- 92-
Noiselessly the two have removed the royal spear and the cruse from the side of
Saul. They have crept back through the camp of sleepers, and through the
brushwood, crossed the intervening valley, and gained a far-off height on the other
side. Who dares break the king's slumber in the middle of his camp? But another ear
than Abner's has heard, and has recognized the voice of David. It has gone right to
the heart of Saul, as he learns how once more his life had been wholly in the power
of him whom he has so unrelenting and so wickedly persecuted. Again he seems
repentant, though he heeds not David's advice that, if these constant persecutions
were the effect produced on his mind by the spirit of evil from the Lord, he should
seek pardon and help by means of sacrifice; but if the outcome of calumnious
reports, those who brought them should be regarded as sure of the Divine judgment,
since, as he put it, "They drive me out this day, that I cannot join myself to the
heritage of Jehovah, saying (thereby in effect): Go, serve other gods" (26:19). It is
useless to follow the matter farther. Saul's proposal for David's return, and his
promise of safety, were, no doubt, honestly meant at the time, just as are the sorrow
and resolutions of many into whose consciences the light has for a time fallen. But
David knew otherwise of Saul; and it marks an advance in his spiritual experience
that he preferred committing himself to God rather than trusting in man.
(^)