David had javelins thrown at him. The king of Israel was hunting him like wild game. His refuge was in caves with the outcasts of society. Like David, you can get to the point where you begin to question everything. I bet David was wishing he could sling a stone at frustration, and cut the head off of stress.
“And David said in his heart, I shall now perish one day by the hand of Saul: [there is] nothing better for me than that I should speedily escape into the land of the Philistines; and Saul shall despair of me, to seek me any more in any coast of Israel: so shall I escape out of his hand” (1 Sam. 27:1). You can hear the frustration in David’s words. There was just nothing left for him to do than to give up and quit.
But notice where those words came from: “David said in his heart.” That terrible advice didn’t come from one of his rag-tag followers. That opinion didn’t come from one of his older brothers. No, that came straight from David’s heart. Exasperated. Exhausted. You ever feel that way with a situation? I know I have. Sometimes it just seems easier to pack your bags up, load up the family grocery-getter and get outta Dodge!
Those are very real sentiments that we all experience. The issue was where David decided to go. David said, “There is nothing better for me than that I should speedily escape to the land of the Philistines.” The Philistines. Not somewhere near the Mediterranean Sea, so he could relax in a hammock swinging between two palm trees. He didn’t want a cabin in the mountains so he could continue writing beautiful songs while strumming his harp. No, David’s deceitful heart wanted him to go dwell in the land of the Philistines with the very people he had defeated in battle!
The human heart is fickle and reckless. When you’re have a bad day your heart starts advising you to do all sorts of ignorant stuff, like going back to things that the Lord has given you victory over. Jeremiah said it best, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it” (Jer. 17:9)? Don’t trust your heart when you’re having a rough go of it.
David dwelled in the land of the Philistines for sixteen months (1 Sam. 27:7). I’ve seen too many people listen to their heart and go back to things the Lord had delivered them from, only never to return. Rather than trust your wicked heart, listen to the advice of God’s Word: “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart, and lean not unto thine own understanding, and in all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths” (Pro. 3:5-6).