In no place, save in the matter of Bathsheba, is David so morally low as in 1 Sam. 27. His loss of confidence in the Lord, and his consequent lies and artifices in the court of the king of Gath, are sad indeed. His heart, it is true, was not turned away from Israel. He was Israel's champion still, in all the desires and purposes of his soul, and had his eye towards Israel's prosperity and honour. But for the present circumstances he has lost all faith in God.
It is not at once or speedily that the Lord begins the discipline of His saints. At the least it is not commonly so. Our sin may find us out years and years after it is committed. The Lord may call our ways to remembrance long after we have left those ways and turned to better. The widow of Sarepta, in her experience, may illustrate this for us (1 Kings 17). The sin of Saul against the Gibeonites was visited in the distant, closing days of David (2 Sam. 21). "God moves in a mysterious way." He takes methods which are all His own, in the exercise of His hand with His people. But, "He is His own interpreter, and He will make it plain." We have to bow now — we shall justify Him for ever.
At the water of Meribah Moses and Aaron grievously sinned. They committed a very high offence in smiting the rock and challenging the congregation. But the water came forth, and that at once and abundantly, as though all were right. The whole congregation drank of it, and to all present and immediate appearances, the Lord had no controversy with anyone. But afterwards the Lord lets them know that their offence had not been overlooked, for that, by reason of it, they should come short of the land of Canaan and die on the wilderness side of Jordan.
And how did the Lord Jesus in the day of His ministry here, quiet the fears of unbelief before He rebuked them? "Peace be still" was said to the waves of the sea, ere "How is it that ye have no faith?" was said to the fears of the disciples.
We find another sample of this way of God, in this Scripture, on which we are now meditating. David, as we have said, was morally very low in 1 Sam. 27. But he meets with no present resentment. He goes with his 600 men against the people of the south, and victory and spoils are his, and he returns to the king of Gath, and at Ziklag enriches and secures himself.
What shall we say to all this? We may well remember, "Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall." And we may also remember, "Because sentence against an evil work is not speedily executed, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil."
David, however, is loved — surely he is, and, in the great sense, as deeply as ever — but his sin has not been slighted by the Lord. He is loved, and a gracious witness of that is shortly afterwards given him; for the Lord interposes to save him from the tremendous results of his unbelief and lies. Through the jealousy of the princes he is hindered from being found in the Philistine army; which was then gathering at Aphek, to march against Israel. It was the Lord who put that into their hearts, to preserve His child and servant from this terrible catastrophe. He once gave Joseph favour in the eyes of his master; He now gives David disfavour in the eyes of the princes of the Philistines. This was a most gracious interference. But the burning of Ziklag and the captivity of all that was in it are before him, to let him know, and know it with a vengeance too, that the Lord has not overlooked his sin.
David had received Ziklag as his wages for going over to the uncircumcised. Was it not "the wages of unrighteousness?" But the Lord can cut holes in the bags where we put such money as this. And so He does here. Ziklag had been visited, while David was in the camp of the Philistines, and Ziklag had been burnt, and all therein had been taken captive, wives, children, cattle and all, by the people of the south, whom David had afore beaten and slaughtered.
Terrible! Nothing could exceed this but death. That, however, the good hand of God had hindered — as we read on this occasion, "They slew not any, either small or great, but carried them away captive." And it was thus in the case of Job. All was touched by the hand of the enemy but life. But life was spared then and now, because of God's purpose of goodness for Job's latter end, and because of like purpose towards the offending culprit, David. And so indeed in all the chastisements of the saints. That is always spared and preserved, which is needed for God's abounding grace at the last.
And now, we find moral recovery leading the way to another piece of history altogether. How right! It is a bitter thing to depart from Him; a blessed thing to return to Him.
David is enabled, as we read, after all this terrible catastrophe, to "encourage himself in the Lord his God" (1 Sam. 30:6). What can be more blessed? Save indeed the answer which grace gives to this faith. Jonah looked afresh to the temple, when he was in the whale's belly; David encourages himself in God in the sight of the ruins of Ziklag. This was all the bitterness of his own way; but he is "strong in faith"; and I know not that faith was ever more bold; and the God of all grace vindicates its boldness to the full.
If the former sight were terrible, this is precious. David now begins in faith, as he had begun in unbelief in 1 Sam. 17 Ziklag in flames was the end of that course; trophies, and spoils, the honour and the wealth of victory, crown this.
After encouraging himself in God, he acts with bravery and earnestness. The Lord puts help and opportunities in his way, and makes circumstances to favour him, and at the end crowns him with success, giving him not only to regain all that he had lost, but to enrich himself with the spoils of the enemy.
What a witness is all this of the pleasure the Lord takes in the bold faith of His saints! David was under sore displeasure for a high-handed offence. But in spite of all that (enough to make a coward of any man), his encouraging of himself in God is thus crowned and honoured of God.
(Extract from The Girdle of Truth, 1859.)