With Saul (chs 24 & 26), David acknowledged “vengeance belongs to the Lord.” With Nabal, not so much!
Saul asked David to promise that he wouldn’t wipe out Saul’s family, for, he said, “I know indeed that you shall surely be king” (1 Sam 24:20). After David swore an oath, “Saul went home, but David and his men went up to the stronghold” (v 22). David’s promise was as solid as the Rock of Masada; Saul’s words were as empty as the dry winds that blow across its heights. I mention Masada, only 12 miles south of En Gedi, because that is the word for “stronghold.” Its elevated and isolated plateau would be an ideal lookout for the fugitive and his men. Psalm 18 is titled “A Psalm of David the servant of the Lord…on the day that the Lord delivered him from the hand of all his enemies and from the hand of Saul.” There he writes, “The Lord is my rock and my fortress [Heb, metzuda, Masada] and my deliverer; my God, my strength, in whom I will trust” (Ps 18:2). There David received the news that Samuel, the last of Israel’s judges, had died. Soon thereafter, David “went down to the Wilderness of Paran” (1 Sam 25:1). Not far away, there lived a couple as different as day and night. The rich man, Nabal (meaning “surly”), “was harsh and evil in his doings” while his wife, Abigail (meaning “source of joy”), “was a woman of good understanding and beautiful appearance” (v 3). Now David’s men had come across Nabal’s shepherds and provided protection from marauders. Yet when David sent an emissary to Nabal, hoping for some material help, they were rudely rebuffed and sent away empty. David’s men armed themselves and headed for Nabal’s homestead. Could anything stop him from, as he later said, “avenging myself with my own hand” (v 33)? Memo to self: “the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God” (Jas 1:20).