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Bible Notes - Tabernacle Commentaries
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1 Samuel 26:17
Comments
Saul has been listening to all this and he recognises David's voice. ‘And Saul knew David's voice, and said,’ – these are the same words as the previous incident about two or three years before (1 Samuel 24:16) – ‘is this thy voice my son David?’ In what way was David his son? He was his son-in-law, but Saul had given away his wife to someone else. Yes, but Saul feels a rush of emotion. Initially, he had indeed been very fond of David, and it is recorded that he loved him greatly (1 Samuel 16:21). Now there is a temporary return to that feeling. ‘And David said, It is my voice, my lord, O king.’ And verse 18, he says, ‘Wherefore doth my lord thus pursue after his servant? for what have I done? or what evil is in mine hand?’ David is to be Israel’s future king, and it is important that he demonstrate that he is entirely innocent of any fault that might have led Saul to pursue him. He must demonstrate that Saul is being utterly unreasonable in his persecution of David. He establishes and proves his loyalty to the king: his refusal to have him killed when the opportunity was right before him. But there is apparently no great hope in his mind that Saul’s conduct can be permanently changed, for he subsequently sets aside Saul’s expression of sorrow as unreliable. ‘If the LORD have stirred thee up against me, let him accept an offering.’ He is ready to offer up a sacrifice to God to atone for his sin if it can be shown him what he has done, and if that is the reason he is being pursued. But if it is men who have falsely charged David with a fault and spoken against him in Saul’s ear, then may they be cursed before the Lord. They have lied, and the end result is that David has become a fugitive, and is unable to live as a believing Jew and worship openly with God’s people – this was what was of primary importance to David. He might as well have become a forgeigner and sent away to worship false gods. That is what he had done once already in fleeing to the land of the Philistines, though he had not forsaken the Lord.
Application
Emotion does not last and it is not to be trusted when it is divorced from the mind. The person who hands themselves over to their emotions and allows them to rule over him does not really know himself. Such people tend to believe their own emotions too much, and to enjoy being carried away by them. But strong emotions in one direction on one day can change to strong emotions in another direction on another day – it is highly unstable. The mind must be in charge, however strongly the emotions are stirred, and every thought must be submitted to a conscience which is governed by the word of God.
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