How to Pray for God’s Will (1 Sam 23.21)

Saul said, “May you be blessed by the LORD for showing me compassion!

Background

This scene follows immediately after the previous prayer. It is another example of David escaping from Saul’s clutches. This time, though, Saul offers a blessing upon a group of men who informed the King of David’s whereabouts. That is, the king asks for God to bless people for doing something against God’s will. What can we learn from a such a prayer?

Meaning

What can we learn about prayer? Saul is offering a prayer—a blessing—that, in his mind, is appropriate. If a reader did not know that God had chosen David as the future king; if a reader did not know that Saul had slaughtered some of his own people to get at David, this prayer sounds like many other prayer-blessings we have studied. In the book of Ruth, the prayer-blessings by Boaz and by the people are both because the recipients had done something for the offeror.¹

1. See Ruth 3.10 and 4.14. ↩