It happened in those days, that the Philistines gathered their hosts together for warfare, to fight with Israel. Achish said to David, Know you assuredly, that you shall go out with me in the host, you and your men.
"Very well, you shall know what your servant can do"  (1 Samuel 28:2). This was David's reply to the king's order; but, "This reply was ambiguous. There was no promise that David would assist in the war against Israel ... Judging from his previous actions, it would have been against his conscience to fight against his own people."[3]  It was a special providence that caused Achish to accept David's words here as a pledge of loyalty to the Philistine king.  The second special providence was in the fact that the contemporaries of Achish overruled his order for David to accompany them  (1 Samuel 29:3-5).