1 Samuel 29:8: “Then David said to Achish, ‘But what have I done? And to this day what have you found in your servant as long as I have been with you, that I may not go and fight against the enemies of my lord the king?'”

June 7th, 2023 by Pastor Ed in devotional

David seemed genuinely disappointed that he wasn’t going to be allowed to fight for the Philistines against Israel. He was either trying to get an Academy Award here, or he really wanted to fight against King Saul. Either way God intervened and prevented David from sinning. This is the grace of God again moving behind-the-scenes in David’s life. God in His grace was keeping a backsliding believer from sinning as badly as he wanted to. Here the Lord kept His servant David from fighting against God’s people and David’s own countrymen.

The grace of God is still active in our lives today. Grace is undeserved favor from God. One pastor reported seeing this advertisement on the side of a plumber’s van in South Africa: “There is no place too deep, too dark, or too dirty for us to handle.” Now that is a perfect explanation of God’s grace. There is no place too deep, dark, or dirty that the grace of God cannot reach down and pull us up from it and put us where we are supposed to be. David experienced this grace even when he wasn’t looking for it, and certainly not when he was even capable of earning it.

“LORD, please give us Your grace today to walk with You and keep us out of deep, dark, dirty places.”

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1 Samuel 29 KJV

¹ Now the Philistines gathered together all their armies to Aphek: and the Israelites pitched by a fountain which is in Jezreel. ² And the lords of the Philistines passed on by hundreds, and by thousands: but David and his men passed on in the rereward with Achish. ³ Then said the princes of the Philistines, What do these Hebrews here ? And Achish said unto the princes of the Philistines, Is not this David, the servant of Saul the king of Israel, which hath been with me these days, or these years, and I have found no fault in him since he fell unto me unto this day? ⁴ And the princes of the Philistines were wroth with him; and the princes of the Philistines said unto him, Make this fellow return, that he may go again to his place which thou hast appointed him, and let him not go down with us to battle, lest in the battle he be an adversary to us: for wherewith should he reconcile himself unto his master? should it not be with the heads of these men? ⁵ Is not this David, of whom they sang one to another in dances, saying, Saul slew his thousands, and David his ten thousands? ⁶ Then Achish called David, and said unto him, Surely, as the LORD liveth, thou hast been upright, and thy going out and thy coming in with me in the host is good in my sight: for I have not found evil in thee since the day of thy coming unto me unto this day: nevertheless the lords favour thee not.  ⁷ Wherefore now return, and go in peace, that thou displease not the lords of the Philistines. ⁸ And David said unto Achish, But what have I done? and what hast thou found in thy servant so long as I have been with thee unto this day, that I may not go fight against the enemies of my lord the king?  ⁹ And Achish answered and said to David, I know that thou art good in my sight, as an angel of God: notwithstanding the princes of the Philistines have said, He shall not go up with us to the battle. ¹⁰ Wherefore now rise up early in the morning with thy master’s servants that are come with thee: and as soon as ye be up early in the morning, and have light, depart. ¹¹ So David and his men rose up early to depart in the morning, to return into the land of the Philistines. And the Philistines went up to Jezreel.