I Samuel 25:32-34
“And David said, ‘Blessed be GOD, the God of Israel. He sent you to meet me! And blessed be your good sense! Bless you for keeping me from murder and taking charge of looking out for me. A close call! As GOD lives, the God of Israel who kept me from hurting you, if you had not come as quickly as you did, stopping me in my tracks, by morning there would have been nothing left of Nabal but dead meat.’”
“David replied to Abigail, ‘Praise the Lord, the God of Israel, who has sent you to meet me today! Thank God for your good sense! Bless you for keeping me from murder and from carrying out vengeance with my own hands. For I swear by the Lord, the God of Israel, who has kept me from hurting you, that if you had not hurried out to meet me , not one of Nabal’s men would still be alive tomorrow morning.’”
David shows his humanity and reacts to an insult with anger and vengeance. He did not take time to ask God about it. Yet God provides a way of escape from sin by sending Abigail to him. Later in this story David takes Abigail as wife and earlier, in verse three, we learn Abigail was smart. So, God blesses David doubly by giving him a wise sounding board in this new wife. God himself stood in the gap between what David thought to do and what he ought to do, just as the Spirit does for us. David repented his intentions because he knew his beloved Lord well enough to recognize his fingerprints on a situation. May we have the wisdom and humility to do the same.
Lord, grace me to know you better. Give me patience in an emotional moment to turn from what I want to do to what I ought to do. Lead me to the kind of communion with you that adapts to the different parts of my day, sometimes speaking and always present, as an old, dear and faithful friend.