1 Samuel 29:8

What have I done? David was thrilled at the unexpected turn of events that extricated him from his dilemma. However, in order not to betray his feelings, he directed this evasive question at the king as if to convey the impression that he was being wronged by this aide dismissal.

In a moment of discouragement, and not knowing which way to turn, David had taken steps that placed him in a dilemma from which he was totally unable to escape without outside help. If he deserted Achish and turned against the Philistines in battle, he would prove the truth of the Philistine lords’ accusations. If he fought against Israel, he would fight against the Lord’s anointed and help foreigners to subjugate his own native country (see PP 690). How merciful was the Lord in using the ill will and animosity of the Philistines to open the door for his release from disgrace, whichever way the battle turned!

David realized how much better it would have been had he remained in Judah. Had it not been that in his heart he wanted above everything else to be true to God, the Lord could have wrought this deliverance for him. David’s sins were not so much conscious and willful departures from the path of right, as weakness of faith and errors in judgment. He was called upon to make quick decisions, and did not always wait for a divine answer, trusting, perhaps, that Heaven would endorse his ideas. With all his heart he must have wished he had conducted himself differently. Now he was face to face with a gracious host who believed in him, had befriended him, but finally, because of political pressure, had to discharge him. As David listened to the king’s reply of confidence and love, his heart must have burned with the shame of his own dissembling, and also thrilled anew with thanksgiving that, in spite of his sin, God had mercifully broken the snare in which he had been caught!