Continuing a chronological Bible study:
(1 Samuel 23:1) Then they told David, saying, "Behold, the Philistines fight against Keilah, and they rob the threshing floors."
Before an interlude of psalms, Saul had Ahimelech and all the priests at Nob killed because he thought Ahimelech had conspired with David against him. In fact, he had his servant Doeg kill all the people in Nob, even women, children, babies, and animals. David had returned to Judah, and now he heard that the Philistines were fighting against Keilah, a city in Judah. They were robbing the corn or grain that had been collected to thresh and winnow.
(2) Therefore David enquired of the Lord, saying, "Shall I go and strike these Philistines?" And the Lord said to David, "Go and strike the Philistines and save Keilah."
When David heard the news, he asked the Lord if he should go strike the Philistines. Normally, David would not have hesitated to help his countrymen, but he was no longer under commission from King Saul and did not have a large army, besides the fact that it might be foolish for him to come out of hiding when Saul was looking to kill him. However, the Lord told him to go and save Keilah from the Philistines.
(3) And David's men said to him, "Behold, we are afraid here in Judah; how much more then if we come to Keilah against the armies of the Philistines?" (4) Then David enquired of the Lord yet again. And the Lord answered him and said, "Arise, go down to Keilah, for I will deliver the Philistines into your hand."
There were just four hundred men with David (1 Samuel 22:2), and they were afraid of Saul there in Judah because they had joined David. They were even much more afraid of going out to fight the Philistines with so few men. For the sake of his men, David again asked the Lord if they should all go against the Philistines in Keilah, and the Lord told him to go, and He would deliver the Philistines into his hand. That was encouragement to the men.
(5) So David and his men went to Keilah and fought with the Philistines and brought away their cattle, and struck them with a great slaughter. So David saved the inhabitants of Keilah.
So David and his army of four hundred men went to Keilah where they defeated the Philistines and brought away their cattle, which probably meant they were theirs to begin with, and the Philistines had taken them, and now they brought them back. Thus David had saved Keilah, or more precisely, the Lord had saved Keilah by delivering the Philistines into David's hand.
(1 Samuel 22:20) And one of the sons of Ahimelech the son of Ahitub, named Abiathar, escaped and fled after David.
Meanwhile, one of the sons of Ahimelech the priest at Nob, escaped the slaughter and came to David.
(1 Samuel 23:6) And it came to pass, when Abiathar the son of Ahimelech fled to David to Keilah, that he came down with an ephod in his hand.
Abiathar came to David in Keilah carrying an ephod in his hand, the garment that the high priest wore.
(1 Samuel 22:21) And Abiathar showed David that Saul had slain the Lord's priests.
Abiathar told David about how Saul had killed the Lord's priests at Nob.
(22) And David said to Abiathar, "I knew that day when Doeg the Edomite was there, that he would surely tell Saul. I have occasioned the death of all the persons of your father's house."
David told Abiathar that when he had seen Doeg there in Nob, he knew he would tell Saul. Although it was never his intention, he told Abiathar that he was the cause of his family's deaths.
(23) "Abide with me; fear not, for he who seeks my life seeks your life, but with me you are in safeguard."
David told Abiathar to remain with him because he, too, was in danger of being killed by Saul. Actually, he realized that Saul's enmity against Abiathar was because of his hatred against himself, so David would defend the life of Abiathar as he defended his own life.
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