“Saul has killed his thousands David his ten thousands”, The song of David’s victory has come back to haunt him again, the song is growing old. This is not the first time this song has got David in trouble! When the song first hit the charts in chapter 18: 7-8 it made Saul angry, when it reached the Philistines in 21:11 it angered them and drove David to drool (as he had to pretend to be insane).
But now in 1 Samuel 29:5 the song has gotten a little old and the Philistine leaders don’t want to listen to it or see David who it was sung about. But you know what is cool, this song was an expression of God’s greatness in spite of David’s failure and the Lord uses this little song to rescue David from his wandering in the world. If there was a theme song for David it would have to be this one but each time it was played a different way and it was used to mean something else:
•It was sung as a rock song upbeat in tempo, to show what God can do through a man who Love’s the Lord and shows it by being strong and courageous.
•It was sung as a blues song mournful to show what happens when we face discouragement and forget what the Lord has done.
•Here it is sung as a love song ballad to show that God never gives up on a man even though the man has given up on everything and everyone else.
David was about ready to do the right thing, “go to war” but on the wrong side! He found himself in the wrong camp amongst the wrong people having lowered his standard and excused himself by saying he was still engaged in the things of God but yet in so doing he had to mimic the world to accomplish the things of God. Now he finds that his “Philistine friends” won’t accept him either. David has no home; he is trying to live in both worlds, so he has a home in neither world. David didn’t like being rejected by the Philistine rulers. Not many people like rejection, but God would use the rejection of ungodly people in David’s life. Many people are hesitant to live out-and-out for Jesus Christ because they are afraid of the rejection of the ungodly. How much better it is to be all out for Jesus, and to trust that if the ungodly reject us, God will use it for good. David is in the worst place for any child of God. He has too much of the world in him to be at peace in the LORD, and he has too much of the LORD in him to be at peace in the world!
David seems genuinely disappointed that he will not be able to fight for the Philistines against Israel. “But what have I done?” cried David in protest but he should have wept unto the Lord “What have I done?” in reference to his 16 months away from the Lord and the land of promise. Thank God for the princes of the Philistines who rose up in protest at his compromised life by saying “What are God’s people doing here amongst us?”