SAUL DETERMINES ON DAVID'S DEATH.

53

bring him in his bed, that he might be slain. It was then found that the delay thus obtained had enabled David to escape, and that his wife had placed an image in his bed to personate his body. Dr. Delany believes that his escape on this occasion was effected principally by means of a terrible, and probably supernatural, tempest and earthquake. The opinion as to the supernatural character of this scene may arise from the strong poetic language and figures employed in the eighteenth Psalm;-but there seems little reason to doubt that a portion of this Psalm, at least, was composed in allusion to the remarkable events of this day.

The messengers of Saul were watching David's house to kill him in the morning; and his wife, having said to him, "If thou save not thy life tonight, to-morrow thou shalt be slain," let him down from the window. He was, however, still in the city, and in danger from the guards and emissaries of Saul; and it was as necessary for him to escape from the city as from his house. How was this to be effected? A great tempest and much providential interposition aided him, which he thus gratefully celebrates:

PSALM XVIII.

"I will love Thee, O Lord, my Strength!

The Lord is my Rock, my Fortress, and my Deliverer; My God, my Strength, in whom I will trust;

My Buckler, and the Horn of my salvation, and my high Tower.

I will call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised : So shall I be saved from mine enemies.

The sorrows of death compassed me,

And the floods of ungodly men made me afraid.
The sorrows of hell compassed me about:

The snares of death prevented me.
In my distress I called upon the Lord,
And cried unto my God:

He heard my voice out of His temple,

And my cry came before Him, even into His ears.
Then the earth shook and trembled ;
The foundations, also, of the hills moved
And were shaken, because He was wroth.
There went up a smoke out of His nostrils,
Coals were kindled by it.

He bowed the heavens also, and came down ;
And darkness was under His feet.

He rode upon a cherub, and did fly;

Yea, He did fly upon the wings of the wind.

He made darkness His secret place;

His pavilion round about Him were dark waters

And thick clouds of the skies.

At the brightness that was before Him, His thick clouds passed,

Hailstones and coals of fire.

Yea, He sent out His arrows and scattered them;

Then the channels of water were seen,

And the foundations of the world were discovered at Thy rebuke,

O Lord, at the blast of the breath of Thy nostrils.

He sent from above,

He took me, He drew me out of

many

waters.

He delivered me from my strong enemy,

And from them which hated me;

For they were too strong for me.

They prevented me in the day of my calamity;
But the Lord was my Stay.

He brought me forth also into a large place,

He delivered me because He delighted in me.

DAVID'S MARVELLOUS ESCAPE.

55

The Lord rewarded me according to my righteousness; According to the cleanness of my hands hath He recompensed me.

For I have kept the ways of the Lord,

And have not wickedly departed from my God.

With the merciful Thou wilt show Thyself merciful, With an upright man Thou wilt show Thyself upright, With the pure Thou wilt show Thyself pure,

And with the froward Thou wilt show Thyself froward. For Thou wilt save the afflicted people;

But wilt bring down high looks.

For Thou wilt light my candle:

The Lord my God will enlighten my darkness.
For by Thee have I run through a troop,

And by my God have I leaped over a wall.
As for God, His way is perfect:

The word of the Lord is tried:

He is a Buckler to all those that trust in Him."

The inscription of this Psalm, "A Psalm of David, the servant of the Lord, who spake unto the Lord the words of this song in the day that the Lord delivered him from the hand of all his enemies, and from the hand of Saul," shows that in it he refers to the perils and persecution to which he was exposed by that king; and as we hear of no other occasion when he was placed in such imminent danger, and had to run through a troop and escape over the wall of a city, except at this time, it is extremely probable that David here refers to that awful night, when, aided by storm and tempest, thunder and lightning, he made his way through the guards of Saul, and escaped over the wall of the city.* Saul was exceedingly angry at

# Although we have no doubt of the accuracy of this conclusion, it

David's flight, and reproached Michal for having assisted him; but she excused herself by saying that David had threatened to kill her unless she complied with his wishes.

David, having extricated himself from the enemies by whom he had been surrounded, fled to Ramah to Samuel. As far as can be learned, this was the first time that David had seen the venerable prophet since the memorable season of his anointing at Bethlehem. On this occasion, he gave the aged seer a full account of the conduct of Saul. Samuel then took David to Naioth, which is believed to have been one of his establishments for training young men for the prophetic office. David appears to have united himself to these, as if he would retire from the unquiet arena of public life to devote himself wholly to religious exercises and duties. If there was any place in all Israel where David could find security, it was here. Samuel had been for a long period universally recognised as an authorized prophet of God. He had also been, for many years, a divinely sanctioned judge, who administered the affairs of the nation with great prudence and ability. If such a man could not, in his own house, devoted wholly to religious purposes, afford protection to a citizen who had not been convicted or even charged with any crime, then it is certain there was no asylum in the country in which he could find protection.

When Saul heard that David was with Samuel, he sent messengers thither to take him. Neither the sacred character of the prophet, nor the sanctity of his house, offered any barrier to the determined rancour of the excited king; but as no earthly power could save is probable that the Psalm was written, or revised, at the close of David's wars, and that he refers in it to other deliverances as well as to this particular one, as Wells, Townsend, and others have supposed.

HE TAKES REFUGE WITH SAMUEL.

57

the young hero, Heaven interposed for his deliverance. When the messengers arrived and saw Samuel and the company of prophets prophesying, the Spirit of God fell on them, and they also prophesied. Twice afterward he sent other messengers with the same result. Saul then went himself to Ramah, and from thence to Naioth; but as he approached the place, "the Spirit of God was upon him also, and he went on, and prophesied, until he came to Naioth in Ramah. And he stripped off his clothes also, and prophesied before Samuel in like manner, and lay down naked all that day and all that night;" (1 Sam. xix. 23, 24;) thus, a second time, giving occasion for the inquiry, "Is Saul also among the prophets?" While the king thus lay divested of his royal apparel, (for this, and not the entire absence of clothing, is evidently meant,) under the power of this prophetic ecstasy, David, perceiving the impossibility of remaining with Samuel in safety, left Ramah.

On leaving the abode of Samuel, the persecuted young hero returned to Gibeah, and had a secret and very interesting interview with his friend Jonathan. Every part of their intercourse on this occasion is replete with deep importance and the greatest sympathy and tenderness. David opened the conversation by a passionate appeal to his friend, saying, "What have I done? What is my iniquity? And what is my sin before thy father, that he seeketh my life?" To this appeal, Jonathan replied, "God forbid; thou shalt not die." The noble-minded prince then went on to assure his friend that his father would do nothing without communicating it to him; and that if he heard him propose doing any injury to his friend, he would warn him of the danger. To this David replied, that the king well knew of the friendship sub