So he pretended to be insane in their presence; and while he was in their hands he acted like a madman, making marks on the doors of the gate and letting saliva run down his beard. – 1 Samuel 21:13

Today's Scripture Reading (April 16, 2022): 1 Samuel 21

Comedian Woody Allen joked that "I'm not afraid of death; I just don't want to be there when it happens." A lot of us feel the same way. And some of the things that we are willing to do to make sure that we aren't present when death finally comes for us can be surprising. Sometimes, to avoid death, we will submit ourselves to things that we would never accept under ordinary circumstances. But the definition of acceptable behavior often changes in the shadow of death. Historically, there is evidence that people who have been cut off from society have resorted to cannibalism, something they would never have believed was possible under normal circumstances. The thought pattern is that as long as they survive, anything they have to do to put off death for another day is worth it. But, even if they do survive, the psychological scars left on these people are often wounds that they will suffer through for the rest of their lives.

David has run to Philistia looking for a place to hide. He likely hoped that he could stay anonymous, but Philistia was not the best place for the killer of Goliath to go if he wanted to find safety. And, maybe not surprisingly, his fame had preceded him. David wrote a few of his Psalms during this time in his life, and one of those Psalms was Psalm 56. The inscription to Psalm 56 adds some information that we don't have in the Book of Samuel. The inscription reads, "For the director of music. To the tune of "A Dove on Distant Oaks." Of David. A miktam. When the Philistines had seized him in Gath" (Psalm 56 inscription). It is important to remember that Goliath was from Gath. Apparently, the Philistines of Gath had figured out who David was, and so they had captured the killer of their favorite son.

In the custody of the Philistines, David had a good reason to be scared. He had to figure a way to keep death away for one more day. So, David did something that he would never have done under normal circumstances; he pretended to be insane. In the custody of the Philistines, he started to scratch up the doors of the gate. But the masterstroke of his performance was when he allowed his saliva to flow down his beard. In their commentary on the Book of Samuel, Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset, and David Brown offer this comment; allowing saliva to stay on the beard was "an indignity to the beard was considered an intolerable insult and would not have been permitted by a normal person" (Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown). David humiliated himself to stay out of the company of death one more day, something he would never have done under normal circumstances. But in the company of the Philistines, it was the only thing that made sense.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Psalm 52