And David said to Achish, If now I have found favour in thine eyes, let them give me a place in some country-town, that I may abide there; for why should thy servant abide in the royal city with thee?
David had just spared Saul's life a second time. Then he decided that Saul would kill him anyway. So he crossed into Philistine country, to Gath — the home town of the giant he once killed. Here he asks his old enemy's king for a town of his own. How did a man of such faith come to this, and what did it cost him?
David's words are careful and flattering. One writer explains the tact behind asking for a country town instead of the capital:
We have before seen that David's character was commendable, and he was soon able to gain the favour of Achish. So he asks Achish to allow him to live in a smaller town that was apparently under the authority of Gath, but some distance away. In suggesting this he implied that his presence in Gath might take away from the honour of the king in the royal city (v.5).
David had been to Gath once before. This time nobody drives him out. He asks for a permanent address.
As we have said, this was no sudden lapse in David, nor is he driven away from Achish as before. Instead he asks for a permanent place where he can stay, and Ziklag is given to him. It was well for David — as it is always well for us — that Another was working for him. He would overrule even David's acts of unbelief and folly. "Ziklag," we read, "belongs to the kings of Judah to this day."
Safety alone may not explain it. He came with families, and a town is a place to settle:
This suggests the thought that another motive was at work. Every man with him had his household, and David had his two wives, Ahinoam and Abigail. Was there not a longing of heart for rest as well as safety, for a home as well as a refuge? And if this could not be in the land of Judah, then among the enemies of God?
The grant worked. Saul stopped hunting him. But the deal had a price:
In following David further in his stay in the land of the Philistines, we only find fresh cause for humiliation. He gets the grant of Ziklag, where he stays for sixteen months. During that time he was free from all fear about Saul. But he was at a distance from God and from Israel. It is, in one sense, a very easy matter to get out of a place of trial; but then we get out of a place of blessing as well. … The enemy always keeps a side road open for the man of faith. He had an Egypt for Abraham, and a Ziklag for David; and now he has the world, in all its varied forms, for us.
Achish expected value for his gift. So David raided, lied about where he had raided, and left no survivors to contradict him:
Up to now David would not strike a blow against Israel under any circumstances. Yet what use was it to Achish to take him in if he did not? So to meet his searching questions about the raids he made, he had to deceive him. He did this so well that Achish said, "David has made his people Israel utterly detest him, therefore he shall be my servant for ever." But lies and tricks alone could not keep him from being found out. So of those he made war on, "he left neither man nor woman alive, lest they should tell about it." And this was his course for sixteen months!
Ziklag did not last:
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 money like this. And so He does here. While David was in the camp of the Philistines, the people of the south came to Ziklag — the very people he had beaten and slaughtered before. They burned the town and carried off everyone in it as captives: wives, children, cattle and all.
Commentators read David's move into Philistine country as a picture of something wider than one man's failure:
Is there not a parallel here? David left the land and made a home among the Philistines. The professing church forsakes its true place, forgets its standing, and makes a home for itself in the world — so as to avoid the consequence of the cross: hatred and persecution from the enemies of Christ. … As a whole the professing church is living contentedly in a kind of spiritual Ziklag, until God permits the enemy to overthrow it. … It is righteous judgment, but also great mercy. For God will bring His people, those true in heart to the person of Christ, out of every false position.
- The thought: one distrustful thought — that Saul would win — sent David to ask a favour of the enemy he had once beaten.
- The ask: careful, flattering words, aimed at a quiet country town far enough from the royal city to give him room of his own.
- The gift: Achish gave him Ziklag and the hunting stopped. Relief from trial cost him distance from God and from Israel.
- The upkeep: only lies kept Achish satisfied, so David paid for his town in deceit and slaughter for sixteen months.
- The end: Ziklag burned. Yet the same grace that overruled his folly kept the town for the kings of Judah. God's purpose stood where David's faith had not.
And Achish gave him Ziklag that day; therefore Ziklag belongs to the kings of Judah to this day.
David has just spared Saul's life a second time. Instead of resting in that, he crosses into enemy country and asks the Philistine king for a town of his own. Two questions follow: what does a believer gain by escaping pressure his own way, and what does God do with a place gained by unbelief?
Commentators agree that God never sent David to Philistine country. One writer lines up the questions David failed to ask:
Is it God who is commanding David to save himself in the land of the Philistines? Weren't his earlier experiences at Achish's court enough (1 Sam. 21:11-15)? Did God send him there then? No. Through Gad, God had given him a clear command to go into the land of Judah (1 Sam. 22:5). Had that command been cancelled? And why didn't he ask the Lord, as he had done at Keilah? Rushing ahead, discouragement, forgetting God's word, seeking help from Israel's enemies, trusting his own thoughts instead of asking God for direction — all these weaknesses come together in David here.
The move worked: Saul stopped hunting him. But safety came at a price:
As we follow David in his further stay in the land of the Philistines, we find only fresh cause for humiliation. He gets the grant of Ziklag and stays there sixteen months. In that time he had no fear at all about Saul, but he was far from God and far from Israel. It is, in one sense, a very easy matter to get out of a place of trial; but then we get out of a place of blessing also.
Living as a guest of Israel's enemy led David into lying. One writer traces the same path in a Christian today:
The stay at Gath gives rise to falsehood. He cannot tell the Philistines that he has had to leave Israel, or he would look like their enemy... Just see how many serious consequences come with looking for the world's help! The Christian who is swamped by the "social conventions" he lives under loses his true character there. He no longer affects the consciences of those around him. He lives in fear of displeasing the world that is protecting him. Like David, he tries to destroy every witness who could give evidence of his hostility to the enemies of God's people. He no longer has a good conscience.
Ziklag kept David safe for a while. One writer weighs what that safety cost, and how long it could hold:
Ziklag may shelter for a time, but it will perish. Even while it lasts, it must be bought at the cost of a good conscience toward God and toward His people. A heavy price for a short relief from pressure! How much better to bear the pressure for a time!
David did win the Philistine king's favour. One writer shows how he won it, and how God dealt with him after:
David removes to a distance from the royal city. In the land of the Philistines he wins their king's favour — not by faith, but by a shrewdness that did not keep to the truth. It is an unhappy position. Still, God does not forsake him. He disciplines him, and in a painful way, but He spares and preserves him.
The verse ends by looking far past David's lifetime. A Philistine town stayed with the kings of Judah. One writer sees Someone else at work in it:
As we have said, this was no sudden lapse in David. He is not driven away from Achish as before. Instead he asks for a permanent place where he can stay, and Achish gives him Ziklag. It was good for David, as it is always good for us, that Another was working for him — One who would overrule even his acts of unbelief and folly. "Ziklag," we read, "has belonged to the kings of Judah to this day."
Ziklag's story runs past David's stay there. It also became a gathering point for men who sided with a king the nation had not yet accepted:
Ziklag was a city in the south of Judah, given to David by Achish, one of the Philistine kings. The Amalekites burned it down and carried its people away while David was gone, but he recovered the captives and the spoil, and the city later returned to the tribe of Judah. Scripture lists the warriors who came to David at Ziklag while Saul was still alive, and so while the nation had rejected David. 1 Chr. 12:1-22. Amasai, chief of the captains, said "We are yours, O David, and with you, O son of Jesse! Peace, peace to you, and peace to your helpers! For your God helps you." Cheering words to one in such a place! They seem to picture those who follow the Lord Jesus now, while the world at large still rejects Him.
- Cause. David acted without asking the Lord, and every weakness showed at once — haste, fear, forgetting God's word.
- Trade. Leaving the place of trial meant leaving the place of blessing. He escaped Saul but lost nearness to God and to Israel.
- Cost. A refuge the world gives costs you lies and a clear conscience — and it burns in the end.
- Grace. God's discipline was painful, yet He never left him. He spared and preserved the man whose own choices had put him in danger.
- Overruling. Another was at work for David. He turned this folly into lasting gain for Judah's kings, and made David's exile the gathering place of men loyal to a rejected king.