1 Samuel 26 · a question people ask
Saul was trying to kill him. Why wouldn't David let Abishai strike?
David gives his reasons in his own words, and every one of them turns on the LORD. Saul is the LORD's anointed, and no one can stretch out his hand against him "and be guiltless" (26:9) (tap guiltless). Saul's end belongs to the LORD: "the LORD will strike him; or his day shall come to die, or he shall go down into battle and perish" (26:10). And David leaves his own life there too: "let my life be respected in the LORD’s eyes, and let him deliver me out of all oppression" (26:24). He had just been kept from paying Nabal back himself, and had blessed Abigail for keeping him "from avenging myself with my own hand" (25:33). He held to it after Saul's death. When a man told him, "I stood beside him and killed him" (2 Samuel 1:10), David asked, "Why were you not afraid to stretch out your hand to destroy the LORD’s anointed?" (2 Samuel 1:14).
The verses
“David said to Abishai, “Don’t destroy him, for who can stretch out his hand against the LORD’s anointed, and be guiltless?” David said, “As the LORD lives, the LORD will strike him; or his day shall come to die, or he shall go down into battle and perish.”
“Behold, as your life was respected today in my eyes, so let my life be respected in the LORD’s eyes, and let him deliver me out of all oppression.””
“Blessed is your discretion, and blessed are you, who have kept me today from blood guiltiness, and from avenging myself with my own hand.”
“So I stood beside him and killed him, because I was sure that he could not live after he had fallen. I took the crown that was on his head and the bracelet that was on his arm, and have brought them here to my lord.””