In 1 Samuel 15, the current king of Israel, Saul, disobeyed God and God said:

1 Samuel 15:11
I regret that I have made Saul king, because he has turned away from me and has not carried out my instructions.

1 Samuel 18:5-9
5 Whatever mission Saul sent him on, David was so successful that Saul gave him a high rank in the army. This pleased all the troops, and Saul’s officers as well. 6 When the men were returning home after David had killed the Philistine, the women came out from all the towns of Israel to meet King Saul with singing and dancing, with joyful songs and with timbrels and lyres. 7 As they danced, they sang: “Saul has slain his thousands, and David his tens of thousands.” 8 Saul was very angry; this refrain displeased him greatly. “They have credited David with tens of thousands,” he thought, “but me with only thousands. What more can he get but the kingdom?” 9And from that time on Saul kept a close eye on David.

Saul is now worried that David is going to take over the kingdom, so he tries to kill him… twice…

1 Samuel 18:10-11
10 The next day an evil a spirit from God came forcefully on Saul. He was prophesying in his house, while David was playing the lyre, as he usually did. Saul had a spear in his hand 11and he hurled it, saying to himself, “I’ll pin David to the wall.” But David eluded him twice.

When this murder attempt didn’t work, Saul sent David out to war, and he does even better than he had in the past. So, Saul tells David that he can marry Saul’s daughter, but then gives that daughter to someone else to marry. Then Saul’s other daughter falls for David, and Saul says, if you want to earn my daughter, you need to go kill 100 Philistines and bring me their foreskins.

So where you would normally see a person gripped by FEAR,
you see a man TRUSTING GOD completely.

David ends doubling the amount he needed, and the very next verse is where Saul and David’s relationship was solidified:

1 Samuel 18:28
28 When Saul realized that the Lord was with David and that his daughter Michal loved David, 29 Saul became still more afraid of him, and he remained his enemy the rest of his days.

Saul embraced FEAR in man.
David embraced TRUST in God.

From there, it's a whirlwind of things that happen:

- Saul tries to kill David again with a spear, and again he evades him

- David ends up leaving his family and he goes into hiding

- He gets help from a priest names Ahimelek

- He goes to Gath, and pretends to be crazy so that he isn’t taken back to Saul

- Then he goes to Moab where a big group of 400 disgruntled men join David

- Then he and his group of outcasts travel back to Judah, and end up in the forest of Horeth.

- Saul, trying to find David, ends up murdering Ahimelek along with 84 other priests.

- David finds out that the Philistines are attacking a part of Israel called Keilah , and he is told by God to stop it, so they go and take care of it

- Saul finds out that David is in Keilah, and goes to get him.

- David runs and ends up in the Desert of En Gedi

- Saul follows him with 3000 men, effectively outnumbering David 5 to 1.

This isn’t a single scary situation, it’s a cat and mouse game that just keeps on going! Throughout the entire thing, David keeps responding out of TRUST in God, instead of giving in to FEAR.

DAVID AND SAUL IN THE CAVE

1 Samuel 24:1-11
1 After Saul returned from pursuing the Philistines, he was told, “David is in the Desert of En Gedi.” 2 So Saul took three thousand able young men from all Israel and set out to look for David and his men near the Crags of the Wild Goats.

3 He came to the sheep pens along the way; a cave was there, and Saul went in to relieve himself. David and his men were far back in the cave. 4 The men said, “This is the day the Lord spoke of when he said a to you, ‘I will give your enemy into your hands for you to deal with as you wish.’ ” Then David crept up unnoticed and cut off a corner of Saul’s robe.

5 Afterward, David was conscience-stricken for having cut off a corner of his robe. 6 He said to his men, “The Lord forbid that I should do such a thing to my master, the Lord’s anointed, or lay my hand on him; for he is the anointed of the Lord.” 7 With these words David sharply rebuked his men and did not allow them to attack Saul. And Saul left the cave and went his way.

8 Then David went out of the cave and called out to Saul, “My lord the king!” When Saul looked behind him, David bowed down and prostrated himself with his face to the ground. 9 He said to Saul, “Why do you listen when men say, ‘David is bent on harming you’? 10 This day you have seen with your own eyes how the Lord delivered you into my hands in the cave. Some urged me to kill you, but I spared you; I said, ‘I will not lay my hand on my lord, because he is the Lord’s anointed.’ 11 See, my father, look at this piece of your robe in my hand! I cut off the corner of your robe but did not kill you. See that there is nothing in my hand to indicate that I am guilty of wrongdoing or rebellion. I have not wronged you, but you are hunting me down to take my life.

Instead of being paralyzed with FEAR,
he decides instead to TRUST God.

“David decided to surrender completely to God, no matter what the consequences would be.”
- Dr. Jack Beck