the backstory

Week 12 1 Samuel

A couple of weeks ago I read Psalm 54. Its subtitle said: a meditation of David, regarding the time the Ziphites came and said to Saul, “We know where David is hiding.”
So yesterday I got to the story where the Ziphites came to Saul and said: we know where David is hiding – the story behind psalm 54. But then the Ziphites showed up again in my reading today and told Saul: David is hiding on the hill of Hakilah, which overlooks Jeshimon. The margin of my bible cross-references both of these Ziphite Betrayal stories to Psalm 54. I’m not too sure what to make of that.
Q: Is psalm 54 a meditation on the first story or the second? Or both?
A: I don’t know.
That’s okay because my real bonus is finding the events behind the psalm. I see that when David says violent men were trying to kill him he was talking about Saul.
David’s reaction is pretty good the way it rises above the circumstance. Saul is trying to kill him but David can say: God is my helper. The Lord is the one who keeps me alive.
I don’t get the sense David will be letting down his guard. But he admits that staying-alive was in the Lord’s hands.
David’s Rule: I’ll do everything in my power to stay alive but I know that everything I do isn’t everything that will get done.

Note: quotes from 1 Samuel 23:19, 26:1 & Psalm 54:6 (NLT)