The news of the death of Nabal also reminded David of the wife who had so wisely and humbly pleaded on her husband’s behalf, and who was no left a widow. David felt that it was his duty as well as his pleasure to take her as his wife.
Hall says, ‘How far God looks beyond our purposes! Abigail came only to plead for an ill husband, and now God makes this journey a preparation for a better; so that, in one act, she preserved an ill husband, and won a good one for the future. David well remembers her comely person, her wise speeches, her graceful carriage; and now, when modesty found it seasonable, he sends to sue her who had been his supplement. She entreated for her husband; David treats with her for his wife. Her request was to escape his sword; he wishes her to his bed. It was a fair suit to change a David for a Nabal; to become David’s queen, instead of Nabal’s drudge. She that learned humility under so hard a tutor, abaseth herself no less when David offers to advance her. “Let thine handmaid be a servant, to wash the feet of the servants of my lord.” None are so fit to be great, as those that can stoop lowest. How could David be more happy in a wife? He finds at once piety, wisdom, humility, faithfulness, wealth, beauty. How could Abigail be more happy in a husband, than in the prophet, the champion, the anointed of God? Those marriages are well made, wherein virtues are matched, and happiness is mutual.’
At the time, Michal, Saul’s daughter, should have been David's wife, but Saul had given her away to another man, so in reality she was not his wife, and Abigail was perhaps to be, for a short time, in effect his only wife (although the order in which the wives are listed in 1 Samuel 27:3 and 30:5 may indicate otherwise). That is just for the record; she seems to have been the second. But sadly he also took a further wife, Ahinoam of Jezreel, and she was not to be the last.