and (Psalm 84:3) and (Psalm 34:5-6). My so…