6 And David was greatly troubled; for the people were talking of stoning him, because their hearts were bitter, every man sorrowing for his sons and his daughters: but David made himself strong in the Lord his God.
In the time of my fear, I will have faith in you. In God will I give praise to his word; in God have I put my hope; I will have no fear of what flesh may do to me.
In God have I put my hope, I will have no fear of what man may do to me.
In my trouble my voice went up to the Lord, and my cry to my God: my voice came to his hearing in his holy Temple, and my prayer came before him, even into his ears.
And Moses, crying out to the Lord, said, What am I to do to this people? they are almost ready to put me to death by stoning.
<Of David.> The Lord is my light and my salvation; who is then a cause of fear to me? the Lord is the strength of my life; who is a danger to me? When evil-doers, even my haters, came on me to put an end to me, they were broken and put to shame. Even if an army came against me with its tents, my heart would have no fear: if war was made on me, my faith would not be moved.
<To the chief music-maker. Of David. A Psalm.> When I was waiting quietly for the Lord, his heart was turned to me, and he gave ear to my cry. He took me up out of a deep waste place, out of the soft and sticky earth; he put my feet on a rock, and made my steps certain.
The nets of death were round me, and the pains of the underworld had me in their grip; I was full of trouble and sorrow. Then I made my prayer to the Lord, saying, O Lord, take my soul out of trouble.
For it is our desire that you may not be without knowledge of our trouble which came on us in Asia, that the weight of it was very great, more than our power, so that it seemed that we had no hope even of life: Yes, we ourselves have had the answer of death in ourselves, so that our hope might not be in ourselves, but in God who is able to give life to the dead: Who gave us salvation from so great a death: on whom we have put our hope that he will still go on to give us salvation;
So that we say with a good heart, The Lord is my helper; I will have no fear: what is man able to do to me?
Have faith in him at all times, you people; let your hearts go flowing out before him: God is our safe place. (Selah.) Truly men of low birth are nothing, and men of high position are not what they seem; if they are put in the scales together they are less than a breath.
My soul, put all your faith in God; for from him comes my hope.
<Of David. When he made a change in his behaviour before Abimelech, who sent him away, and he went.> I will be blessing the Lord at all times; his praise will be ever in my mouth. My soul will say great things of the Lord: the poor in spirit will have knowledge of it and be glad. O give praise to the Lord with me; let us be witnesses together of his great name. I was searching for the Lord, and he gave ear to my voice, and made me free from all my fears. Let your eyes be turned to him and you will have light, and your faces will not be shamed. This poor man's cry came before the Lord, and he gave him salvation from all his troubles. The angel of the Lord is ever watching over those who have fear of him, to keep them safe. By experience you will see that the Lord is good; happy is the man who has faith in him.
Let your hope be in the Lord: take heart and be strong; yes, let your hope be in the Lord.
Truly, he will put an end to me; I have no hope; but I will not give way in argument before him;
Pilate says to them, What, then, am I to do with Jesus, who is named Christ? They all say, Let him be put to death on the cross.
For though the fig-tree has no flowers, and there is no fruit on the vine, and work on the olive comes to nothing, and the fields give no food; and the flock is cut off from its resting-place, and there is no herd in the cattle-house: Still, I will be glad in the Lord, my joy will be in the God of my salvation.
And when she came to where the man of God was on the hill, she put her hands round his feet; and Gehazi came near with the purpose of pushing her away; but the man of God said, Let her be, for her soul is bitter in her; and the Lord has kept it secret from me, and has not given me word of it.
And with grief in her soul, weeping bitterly, she made her prayer to the Lord.
And the children of Dan said to him, Say no more, or men of bitter spirit may make an attack on you, causing loss of your life and the lives of your people.
Hushai said further, You have knowledge of your father and his men, that they are men of war, and that their feelings are bitter, like those of a bear in the field whose young ones have been taken from her: and your father is a man of war, and will not take his night's rest with the people;
Why are you crushed down, O my soul? and why are you troubled in me? put your hope in God; for I will again give him praise who is my help and my God.
Deep is sounding to deep at the noise of your waterfalls; all your waves have gone rolling over me.
It is better to have faith in the Lord than to put one's hope in man. It is better to have faith in the Lord than to put one's hope in rulers. All the nations have come round me; but in the name of the Lord I will have them cut down. They are round me, yes, they are all about me; but in the name of the Lord I will have them cut down. They are round me like bees; but they are put out like a fire among thorns; for in the name of the Lord I will have them cut down. I have been hard pushed by you, so that I might have a fall: but the Lord was my helper.
The name of the Lord is a strong tower: the upright man running into it is safe.
And Hezekiah took the letter from the hands of those who had come with it; and after reading it, Hezekiah went up to the house of the Lord, opening the letter there before the Lord, And he made prayer to the Lord, saying, O Lord of armies, the God of Israel, seated between the winged ones, you only are the God of all the kingdoms of the earth; you have made heaven and earth. Let your ear be turned to us, O Lord; let your eyes be open, O Lord, and see: take note of all the words of Sennacherib who has sent men to say evil against the living God. Truly, O Lord, the kings of Assyria have made waste all the nations and their lands, And have given their gods to the fire: for they were no gods, but wood and stone, the work of men's hands; so they have given them to destruction. But now, O Lord our God, give us salvation from his hand, so that it may be clear to all the kingdoms of the earth that you, and you only, are the Lord.
O Lord, my strength and my strong tower, my safe place in the day of trouble, the nations will come to you from the ends of the earth, and say, The heritage of our fathers is nothing but deceit, even false things in which there is no profit.
Still, he did not give up faith in the undertaking of God, but was made strong by faith, giving glory to God,
What may we say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us?
Troubles are round us on every side, but we are not shut in; things are hard for us, but we see a way out of them;
For even when we had come into Macedonia our flesh had no rest, but we were troubled on every side; there were fightings outside and fears inside.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible » Commentary on 1 Samuel 30
Commentary on 1 Samuel 30 Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
CHAPTER 30
1Sa 30:1-5. The Amalekites Spoil Ziklag.
1. Amalekites had invaded the south, and Ziklag, and smitten Ziklag—While the strength of the Philistine forces was poured out of their country into the plain of Esdraelon, the Amalekite marauders seized the opportunity of the defenseless state of Philistia to invade the southern territory. Of course, David's town suffered from the ravages of these nomad plunderers, in revenge for his recent raid upon their territory.
2. they slew not any, either great or small, but carried them away—Their conduct seems to stand in favorable contrast to that of David (1Sa 27:11). But their apparent clemency did not arise from humane considerations. It is traceable to the ancient war usages of the East, where the men of war, on the capture of a city, were unsparingly put to death, but there were no warriors in Ziklag at the time. The women and boys were reserved for slaves, and the old people were spared out of respect to age.
3. David and his men came to the city, and, behold, it was burned with fire—The language implies that the smoke of the conflagration was still visible, and the sacking very recent.
1Sa 30:6-15. But David, Encouraged by God, Pursues Them.
6. David was greatly distressed—He had reason, not only on his own personal account (1Sa 30:5), but on account of the vehement outcry and insurrectionary threats against him for having left the place so defenseless that the families of his men fell an unresisting prey to the enemy. Under the pressure of so unexpected and widespread a calamity, of which he was upbraided as the indirect occasion, the spirit of any other leader guided by ordinary motives would have sunk;
but David encouraged himself in the Lord his God—His faith supplied him with inward resources of comfort and energy, and through the seasonable inquiries he made by Urim, he inspired confidence by ordering an immediate pursuit of the plunderers.
9. came to the brook Besor—now Wady Gaza, a winter torrent, a little to the south of Gaza. The bank of a stream naturally offered a convenient rest to the soldiers, who, through fatigue, were unable to continue the pursuit.
11-15. they found an Egyptian in the field, and brought him to David—Old and homeborn slaves are usually treated with great kindness. But a purchased or captured slave must look to himself; for, if feeble or sick, his master will leave him to perish rather than encumber himself with any additional burden. This Egyptian seems to have recently fallen into the hands of an Amalekite, and his master having belonged to the marauding party that had made the attack on Ziklag, he could give useful information as to the course taken by them on their return.
14. the Cherethites—that is, the Philistines (Eze 25:16; Zep 2:5).
15. Swear unto me by God—Whether there was still among these idolatrous tribes a lingering belief in one God, or this Egyptian wished to bind David by the God whom the Hebrews worshipped, the solemn sanction of an oath was mutually recognized.
1Sa 30:16-31. And Recovers His Two Wives and All the Spoil.
16. they were spread abroad upon all the earth—Believing that David and all his men of war were far away, engaged with the Philistine expedition, they deemed themselves perfectly secure and abandoned themselves to all manner of barbaric revelry. The promise made in answer to the devout inquiries of David (1Sa 30:8) was fulfilled. The marauders were surprised and panic-stricken. A great slaughter ensued—the people as well as the booty taken from Ziklag was recovered, besides a great amount of spoil which they had collected in a wide, freebooting excursion.
21. David came to the two hundred men, which were so faint that they could not follow—This unexpected accession of spoil was nearly proving an occasion of quarrel through the selfish cupidity of some of his followers, and serious consequences might have ensued had they not been prevented by the prudence of the leader, who enacted it as a standing ordinance—the equitable rule—that all the soldiers should share alike (see Nu 31:11; see on Nu 31:25).
26. when David came to Ziklag, he sent of the spoil to the elders of Judah—This was intended as an acknowledgment to the leading men in those towns and villages of Judah which had ministered to his necessities in the course of his various wanderings. It was the dictate of an amiable and grateful heart; and the effect of this well-timed liberality was to bring a large accession of numbers to his camp (1Ch 12:22). The enumeration of these places shows what a numerous and influential party of adherents to his cause he could count within his own tribe [1Sa 30:27-31].