What is the context?
The Philistines gather to fight Israel, and Achish tells David that he and his men must march with him. David gives an answer Achish takes as willingness to serve, and the king promises to make him his lifelong bodyguard. The arrangement that offered shelter now requires loyalty in a war against David’s own people.
The scene then turns to Saul. Samuel is dead, and Saul has removed mediums and spiritists from the land. The Philistines camp at Shunem while Saul gathers Israel at Gilboa. Seeing their army, he is terrified.
Saul asks the LORD for guidance, but receives no answer through dreams, Urim or prophets. The chapter places two crises beside each other: David is caught in the obligations of his refuge, and Saul cannot obtain the direction he seeks.
How is this passage commonly understood?
Henry describes David’s position as a dilemma involving loyalty to Achish and loyalty to Israel. Wesley reads his answer as deliberately ambiguous. Neither the king’s confidence nor David’s wording tells the reader exactly what David intends to do in battle.
Henry connects Saul’s distress with his earlier refusal to heed God’s word. The silence is part of the relationship the narrative has traced, rather than evidence that Saul has never asked God a question before.
The account names the means by which no answer comes. It does not explain the workings of the Urim here or identify a new priest or replacement set of objects serving Saul.
What is our position?
We don't have a position on this passage yet. When our study reaches a conclusion the text supports, it will appear here.