1 Samuel 29:11 — So David and his men rose up early to depart in the morning, to return into the land of the Philistines. And the Philistines went up to Jezreel.

In 2009, Brian Zahnd wrote a powerful little book called “What to do on the worst day of your life.” It tells the story of King David’s (actually, at the time I’d suppose we’d have to call him David the renegade) return from the army of the Philistines to Ziklag, to discover that raiding Amelekites have taken all that David and the men with him possessed — their goods, their wives, their sons and their daughters. Describing how David grieves, turns to The Lord for help, forms a plan, executes it and moves on, Mr. Zahnd provides a wonderful template for dealing with disaster.
But what if David hadn’t been there? You see, there’s a prequel.
1 Samuel 29:11 is the punch line. The rest of the story is like this … David, unjustly suspected by the paranoid Saul and at risk of his life, had found a bolthole in the court of Achish, one of The Lords of the Philistines.
Achish had come to trust David, made him the head of his bodyguard and promised that David would go into battle with him. The other Philistine Lords were not nearly as enchanted and insisted that David and his men be sent home before the battle … and so David came to Ziklag …
David had his ideas, Achish had his ideas … even the Amelekites had their ideas. David might have forgotten, and Achish and the Amelekites had probably never known — “A man’s heart deviseth his way: but the Lord directeth his steps.” (Proverbs 16:9 KJV)
David’s disappointment was the Lord’s protection …
If David had gone to battle what would have happened? Would he have supported the Philistines against the people who were to be his future subjects, the Israelites? Or was he to blacken his reputation by turning against the Philistines, and lose their protection against Saul? Really, David needed not to go into that battle. And of course, if he’d been in the battle he wouldn’t have got back to Ziklag until much later … with little chance of recovering goods, wives, sons and daughters.
We hear it so often. God makes all things work together for the good of them that love Him. Sometimes it’s hard though to grasp what that really means. The story of David and the Amelekites raiders is a wonderful practical example.
When you have what looks like a perfectly good plan and it seems like God sends you home from the battle watch out — chances are there’s a really good reason!