May the LORD judge between me and you, may the LORD avenge me against you, but my hand shall not be against you. (ESV)

We’re in the middle of our series A Deeper Life Through Forgiveness, and I’m not sure any story in the Bible demonstrates this more vividly than the story of David and Saul. Saul has been pursuing David for years in order to kill him. The exact amount of time is unknown, but David had been on the run for a while when our passage takes place.  

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This is a fascinating story, and I marvel at David’s heart here. If you want to read his whole story, check out 1 Samuel 16 through our current verse and all the way through to the end of 2 Samuel. Basically, Saul got intel on where David was hiding, and he took 3,000 of his men to pursue David. In 1 Samuel 24:3, “…there was a cave, and Saul went in to relieve himself. Now David and his men were sitting in the innermost parts of the cave.”  

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You’re kidding, right? God delivered Saul right into David’s hands and Saul was in his most vulnerable state. I mean, for me that would have been a clear sign from God that I could finally be free of running by killing Saul. In fact, David’s men thought the same: “Here is the day the LORD said to you, ‘Behold, I will give your enemy into your hand, and you shall do to him as it shall seem good to you’” (1 Samuel 24:4).

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What David did next confused his men: he simply cut off a corner of Saul’s robe. And he actually felt guilty for doing it! He says in verse 6, “The LORD forbid that I should do this thing to my lord, the LORD’s anointed, to put out my hand against him, seeing he is the LORD’s anointed.”

So, let’s look at what is happening here. God seemingly delivers Saul into David’s hand to do whatever he wanted to do. But David, being a man after God’s own heart, realized that he had no right to kill the very person that God had chosen to be king.  

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David follows Saul out of the cave, bows before him, and holds up the piece of cloth he had cut from his robe, saying, “See, my father, see the corner of your robe in my hand. For by the fact that I cut off the corner of your robe and did not kill you, you may know and see that there is no wrong or treason in my hands. I have not sinned against you, though you hunt my life to take it” (vs. 11). And finally, David says in verse 12, “May the LORD judge between me and you, may the LORD avenge me against you, but my hand shall not be against you.”

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How? How does David maintain his integrity, his moral standard, and his commitment to God in the face of death? How does he NOT take matters into his own hands to save himself?  

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I think we need to understand that David was human and fallible. But he was chosen BY God because of his commitment TO God. There’s no question that David had his faults, but he was also connected to and focused on God.  

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In this case, David resisted what would be natural for man to do. He demonstrated what Jesus would later preach in Matthew. As one commentator says, “In loving our enemies, we must resist the natural response. It is not natural, after being struck on one cheek, to offer the other. It is not natural, after being sued for your tunic, to give your cloak also. It is not natural, after being forced to go one mile, to go a second. And it is not natural, after being targeted by a beggar or borrower, to give and lend (Matthew 5:39-42). But it is precisely the natural response Jesus calls us to move past. He draws us into a deeper, spiritual, and supernatural response. Our old self is to be put off, making way for the putting on of the new self, so we must consider ourselves to be dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus (Romans 6:11).

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In the upside-down kingdom of God, we are going to be asked to resist what is “natural” and lean into what is “super-natural.” Because we know that God will never leave us or forsake us, we can trust him to be the Judge, our Avenger. We can rest assured that the God of the universe, who loves us to the extent that he died for us, will indeed see justice done. We don’t have the burden of taking things in our own hands. So, while forgiveness may not be natural, let’s trust the “supernatural” way of Jesus and endeavor to walk in his way, just as David did.

Father God – We know that there is no way, apart from you and the power of your Spirit, that we can walk in forgiveness toward those who have wronged us. Lord, we pray for the “supernatural” power to forgive and trust you.  Help us to glorify you in all we do. In Jesus’ name ~ AMEN!