good that thou hast done: As
the Lord liveth, ye are worthy to die, because you have not kept your
master, the Lord's anointed. And now see where the king's spear is, and
the cruse of water that was at his bolster. And Saul knew David's voice,
and said, Is this thy voice, my son David? And David said, It is my
voice, my lord, O king. Wherefore does my lord then thus pursue after
his servant? for what have I done? Now therefore, let not my blood fall
to the earth, for the king of Israel is come out to seek a flea, as when
one doth hunt a partridge. Then said Saul, I have sinned: return, my son
David, for I will no more do thee harm, because my soul was precious in
thine eyes. Behold, I have played the fool, and have erred exceedingly."

But David can trust him no longer. Weak, violent, and capricious, Saul's
repentance is real for the time, but it does not last. He means what he
says at the moment; but when some fresh base suspicion crosses his mind,
his promises and his repentance are all forgotten. A terrible trial it
is to David, to have his noble forgiveness and forbearance again and
again bring forth no fruit--to have to do with a man whom he cannot
trust. There are few sorer trials than that for living man. Few which
tempt him more to throw away faith and patience, and say, "I cannot
submit to this misconduct over and over again. It must end, and I will
end it, by some desperate action, right or wrong."

And, in fact, it does seem as if David was very near yielding to
temptation, the last and worst temptation which befalls men in his
situation--to turn traitor and renegade, to go over to the enemies of his
country and fight with them against Saul. That has happened too often to
men in David's place; who have so ended a glorious career in shame and
confusion. And we find that David does at last very nearly fall into it.
It creeps on him, little by little, as it has on other men in his place,
but it does creep on. He loses patience and hope. He says, I shall
perish one day by the hand of Saul, and he goes down into the low
country, to the Philistines, whose champion, Goliath, he had killed, and
makes friends with them. And Achish, king of Gath, gives him a town
called Ziklag, to live in, he and his men. From it he goes out and
attacks the wild Arabs, the Amalekites. And then he tells lies to
Achish, saying, that he has been attacking his own countrymen, the Jews.
And by that lie he brings himself