The distress was very real for David. Lack of faith at a critical time had brought David and his men into an unholy alliance with the Philistines, and they were about to join battle with them against Israel, the people of God. This was something that God would not allow. In God’s plan, He was using the Philistines as His rod to chasten King Saul because of his disobedience and self-will. Providentially, God overruled in this and prevented David from fighting against his own brethren.

When David and his men returned to Ziklag, they found the city burned with fire and their wives, sons, and daughters taken away captive by the Amalekites. Some of the men who followed David were ready to stone him, being grieved at their great loss. David was learning the hard way that his own reasoning had brought him and his men into the very danger he wanted to avoid. But in his great distress, we read that David strengthened himself in the Lord his God. David then called for Abiathar the priest and inquired of the Lord—something he had failed to do before. Now the Lord tells David to pursue the enemy and assures him of the victory. Thus David recovers all that was lost. Nothing was lacking of all that had been taken from them.

How often we contribute to the problems in which we find ourselves. Yet the Lord remains unchanging in His love and care for His people. He uses these trials to draw us away from our pride and self-will and draw us closer to Himself. When we turn our eyes away from ourselves and fix them upon the Lord, He will guide us in the right way: “I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will guide you with My eye” (Ps. 32:8).