Aphek and Jezreel, Endor, Shunem and Gilboa, the places mentioned in chapters 28-19 were all in the north, in a district about 15 miles southwest of the Sea of Galilee. Gath and Ziklag (chapter 27) were in the southwest and extreme south, respectively, of Palestine. We see the preparations for battle in verses 1 and 2 of our chapter, but God would not permit His erring child to be longer numbered with the Philistines. Their leaders said. "What do these Hebrews here?", having no confidence in David and his followers.
David now is a sad but true example of a worldly minded believer, out of communion with God, viewed with suspicion by the world which cannot recognize in him one of its own.
David's deception had been believed by the Philistine king (chapter 27:12). His loyalty to Achish we may judge to have been genuine, with reservations which David himself could perhaps not have defined, for faith, the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen (Heb. 11:11Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. (Hebrews 11:1)), was inactive; his eyes were on himself and not on God, and for the time he judged by circumstances (which all seemed contrary to him), and not by the word of the living God: David had, through occupation with his trials—and they were severe—lost the significance of the words of inspiration in Deuteronomy 33:25-27,25Thy shoes shall be iron and brass; and as thy days, so shall thy strength be. 26There is none like unto the God of Jeshurun, who rideth upon the heaven in thy help, and in his excellency on the sky. 27The eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms: and he shall thrust out the enemy from before thee; and shall say, Destroy them. (Deuteronomy 33:25‑27)
"Thy shoes shall be iron and brass; and as thy days, so shall thy strength be. There is none like unto the God of Jeshurun, who rideth upon the heaven in thy help, and in His excellency on the sky. The eternal God is thy Refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms."
Achish, flattered perhaps by having David as his servant, and having found no fault in him (verses 3 and 6), would have taken him to the battle with Israel, but God had pity on His poor, misguided child, and delivered. him from the snare of the devil. We here see David at the lowest ebb of his spiritual life thus far, as perhaps verse 8 most fully evidences. He is now compelled by the Philistines themselves. (but God was at work behind the scenes) to withdraw from them, to resume again his true character before God of a separated man; he and his men journey southward in the direction of the border city of Ziklag, while the Philistine hosts go northeastward to the valley of Jezreel.