The Life of David Series: Crazy Like a Fox

“So this is the mighty Judean warrior who slew Goliath?” The skepticism in King Achish’s voice was evident.

“Yes, my lord.” The soldier standing before him was insistent. “I was there, I saw it happen! And I’ve seen him at the front of Shaul’s army many times since then. And we’ve all heard the song sung by the Judean woman…you know the one…

Here the soldier began to chant.

“Saul has slain his thousands,
And David his ten…thou…”

His voice trailed off as a gurgling sound emerged from the throat of the disheveled man standing before them. Well…not exactly standing, more like sagging in the grip of two guards on either side of him. The king and his court watched in horrified fascination as the young Judean rolled his head from side to side, flinging spittle from his slack mouth as he did so. The guard to the left of him drew his free hand over his face to remove a gob of saliva that had landed there.

Suddenly the madman leaned his head back and let out a maniacal laugh that sent shivers up the spines of the most hardened warriors in attendance.

“That’s enough!” growled the king. “Do you think we have such a shortage of madmen here that we have to import them from Judea? Get him out of my sight!”

As the relieved soldiers roughly maneuvered him towards the door, the the disheveled Judean caught the eye of the soldier who had brought him, and gave him a sly smile and a wink.

“My lord! Did you see…!”

“I said ENOUGH!” the king roared. “Any more from you, Itai, and I’ll start to doubt your sanity!”

* * *

David protested loudly as the Philistine soldiers thrust him roughly onto the path that led out of the city. He lay there groaning until they were out of sight, then he picked himself up, dusted off his tunic, and hobbled away, keeping up the “madman” ruse until he was sure he was out of the sight of the guards on the wall. Then he took off running and didn’t stop until he had reached a thick patch of underbrush. Kneeling down, he pulled the branches aside and removed the oversized sword hidden underneath.

Going to Gath had been a bad idea, David reflected. Just because they were both enemies of King Shaul did not mean that the Philistines would welcome with open arms the man who had killed their champion and thousands of their warriors…not to mention the posthumous circumcision of 200 Philistine warriors (David chuckled at that memory). At least he had the foresight not to waltz into the city wearing Goliath’s sword.

No…if he was going to survive to be king he would need to learn to think things through a little better, even under pressure. ESPECIALLY under pressure.

Strapping Goliath’s massive sword to his back he set off towards the one place he knew where he could be safe, and where he could reflect on his next step: the caves of Adullam.

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This little episode, found in I Samuel 21:10-15, is one of my favorites in the life of David. Before we get into the meat of what happens here, a little background will be helpful.

First, we must remember that up until very recently David had been a favorite in the court of King Saul. If the king himself looked askance at him, the king’s son Jonathan and daughter Michal were fans, to say the least.

Now, suddenly, all that has changed. He has been forced to flee the court without friends or food.

For the latter, we saw in our last post that he fast-talked the priest into giving him some of the cerimonial bread. For the former, he goes to perhaps the most unlikely of places: the Philistine city of Gath.

David’s calculus here probably goes like this: the Philistines are mortal enemies of Saul. They will certainly see David showing up in Gath as an opportunity to tweak their perennial foe, and offer David some sort of protection. It’s the old “the enemy of my enemy is my friend” rationale.

But David has badly miscalculated. The memory of his defeat their hometown hero Goliath is still way too fresh for them to welcome David with open arms. Instead, David finds himself brought before the Gittite king Achish as a criminal.

As we have mentioned before, God in his sovereignty is bringing David through experiences that will teach him valuable lessons for when he becomes king. He has spent time in Saul’s court learning how government works. But now he needs to learn how to think, act, and make decisions like a king. And these lessons are going to have to be learned “on the job”.

So what are the lessons he is learning here? And do they have any relevance for us today? Let’s have a look!

Lesson 1: My enemy’s enemies are not necessarily my friends.

Sometimes alliances can be formed around mutual foes, but not always. And to tell the truth, this is almost always a flimsy – and very temporary – basis for a common ground. However, enemies can be turned into friends, something we will see happening later on.

Lesson 2: Leadership often requires thinking on your feet. ~

My brother is a pilot for an air-taxi service. We were recently talking about airplane disasters, and he made the observation that one of the worst things a pilot can do is resign himself to crashing. He told me this:

“As long as I have the ability to keep my airplane in the air, I have the ability to do something about my situation.”

David could have easily had similar thoughts as he stood before King Achish on that day. Far from being welcomed by his former foes, he finds himself brought before the enemy king as a prisoner, and one whose life hung by a thread.

But instead of giving up, David thinks on his feet. I can imagine the thought process. “I must have been crazy to come here. Crazy…yeah…that’s it.” Then he puts on an act so convincing that he ends up being thrown out of the city in scorn…which is a sight better than being executed.

In my life I have watched many people simply give up when they face seemingly insurmountable obstacles. Indeed, I have faced the same urge to throw in the towel on many occasions in my own life. But I have also found God faithful to provide a solution, often just when things have seemed their blackest.

Lesson 3: It’s not whether or not you fail, but what you do after you fail.

Several years ago I sat with a couple veteran missionaries at a table in a corner of the restaurant of a beautiful hotel near Campinas, São Paulo. I was the new kid on the block, and eager to soak up whatever wisdom they had to offer. In the course of the conversation one of them turned to the other and asked “Do you ever really get discouraged in ministry?” And I was shocked to hear the answer. “Not really. When things don’t work out I just re-calibrate, redirect, and keep going.” To which the other missionary concurred.

That exchange floored me. How was it possible that these guys, with their decades of ministry, had never felt discouraged? But then I remembered that the question had not been about “feeling” discouraged, but about “getting” discouraged. Two different things. And that “re-calibrate, redirect, and keep going” phrase has stuck with me since then.

David understands this here. His Gath plan has backfired, spectacularly. Now he is alone, a fugitive, wanted “dead or alive” (but mostly dead) by both sides of the Israel/Philistine conflict. What does he do? What he can do. He picks himself up and heads to the caves of Adullam.

Now, there’s something significant about those caves, which we are going to get in to next week. But for now suffice it to say that, after failure, David is presented with the path to take, and he takes it.

But, one might ask, how could David respond the way that he did? How could he get his head in the place it needed to be in for him to move on from this very low point in his life?

This is where it is very helpful that we have the Psalms, and even more helpful that David often labeled his compositions with the specific events in his life that inspired them. And this short narrative inspired no less than two Psalms: 34 and 56.

Psalm 56: A Cry for Help, a Statement of Faith

The introduction to this psalm reads “To the Chief Musician. Set to “The Silent Dove in Distant Lands.” A Michtam of David when the Philistines captured him in Gath.”

Let’s ignore for the moment the fact that the man who had brought his blushing bride a sack of 200 Philistine foreskins identifies himself as a “silent dove”. Given David’s situation, a little poetic license can be excused. What is interesting here is that we get the idea of David mentally composing this song as he is being dragged before Achish with his life on the line. The words evoke the tension:

Be merciful to me, O God, for man would swallow me up;
Fighting all day he oppresses me.
My enemies would hound me all day,
For there are many who fight against me, O Most High.

But right after come these words:

Whenever I am afraid,
I will trust in You.
In God (I will praise His word),
In God I have put my trust;
I will not fear.
What can flesh do to me?

I find it interesting that we find no Psalms specifically linked to the time between when David fled after Jonathan’s warning, and this moment when he finds himself captured by the men of Gath. It is almost as if in his initial flight he is relying on his own strength, and when the Philistines nab him he suddenly remembers that he serves a God to whom he can cry out. This suspicion on my part tracks with my own life experience. Many times God has had to take me down to nothing to remind me that I can (and should) cry out to him.

It also puts into focus the divine origin of David’s quick-thinking ruse to get out of trouble. That idea came from God.

Psalm 32: The Song of a Delivered Man

The introduction to this Psalm reads “A Psalm of David when he pretended madness before Abimelech, who drove him away, and he departed.”

One quick housekeeping note, Abimelech was probably the royal title, and Achish the given name, of the King of Gath. I picture David singing these words as he makes his way from Gath to Adullam:

I sought the Lord, and He heard me,
And delivered me from all my fears.

They looked to Him and were radiant,
And their faces were not ashamed.

This poor man cried out, and the Lord heard him,
And saved him out of all his troubles.

The angel of the Lord encamps all around those who fear Him,
And delivers them.

He has just escaped with his life, his future is anything but certain, two powerful armies would like to see him assume room temperature. But here he is, walking down the road with a spring in his step and a song in his heart.

Why? Because he knows that God is on his side. And if you know that, everything else is insignificant. And the thing is, if you are a believer in Christ, you do know that!

It seems appropriate to end with the words of the Apostle Paul, who lays it out for us very clearly:

What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written:

“For Your sake we are killed all day long;
We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.”

Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, 39 nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

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And be sure to read the action-packed adventures of Missionary Max: Missionary Max and the Jungle Princess and Missionary Max and the Lost City.