A. W. Pink ascribes David’s folly to a tendency to unbelief that every believer experiences: “Alas, when unbelief dominates us, God is forgotten, and deliverance, our own ease, obsess the mind; and hence it is that—unless divine grace interpose—we seek relief in the wrong quarter and by unspiritual means. Thus it was here with David: he and his men passed over unto Achish, the king of Gath.”
Dale Ralph Davis comments: “Hunted, tracked, and attacked by Saul; treacherously exposed; making thrilling escapes (e.g., 23:24–29) and executing daring escapades (e.g., chapters 24, 26)—nine chapters full of high-blood-pressure narrative. It’s the stuff that makes great movies but takes its toll on real people.”
