The situation at Ramah had left David quite disturbed. He had thought that he would be safe with Samuel: he had likely calculated that Saul wouldn’t even think to capture him while he was with the old prophet, at least out of respect for Samuel. However, the sudden appearance of Saul’s messengers had probably made him feel quite uneasy. Though the messengers were stopped from their evil deed by the spirit of God, it would seem as though David still didn’t entirely feel very good about their presence. His discomfort would have increased dramatically when he saw the murderous king at Samuel’s house. Saul too, like the messengers, was stayed from his intentions, but David could no longer feel safe with Samuel. The prophet’s presence had not kept the king from attempting to capture him, but how long would the spirit of God keep these men prophesying?
What was he to do?
In a desperate attempt to find some form of safety, being driven from his home and his wife, being driven from Samuel, David went to his best friend, the one who had before pleaded on his behalf:
“And David fled from Naioth in Ramah, and came and said before Jonathan, What have I done? what is mine iniquity? and what is my sin before thy father, that he seeketh my life?” (1 Sam 20:1).
One of the most unsettling things about this entire experience for David was that he didn’t know what to do to make the problem go away: he had no idea what he had done to bring about this hatred of his father-in-law! Whatever Saul had asked, he had done:
- When the eyes of Israel were looking to Saul to kill Goliath, David filled the void and fought the giant, so that Saul didn’t have to!
- Whenever the Philistines attacked, David fought against them and won. When Saul told him that he wanted a dowry of one hundred Philistine foreskins, David had brought two hundred.
All throughout his time with the king, David had experienced Saul’s love and had seen Saul’s favor bestowed upon him. Suddenly, Saul’s feelings towards him had drastically changed and he couldn’t understand it! Did Jonathan have some sort of insight into his father’s feelings? David knew that Jonathan and Saul shared a close relationship — perhaps Jonathan could tell him what he was doing wrong.
But Jonathan’s answer would have exasperated David even further.
“And he said unto him, God forbid; thou shalt not die: behold, my father will do nothing either great or small, but that he will shew it me: and why should my father hide this thing from me? it is not so” (1 Sam 20:2).
Though the situation was dire, Jonathan didn’t feel nearly as distressed about it as David: clearly, he thought that nothing was wrong. When David wanted to know what he had done to provoke Saul’s anger, Jonathan essentially told David that he didn’t need to worry, Saul wasn’t planning on doing anything to him anyway. If he were, surely, Jonathan said, he would know.
Somehow, Jonathan had missed the events of the last few days. Knowing nothing about Saul throwing the javelin at David, putting a guard around David’s house in order to kill him in the morning, and chasing him all the way to Samuel’s house, Jonathan felt fairly relaxed about the entire situation. He knew that his father had made an oath, and Saul, he thought, didn’t break his oaths.
How this answer must have been a massive emotional letdown for David! He didn’t know if he would ever see his wife again, Samuel the prophet was not able to help him (at least, so he thought), and now his only other friend thought that he was being too dramatic and worrying too much! Thus, in an attempt to show Jonathan how serious he was, he too, just as Saul had done, made an oath:
“And David sware moreover, and said, Thy father certainly knoweth that I have found grace in thine eyes; and he saith, Let not Jonathan know this, lest he be grieved: but truly as the LORD liveth, and as thy soul liveth, there is but a step between me and death” (1 Sam 20:3).
With these words, Jonathan would have known that the situation was somehow different than he thought it was. This wasn’t the David that Jonathan remembered. “There is but a step between me and death” were the words of a David who was struggling to believe (or had perhaps forgotten for the moment?) that God had anointed him to be king, and would eventually exalt him. They were the words of a man who was struggling to walk in faith.
David’s struggling faith
Truly, this was a time of desperation for David, and his faith would appear to be faltering. Just consider some of the signs that show what a struggle this was for David:
- In the past few hours, he had just been miraculously preserved from three of Saul’s bands of men, and from Saul himself. God had saved his life in a way that could only be attributed to divine intervention. The Spirit of God had come on the men and it was impossible for them to harm the LORD’s anointed. Nevertheless, he chose to leave the house of the prophet, presumably because he didn’t feel safe there. Even with that demonstration of power, David still couldn’t see past the moment of trial.
- David had just expressed, in quite dramatic terms, that he believed that he was very close to death. Though God had anointed him and promised him the throne of Israel, David seriously thought that he might not survive the next twenty four hours. While David’s breakdown is entirely reasonable, considering the sudden and dangerous shift that had just taken place in his life, viewing death as a possibility seems like a lapse of faith. He was the LORD’s anointed. As long as he stayed true to his God, he would rule over Israel. God had made a promise, and He wasn’t going to break it (as evidenced by his miraculous deliverance just hours prior!).
3) Throughout the years in which David fled for his life from Saul, there were many times in which David was able to remember that God would deliver him from all evil. As with any of us, he didn’t feel this way all of the time, but there were certainly moments of great faith during David’s fugitive years. In Psalm 59, the psalm which was written after David left his wife and fled from his own house through the window (see the psalm’s title), David expressed his confidence in God’s power and willingness to save:
“Deliver me from mine enemies, O my God: defend me from them that rise up against me. Deliver me from the workers of iniquity, and save me from bloody men. For, lo, they lie in wait for my soul: the mighty are gathered against me; not for my transgression, nor for my sin, O LORD” (Psa 59:1-3).
Thus, right in the beginning of the psalm, David laid out his petition. Even as his enemies watched his own house and he had to quickly create plans to escape, David turned to God for deliverance. Even more so, towards the end of the psalm he not only turned to God for salvation from Saul, but he fervently believed that this salvation would come:
“But I will sing of thy power; yea, I will sing aloud of thy mercy in the morning: forp thou hast been my defense and refuge in the day of my trouble. Unto thee, O my strength, will I sing: for God is my defense, and the God of my mercy” (Psa 59:16-17).
When reading these verses, it’s important to remember that David probably wrote these words, “when Saul sent, and they watched the house to kill him.” They were not written after he had successfully escaped from his house. They were written in the very moment of trial, the very moment when David didn’t actually know what was going to happen! Nevertheless, when he wrote the last two verses of the psalm, David wrote as though the conflict had already finished. When he escaped from Saul, it was night time, and Saul’s men were going to take him when the morning came (1 Sam 19:11). But despite this, even though David knew when they planned to take him, he confidently wrote, “I will sing aloud of thy mercy in the morning.” David earnestly believed that he would survive to see the morning light and that in the morning, he would be free from Saul, because “thou hast been my defense and refuge in the day of my trouble.” Thus, with all of his heart, he would sing to God. This same attitude appeared in David’s mind all throughout Saul’s pursuit of his life. Just a few days later, while he was still running from Saul, David wrote another psalm, this time about Doeg (again, see the psalm’s title), whom David had seen when he was at the tabernacle in Nob (1 Sam 21:7). In that psalm, David expressed his confidence in God’s deliverance once again:
“Why boastest thou thyself in mischief, O mighty man? the goodness of God endureth continually. Thy tongue deviseth mischiefs; like a sharp razor, working deceitfully. Thou lovest evil more than good; and lying rather than to speak righteousness. Selah… But I am like a green olive tree in the house of God: I trust in the mercy of God for ever and ever. I will praise thee for ever, because thou hast done it: and I will wait on thy name; for it is good before thy saints” (Psa 52:1-3, 8-9).
While Doeg was out working iniquity and bringing words of David’s presence in the tabernacle to Saul, David wrote that he would continue to trust in God “for ever and ever.” God would be his source of strength. He would remain faithful. He would do whatever he could to bring praise to his God.
David’s trust in God
Finally, in another example of a psalm that was written just a few days later, David once more showed that same solid trust in the God of Israel. After fleeing from Doeg and the tabernacle, David thought that he could find solace in the territory of the Philistines (1 Sam 21:10). Once he had arrived, he realized that his assumption was desperately wrong, as the Philistines immediately recognized him as Israel’s great warrior who had slain “ten thousands.” Fearful of what the king of the Philistines might to do him, David feigned himself to be mad before the king, who was a man named Achish (also known as Abimelech). Upon seeing David’s apparently “poor” mental state, Achish cast him out of his courts, declaring, “Lo, ye see the man is mad: wherefore then have ye brought him to me?” After escaping from the courts of Achish, David wrote another psalm (see title) — and once again, this psalm reaffirmed his trust in his God:
“This poor man cried, and the LORD heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles. The angel of the LORD encampeth round about them that fear him, and delivereth them… The righteous cry, and the LORD heareth, and delivereth them out of all their troubles… Many are the afflictions of the righteous: but the LORD delivereth him out of them all” (Psa 34:6-7, 17, 19).
Just as with the other two psalms, David was filled with confidence and trust in his God. He knew that Yahweh had the power to save him, and he believed that He would, probably because David remembered that he had been promised a throne and he had been anointed to be king over God’s people.
Just as the Lord Jesus Christ, who could say that “Are there not were twelve hours in the day”: it was not yet time for the light of the world to set. So David often had the same attitude. He recognized that God’s angels encamped around him and that God had a plan for him which was not yet fulfilled. Thus, he had a fervent trust that God would be his defense. Unlike Jonathan and his armor bearer, who essentially said that they knew that God had the ability to save them, but He might choose to not do so (1 Sam 14:8-10), David had reason to earnestly believe that God would be his deliverance. Often he believed it: he had this confidence in the incident just before this meeting with Jonathan and in the incidents just after. But in the interim, as he approached Israel’s prince, that confident and trusting attitude was nowhere to be found. Instead, the declaration came forth, “truly, as the LORD liveth, and as thy soul liveth, there is but a step between me and death” (1 Sam 20:3).
Indeed, this was a dark day for the man whose thoughts were so often in line with his Creator’s.
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One