Sunday Sermonette: What ' s in a name?

Psalm 34 requires some explanation, and it ' s a bit complicated. The name Abimelech appears in the Book of Judges, set long before the putative time of David. However, the word means " father of the king, " and presumably must refer to Achish, king of Gath, and the story told in 1 Samuel 21. As you probably won ' t recall, because we read it a long time ago, David learned via his lover Jonathan that king Saul intended to kill him, so he fled to Nob. As a further complication, he met a priest there named Ahimelek, so it is conceivable that this confused the scribe. David lied to Ahimelek and said that Saul had sent him on a secret mission, and he asked for bread, and a sword. Ahimelek gave him consecrated bread, and the sword of Goliath, the Philistine who David had famously killed. However, one of Saul ' s servants was there so, fearing discovery, David fled again to Gath and king Achish (not to be confused with the dean of the Brown University School of Public Health). However, Achish ' s servants recognized David andsaid to him, “Isn’t this David, the king of the land? Isn’t he the one they sing about in their dances:“‘Saul has slain his thousands,    and David his tens of thousands ’?”David pretended to be insane, so Achish kicked him out and David fled again to the cave of Adullam. By the way, Saul later found out about all this and had Ahimelek killed. But nobody named Abimelech figures in this story. I must also say that the Psal...
Source: Stayin' Alive - Category: American Health Source Type: blogs