The Philistines and the Israelites were heading for a showdown, but whose side would David take in the battle? Achish, the Philistine king of Gath, believed that David would remain loyal to him. But David had actually been deceiving him for years, claiming to carry out raids on the Israelites when he was really attacking other unbelieving nations. In fact, even David’s protestations of loyalty to Achish could very well have been misleading. For when he spoke of his desire to fight against the enemies of “my lord the king,” what king did he mean? Achish or Saul?

No, it’s more likely that the Lords of the Philistines were right. Once the battle started, David probably would have switched sides, attacking the Philistines in order to prove his loyalty to Saul on an even grander stage than he had done before. But what if David had carried out such a plan? What if he had helped the Israelites to defeat the Philistines? He would only have succeeded in keeping Saul on the throne of Israel a little longer. And God had already made it clear that He wanted David to be king, not Saul.

And so we see the irony of the situation: when the lords of the Philistines defeated the king of Israel in battle, they were actually accomplishing the will of the God of Israel. And that’s because it was God’s plans that ultimately mattered, not any plans that they or David may have made.

And didn’t the same thing happen at Calvary? All the enemies of Jesus thought they had won when they crucified Him. But it was His death that brought about His greatest victory, not over the religious leaders or the Romans, but over sin and death. All Jesus’ enemies were able to do was what God wanted them to do all along.

So when we face the same sort of frustration that David did, let us take heart. For God still has the final say over what happens in His world. No matter how many roadblocks His enemies may place in front of us, God’s will is going to be done exactly the way He wants it to happen. And there’s nothing any of us can do to stop it.

I Samuel 29 (NASB)

Now the Philistines gathered together all their armies to Aphek, while the Israelites were camping by the spring which is in Jezreel.
2 And the lords of the Philistines were proceeding on by hundreds and by thousands, and David and his men were proceeding on in the rear with Achish.
3 Then the commanders of the Philistines said, “What are these Hebrews doing here?” And Achish said to the commanders of the Philistines, “Is this not David, the servant of Saul the king of Israel, who has been with me these days, or rather these years, and I have found no fault in him from the day he deserted to me to this day?”
4 But the commanders of the Philistines were angry with him, and the commanders of the Philistines said to him, “Make the man go back, that he may return to his place where you have assigned him, and do not let him go down to battle with us, lest in the battle he become an adversary to us. For with what could this man make himself acceptable to his lord? Would it not be with the heads of these men?
5 “Is this not David, of whom they sing in the dances, saying, ‘Saul has slain his thousands, And David his ten thousands ‘?”
6 Then Achish called David and said to him, “As the LORD lives, you have been upright, and your going out and your coming in with me in the army are pleasing in my sight; for I have not found evil in you from the day of your coming to me to this day. Nevertheless, you are not pleasing in the sight of the lords.
7 “Now therefore return, and go in peace, that you may not displease the lords of the Philistines.”
8 And David said to Achish, “But what have I done? And what have you found in your servant from the day when I came before you to this day, that I may not go and fight against the enemies of my lord the king?”
9 But Achish answered and said to David, “I know that you are pleasing in my sight, like an angel of God; nevertheless the commanders of the Philistines have said, ‘He must not go up with us to the battle.’
10 “Now then arise early in the morning with the servants of your lord who have come with you, and as soon as you have arisen early in the morning and have light, depart.”
11 So David arose early, he and his men, to depart in the morning, to return to the land of the Philistines. And the Philistines went up to Jezreel.