David was between a rock and a hard place!

He wanted to serve his God, and his country and his king. He was a powerful warrior before the Lord, much feared and respected by the men and women of his own country. Further, God had told David that he would be the next king over Israel. Then came the hard part. It came about that King Saul now feared David, and wanted to murder his top soldier, to secure his own kingdom.

For David, it seems, this was not an issue.

He had already been anointed as the next king by the prophet Samuel, 1Samuel chapter 16. This was really a prophecy. It had not happened yet. But David felt no need to do anything murderous and evil against Saul or his sons. God had assured him. David clearly believed it. There no need for him to do any evil things against anyone! God would make it happen at the right time.

David as an enemy of the state!

Was he willing to fight for Saul, and for his country under Saul? Why sure! That would be a good thing to do. On the other hand was he willing to fight against his own king and country? No way? Further, David had multiple opportunities to murder King Saul? Murder? Wasn’t he promised the throne? Might not this be the way to throne. Not to David. That would be murder to David. He didn’t need to murder anyone. God’s promise was good enough.

So David in the wilderness, running for his life, became
a model for New Covenant ethics.

“27 But I tell you who hear: love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, 28 bless those who curse you, and pray for those who mistreat you.”
Lk 6:27

You and I may do this in much tamer circumstances, but David did this on a battlefield, when he was running for his life from an evil king, when he had wrongfully been declared an enemy of the state. So it came about that he repeatedly spared Saul’s life when he easily could have taken personal revenge on his personal enemy. This story is told in some detail in 1Samuel chapter 18, all the way to 2Samuel chapter 1.

An example is in 1Samuel 26. Saul and his troops were pursuing David to kill him. Saul was sleeping within a circle of men within his camp, and everyone was so tired that they were soon asleep. All of them! David and Abisahi snuck inside the camp, and Abishai pleaded for permission to kill Saul with a single stroke. David contented himself with talking Saul’s spear and the jar of water at his head, and then retreating, and later, at a distance, showing Saul what he had done!

To David, as indeed it should be to any saint
of either the Old or the New Testament,
personal revenge is out of line.

As the Lord says, “Vengeance is mine …” Deut 32:35.

Believing what God says in prophecy does matter! It is an ethical matter.

Scriptures are from the World English Bible (WEB), a copyright free revision of the original ASV American Standard Version 1901