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23. Abide thou with me. What a joy it must have been for David to welcome Abiathar to his company What encouragement it must have been to see the Urim and the Thummim (ch. 23:6) and to know that in spite of the devastation of Nob, the hand of God had been over the ephod and the priest who guarded it. Yet when David learned the awful facts of the tragedy, he was filled with remorse as he realized that he had been responsible for the death of the high priest and those who had perished with him. He now wished that he had refused to stoop to duplicity. Gladly would he have done differently could he have had the year to live over again But the past could not be undone. Dreadful as was his self-reproach there was nothing to do but to reach “forth unto those things which are before” (Phil. 3:13).

It was after hearing of Doeg’s deed that David wrote the 52d psalm (see heading). He stood amazed that any man could set himself up in arrogant antagonism to God’s plan instead of resting upon the Lord’s eternal mercy. By a tongue sharp as a razor Doeg had sown deceit and calamity to such an extent that he became the very personification of fraud and evil. But the day was coming when he would reap that which he had sown.

chapter 23

1 David, enquiring of the Lord by Abiathar, rescueth Keilah. 7 God shewing him the coming of Saul, and the treachery of the Keilites, he escapeth from Keilah. 14 In Ziph Jonathan cometh and comforteth him. 19 The Ziphites discover him to Saul. 25 At Maon he is rescued from Saul by the invasion of the Philistines. 29 He dwelleth at En-gedi.