At once Saul fell down and lay stretched out on the ground, terrified by what Samuel had said. …Saul and his officers… left that same night.
Saul finally comes to realize that his entire life has been a complete failure – much like my professional life. Does something else remain for me before I pass from the scene, Lord?
The five Philistine kings marched out with their units of a hundred and of a thousand men; David and his men marched in the rear with King Achish.
David was clearly trying to pass by unnoticed!
Achish answered, “This is David, an official of King Saul of Israel. He has been with me for quite some time now. He has done nothing I can find fault with since the day he came over to me.”
But the Philistine commanders were angry with Achish and said to him, “Send that fellow back to the town you gave him. Don’t let him go into battle with us; he might turn against us during the fighting. What better way is there for him to win back his master’s favor than by the death of our men? After all, this is David, the one about whom the women sang, as they danced, ‘Saul has killed thousands, but David has killed tens of thousands.’”
David’s seduction of King Achish didn’t extend to the other kings who exposed his plan to win back Saul’s favor! How the songs and danses of women endure…
Achish called David and said to him, “…the other kings don’t approve of you. So go back home in peace, and don’t do anything that would displease them.”
So David and his men started out early the following morning to go back to Philistia, and the Philistines went on to Jezreel.
Both the hopes of Saul and David were crushed simultaneously: Saul with his imminent death and defeat of his army, and David thrwarted despite his carefully prepared trap. Man schemes but it’s your will that will be done, Lord. Once again, may I patiently wait for your hand / intervention.
Two days later David and his men arrived back at Ziklag. The Amalekites had raided southern Judah and attacked Ziklag. They had burned down the town and captured all the women… David was now in great trouble, because his men were all very bitter about losing their children, and they were threatening to stone him; but the Lord his God gave him courage.
There is no record of David writing any Psalms during his stay in Palestine and no record of him consulting God. His estrangement here reminds me of that of Jacob (Genesis 37:31-35).