1 Samuel 30:1

David gave way to sad unbelief when he said in his heart, "Now I shall perish one day by the hand of Saul" (1 Sam. 27:1). So he went to Achish, king of Gath, and asked for a place to live in one of the country towns. Then "Achish gave him Ziklag that day." David spent a full year and four months in the land of the Philistines. That time shows none of the brightness of his earlier days in the wilderness with his followers.

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 raided Ziklag and burned it. They carried off everything in it — wives, children, cattle and all. These were the very people David had beaten and slaughtered earlier.

David is here made to feel the bitter result of having turned to Achish for help in his day of need. He had taken up his position among the uncircumcised, and so he must share their misery. Had he stayed among the mountains of Judah, he would have escaped all this sorrow. His God would have been a wall of fire around him. But he had fled to Ziklag to escape Saul. And then, at the very moment when Saul was falling on Mount Gilboa, David was weeping over the ruins of Ziklag.

God gave Saul a decisive victory over the Amalekites, and he "devoted to destruction all the people with the edge of the sword." This clearly refers to all the people they were able to find, since we read of the Amalekites again in 1 Samuel 27:8 and 30:1. The picture behind this is plain. However firmly we judge the lusts of the flesh, they always have a way of springing back, like poisonous weeds.

Coming back to Ziklag, David and his men find themselves described by the meaning of the name Ziklag: "enveloped in grief." Earlier David had attacked the Amalekites in at least one area, killing men, women and children. Other Amalekites who were left would likely hear of it, so this raid could have been payback. In any case, David had not been caring for his own city. He was on an ill-advised trip with Achish. When we are not on guard and in communion with the Lord, the lusts of the flesh (which Amalek pictures) will almost certainly take advantage of us. This will not bring a believer's total destruction, but it will rob him of much that God has entrusted to him.

After burning it, they took the whole population away captive along with the plunder. But "they killed no one." What grace of God! In this cruel attack by a pitiless enemy all the captives were spared. So God was judging His servant by measure, with a judgment aimed at his restoration. Still, David had to feel the discipline deeply for it to bear fruit.

The Lord spoke to David's heart through affliction, loss and sorrow. How humbling that his followers were ready to stone him! They understood that his behaviour had brought the disaster on them. It was then that he turned to the Lord. "David strengthened himself in the LORD his God." Here we see the difference between him and Saul. There is no word of rebuke for the sixteen months David had wandered from the Lord. Instead the Lord assures His servant that he would recover all.