At the end of his dealings with Saul in chapter 26, David had declared: “As surely as I valued your life today, so may the Lord value my life and deliver me from all trouble” (vs 24). It was the same faith-confidence with which he had said regarding the prospect of facing Goliath: “The Lord who delivered me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine” (17:37). But now suddenly David’s faith seems to fail. He says to himself, “One of these days I will be destroyed by the hand of Saul. The best thing I can do is to escape to the land of the Philistines.” And yet the moment of Saul’s fall was so close. God was about to deliver David from his adversary but in the last hour of his trial David’s perseverance gave way. His faith falters and he comes up with a plan to save himself. He is on the home straight of his trial and it is here that he wavers. As the reader we can observe how close David’s deliverance was. But David felt that this situation could go on forever and he felt sure that that he would soon be caught and killed. David’s mistake here was in his attempt to pre-empt the future. Our future is God’s prerogative and God’s responsibility. Tomorrow is therefore to be God’s concern, not ours. We are called to be faithful today. Tomorrow always brings us a step closer to where God is leading us. Our faithfulness today prepares us for God’s faithfulness tomorrow.
Persevere, trust God and be faithful to him today.
Read 1 Samuel 27
