Our attention has been called to the fact that the first great victory achieved by David was over his own spirit. As we pursue his history, we are glad to find that his first triumph of this noblest kind was not his last. His cruel and implacable foe, who had come out with three thousand armed men determined either to take him prisoner or to hunt him to death, was now entirely in his hands. It was a golden opportunity, and David made a golden use of it, for he refused to avenge himself, and suffered his deadly enemy to depart in peace. For three years he had lived the life of a fugitive, and in many ways and places had sought to shelter himself against the unrighteous and pitiless wrath of Saul. There were many things to enkindle his resentment and make forbearance towards Saul a most difficult virtue. Think of what be had lost, and what he had suffered! How strangely things combined together to make the worse appear the better course! The promise and the providence of God both seemed on the side of instant and complete vengeance! But David was versed in the Law of God: and in one of the earlier books of his incomplete, but precious, priceless Bible, he had read these commandments: “Thou shalt not avenge nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself: I am the Lord.” (Lev_12:1-8; Lev_13:1-59; Lev_14:1-57; Lev_15:1-33; Lev_16:1-34; Lev_17:1-16; Lev_18:1-30).David’s generous forbearance touched the heart of Saul, disarmed him of his rage, melted him into tears, and constrained him to become a suppliant at the feet of the man for whose blood he had been thirsting. This second display of magnanimity on David’s part was a greater triumph of saintly principle than the first. All the former reasons in favour of avenging himself still existed, and in greater force, because of the additional sufferings he had endured; and now there was to be added another reason of almost irresistible power, he had cast his pearl before swine which had turned again to rend him. His kindness had been shamefully abused, and evil had been returned for his good. The King’s life, which he had nobly spared, was consecrated afresh to the work of securing his destruction. To spare it a second time was for David to sharpen the sword by which he himself would be slain; and that surely would be charity degenerating into fanaticism. It is evident that David’s faith in God was one of the great roots out of which all these fruits of forbearance and patience and compassion grew. He was confident that God would in His own way and in His own time fulfil the promises which had been made; and, therefore, instead of taking the matter into his own hands, he could rest in the Lord and wait patiently for Him. They say that “Revenge is sweet.” There can be no doubt of the truth of this, for perverted natures have perverted tastes, and loathe what they ought to love, and banquet with delight on what they ought to abhor. David had feelings in his heart which would have been intensely gratified if he had taken vengeance on his enemy; but would not his revenge have been like the book the seer did eat in the Apocalypse, sweet in the mouth, but bitterness in the belly? Patience and meekness and forgiveness are often very hard to exercise, but when they become matters of memory, are they not things of beauty, and a joy forever? The poet tells of one who sat by the grave of the friend from whom he had parted in anger, and wept at the remembrance of his former harshness:--“Cruel, cruel the words I said! Cruelly come they back today.” Probably there are men now sleeping in the dust who in their lifetime wronged and injured you. If you forgave them, and prayed for them, and sought to bless them, does the memory of that Christ-likeness on your part ever give you a moment’s sorrow? Yes, revenge may be sweet, but, like all the pleasures of sin, it is but for a season. Mercy is God’s delight. He who receives it through Jesus secures his passport to the skies. He who learns to imitate it, lays up treasure for himself in heaven. Happy he who by the grace of God so carries himself toward them that curse him and despitefully use him, that he does not invoke his own condemnation, when, in his daily prayer, he cries, “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them that trespass against us.” (C. Vince.)
Who can stretch forth his hand against the Lord and be guiltless?--
David’s magnanimity
I. The persons here concerned are Saul and David and the state in which the text shews us these two was that of enmity. Consider, therefore, that the prince that was his captive now, and at his mercy had somewhile since descended so below himself, as to become the envier and detractor from his praise, was poorly jealous of the honours he had purchased, and tried to blast the laurels he had gathered, at the expense oil so much painful boil and hazard; and ‘tis no little share of grace and goodness that can restrain a young aspiring hero from taking vengeance on the maligners of his praise, and from removing all impediments in his pursuit of fame and glory. When men’s lives are so apparently sought after, they usually lay all respects aside, and listen to the dictates of unruly Nature. He was a false, perfidious prince. Nothing affects a generous mind so sensibly as being cheated under shew of friendship; and treachery is never viler than when ‘tis covered with the mask of godliness. But further, be was perjured. He had but lately taken a solemn oath before the Lord and Jonathan, David should not be slain. And when a prince has thus abandoned common honesty, broken the sacred cords that knit societies, and keep up governments and mutual correspondences, he is justly delivered into the hands of those whose innocence and good credulity he had imposed on, and abused almost to their destruction. Oh, what a mighty measure of God’s grace must fill the heart of him that then could say, “The Lord forbid that I should stretch forth my hand against the Lord’s anointed.” There are some things besides our lives and persons, in which, if we are touched, we think ourselves extremely injured; and they are specially our friends, our fortunes and religion; and David was in every one of these affected more or less by Saul’s implacable pursuit, and hunting after him. But notwithstanding all this, great as he was in court, great as he was in camp, and greater yet in favour of the people, he would not venture on the impious fact, still it was, “The Lord forbid that I should stretch forth my hand against the Lord’s anointed.” ‘Tis surely with ambition, as with other passions, the imaginary joys are greater than the experienced and substantial ones: The hopes and expectations far exceed the pleasures of possession. Whatever cares belong to crowns, they lie concealed within their circles, and are more seldom seen than felt. But this temptation found no place with David, young, and gay, and vigorous as he was and even so near the crown, Ahab by conniving at Abishai’s blow, he might have been in full and sure possession of it; yet he suffered not himself to be transported beyond the bounds of rigid honesty and loyalty, and still cries out, “The Lord forbid.” Now, to conclude, and to complete this character, and lastly, to these great advantages of being son-in-law, a mighty man of valour, and accepted in the sight of all the people, of knowing Saul rejected, and himself designed for successor, the greatest yet of all advantages, and that is opportunity; that without which all others signify but little; and that with which alone men serve their turns, and make up the defects of all the rest; that pander to all sin, and fatal snare of virtue! That has ruined many thousand souls and betrayed them into most detestable commissions. Opportunity, that few have virtue, few have strength sufficient; to withstand, and of all opportunities, none are so strong, and work so powerfully upon the minds of men as those that look providential ones, and seem to come from God. Yet this was David’s opportunity, and yet withstood.
II. Consider the reason David gave for his refusal of Abishai’s and the soldiers’ proffer, “It is the Lord’s anointed.” The laws of God did certainly secure the lives of kings as well as other men’s, if it did no more. The Lord shall smite him, or his day shall come, or he shall perish in the battle, that is, I leave him to God’s disposal; let God, the Judge of all the earth, do with him as he pleases. And though we think the leaving wicked kings to God is the lightest and the kindest expression of nothing in the world that can be; yet we would quickly alter our opinions and be of David’s mind, if we would give ourselves leave to consider:
1. That he hates injustice more.
2. That he is much more ready.
3. Much more able to punish it than we can be.(W. Fleetwood.)
