1 Sam 26:23+24, And the Lord will repay each man for his righteousness and his faithfulness; for the Lord delivered you into my hand today, but I refused to stretch out my hand against the Lord's anointed. Now behold, as your life was highly valued in my sight this day, so may my life be highly valued in the sight of the Lord, and may He deliver me from all distress." 
In this morning’s reading, we have the account of how David proved once again that he was not willing to touch the anointed king of Israel whom God had chosen. It was not for this young shepherd to deal so fatally with the one who was pursuing and trying to kill him. There was the recognition that God would deal with Saul in the manner in which Jehovah had ordained. It was not to be done by the hands of David, the one who would replace Saul upon that monarch’s death. 
David had refused to do so earlier as we read. Please turn to the 24th Chapter for a moment. If you will recall, David and his men had been hiding in the caves when Saul left his men to find a place of privacy for some respite. David’s men had seen this as an opportunity to put an end to the hunt by killing Saul and thus placing David on the throne by force. David refused as we read in verse 6.
1 Sam 24:6, So he said to his men, "Far be it from me because of the Lord that I should do this thing to my lord, the Lord's anointed, to stretch out my hand against him, since he is the Lord's anointed." 
Maybe David understood that to take the throne by force would just bring civil strife and anguish. There would be those who would fight for the old monarchy, desiring to put the son of Saul upon the throne. There would be those who would label David a traitor and a usurper of the throne that should rightfully belong to the bloodline of Saul. Much greater division and rebellion and violence would plague the kingship of David if he were to take the throne by force.
There was also the more overriding heart of the matter in the eyes of David. He had pledged himself to Jehovah in being honoring to the Lord all the days of his life. He had also pledged himself to serve Saul as would be honoring to the Lord and to the king. Therefore, in the light of his commitment, first to God and then to Saul, it would be an utter breaking apart of the heart of service with which David was invested. 
He could not bring himself to kill Saul because that would utterly violent his oath to God and to the king. David was a man who valued honor and obedience and trustworthiness above all else. We know that he was not perfect and he would sin grievously in the course of his kingship. Even then, however, he would be in utter dismay before the Lord for the manner of his sinful behavior. He knew that he was fully deserving of the consequences of his vile breaking asunder of his commitment to the Lord and to his nation.
This was evident even in the way that David was repentant of the act of cutting away a portion of Saul’s clothing in that cave. David was bothered by the fact that he had laid forth his knife in this simple act of cutting asunder a portion of the robe of the king. He called out to Saul to get the king’s attention with respect to the fact that he would never raise his hand in violence against the one whom the Lord had chosen as the first king of Israel. We read of this account in verses 10-13 of the 24th Chapter.
1 Sam 24:10-13, Behold, this day your eyes have seen that the Lord had given you today into my hand in the cave, and some said to kill you, but my eye had pity on you; and I said, 'I will not stretch out my hand against my lord, for he is the Lord's anointed.' "Now, my father, see! Indeed, see the edge of your robe in my hand! For in that I cut off the edge of your robe and did not kill you, know and perceive that there is no evil or rebellion in my hands, and I have not sinned against you, though you are lying in wait for my life to take it. May the Lord judge between you and me, and may the Lord avenge me on you; but my hand shall not be against you. As the proverb of the ancients says, 'Out of the wicked comes forth wickedness'; but my hand shall not be against you. 
This simple act of non violent adherence to the honor of God and the man whom Jehovah had chosen to be the king of Israel had its effect upon Saul. He recognized, for a brief while, that David was not the usurper that his imagination had made him out to be. There was a momentary turning away from the desire to kill David at all costs, because he represented the kingship that Saul had thrown away in his disobedience to God. We find this self-introspection detailed in verses 17-19 of the continuation of this previous account.
1 Sam 24:17-19, And he said to David, "You are more righteous than I; for you have dealt well with me, while I have dealt wickedly with you. And you have declared today that you have done good to me, that the Lord delivered me into your hand and yet you did not kill me. For if a man finds his enemy, will he let him go away safely? May the Lord therefore reward you with good in return for what you have done to me this day. 
This contriteness did not last very long until Saul’s imagination and his jealousy and his anger and his hatred of David once again set the king on the path to destroy this shepherd boy, again considered a threat to the kingship of Saul and his family. He did not long remember the fact that David could have killed him, but restrained his hand from attacking the anointed of the Lord. Therefore, in the wilderness of Ziph, Saul gathered his men for the destruction of David once again. 
Even then, David saw the opportunity to enter close to the king in the means of a physical demonstration of his loyalty. David displayed the fact that he would not lift his hand against the king who was making him hide like a hunted quarry in the wadis and the wilderness stretches of the country. 
David saw the encampment of soldiers against him, and went into the camp with one of his own men, Abishai. Abishai thought that the Lord had presented an opportunity for David to strike down the king who was still pursuing David despite the honor that David continually showed to the Lord in not taking matters into his own hand. As David so explained in 1 Sam 26:9-11, he was looking to the Lord to deal with both David and Saul in accordance to that which Jehovah ordained, and not in accordance with any schemes of mankind.
1 Sam 26:9-11, But David said to Abishai, "Do not destroy him, for who can stretch out his hand against the Lord's anointed and be without guilt?" David also said, "As the Lord lives, surely the Lord will strike him, or his day will come that he dies, or he will go down into battle and perish. The Lord forbid that I should stretch out my hand against the Lord's anointed; but now please take the spear that is at his head and the jug of water, and let us go." 
David was once again faced with the decision of trying to take the matter into his own hands and making a mess of it. Instead, he allowed the Lord the freedom to work as He so ordained. David was very astute to the fact that the Lord was not limited in the course of how to bring about the time of David’s coronation as the next king of Israel. He recognized that Saul could die by the very hand of God through any act of God on this earth, illness, disease, accident, or even just in the course of becoming old and feeble and thus dying within his allotted time span. 
David also made the observation of the fact that Saul could die in battle, as would actually be the case. The nation of Israel was one which was being beset by those realms around them which did not want the expression of the Lord God Almighty, Jehovah, the Living and powerful God of the Children of Israel. The nations raged against such an expression of Yahweh, fueled by the power of this age. It was doing everything possible to stop the Lord God from fulfilling that which was the plan and the purpose of the entirety of creation. 
This age has no place for the testimony of the light and the love of God, therefore any people who would present the truth of the holiness and the righteousness and the honor and the beauty of the Lord God Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth is a target for the wrath and the anger and the destruction that could be reigned upon such a witness. 
Accordingly, the history of the Children of Israel has ever been beset by those forces of this age which have constantly brought about a state of war between good and evil, the light of the world and the forces of darkness. As this was the reality of the nations arrayed against such a witness, we have the prophecy of Balaam when he was called forth to pronounce a curse upon the Children of Israel. He was summoned to declare condemnation upon the people who were being led by the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night. 
However, Balaam could only pronounce what The Lord required as recorded in Num 24:8+9. He could not curse, but only bless the Israelites as they were marching toward the Promised Land, soon to conquer and inhabit the lands that God was giving them.
Num 24:8+9, "God brings him out of Egypt, He is for him like the horns of the wild ox. He shall devour the nations who are his adversaries, And shall crush their bones in pieces, And shatter them with his arrows. "He couches, he lies down as a lion, And as a lion, who dares rouse him? Blessed is everyone who blesses you, And cursed is everyone who curses you." 
Again, David was wise enough to know that he could not go against the power of God and the one whom God had originally anointed. It would take the hand of Jehovah to smite Saul. That happened in one of the endless battlefields required for the Israelites to keep the peace among the multitudes of the nations surrounding them. Those enraged realms would ceaselessly encroach and try to establish strongholds that would inflict pain and suffering and constant tension and threat of war and attack against the nation of God. 
After Saul, in fact, died in battle along with his sons, these encroachments by those malignant nations caused many of the people to look to David to be their leader and their protector against the vast forces arrayed against Israel. First Chronicles is filled with the many accounts of how David worked to win the hearts of the people, sometimes through deliverance and kindness and sometimes through force. David was ever mindful of the fact that his sovereignty over the people was a perilous undertaking, and it was constantly strife with standing against deceitful means and internal revolt that had to be put down. 
It was not, as so many of us may think, that the people accepted David with open arms and with joy in their hearts. There were those Israelites who felt that David was, in fact a usurper, giving the tribe of Judah favor over all the other tribes. 
This constant effort to unite the people into one nation under the kingship of David required utmost patience, and absolute reliance upon the Lord’s wisdom and knowledge and understanding. David had to tread lightly in a number of cases, such as ensuring that he did not violate the oath that he had made to Saul. He had promised not to hunt down and eliminate the remaining members of Saul’s family who might eventually lay claim to the throne by right of blood.
At the same time, David, relying upon the wisdom and the understanding of the Lord, had to constantly seek the way the Lord would have him bring the nation together. Sometimes, he was forced to use power, and sometimes he was able to cajole the towns and the villages, and win them over by kindness and generosity in meeting the needs that were before him.
One of the great decisions early on in the cementing of the kingdom was the manner in which David would deal with those who had been part of the hunt against him in the wilderness. They had been following the edict and the will of Saul, the then active king of Israel. David was tasked with the decision of how to either incorporate or incapacitate those who had been so actively seeking to kill him under the orders of their king.
We have one such encounter detailed for us in 1 Chron 12:16-18, as we are shown David deciding what to do with some of the sons of Benjamin and Judah who had been loyal to Saul. He was faced with a similar decision as was evident in the dealings with the deceased king. David could have these men killed, or he could choose to allow the Lord the freedom to deal with them as the Lord would so choose. Again, the reputation and the kingship of David was fully tied up in the decision that he would make. 
1 Chron 12:16-18, Then some of the sons of Benjamin and Judah came to the stronghold to David. And David went out to meet them, and answered and said to them, "If you come peacefully to me to help me, my heart shall be united with you; but if to betray me to my adversaries, since there is no wrong in my hands, may the God of our fathers look on it and decide." Then the Spirit came upon Amasai, who was the chief of the thirty, and he said, "We are yours, O David, And with you, O son of Jesse! Peace, peace to you, And peace to him who helps you; Indeed, your God helps you!" Then David received them and made them captains of the band. 
David chose the manner of allowing the Lord the freedom to show Himself mighty in the course of dealing with these seasoned soldiers. They became powerful allies and commanders within the ranks of the army that David was assembling to defend the nation as a whole. David was putting his trust in the Lord and not in his own might. Such was the case in David’s dealings with Saul, and such was the manner in which David sought to deal with the need to bring the nation into unity after the demise of the first king of the people of God. David sought to be faithful to Jehovah, no matter what, and allow The Lord to work freely in the course of His will. 
This is what we need to learn to do in our lives as the Children of God on this earth. We must not take matters into our own hands, no matter how threatened we may be. We need to learn what it means to trust God and to obey and honor Him in the every course of our walk on this earth. We need to allow The Lord God Almighty the freedom to work according to His will, with our hearts and beings constantly trusting Him and obeying Him with the every step that we take. So be it.
And the Lord will repay each man for his righteousness and his faithfulness; for the Lord delivered you into my hand today, but I refused to stretch out my hand against the Lord's anointed. Now behold, as your life was highly valued in my sight this day, so may my life be highly valued in the sight of the Lord, and may He deliver me from all distress." Amen.

This morning’s benediction is Rom 8:37. But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. Amen.