Not long after, David went to Achish, as it says, “And David arose and fled from before Shaul” (Shmuel I 21:11). HaKadosh Baruch Hu said to him: David, you are going to Achish? Yesterday you killed Golyas; and Golyas’s brother is Achish’s bodyguard, and [Golyas’s] blood has not yet been wiped away; and you are going to him with his sword in your hand? When they saw him, they said, “Here, his relative has come on his own feet!” They said to [the brother], “Here is David, who killed your brother!” They came to Achish and said to him, “Let us kill the one who killed our brother.” Achish said to them, “Did he not kill him in war? And had your brother killed him, would he not have killed him in war? And now that this one has killed your brother, is this not what [your brother] stipulated with him, ‘If he is able to fight with me and strike me down’ (Shmuel I 17:9)?” They said to him, “If so, rise from your throne and give the kingship to David. And so it says, ‘Is this not David, the servant of Shaul, king of Yisrael?’ (Shmuel I 29:3); and we will be [his] servants!” They swayed him with words. At that moment David was afraid, and he began saying, “On the day I am afraid, I will trust in You” (Tehillim 56:4). David began to plead and to pray, and said, “Ribbono shel Olam, answer me at this hour.”

HaKadosh Baruch Hu said to him: What are you asking for? He said to Him: [Some] of that madness that You created, about which I complained to You. He said to him: Did I not tell you, “One who scorns a thing will be pledged to it”? Since that is so, I am giving it to you. “Of David, when he changed his manner before Avimelech” (Tehillim 34:1). Was he Avimelech? Was he not Achish? Why then is he called Avimelech? Because he was righteous, like Avimelech. When David heard this he was alarmed and afraid; and so it says, “And David took these words to heart” (Shmuel I 21:13). He made himself like a madman, and changed his manner, and wrote on the doors, “Achish, king of Gath, owes me a hundred myriads, and his wife fifty.” Now the daughter of Achish and her mother were both mad; and the two of them would scream and act madly inside, and David would scream and act madly outside. Achish said to them, “Do you know of me that I lack madmen?” At that moment David was glad that the madness had served him; and out of that joy he made this song. HaKadosh Baruch Hu said to him: David, is madness good? This is what is written, “I will bless Hashem at all times” (Tehillim 34:2).