The Philistines Mistrust David
29 Now the Philistines gathered together all their armies to Aphek, while the Israelites were camping by the spring which is in Jezreel. 2 And the lords of the Philistines were proceeding on by hundreds and by thousands, and David and his men were proceeding on in the rear with Achish. 3 Then the commanders of the Philistines said, “What are these Hebrews doing here?” And Achish said to the commanders of the Philistines, “Is this not David, the servant of Saul the king of Israel, who has been with me these days, or rather these years, and I have found no fault in him from the day he [a]deserted to me to this day?” 4 But the commanders of the Philistines were angry with him, and the commanders of the Philistines said to him, “Make the man go back, that he may return to his place where you have assigned him, and do not let him go down to battle with us, or in the battle he may become an adversary to us. For with what could this man make himself acceptable to his lord? Would it not be with the heads of [b]these men? 5 Is this not David, of whom they sing in the dances, saying,
‘Saul has slain his thousands,
And David his ten thousands’?”6 Then Achish called David and said to him, “As the Lord lives, you have been upright, and your going out and your coming in with me in the army are pleasing in my sight; for I have not found evil in you from the day of your coming to me to this day. Nevertheless, you are not pleasing in the sight of the lords. 7 Now therefore return and go in peace, that you may not displease the lords of the Philistines.” 8 David said to Achish, “But what have I done? And what have you found in your servant from the day when I came before you to this day, that I may not go and fight against the enemies of my lord the king?” 9 But Achish replied to David, “I know that you are pleasing in my sight, like an angel of God; nevertheless the commanders of the Philistines have said, ‘He must not go up with us to the battle.’ 10 Now then arise early in the morning with the servants of your lord who have come with you, and as soon as you have arisen early in the morning and have light, depart.” 11 So David arose early, he and his men, to depart in the morning to return to the land of the Philistines. And the Philistines went up to Jezreel.
Now although we do know that David deceived Achish on one occasion and made Achish believe he had attacked the Israelites, it’s likely that David and his men did fight valiantly against any other enemies of the Philistines. So while Achish shouldn’t have fully trusted David going into battle against his own people, he had good reason for liking David otherwise.
Regardless, the other Philistine lords had no faith in David. For whatever reason, and no matter what David had done for Achish, they refused to trust David.
It can be easy to get discouraged when we feel like we are doing the right things, but people still don’t give us any credit. Indeed, you might do something fantastic, and some folks will still be negative about your work. It is important to keep perspective in why you are doing what you do.
“Do everything as unto the Lord” is a verse I’ve heard a lot recently, and it’s something I have to remember as well when the “Negative Nellies” come out of the wood-work. Our goal in life is not to please people, because you can never please all of the people all of the time. Rather, our goal in life is to please God our Father, to do everything as if we were doing it for Him. Because ultimately, we are doing it for Him.
Everything we do is a reflection of our relationship with our Savior. Do it all for God, to the best of your ability, and let Him take care of the rest!