For many years, David has been one of my favorite Bible characters. He has become a friend to turn to, and his life has encouraged mine. I especially resonate with his earliest years; the ones spent preparing for his leadership role in Israel. Many of those years were spent on the run, and the sweet psalmist of Israel penned many of his best works during that chaotic time. Because the texts explaining his life are precious to me, I am going to write a series of articles on the early years of David's life (1 Samuel 16-2 Samuel 1), with some snapshots of his later years on the throne (2 Samuel 2-24) and I will release these teachings once per month. As always, thank you for reading and I pray God ministers to your heart as we inspect His word. You can find all articles here.
The pillars of ancient Greek buildings were designed to connect the entire structure above to the foundation below. As we've already seen, David was a man with a foundation. In the passage before us, someone will say of David, “The LORD is with him.” That was David’s foundation, the rock upon which he stood. God was with David. David belonged to God, and God belonged to David. God was David's foundation.
David, we all know, went on to impressive exploits. Slaying Goliath comes to mind. Victories like that one are visible for miles around. We all celebrate them in David's life. These grand achievements are like the roof structure, the visible building. But they would be impossible without David's foundation.
But what connected David's foundation to the accomplishments of his life? How did God's power get to him and onto the battlefield? How did his rootedness in God lead to fruitfulness for God? The answer is found in the pillars of David's life, the pillars of his heart.
The episode before us shows us those pillars, the things which made David, well, David. Christ was David’s branch, or offspring, but also David’s root. Everything we see in David was produced by his LORD working in his life.
The Scene (16:14-17)
14 Now the Spirit of the LORD departed from Saul, and a harmful spirit from the LORD tormented him. 15 And Saul’s servants said to him, “Behold now, a harmful spirit from God is tormenting you. 16 Let our lord now command your servants who are before you to seek out a man who is skillful in playing the lyre, and when the harmful spirit from God is upon you, he will play it, and you will be well.” 17 So Saul said to his servants, “Provide for me a man who can play well and bring him to me.”
18 One of the young men answered, “Behold, I have seen a son of Jesse the Bethlehemite, who is skillful in playing, a man of valor, a man of war, prudent in speech, and a man of good presence, and the LORD is with him.”
Saul is decreasing. He has rejected God, and God has rejected him from leading His nation. Saul could have repented. He could have revived. Though his throne would not be the enduring one, for God had already chosen and anointed David, Saul’s last days in power could have been full of grace and restoration. He could have humbly bowed to God, recognized his sin, and stood as an example of a restored life for every generation which followed. But, instead, Saul remained hardened against God. The Spirit departed from Saul, and a harmful spirit from the LORD tormented him.
This development raises two major questions in the mind of the modern believer. First, did Saul lose his salvation? We ask this because we know, from our New Testaments, that believers are “sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, the guarantee of our inheritance” (Ephesians 1:13-14). The Spirit, then, is the down-payment the Father has made to buy us, to make us His own. So does the fact that the Spirit departed from Saul mean that he lost his salvation before God? For this question, we must recall how Saul lived in a different era of God’s redemptive plan, one in which God dealt most fully in and through Israel, the nation would produce the world’s Messiah. During Saul’s era, the Spirit did not permanently reside within believers. The Spirit's rivers of living water were not available until after Jesus rose from the dead (see John 7:38-39). The Spirit did not live within God's people. But, in Saul’s day, the Spirit occasionally came upon prophets, priests, and kings to empower them for their service to God and His nation. So, since Saul had rebelled against God, God was removing the anointing of His Spirit from Saul. The aid of the Spirit for Saul’s kingly service is what has departed from Saul, not his salvation.
Second, did God really send an evil spirit to torment Saul? We ask this question because the mere idea God did this is startling to us. But is it possible this is beautiful and loving? Beautiful, in the sense that it demonstrates God’s sovereignty, sovereignty so strong He can use even the demonic realm for His purposes. Loving, in the sense that God had a plan for Saul’s life and seemed to work here to turn the man’s heart back to the right path. The torment should have jolted him into corrective action, but his heart was too hard. Still, the evil and tormenting spirit seems to be God’s grace for this season in Saul’s life. For this answer, we have a New Testament parallel. In the church at Corinth, there was a man like Saul, a man living in unconfessed and unrepentant sin. For that man, Paul wrote, “When you are assembled in the name of the Lord Jesus and my spirit is present, with the power of our Lord Jesus, you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord” (1 Corinthians 5:4-5). The intention of God was not to embarrass this wayward man or even to permanently reject him but to see his spirit saved. God wanted to restore the Corinthian sinner, just as He wanted to restore Saul. Therefore He removed both from the protection of His Spirit and His church, that they might feel the weight of their rebellion and turn back to God.
In response to this distressing spirit upon their master, the servants of Saul made a suggestion. Serving Saul was made more difficult due to the madness which descended upon his soul, and these servants believed music could calm their master. Their suggestion was to find a musician to play the harp for Saul. Twenty years earlier, Saul had been anointed by Samuel, and afterward, a group of prophets met him and, while they played music, prophesied over him while the Spirit turned him into another man with another heart (1 Samuel 10:5-6, 9). Perhaps Saul’s servants remembered that episode and, unable to conjure up prophets or the Spirit, thought they could at least conjure up the music.
Saul agreed to their plan, telling them to find a man. But one of Saul’s young men already had a man in mind, for he had encountered David. He described David in glowing terms to Saul. Upon hearing the description, Saul assented to the plan, and David was brought, playing the harp whenever Saul trembled in terror, and, every time, Saul was soothed. So David grew in Saul’s favor. But it all started with the young man’s description of David, a description of the pillars of David’s heart, pillars which connected him to his God.
1. David Had a Godward Reflex
…who is skillful in playing… (1 Samuel 16:18)
The first element found in David was necessary at that moment. Saul needed a harpist, and David was just the man for the job, for he was skillful in playing. David had all the same skills modern musicians need: patience, endurance, and temperament. But the element we shall focus on is the artistic, elegant expressiveness that allowed David to become “the sweet psalmist of Israel” (2 Samuel 23:1). His musical ability was not merely for music but for God. He used music as an avenue to pursue his Maker. He did not, as Saul did, simply turn to music, but he used music to turn to God.
At every stage of his life, David would play and sing as a way to connect with his Father in heaven. He was alive to God, and God was alive to him. When he saw the glory of the stars, he would sing of God’s creative power and majesty. When he saw the sheep in the fields, he would write of God’s care for his soul. When he felt the pains of rejection from his earthly father, he would brood over God’s delight in him. When he ran for his life from Saul, he would cry to God for protection. Music was simply a means to the end of pouring out his heart before God.
David had a Godward reflex. Saul did not. And Saul's servants encouraged him to run to music when they ought to have exhorted him to run to God. His sorrows had been self-induced, sin-induced, correctible in every way. But rather than run to God, Saul ran to the temporary easing of his pain. Like the false prophets of Jeremiah’s day, messengers who healed the wound of God’s people “lightly,” so this music would never truly cure Saul (Jeremiah 6:14, 8:11). But David went to the core of the matter, the heart of heaven, and poured out his soul to God.
Modern believers must cultivate this Godward reflex, for the Spirit lives within them, longing to help them cry out, “Abba, Father” (Romans 8:15-16)! Born again, born of the Spirit, we have a real chance to walk with God, turning to Him in all the desperations of life. For David, when life did life things, he sang and played before God. Luke, in the New Testament, presents Jesus as the ultimate and perfect man. It is not a coincidence that he represents Jesus as one who prays, often going into the wilderness to seek his Father in heaven. We must do the same, encouraging one another to develop a Godward reflex in response to the stuff of life.
2. David Was a Courageous Fighter
…a man of valor, a man of war… (1 Samuel 16:18)
The young man also described David as a man of valor, a man of war, someone accustomed to the fight of life. So David was a young man who was courageous, brave in the face of danger. He was also a man willing to fight when necessary. David is presented, already, as a battle-tested man. Goliath would not be his first fight, but one of many.
David was the youngest of eight brothers, so he had likely learned a little of war from being the youngest male in his family. He was also a shepherd boy who lived and worked on the outskirts of Bethlehem, near the raiders of the Philistines. They would likely attack, forcing David to run into battle against them, defending his father's flocks. But the most significant battle’s David ran into came after the Spirit came upon him, while in the fields attending his father’s sheep. In his meeting with Saul, before going out against Goliath, David told him of a time when a lion and also a bear had come out to take a sheep. David had risen up, we assume with sling in hand, and had struck both, killing them, preserving the life of the sheep. He had become a good shepherd because he had laid down his life for the sheep. He was accustomed to the fight.
We imagine each scene of warfare in David’s life. The bear or the lion or the giant came, and something would happen to David. He would rise up, not to retreat, but to advance. His feet would begin to move, and he would rush into battle, nonsensical battles he had no natural hope of winning. But, alas, God was with him, so win he would.
The ability to run into battle is a Christ-like quality, for Jesus stepped out of the comforts of eternity in order to bring us life, rushing towards his own death, the fight of all fights, the war of all wars. Consider the words of Paul: “Though he was in the form of God, He did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” (Philippians 2:6-8). This describes the war Jesus Christ entered. But Paul's musings on Jesus were not written for mere theological enjoyment. Paul went on to say, “Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 2:5). The Christ-like attitude of running into the fight is ours in Him.
God desires to build up His people -- men and women alike -- for a fight, for fighters we must become to progress in the Christian life. The first steps of consecration and purity do not come without a battle. The basics of Sunday worship, personal prayer and Bible reading, regular commitment to a smaller group of believers, tithing, and serving are impossible without a war. Your schedule, your energy levels, your budget, and your flesh will all war against them.
But beyond the basics, there is sure to be a battle unique to you. A cause, a relationship, a duty to perform will be given to you. You will be the man or the woman for that fight. Not everyone would replace Saul; only David was called to that mission. But you will have your own unique mission. The work will take courage. It will take the fight. It will take a war.
3. David Was Thoughtful in Speech
…prudent in speech… (1 Samuel 16:18)
Still only a young man, David spoke well. At this point of the story, we have not yet heard him speak, but Saul’s servant had. David was prudent, discerning, and thoughtful in speech and song. Each time he spoke, it was with a clarity and beauty few possess. Still today, believers marvel at his words when they rejoice in and through a psalm of David’s. David was wise in his wartime strategies, sage in his counsel to others, discerning in danger, kind to his enemies, and loving to his friends. His words were beautiful. Like Samuel before him, his words did not fall to the ground (1 Samuel 3:19).
The secret to David’s prudent speech was his ability to silently wait for the Lord. “For God alone my soul waits in silence,” David sang, “From Him comes my salvation” (Psalm 62:1). David had learned how to hear God, to cease from speaking his own words and ideas for a moment in order to hear God’s voice, God’s opinion, God’s perspective. As he listened, David became a better speaker, for when one is often silent before God, they often learn to make a better noise before man.
James told us to “be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God” (James 1:19-20). We accomplish less with anger and wrath than we do with encouragement and grace. This does not mean believers refuse to say the hard things in life, that we are allergic to confrontation or correction, but when we enter into these, we do so with the confidence God supplies for we have sat before Him and allowed Him to prepare us for the moment.
4. David Was Attractive
…and a man of good presence… (1 Samuel 16:18)
Finally, David was a handsome man. But his attractiveness was different than Saul’s or Eliab’s in that it was not merely external. David’s “good presence” was brought on by a mix of his outward appearance, which was appealing to the human eye, but also an inward magnetism caused by his sincere devotion and love for God. His name means “beloved,” fitting because he was loved by God, but also by humanity.
Many were drawn to him, starting with, in this story, Saul himself. We will see David begin in Saul’s good graces, only to fall from it, but only to increase in the sight of others. The servants of Saul loved David. The armies of Israel fell in love with him on the battlefield. The women of Israel fell in love with him as he returned from battle with Goliath’s armor. Jonathan, the son of Saul and, therefore, the prince of Israel, loved him when he saw God's hand upon him. Saul’s daughter, Michal, loved him. Rough soldiers flooded to him. Even his nephews became great warriors in his cause. He was attractive, magnetic in every way.
But what can we do about that? Much. David stands as a reminder of the glorious attractiveness of Christ. He came out of the wilderness temptation preaching and teaching. People loved to hear Him. They glorified him and were “astonished at His teaching,” “pressing on Him to hear the word of God (Luke 4:15, 32, 5:1). He also worked the miraculous, healing sicknesses, casting out the demonic realm, and expressing power over the natural elements. Bursting onto the scene, Jesus was attractive -- and still is. Some will reject Him, but many will see His beauty and splendor, desiring Him.
He longs to produce a Christ-likeness within us, an attractiveness that flows from His interactions with our souls. He wills to put His joy in us as we abide in Him, a full joy which is bound to have a magnetic quality attached to it (John 15:11). His Spirit produces fruit within us, and the fruit of the Spirit is love (Galatians 5:22). Love is a powerfully attractive reality, so as Christ works it in us, we will begin to draw others to Him through our own lives. Every believer should have this aim, the desire to be attractive, an illuminating force in this world pointing people to the true beauty of Christ.
Conclusion
19 Therefore Saul sent messengers to Jesse and said, “Send me David your son, who is with the sheep.” 20 And Jesse took a donkey laden with bread and a skin of wine and a young goat and sent them by David his son to Saul. 21 And David came to Saul and entered his service. And Saul loved him greatly, and he became his armor-bearer. 22 And Saul sent to Jesse, saying, “Let David remain in my service, for he has found favor in my sight.” 23 And whenever the harmful spirit from God was upon Saul, David took the lyre and played it with his hand. So Saul was refreshed and was well, and the harmful spirit departed from him.
It all could have gone so beautifully, it seems. Saul could have surrendered his throne, aiming to help prepare David for the inevitable difficulties of it. He could have been restored, and he and David could have harmoniously entered into the next seasons of life together. It was not to be, however, for Saul would continue to cave to madness. But God would use it in David’s life, proving (and building) the strength of the pillars within his heart, pillars connecting him to God.
