Sometimes the Lord will reveal His calling on our lives many years before the opportunity comes to step into that calling. This requires trust and patience on our part. A young teen male, for example, may realize that the Lord wants him in the ministry someday but before that time comes he will need to gain some age, maturity, life experience, and education. The most popular opinion among Bible scholars seems to be that David was around fifteen years old when Samuel anointed him as king, though some say he could have been as young as twelve or thirteen. The Bible will tell us he is thirty years old when he actually becomes king, so a minimum of fifteen years will pass between his anointing and between his coronation. He needs those fifteen years, and all the things that happen during those years, to prepare him to lead the nation.
But meanwhile the Lord has poured out an extra measure of grace, strength, and encouragement upon this young man, according to verse 13 from yesterday's study. At the same time that David is being mightily ministered to by the Holy Spirit, Saul begins to suffer in his human spirit. That's because Saul has rejected God's lordship over his life. Saul has no heart for the Lord and no desire to be led by Him. As a result of having rejected the Lord as king of his heart, the Lord has rejected Saul as king. The Lord has taken His protective hand off him, for Saul prefers that the Lord maintain a "hands off " approach to him, but that doesn't mean Saul's life will now be all fun and games. Saul thinks he's master of his own destiny but after having resisted the Holy Spirit many times, he falls prey either to wicked spiritual forces or to mental issues that have an organic origin, or a combination of both of these problems.
"Now the Spirit of the Lord had departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the Lord tormented him." (1 Samuel 16:14) The Lord doesn't afflict Saul with demon possession, in my opinion and in the opinion of those who are certainly more qualified than I to render an explanation of this verse. We cannot even be certain that Saul is afflicted by demon possession at all; many of the symptoms he will display in the book of 1 Samuel sound like paranoid schizophrenia. I personally think that his malady is a combination of spiritual, physical, and mental factors. When he rejected the Lord as having any authority over his life, and when he hardened his heart so much against the Lord that he became deaf to the pleadings of the Holy Spirit, the Lord gave him what he wanted: freedom from association with Him. This allowed Saul to give sway to all his natural, ungodly inclinations. This allowed spiritual forces (from whom he was protected before he became utterly reprobate in his soul) to tempt and trouble him. There is a void in Saul's life. There is an empty space in his heart. Humans are designed to worship the Lord and to have fellowship with Him, but when we do not allow Him to occupy the space in our hearts that is meant only for Him, we will try to fill it with something else or with someone else.
The Lord Jesus said something that relates to what we're studying today. He performed many exorcisms during His ministry. We are given a few specific examples of this but are also told that He healed everyone who came to Him and that He cast out demons in everyone who was brought to Him in that condition. So He performed hundreds, if not thousands, of exorcisms. And He said that when the demon is cast out, unless that empty space is filled with the Lord, the person can end up possessed again---and this time by possibly more than one demon. (You can find His discourse on this subject in Matthew 12:43-45 and in Luke 11:24-26.) Here in Chapter 16 we find the empty space in Saul being taken over either by a demon or by mental illness which his loose association with the Lord formerly kept at bay or by some type of physical illness (which perhaps he already had a genetic disposition for but which the Lord held back from him up until now) that manifests itself in emotional/mental instability. Whatever the case, Saul's problem will cause David to end up in his service.
"Saul's attendants said to him, 'See, an evil spirit from God is tormenting you. Let our lord command his servants here to search for someone who can play the lyre. He will play when the evil spirit from God comes on you, and you will feel better.' So Saul said to his attendants, 'Find someone who plays well and bring him to me.' One of the servants answered, 'I have seen a son of Jesse of Bethlehem who knows how to play the lyre. He is a brave man and a warrior. He speaks well and is a fine-looking man. And the Lord is with him.'" (1 Samuel 16:15-18) At David's age I am not sure why the attendants refer to him as "a brave man and a warrior" unless they have heard that, in protecting the sheep, he killed both a lion and a bear that tried to attack them. (We'll learn a bit more about this in Chapter 17.) When we reach Chapter 17 we will see that his older brothers are serving as soldiers in the army but that David is not. Men of ancient Israel had to be at least twenty to be eligible for the army. It could be that Saul's attendants prophetically say (without even realizing they are speaking prophetically) that David is "a brave man and a warrior" because he will definitely prove himself to be these things in time.
"Then Saul sent messengers to Jesse and said, 'Send me your son David, who is with the sheep.' So Jesse took a donkey loaded with bread, a skin of wine and a young goat and sent them with his son David to Saul." (1 Samuel 16:19-20) Jesse considers it a great honor for King Saul to request the musical services of his son and he sends the best gift he can afford in order to thank and honor the king. Jesse and his household members know that the prophet Samuel anointed David to be the next king but it's doubtful anyone else knows it. Saul certainly doesn't or else he wouldn't have allowed David anywhere near the seat of power in Israel. In fact, he almost certainly would have had David killed if he had known about his anointing. This is a very safe assumption considering he will make several attempts on David's life as we move through this book.
"David came to Saul and entered his service. Saul liked him very much, and David became one of his armor-bearers. Then Saul sent word to Jesse, saying, 'Allow David to remain in my service, for I am pleased with him.'" (1 Samuel 16:21-22) David has found favor with God because he has a heart for God. The Lord causes David to find favor in the eyes of King Saul and many others with whom he will come in contact during his lifetime. Solomon, David's son, will say that when a person's ways please the Lord, the Lord will make even his enemies be at peace with him. (Proverbs 16:17) The Lord is able to make even unbelievers have a favorable opinion of His children. David is meant to be near the king and near the king's army so he can learn about running a government, running an economy, and running an army. The Lord sees to it that he ends up at the king's household and causes Saul to take him under his wing, even though Saul would be David's mortal enemy if he knew about the anointing by Samuel.
"Whenever the spirit from God came on Saul, David would take up his lyre and play. Then relief would come to Saul; he would feel better, and the evil spirit would leave him." (1 Samuel 16:23) People of ancient times blamed things they did not understand on "evil spirits". They didn't understand mental illness and they assumed it was caused by the possession or oppression of demonic forces. They didn't understand many physical illnesses either, such as seizure disorders, and they attributed things like epilepsy to demonic possession. We could rephrase verse 23 like this: "Whenever the Lord allowed Saul to experience melancholy (or unease, or panic, or obsessive thoughts, or paranoid ideas, et cetera), David would play for him and Saul's mood would improve."
Saul is experiencing whatever he is experiencing because he rejected the Lord; the Lord is simply allowing him to feel the type of feelings that people tend to have when they have shut the Lord out of their lives. Shutting the Lord out of their lives leaves them feeling empty, unfulfilled, dissatisfied, angry, bitter, uneasy, jealous, and a number of other unhealthy and ungodly emotions. But David, who has spent years composing songs to the Lord while watching the sheep, has a soothing effect on Saul. I think there are several reasons for this. First, music has been scientifically proven to be capable of affecting brain waves. Second, music that extolls the holiness and glory of God is capable of lifting a person's spirits. Third, I think the companionship of David was comforting to Saul. When a person is very upset, it's so much worse when they have to deal with their feelings alone. David is a person who is confident in the Lord and this gives him a good measure of emotional and mental stability. It gives him an attitude of peace and trustfulness. David feels calm because he trusts the Lord and his calm spirit helps Saul to feel a sense of calmness.
There are some people whose presence just automatically makes us feel better. David, because of his close relationship with the Lord, is a person capable of making others feel better. He is able to "talk them down" from panic. He is able to reassure them when their imaginations are running wild. His peaceful confidence helps others to feel like things are going to be okay. Saul is actually being given another opportunity to give his heart and life to the Lord. David is in his household being a godly influence on him every day. Yet Saul continues to resist repenting. He continues to resist surrendering to the Lord where he would have found everything his soul is desperately longing for.
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