David Flees to the Philistines

As many who have followed me for a bit, I have fallen into the Psalms, and I can’t get up! (As if I would want to.) The Psalms are a majestic collection of poetry, of heart felt human experiences that constantly challenge me in my own frail attempt to follow the true King. As many of the Psalms are written by David, my study on the Psalms has spurred me on to looking at the life of David, is the main contributor to this book, and to follow the victories and tragedies of the shepherd King of Israel.

Many times in the narrative, we will see the Lord Jesus, imperfectly, yet a reflection of His spirit in a man with weaknesses.

5 Then David said to Achish, “If I have found favor in your eyes, let a place be given me in one of the country towns, that I may dwell there. For why should your servant dwell in the royal city with you?”
6 So that day Achish gave him Ziklag. Therefore Ziklag has belonged to the kings of Judah to this day.
7 And the number of the days that David lived in the country of the Philistines was a year and four months.

Although Ziklag is mentioned earlier in the Word, it is first mentioned here in relation to David’s life. The city was first granted to the tribe of Judah in the days of Joshua, but then assigned to the tribe of Simeon at a later date.

Archeologists and historians have not identified the location of Ziklag specifically, with two or three places being discussed amongst those looking. Generally, the city is thought to be in the south of the land granted to Israel, but at the time of our passage, was under the authority of a Philistine king.

In our last post, David and his mighty men approached Achish for assistance in avoiding Saul. The time they resided with King Achish in the royal city of Gath is not revealed, but once word got out that Saul had called off the hunt for David, David sought to find an alternate place of operations.

In approaching Achish, David represented himself as a capable military leader, with his men in order and his own reputation spreading amongst the people of the area. No longer is Achish seeing a lone, mad man with spittle running down his beard, but a capable and confident man leading a rebellion against Saul, the king of Israel.

1 Samuel 21:13 So he (David) changed his behavior before them and pretended to be insane in their hands and made marks on the doors of the gate and let his spittle run down his beard.

Word must have spread that David was in line for the throne, and that his past endeavors showed evidence of success after success. Achish may have understood the hand of God on David more so than Saul, and in seeing this favor, found it politically advantageous to house David’s people for a time, eventually providing an entire town for David and his men. Of course Achish probably did not understand that David would eventually become a major player in the geo-political world in a few short years. And that David would actually become a “secret” thorn in Achish’s side during his time in Ziklag.

As for Ziklag, this was a most fortunate decision by Achish, for David became a savior for this town also. Ziklag would enter into the story of David in the future, and become a non disputed part of Israel from this time forward.

During the last period of David’s hiding from Saul, God provided a foreign king to offer to David a city that rightly belonged to the nation of Israel. David would use this city as a base of operations for the next sixteen months, providing him a base for operations in the south of Israel, against his national enemies, while living in the land of an enemy, a Philistine king.

Does that not sound familiar? Are we not residing in a land hostile to the good news, hostile to the King we follow? As we live in the midst of a culture and society that has rejected Jesus, God continues to protect and guide His people. In the midst of our pilgrimage, we have the protection of God, even when the circumstances are unexpected, and our associations surprising.

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