Day 70 – December 1, 2023: I Samuel 21-25 and Psalms 34 and 54

The story of David continues along. Before we get to I Samuel I wanted to point out the Psalms that we are reading, and especially their prologues which contain the contexts in which the psalms were written. Don’t disregard these prologues. Psalm 34 says that it was written: “Of David, when he feigned madness before Abimelech, so that he drove him out, and he went away.” Psalm 54 states that it was written: “when the Ziphites went and told Saul, ‘David is in hiding among us.” Each of these times in the life of David we saw in our readings for today.

Now back to our readings. David eats the holy bread and Jesus himself brings up this scene as an example of how people of God are able to do that which seems like a breaking of the law. It is a bit tricky, but makes sense, that the law is in place to help us and not to bind us. Look at Matthew 12:3-8 where Jesus makes this argument. We have the tragic story of Saul slaughtering the priests becasue they had helped David. It does seem a bit excessive, speaking as someone who might be considered a priest.

Throughout this whole time David is running from one stronghold to another and trying to elude Saul while Saul is trying to track him down. This all changes when they get to the caves of Ein-Gedi where Saul relieves himself and David cuts his robe to show him that even in his most vulnerable time David would never hurt the king. Saul realizes his mistake and welcomes David back into the fold. Now, David doesn’t go back into Saul’s court, notice, even though ostensibly he should be safe enough to do so. He stays outside. He marries a couple of different wives since Saul gave his wife away while he was away. That’s pretty cold. But that will also change.