The Ziphites Betray David

David was finding it increasingly hard to know who was a friend and who was a foe. He had saved the citizens of Keilah from the Philistines, only to have them turn him out for fear of personal loss. Such ingratitude was stupefying.

Now he was betrayed by supposed friends, who hid their hatred under a cloak of pretended friendship. “The citizens of Keilah, who should have repaid the interest and zeal of David in delivering them from the hands of the Philistines, would have given him up because of their fear of Saul rather than to have suffered a siege for his sake. But the men of Ziph would do worse; they would betray David into the hands of his enemy, not because of their loyalty to the king, but because of their hatred of David. Their interest for the king was only a pretense. They were of their own accord acting the part of hypocrites when they offered to assist in the capture of David. It was upon these false-hearted betrayers that Saul invoked the blessing of the Lord. He praised their Satanic spirit in betraying an innocent man, as the spirit and act of virtue in showing compassion to himself. Apparently David was in greater danger than he had ever been before. Upon learning the perils to which he was exposed, he changed his position, seeking refuge in the mountains between Maon and the Dead Sea.” One must remember the distances under discussion are small. Israel does not encompass a large geographic area, and hiding six hundred men and their families from a king, with spies everywhere, was some trick.

David’s men needed water and supplies, food and accommodation—things not easily procured from a suspicious populace encouraged to report such transactions.

While Saul sought to slay David, David refused to lift his hand against God’s anointed king. The odds were certainly not in David’s favor, yet God was on his side, and that made all the difference. David’s remarkable faith in God’s power to save shines forth in our next psalm.

“There is a place of quiet rest, / Near to the heart of God.”