6 And it came to pass as they came, when David was returned from the slaughter of the Philistine, that the women came out of all cities of Israel, singing and dancing, to meet King Saul, with tabrets, with joy, and with instruments of musick.
7 And the women answered one another as they played, and said, Saul hath slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands.
8 And Saul was very wroth, and the saying displeased him; and he said, They have ascribed unto David ten thousands, and to me they have ascribed but thousands: and what can he have more but the kingdom?
9 And Saul eyed David from that day and forward.
Introduction
There is a very popular phrase or slang that is being used these days by the young people in our schools across the nation, which to the chagrin of English teachers everywhere is, “haters gonna hate” it means that people who don't like you will always find a reason to dislike you, no matter what the reason may be. And this particular phrase does have a ring of truth to it, because there will always someone around who just doesn’t like.
It’s not anything that you have done—they just don’t like you. Maybe they don’t like the way you wear your hair or because you walk like this or talk like that, they have appointed themselves to be one of your haters. What is a hater? A hater is a person that simply cannot be happy for another person's success. So rather than be happy they make a point of exposing a flaw or two in that person. Hating on someone is the direct result of being a hater; it is not exactly jealousy although it could be in some cases. But usually the hater doesn’t really want to be the person or to be like the person he or she hates, rather the hater wants to knock the person they hate down a notch. And they will keep an eye on their object of hate to make sure they can keep them down and inferior. But what makes this an extremely terrible behavior is when this type of behavior makes its way into God’s church. Why? Because in John 13: 34 - 35 Jesus said, “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
It is a great mystery to me; I truly cannot understand how people with Jesus in their hearts can be so hateful and hurtful towards one another? How can they be so impatient and angry at each other? And so intolerant with someone that they themselves have characterized as being a person just not good enough to be called a friend and quite often for no viable reason? I’ve lived long enough to witness people in the church go out of their way to utterly destroy another one of God’s children.
I’ve seen Christians hurt, criticize, gossip, and judge each other even while sitting in the sanctuary or worst yet, standing behind a pulpit. Imagine this if you will, Isaiah said, “…I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple.” Here is the Lord, the Creator of the universe sitting on His upon His throne in His temple, high and lifted up—and here we are in His temple (His Church) putting down one of His children, looking down on them. Snubbing them in God’s church no less! They are doing so in the very presence of God Almighty! Why do we insist on hating each other for no good reason when we are essentially on the same team? We already have the devil that utterly hates each and every one of us—and sometimes I think some of us want to inadvertently switch and join up with him in order to feel free to hate their neighbor.
In the text, we join in on the celebration of David’s victory in defeating the Philistine giant Goliath. God used David to defeat the Philistines and if you were an Israelite regardless of your position or stature you should have been a part of this celebration because what happened was surely worth celebrating, what happened was an act of God through a shepherd boy. But in the mind of King Saul the women went a little overboard and threw him under the bus, because they composed and sung a song that didn’t sit well with him. He just did not care for the title they gave this particular song which went “…Saul hath slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands.”
In other words, this song that they sung made Saul look bad and from that day forward he kept his eye on David, an evil eye I might add—in essence he started hating on David. And want to remind you this morning to not let your haters get you down.
Haters Will Keep Their Eyes On You
I am a living witness that when it comes to haters you can never fully escape them and the only way to live 100% hater free is to never do anything worthwhile. In the church, if you never announce your calling to preach, if the pastor never appoints you to the deacon or trustee ministry, if you are never called on to sing a solo in the choir or join the choir, if you never join the usher ministry or any other ministry in the church you may (I said may) get by with little to no haters to contend with.
Even outside of the church, if you or children never receive that Bachelors, Masters, or PhD., never marry that successful spouse. If you never purchase that expensive car or move into that big beautiful home you too may get by. David could have missed Saul’s constant gaze if he would have just mind his own business and do what people (not God) expected him to do, mind the sheep and shut up. You see there are some people who want to put in a box. And they will become greatly offended if you should attempt to move out of the box that THEY (not God) placed you in.
When you started out you might have wanted to be a doctor or a lawyer, but in their mind they just don’t see you as such. Eventhough they really don’t have much to do with your life’s decisions it would greatly appreciated if you would just tone it down a bit and do what THEY think you are capable of doing, no more but even less if they decide it should be that way. However, once you dare decide to step out the box they have placed you in they will have their eyes on you from that day forward. Now please don’t assume that everybody who disagrees with you is a hater. No, not everyone is hating you…every once in a while there is somebody who is simply telling the truth about you. You’ll know who they are because they usually won’t engage in keeping a close eye on you every time you step out of your house; in the way King Saul did David.
Haters Love to Attack You
Yes, King Saul developed a hatred for David—it was a satanic hatred. All of a sudden Saul’s mind was filled with suspicion towards David. Saul views almost everything that David says or does as being something suspicious. Any thoughts that Saul has concerning David are twisted thoughts from the very bowels of hell. I’ve actually witnessed to this type of hatred and it’s sad but it can even be from a family member the very one you expected to love you. David loved King Saul, almost as a father. And rightly so, because in the beginning of it all Saul was actually a good king, he was humble; he had a humble spirit—when the Prophet Samuel invited Saul to have lunch with him, in order to inform him that God had chosen him to be king. Saul humbly replied, “Am I not a Benjamite, of the smallest of the tribes of Israel, and my family the least of all the families of the tribe of Benjamin? Why then do you speak to me like this?” –1 Samuel 9.21
That’s right; at one point prior to the incident in our text Saul thought that he was not good enough. Eventually Saul did become King and after a while he made a lot of mistakes (which is another sermon). And due to these mistakes he became fearful, impatient, distressed and troubled, rebellious towards God, he became a liar and a accuser. The last thing he wanted to hear was that old song that the women sung which to him minimized any accomplishment he ever made and so what does he do? He engages in an all out attack on David. Now, can’t you see how a jealous spirit works? It usually attacks a completely innocent victim.
King Saul started hating David and developed murderous thoughts about him. The Bible says that when you hate someone you are no different than a murderer, “Anyone who hates a brother or sister is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life residing in him.” -1 John 3: 15 NIV.
While David played his music for Saul one day, Saul instead of being appreciative, at that moment decided to kill him. “The next day an evil spirit from God came forcefully on Saul. He was prophesying in his house, while David was playing the lyre, as he usually did. Saul had a spear in his hand and he hurled it, saying to himself, “I’ll pin David to the wall.” But David eluded him twice.” –1 Samuel 18: 10 – 11.
There are people who will throw their spears at you, they are not physical spears God forbid, but they are designed to ‘pin you to the wall’ and if a metaphorical spear is in your enemy’s hand you can best believe that they will probably attempt to use it. This is how Satan influences the mind of those who carry around hateful thoughts for their neighbors, David is doing nothing wrong, in fact he is being helpful by playing the lyre for Saul because the sweet music served as a sedative to Saul. Saul had a choice, to throw or not throw the spear at David—and the voice of Satan became louder and louder in his ear and as result he threw it, and although he wanted to make it appear as if it were an accident, in our courts today he would have been charged with attempted murder.
Gossip, rumors, backbiting, criticism, et cetera are all emotional spears that some people love to throw at us. Fortunately David was fleet of foot and got out of way before the spear that Saul threw could actually pin him to the wall. Saul tried to kill David twenty-one more times after this; he tried to kill David three times by the spear.
He tried to have killed by the Philistines, through Mical his daughter and David’s wife, through Jonathan his son and David’s best friend, through sending messengers, personally going to Ramah his self, planning to kill David at a feast, commanding that David be brought back home to die, making war on Keliah to kill David, seeking him out in the wilderness of Ziph, sending spies to find him and then kill him, bringing three thousand men with him to kill David, thus falling into David’s hand but spared while he was making a bowel movement (that’s right a bowel movement), and with a selected army, but falling into David’s hand again and spared by David once again.
Again, not everyone that you may have labeled a hater is a hater, we have to careful not to over-think, although this may sound harsh, you are not the most important person in the world, at least not to everyone. Most of the time, when you think someone is hating you on, they probably aren't. However, if they exhibit a pattern of ill will towards you like Saul here does towards David, look out! The biggest problem I am seeing in the church today is that it appears a lot of people are throwing spears these days. I wonder why we are so busy hurting and fighting each other, instead of standing together as one body in the way God would have us to stand in His church? Saul could have been a great king but instead his legacy was totally destroyed and David, his target, became King in his place.
Haters Hated Jesus Christ
Jesus said in John 15: 18, “"If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated Me first.” The ‘world’ refers to the unbeliever, the unredeemed, the lost, those who have never trusted Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. The ‘world’ stands for every person whose thoughts and lives are centered upon worldly things and not spiritual. With that said, hate for one another belongs to the world and not the church. Hate for one another simple has no place in God’s house.
The word ‘hate’ is not necessarily a bad word. If you love what's right you're going to hate what's wrong. There are some things that even God hates, in fact, Proverbs 6: 16 -19 says, “There are six things the LORD hates, seven that are detestable to him. Haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, an heart that devises wicked imaginations, feet that be swift in running to mischief, a false witness that speaks lies, and he that sows discord among brothers.” True Christians (I said true Christians) are taught and live by God and his Son's words to "love" one another. Love is the most important emotion and gift of all--- to love thy neighbor and love your brothers and sisters of your congregation. When we mistreat each other we have allowed an evil spirit to take over in order sow discord within the church. We really don’t need any King Saul’s in God’s house today. What we do need are more David’s, “After removing Saul, he made David their king. God testified concerning him: 'I have found David son of Jesse, a man after my own heart; he will do everything I want him to do.” –Acts 13: 22
Unlike King Saul, David was a divine choice, he had a divine heart and exhibited a divine behavior, and he was a man who would fulfill all of God’s will. It is definitely NOT God’s will that gossip about each other, spread rumors about one another, backbite, snub, and criticize each other—this sort of thing can only bring a smile to our real enemy the devil’s ugly face. The church today needs more men and women who are all about loving each other and building each other up rather than hating and tearing each other down as we come together in fellowship with each other and serving an extremely loving God. Amen.
