1 Samuel 21:14–15: “Then Achish said to his servants, ‘Look, you see the man is insane. Why have you brought him to me? Have I need of madmen, that you have brought this fellow to play the madman in my presence? Shall this fellow come into my house?'”

May 30th, 2023 by Pastor Ed in devotional

David was running from Saul, who was trying to kill him. He fled to a Philistine city for protection, but when he was recognized, he was frightened and pretended to be crazy. We are in trouble when a heathen person like King Achish seems like the only place of sanctuary. Achish was deceived by David’s act and sarcastically said, “Have I need of madmen, that you have brought this fellow?” David lost some self-respect but escaped with his life.

David recorded how thankful he was for this protection in Psalm 34. He was especially thankful because God allowed him to escape from a place he never really should have been anyway. David realized he hadn’t gotten away from Achish by his clever act, but because God was taking care of him. God was the faithful one, and would have been faithful the whole time if David had only let Him. This was the realization that brought David full circle to repentance. He closed Psalm 34 with “The LORD redeems the soul of His servants, And none of those who trust in Him shall be condemned.” He should have trusted God from the very beginning; it would have saved him embarrassment and problems.

There is a great, old story about trust that reminds us that when God says something to us we should believe Him. A man who lived on Long Island satisfied a lifelong ambition by finally purchasing a very fine barometer. When the instrument arrived at his home, he was extremely disappointed to find that the indicating needle appeared to be stuck, pointing to the sector marked “HURRICANE.” After vigorously shaking the barometer several times, the man sat down and wrote a scorching letter to the store he had purchased it from. The following morning on the way to his office in New York, he mailed the letter. That evening he returned to Long Island to find not only the barometer missing, but his house as well. The barometer’s needle had been right—there was a hurricane.

“LORD, we put our trust in You this day. Help us to not give in to the temptation to jump in and try to save ourselves, making difficult matters worse. You be God in our lives today.”