29 Then the Philistines gathered together all their armies at Aphek, and the Israelites encamped by a fountain which is in Jezreel. 2 And the lords of the Philistines passed in review by hundreds and by thousands, but David and his men passed in review at the rear with Achish. 3 Then the princes of the Philistines said, “What are these Hebrews doing here?”
And Achish said to the princes of the Philistines, “Is this not David, the servant of Saul king of Israel, who has been with me these days, or these years? And to this day I have found no fault in him since he defected to me.”
4 But the princes of the Philistines were angry with him; so the princes of the Philistines said to him, “Make this fellow return, that he may go back to the place which you have appointed for him, and do not let him go down with us to battle, lest in the battle he become our adversary. For with what could he reconcile himself to his master, if not with the heads of these men? 5 Is this not David, of whom they sang to one another in dances, saying:
‘Saul has slain his thousands,
And David his ten thousands’?”
6 Then Achish called David and said to him, “Surely, as the Lord lives, you have been upright, and your going out and your coming in with me in the army is good in my sight. For to this day I have not found evil in you since the day of your coming to me. Nevertheless the lords do not favor you. 7 Therefore return now, and go in peace, that you may not displease the lords of the Philistines.”
8 So David said to Achish, “But what have I done? And to this day what have you found in your servant as long as I have been with you, that I may not go and fight against the enemies of my lord the king?”
9 Then Achish answered and said to David, “I know that you are as good in my sight as an angel of God; nevertheless the princes of the Philistines have said, ‘He shall not go up with us to the battle.’ 10 Now therefore, rise early in the morning with your master’s servants who have come with you. And as soon as you are up early in the morning and have light, depart.”
11 So David and his men rose early to depart in the morning, to return to the land of the Philistines. And the Philistines went up to Jezreel.
1 Samuel 29
Dear God, the princes (I guess they were Achish’s brothers since he was a prince) were right to not trust David. Achish was being played the fool by David. We found that a couple of chapters ago when David was lying to him about where he would go raiding. He would kill enemies of Israel and take their stuff and tell Achish he was raiding the Israelites. This is just all so weird to me to seemingly hold up all of David’s activities here as noble. So much death and destruction. So much looting. So much deception. It’s no wonder you didn’t want him to build your Temple (spoiler alert) because he had too much blood on his hands. At some point, this apparently affected you too.
So David is spared from being in the upcoming battle. I can’t help but wonder what he would actually have done had he been there. I have to believe he would have helped Saul and Jonathan. If he saw men chasing them, he would surely have attacked them and killed them. He would have been the danger the Philistine princes foresaw. And that could have messed up his transition to king. Maybe David thought he was doing the right thing by being invited along with the Philistines to fight only to then turn on them, although it is definitely not clear which side his men would have been on. They had been chased by the Israelite army of Saul for years. Would they have been merciful and loyal to Israel or had they emotionally thrown in their lot with the Philistines? Keeping David and his men out of this particular battle saved some problems and answered some questions. It was a plan beyond David’s ability to know.
Father, you keep me from my own shortsightedness or foolishness all of the time. You shut down an opportunity here so that it will develop an opportunity there. In fact, one of my prayers is that the great sorrow in my life will be just that–you doing something through my pain that I cannot see. Making my pain count for your glory and your plan even if it costs me. So I submit to that and ask that you do for me what you did for David here–save me from myself.
I pray this in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,
Amen
Emails to God 
1 Samuel 27
27 And David said in his heart, “Now I shall perish someday by the hand of Saul. There is nothing better for me than that I should speedily escape to the land of the Philistines; and Saul will despair of me, to seek me anymore in any part of Israel. So I shall escape out of his hand.” 2 Then David arose and went over with the six hundred men who were with him to Achish the son of Maoch, king of Gath. 3 So David dwelt with Achish at Gath, he and his men, each man with his household, and David with his two wives, Ahinoam the Jezreelitess, and Abigail the Carmelitess, Nabal’s widow. 4 And it was told Saul that David had fled to Gath; so he sought him no more.
5 Then David said to Achish, “If I have now found favor in your eyes, let them give me a place in some town in the country, that I may dwell there. For why should your servant dwell in the royal city with you?” 6 So Achish gave him Ziklag that day. Therefore Ziklag has belonged to the kings of Judah to this day. 7 Now the time that David dwelt in the country of the Philistines was one full year and four months.
8 And David and his men went up and raided the Geshurites, the Girzites, and the Amalekites. For those nations were the inhabitants of the land from of old, as you go to Shur, even as far as the land of Egypt. 9 Whenever David attacked the land, he left neither man nor woman alive, but took away the sheep, the oxen, the donkeys, the camels, and the apparel, and returned and came to Achish. 10 Then Achish would say, “Where have you made a raid today?” And David would say, “Against the southern area of Judah, or against the southern area of the Jerahmeelites, or against the southern area of the Kenites.” 11 David would save neither man nor woman alive, to bring news to Gath, saying, “Lest they should inform on us, saying, ‘Thus David did.’ ” And thus was his behavior all the time he dwelt in the country of the Philistines. 12 So Achish believed David, saying, “He has made his people Israel utterly abhor him; therefore he will be my servant forever.”
1 Samuel 27
Dear God, I really struggled reading this story this morning, so I needed the Communicator’s Commentary on 1 & 2 Samuel to help me digest it. Here is what Kenneth Chafin said about this passage:
This story was preserved to show how God was able to bless David even as he lived among Israel’s enemies. When the story was told later in Jewish households, everyone would have been delighted that David’s successful guile in deceiving the enemy. While what David did was considered normal in his day, modern-day readers may have difficulty with the unashamed deceit and extreme cruelty…To keep us from feeling morally superior to David, we need to remember that the same type of cruelty still goes on today, some of it sponsored by our own government and supported by some Christian groups.
It’s ironic that the part about cruelty being done today (which would have been the 1980s for Chafin but is 2025 for me) is part of this because I’m seeing cruelty done by our government towards specific people groups, and the only thing I can really think of as motive is to divide us as a population. I’m speaking of how we are deporting undocumented people here. Luring them into immigration centers as they try to work legally in the system and then deporting them. Doing mass round-ups. As I sit and think about it this morning, while I think there is some racism involved, it feels like the macro-level goal is to simply but a bigger wedge and divide into our society. To enflame anger or joy one way or another.
I saw people protesting in our town this weekend for the “No Kings Protest.” They were one two corners of our town square. But there was another guy driving back and forth with a “Trump 2025” flag flying from the bed of his truck. Everyone was staking out their claims to their position and building their trench bigger and bigger. Not that the protestors shouldn’t have protested. Not that the Trump guy shouldn’t have supported his thing. But somehow it feels like that juxtaposition of sides is almost more the goal behind the policies than the stated goals.
Okay, that’s enough about American politics this morning. Back to David. He’s running from Saul and he goes to the one place he feels like Saul will leave him alone. He won’t go into Philistine territory unnecessarily, and David’s presence among the Philistines probably makes him worry less about David one day replacing him as king. It solves a few problems.
As for what David does while he’s there…well, I guess if you have an army and their families that you’re traveling with, you aren’t exactly going to turn them into shepherds and try to make a living ranching and farming. No, if you have an army you make money with your army. You raid people, you kill them, and you take their stuff. I have such a hard time with this, and I don’t really know what to make of it, but, again, this feels like what happens under a “king system.” If you want a king for your land, this is what happens. When you have a “judge system,” then perhaps the one judge will groom his replacement. They will know they are chosen by you and not by birthright. If David had been the judge that replaced Samuel, things would probably have been very different. But Saul was the current king. David was the king in waiting from another family. Poor Jonathan was caught in the middle. And you would somehow use all of this, including David’s taking of Bathsheba and ultimately having Solomon, to provide the lineage for Jesus. Could you have done it otherwise? Yes. But this is how you chose to do it. What an amazingly redemptive thing for you to do.
Father, I love you. I worship you. I give you my ignorance and lack of understanding. I don’t know what it happening around me. But I know you want me to love. I know you want me to serve. I know you want me to teach. Help me to love, serve, and teach today. And use all of those actions to teach me as well. I want to know you more and more and more.
I pray this in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,
Amen
Posted by John D. Willome on June 16, 2025 in 1 Samuel
Tags: 1 Samuel, Achish, bible, David, Faith, God, Kenneth Chafin, Philistines, Saul, The Communicator's Commentary, Ziklag