1 Samuel 21:5
And David answered the priest, and said unto him, Of a truth women have been kept from us about these three days, since I came out, and the vessels of the young men are holy, and the bread is in a manner common, yea, though it were sanctified this day in the vessel.
David assured the priest that he and his men had in truth been kept from women for about three days since he came out. He affirmed that the young men were ceremonially fit to eat the holy bread. Their vessels and provisions were holy, and it is also taught that their needs were holy.
The bread itself was holy and set apart, yet in their need for food it could be treated as common or ordinary bread for eating. It had been sanctified that day in the vessel. The priest's scruples were overcome before he gave it. David and his companions thus obtained and received the consecrated, hallowed bread to satisfy their hunger.
Their extreme hunger made this taking of bread reserved for the priests a guiltless and justifiable exceptional use of something set apart for God. Meeting urgent human need may rightly take precedence over ceremonial restrictions, even where the holiness of the sanctuary is involved. Christ used the episode to defend His hungry disciples when they plucked grain on the Sabbath. In that use the episode shows the Sabbath was made for people's good, not as a burden imposed by rules. Even so, the episode does not excuse carelessness or laxity in returning tithe.