In this chapter we have an account of an heroic act of David's faith in the Lord, his invincible courage, and his tenderness towards Saul, his enraged enemy, by which he melted his heart and overcame his cruel wrath. Let us view his conduct, and pray for grace to get good from it.
View his faith. Here was Saul, with three thousand chosen men, in pursuit of David, thirsting for his blood; they were at a very small distance from him. Behold, David proposes to go to Saul's camp in the dead of the night, and asks," Who will go down with me?" Does not this seem to the eye of natural reason to be a most rash and dangerous attempt? Though it were at midnight, though they might be fallen into a dead sleep, yet, out of such a number of men, one or more might awake and seize on David. Surely, it was going into the very jaws of death; but David's faith surmounted his fears; his trust in his God prevailed. O precious gift of precious faith! Lord, increase it in our souls. Abishai consents to go with him; they pass the king's life-guards; enter Saul's camp: for behold, they were all like dead men. David and Abishai converse together: not a man hears or stirs. Why was this? How can we account for it? Why? Because a deep sleep from the Lord was fallen upon them." O, my soul, learn courage from hence. When Giant Despair attempted to pursue the pilgrims he was seized with his fits. All thy enemies are under thy Lord's power; he can cast all into a deep sleep, or into the long sleep of death; and he will, sooner than thou shalt perish by them. Up faith–down sense–away with all carnal reasonings:
Now see how David's faith wrought by his works. When they got safe into the camp Saul lay sleeping, and his spear stuck into the ground at his head. Now for a strong temptation. Abishai said to David, "God hath delivered thine enemy into thy hand this day; let me smite him, I pray thee, with this spear to the earth at once, I will not smite him a second time." See this specious reasoning. He begins with God, who had delivered Saul into David's hands. Here was a fair opportunity to revenge himself of his cruel enemy and put an end to his troubles. And he promises to do it effectually, at a stroke. Now, who but a man after God's own heart could have withstood this? But David had a better way to kill his rage and save his life. Here see an heroic act of faith working by love and producing an unshaken obedience to God: he durst not stretch forth his hand against the Lord's anointed. See how conspicuous the grace of God shines in the Old Testament saint O blush, ye who regard David's faith as nothing compared to the faith of a christian!
See the effects of David's conduct: he carried away Saul's spear and cruse from under his head, and upbraids the captain of his host for not watching over his royal master. Saul hears of the affair and cries out, "Is this thy voice, my son David?" Struck with David's fine reasoning; melted down at his noble, generous conduct; and doubtless recollecting that his life had been once before in David's hands, when he cut off the skirts of his robe in a cave, 1 Sam. 24:4, Saul replies, "Behold I have played the fool, and erred exceedingly." Thus faith works by love and patience: this will overcome, when wrath and resentment only add fuel to an enemy's rage.