They say, “timing is everything.” And you don’t have to be a musician to know that’s true — although if you’ve ever sung the wrong verse while everyone else moved on to the chorus, you know how awkward bad timing can be.
Think about how much of life depends on timing. Arriving five minutes late to the airport and your vacation becomes an unplanned staycation. Plant your garden too early and frost kills it; plant too late and nothing grows. Timing can make or break almost anything.
Now, imagine waiting not five minutes, not five months — but ten years for something you know God has promised you. That’s the situation David finds himself in. Between the moment Samuel anointed him king and the moment he finally took the throne, roughly a decade passes. Ten long years of caves, betrayal, and uncertainty. David knew what God had promised — but he didn’t know when it would happen.
And here’s the hard truth: most of us don’t either. We want God’s promises to unfold on our schedule. We’d prefer a microwave Messiah, not a slow-cooker Saviour. But as we’ll see in 1 Samuel 24, the real test of faith isn’t whether we believe God can do something — it’s whether we’ll trust when He chooses to do it.
From Anointing to the Cave: The Long Wait
Between 1 Samuel 16 and 24, David’s story unfolds in a dramatic contrast to Saul’s decline. In chapter 16, David is anointed by Samuel to be Israel’s next king, though Saul still sits on the throne. The Spirit of the Lord departs from Saul and comes powerfully upon David, marking the turning point of both men’s lives. David first enters Saul’s service as a harpist, soothing the king’s tormented spirit, and soon gains fame as Israel’s champion after defeating Goliath (1 Samuel 17). His military victories make him beloved by the people—“Saul has slain his thousands, and David his tens of thousands”—which sparks Saul’s consuming jealousy (1 Samuel 18:7).
From that moment, Saul’s paranoia drives him to hunt David down. David flees for his life, becoming a fugitive. He gathers a band of loyal followers, while Saul’s obsession with eliminating him grows increasingly irrational. Through these chapters, we see repeated opportunities for David to seize power by force, but he refuses to harm “the Lord’s anointed.” God uses this long period of waiting and wilderness wandering to shape David’s character—teaching him dependence, humility, and trust.
By the time we reach 1 Samuel 24, the tension between the two kings reaches a climax: Saul continues to grasp for control, but David, hidden in the caves of En Gedi, will demonstrate that true kingship is shown not by taking power, but by surrendering to God’s timing.
1 Samuel 24
David Spares Saul’s Life
24 [a]After Saul returned from fighting the Philistines, he was told that David had gone into the wilderness of En-gedi. 2 So Saul chose 3,000 elite troops from all Israel and went to search for David and his men near the rocks of the wild goats.
3 At the place where the road passes some sheepfolds, Saul went into a cave to relieve himself. But as it happened, David and his men were hiding farther back in that very cave!
4 “Now’s your opportunity!” David’s men whispered to him. “Today the Lord is telling you, ‘I will certainly put your enemy into your power, to do with as you wish.’” So David crept forward and cut off a piece of the hem of Saul’s robe.
5 But then David’s conscience began bothering him because he had cut Saul’s robe. 6 He said to his men, “The Lord forbid that I should do this to my lord the king. I shouldn’t attack the Lord’s anointed one, for the Lord himself has chosen him.” 7 So David restrained his men and did not let them kill Saul.
David’s Refuge and Reverence
While David hides in a cave, Psalm 57 gives us a glimpse of his heart:
Psalm 57
For the choir director: A psalm[a] of David, regarding the time he fled from Saul and went into the cave. To be sung to the tune “Do Not Destroy!”
1 Have mercy on me, O God, have mercy!
I look to you for protection.
I will hide beneath the shadow of your wings
until the danger passes by.
David knows that his real refuge isn’t the cave — it’s the presence of God. Though his friends whisper that this is his moment to strike, David refuses to take Saul’s life. He trusts that God will fulfill His purpose in His time.
2 I cry out to God Most High,[b]
to God who will fulfill his purpose for me. (Psalm 57:2)
It’s easy to miss how remarkable this is. David has 3,000 trained soldiers against him, and yet when Saul walks right into the cave to relieve himself — talk about timing! — David holds back his hand. He cuts off a piece of Saul’s robe but won’t touch his life. He says, “The Lord forbid that I should do this… I will not harm the Lord’s anointed.”
This is restraint born of reverence. Reverence that says, “God’s plan, God’s timing.”
After Saul had left the cave and gone on his way, 8 David came out and shouted after him, “My lord the king!” And when Saul looked around, David bowed low before him.
9 Then he shouted to Saul, “Why do you listen to the people who say I am trying to harm you? 10 This very day you can see with your own eyes it isn’t true. For the Lord placed you at my mercy back there in the cave. Some of my men told me to kill you, but I spared you. For I said, ‘I will never harm the king—he is the Lord’s anointed one.’ 11 Look, my father, at what I have in my hand. It is a piece of the hem of your robe! I cut it off, but I didn’t kill you. This proves that I am not trying to harm you and that I have not sinned against you, even though you have been hunting for me to kill me.
12 “May the Lord judge between us. Perhaps the Lord will punish you for what you are trying to do to me, but I will never harm you. 13 As that old proverb says, ‘From evil people come evil deeds.’ So you can be sure I will never harm you. 14 Who is the king of Israel trying to catch anyway? Should he spend his time chasing one who is as worthless as a dead dog or a single flea? 15 May the Lord therefore judge which of us is right and punish the guilty one. He is my advocate, and he will rescue me from your power!”
16 When David had finished speaking, Saul called back, “Is that really you, my son David?” Then he began to cry. 17 And he said to David, “You are a better man than I am, for you have repaid me good for evil.
David’s moment in that cave might be one of the greatest “I could, but I won’t” moments in Scripture. He’s got Saul right there — the man who’s been trying to kill him — and his friends are whispering, “This is it, David! This is your moment!” You can almost hear them saying, “Don’t pray about it, just do it!”
But instead of running Saul through with his sword, David just snips off a piece of fabric. He chooses conscience over convenience. And the moment he does, guilt hits him like a wave. That small cut on Saul’s robe feels like a gash in his own soul.
Because David understood something vital: just because the opportunity presents itself doesn’t mean it’s God’s permission.
We all face our own “cut-the-robe” moments — situations where we could act in anger, pride, or fear, and no one would even blame us. But if we do, the damage runs deeper than we expect.
• Maybe someone hurts you, and you could get even with a few well-chosen words — but if you do, you’ll slice through a relationship that took years to build.
• Maybe at work, you could expose a coworker’s mistake to make yourself look competent — but in doing so, you cut away your integrity thread by thread.
• Maybe in an argument, you could say that one devastating truth that would “win” — but it might leave a scar on someone’s spirit that never quite heals.
Those are modern-day robe-cuts — moments when we trade a small act of revenge for a long season of regret.
David teaches us that restraint isn’t weakness; it’s wisdom. It’s the conviction that God’s justice doesn’t need our shortcuts. Every time we wait, every time we choose mercy over manipulation, we declare, “God’s timing is still better than mine.”
18 Yes, you have been amazingly kind to me today, for when the Lord put me in a place where you could have killed me, you didn’t do it. 19 Who else would let his enemy get away when he had him in his power? May the Lord reward you well for the kindness you have shown me today. 20 And now I realize that you are surely going to be king, and that the kingdom of Israel will flourish under your rule. 21 Now swear to me by the Lord that when that happens you will not kill my family and destroy my line of descendants!”
22 So David promised this to Saul with an oath. Then Saul went home, but David and his men went back to their stronghold.
What an incredible thing for David to do. In any era where there is a radical change in monarchy, the practice would’ve been to eliminate everyone from the original monarchs family so that there would be no claim to the throne. This was practised in David’s time with the other nations around them and it’s obviously something that Saul was concerned about. David is good friends with Saul’s son Jonathan; there is good reason for Saul to be worried that David could plot to eliminate his family.
What we know from the text later on is that all of Saul’s sons and Jonathan die at the hands of the Philistines. Only the son of Jonathan is alive when David becomes king.
Could you imagine waiting ten years for God to answer your prayer? Ten years! Most of us get frustrated if our Wi-Fi takes more than ten seconds to connect. We start questioning our salvation if the drive-thru line at Tim Hortons takes too long.
But David waited a decade for God to fulfill His promise — and here’s the kicker: he didn’t know it would be ten years. He didn’t have the benefit of flipping ahead to 2 Samuel and saying, “Ah yes, chapter 5 — that’s where I finally get crowned king.” No, David lived it one cave, one betrayal, one sleepless night at a time.
What would you do if you were in that kind of waiting room with God? Would you pray more? Pout more? Try to give God a few “suggestions” about how to speed things up? Maybe you’d start doing what we all do when we’re impatient — try to help God out a little.
That’s exactly the temptation David faced. His reputation was growing, his followers were loyal, and honestly, he could’ve pulled off a coup and called it “God’s will.” But he didn’t. He waited — even when waiting felt ridiculous.
That’s what makes this story so striking. David refused to take the shortcut. He trusted God’s timing even when it made no sense. Saul, on the other hand — well, Saul couldn’t even wait for Samuel to show up before taking matters into his own hands. Saul’s motto was basically, “If God’s running late, I’ll take it from here.”
David’s motto was different: “If God’s not ready, neither am I.”
That’s reverence. That’s trust. And that’s what makes David a man after God’s own heart.
It’s so different from Saul. He couldn’t wait for Samuel to get there in time to make the sacrifice to the Lord before he went to fight the Philistines, and so Saul goes ahead and tries to accomplish it by himself and not be obedient to God’s direction.
Between David’s anointing and his encounter with Saul in the cave, nearly a decade has passed. Those years weren’t wasted—they were wilderness years where God trained David’s heart in patience, humility, and trust. Before David ever wore the crown, he learned to carry the weight of obedience. Much like David’s time in the pasture prepared him to be a leader among men, David’s time in the wilderness helped him to grow his patients, humility and trust in the Lord.
Jesus is the anointed one. In him we place our faith, reverence and our expectation that God’s timing is perfect. Showing reverence for Jesus is more than just respect for the pastor and the church. It has to be more than just focusing on how we speak about God or the words that we use.
The difference between how David saw God, is reverence and obedience to him is very different than way people see God today.
Trusting God’s Timing
This story raises a question for every believer:
What do you do when God’s promises feel delayed?
• In relationships: maybe you’re waiting for reconciliation, and it’s not happening.
• In calling: perhaps you feel stuck, doing something smaller than what God has shown you.
• In church life: we pray for growth, revival, and renewal — but the timeline feels glacial, not miraculous.
When God seems slow, we’re tempted to take shortcuts. But every shortcut around obedience becomes a detour from blessing.
David could have justified killing Saul. It would have looked efficient. Logical. Even providential. But it wasn’t faithful. God’s way is rarely the fastest — but it’s always the best.
Let’s bring it closer to home.
Have you ever pushed ahead of God’s timing? Maybe you made a decision out of fear, not faith — a job, a purchase, a relationship. Maybe you’ve tried to “help God along.” When we do that, we end up like Saul: clutching control instead of trusting the King.
And the results are the same — anxiety, regret, and distance from God.
But when we wait on Him, like David, we learn that the waiting is not wasted. God was building a king in the wilderness. He might be building character in you.
Reverence That Waits
Our reverence and trust in God’s timing are part of our worship. CS Lewis once said that modern people have reversed the courtroom of heaven David’s radical reverence meant that even when everything in him said, “Strike now,” his spirit said, “Wait.” That’s not weakness — that’s wisdom.
Closing: The King Who Waited
As we close, remember this: Jesus is the anointed one. He, too, waited for the Father’s timing. He didn’t seize power; He surrendered it. Philippians 2 says, “Though he was God, he did not consider equality with God something to cling to, but humbled himself… even to death on a cross.”
Like David, Jesus trusted the Father’s timing — through suffering, through rejection, even through the silence of the tomb. But when the time was right, God raised Him up.
So, if you’re in a season of waiting — don’t waste the cave. Let it teach you to trust.
Because the same God who was shaping a king in the wilderness is shaping a disciple in you.
Timing really is everything.
And when your timing and God’s timing finally meet, you might begin to understand why the wait was worth it.
