Past Grace, Preasent Grace

Now the Philistines had gathered all their forces at Aphek. And the Israelites were encamped by the spring that is in Jezreel. As the lords of the Philistines were passing on by hundreds and by thousands, and David and his men were passing on in the rear with Achish, the commanders of the Philistines said, “What are these Hebrews doing here?” And Achish said to the commanders of the Philistines, “Is this not David, the servant of Saul, king of Israel, who has been with me now for days and years, and since he deserted to me I have found no fault in him to this day.” But the commanders of the Philistines were angry with him. And the commanders of the Philistines said to him, “Send the man back, that he may return to the place to which you have assigned him. He shall not go down with us to battle, lest in the battle he become an adversary to us. For how could this fellow reconcile himself to his lord? Would it not be with the heads of the men here? Is not this David, of whom they sing to one another in dances,

‘Saul has struck down his thousands,
and David his ten thousands’?” –I Samuel 29:1-5

For a second time God uses the Philistines to deliver David. You will remember that it was word of a Philistine invasion that forced Saul to abandon his pursuit of David just when it looked like he had him in his grasp. This time, they keep David from fighting his own people, which would have cost him their throne. David needed such salvation because he forgot who, and whose he was. He had sought refuge in the service of Achish rather than in Yahweh. With Achish he found relief from Saul, but put himself in an even more dangerous situation than that which he had been in on the run from Saul.

We noted yesterday, that while David made a bad decision in a moment of weak faith, his weakness was not the same as Saul’s blasphemy. The events of this text happened in the weeks leading up to the story of Saul that is also unfolding. Even as he is numbered among God’s enemies, David is a recipient of grace. He may have forgotten what it meant to be a Hebrew, but God made sure his enemies did not. In is sovereign power, God brought the famous words of David’s first victory to the minds of those Philistines he had vanquished. They had not forgotten who David was, or what he had done. And, unlike Saul, who heard the song as a word of derision against himself, the Philistines understood it aright – David had fought with Saul, and conquered for the king they were about to face.

David was delivered because God did not let the Philistines forget. This passage is meant to be contrasted with that dealing with Saul. Saul’s fait had been set. God had told him he would die by the hands of the Philistines. The great irony is that these same Philistines who would kill Saul are the saviors of David; yet in a way that was completely incomprehensible until after it happened. David sought protection from the enemies of his people, and yet it was their rejection of him that proved his salvation. God saved David from the Philistines through a battle that had been fought years before. The memory of Yahweh’s mighty doings through his faithful servant delivered that servant long after the actual events took place.

What we see happening in our lives is not indicative of what is actually taking place, and especially not indicative of what will be. We are troubled by mistakes we have made in the past, but the memory of mistakes made must always be met with the memory of blessings received. For just as we recognize that our mistakes affect the present, we should have every expectation that our blessings are doing the same thing. Blessings are not singular instances of deliverance. They are instruments of God to powerfully affect us all our days. That we have been blessed, means we are, and will always be blessed.