Defying Evil, Doing Good Sýnishorn

The Long Journey of Choices

Our present moment is a lot like Psalm 15. It would seem natural to give in to the anger that boils up after betrayal, abandonment, and shame. It would have been easy for David to seek revenge against his son Absalom. Instead, this chapter presents a decisive teaching moment for the reader in learning what it means to do good to enemies and leave vengeance in the hands of the Lord. We all face deep disappointments, rejection, and minor offenses. God offers wisdom and grace to remain unshaken.

Absalom’s betrayal was not David’s first lesson in the school of self-control and deep trust in the sovereign hand of an almighty God. David had already grappled with the heartache of being a recipient of the kind of evil that a jealous and mad “neighbor” can inflict. In his early years, a spear-throwing king tried every tactic and trick in the book to make David disappear (1 Sam. 18:8–11). But David never “returned the favor” against his high-powered antagonist.

Saul violated God’s anointing through personal disobedience (1 Sam. 15:1–35). In time, an evil spirit tormented him. Saul became the epitome of futile angst and fruitless aggression (1 Sam. 16:14; 18:10–12). Putting aside a king’s normal duties, Saul spent months chasing David through countless valleys, up and down scattered hillsides, and a variety of enemy territories. Eventually, he found David in a cave. Actually, David found him in a cave.

You may remember the story from 1 Samuel 24. It tells of a profound commitment to do good rather than evil toward a neighbor. Saul was pursuing David with 3,000 soldiers when he went into a convenient cave to “relieve himself.” Little did he know that David and his men, hiding in the recesses, had a front-row seat to this private moment. Despite the urging of his cohorts, David did not exact revenge on the sitting duck enemy-king. Instead, he quietly crept up and cut a corner of Saul’s robe off while he was occupied with his business. David’s rationale? “Far be it from me because of the Lord that I should do this thing to my lord, the Lord’s anointed, to stretch out my hand against him, since he is the Lord’s anointed” (1 Sam. 24:6).

After Saul left the cave and reunited with his troops, David cried out to Saul, announcing,

“Behold, this day your eyes have seen that the Lord had given you today into my hand in the cave, and some said to kill you, but my eye had pity on you . . . know and perceive that there is no evil or rebellion in my hands, and I have not sinned against you, though you are lying in wait for my life to take it. . . . The Lord therefore be judge and decide between you and me; and may He see and plead my cause and deliver me from your hand.” (1 Sam. 24:10–15)

In his book about the lives of Saul, David, and Absalom, A Tale of Three Kings, Gene Edwards expresses the heart of David’s cave contemplation in these words: "Better he kill me than I learn his ways. Better he kill me than I become as he is. I shall not practice the ways that cause kings to go mad. I will not throw spears, nor will I allow hatred to grow in my heart. I will not avenge. I will not destroy the Lord’s anointed. Not now. Not ever!"