Bad Self-Talk: Daily Thoughts from 1 Samuel (1 Samuel 27)

We tell ourselves things in times of stress and trouble. That is to say, we don’t tell God but we devise our own solutions. When someone in Scripture is said to have said to him or herself something, it is normally an ignoring of God and a self-devised answer to life (Nabal in 1 Samuel 25, Eve in Genesis 3, the rich man in Luke 12:16-21).

David has been living under tremendous stress trying to stay out of Saul’s murderous reach. The strain gets to him. The solution he comes up with does give him some relief and even some wealth, but as we shall see (1 Samuel 29), it also at one point causes great stress.

Then David said in his heart, “Now I shall perish one day by the hand of Saul. There is nothing better for me than that I should escape to the land of the Philistines. Then Saul will despair of seeking me any longer within the borders of Israel, and I shall escape out of his hand.” 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. And David lived with Achish at Gath, he and his men, every man with his household, and David with his two wives, Ahinoam of Jezreel, and Abigail of Carmel, Nabal’s widow. And when it was told Saul that David had fled to Gath, he no longer sought him.

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 dwell there. For why should your servant dwell in the royal city with you?” So that day Achish gave him Ziklag. Therefore Ziklag has belonged to the kings of Judah to this day. And the number of the days that David lived in the country of the Philistines was a year and four months.

Now David and his men went up and made raids against the Geshurites, the Girzites, and the Amalekites, for these were the inhabitants of the land from of old, as far as Shur, to the land of Egypt. And David would strike the land and would leave neither man nor woman alive, but would take away the sheep, the oxen, the donkeys, the camels, and the garments, and come back to Achish. When Achish asked, “Where have you made a raid today?” David would say, “Against the Negeb of Judah,” or, “Against the Negeb of the Jerahmeelites,” or, “Against the Negeb of the Kenites.” And David would leave neither man nor woman alive to bring news to Gath, thinking, “lest they should tell about us and say, ‘So David has done.’” Such was his custom all the while he lived in the country of the Philistines. And Achish trusted David, thinking, “He has made himself an utter stench to his people Israel; therefore he shall always be my servant.” (1 Samuel 27, ESV)

We are not told that David consulted his prophet or priest to find out if God desired this move of his. Rather we are told his reasoning, that it would give him, hopefully, a break from Saul’s pursuit. He has a strong fighting force and convinces Achish (either the one who before had rejected him or his son, ch.21) that he can be trusted to fight for the cause of the Philistines, a lie that he is able to maintain by slaying all witnesses to his deception. He is in fact defeating old enemies of Israel, but his actions convince Achish that he has made himself hated by Israel.

We do long for relief from the pressure that being hated by someone entails. In our longing we are tempted to get relief by means that are not fully trusting God but spring from our own resources. We tell ourselves that we deserve a break or an indulgence. But if our God is trustworthy and we know this battle is His, we should not need a break but should instead be content in our hearts to see God perform on our behalf. It should be more adventuresome than burdensome. May God help us to see that this is the greatest adventure the human heart will ever see.