I Samuel 26 may sound awfully familiar if you've been reading this book from start to finish.
We just had a chapter (I Samuel 24) where David graciously spared the life of Saul when he fell into his hand in a cave while relieving himself. Here, in chapter 26, David is able to sneak right up on Saul while he is sleeping, and he again has the chance to kill the king and assume the throne.
In fact, one of David's men tells him to do just that! Abishai encourages David to pin Saul to the ground with his own spear, but David again refuses to lift his hand against the Lord's anointed. His principles will not allow him to take action against God's appointed king, no matter how much he may want to.
Instead, taking Saul's spear and water jug with him as evidence, David retreats to a safe distance and rouses Saul's camp with a loud challenge. Once again, David points out that - given a golden opportunity to do harm to Saul - he refused. David pointedly makes the case that Saul truly has nothing to fear from him. Even when he could have easily killed Saul with impunity, he refused to do so. Saul (once again) admits his error and recognizes that David is in the right...not that that will really change anything in the king's attitude, however.
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