The Ziphites went to Saul at Gibeah and said, “Is not David hiding on the hill of Hakilah, which faces Jeshimon?”’ (1 Samuel 26:1)
Over the years, I’ve discovered that there is no pain like betrayal by those closest to you. There have been many times in my own life when people that I’ve poured my life into, made myself vulnerable to and shared at a very personal level, have then turned around and have used that information to hurt me. When did the friendship fade and trust become a sham? I remember someone that I’d walked very closely with in the early years of my ministry. We’d spent many hours laughing and crying together. Bumping into him years later, it was obvious that I was not on his favourite person list and I knew that he’d spent a decade criticising me; I think, unfairly. Try as I might, the friendship seemed beyond repair.
David discovered that pain when the Ziphites – members of his own tribe of Judah - scurried up to Saul, hoping for grace and favour by selling one of their own out. They’d done this to David before (read their grovelling speech in 1 Samuel 23:19-20). But there’s more. David and his men had defended one of the threshing floors in that locality from the Philistines (1 Samuel 23:1). Those who should have been grateful turned traitor instead.
So what did David do when he discovered their turncoat behaviour? And what should we do when we are maligned by those we believed were for us? As far as we know, David did nothing. There were more important issues to deal with.
We can expend a lot of energy when falsely accused or, worse, betrayed. The letter to God that David wrote during this time – the heading of the Psalm says, ‘When the Ziphites had gone to Saul and said, “Is not David hiding among us?’ – gives us an immediate insight into how we should first position ourselves when we are falsely accused. Go to God first.
David hands his case to God, as he calls upon the Lord to be his vindicator, which is a judicial term that speaks of God’s justice prevailing in the end, not only for David, but also for those who falsely accuse him. That doesn’t mean that David offers no defence: in his speech to Saul earlier, we heard him protesting his innocence: “For what have I done? What guilt is on my hands?”(1 Samuel 26:18). But there’s a difference between answering those who condemn us wrongly, to going on an obsessive crusade of correction. Give it up.
Perhaps you’re in that difficult place today. Talk to Jesus about it. He had someone called Judas on his team.