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1 Samuel 16:1 The LORD said to Samuel, "How long will you mourn for Saul, since I have rejected him as king over Israel? Fill your horn with oil and be on your way; I am sending you to Jesse of Bethlehem. I have chosen one of his sons to be king." 2 But Samuel said, "How can I go? Saul will hear about it and kill me." The LORD said, "Take a heifer with you and say, 'I have come to sacrifice to the LORD.' 3 Invite Jesse to the sacrifice, and I will show you what to do. You are to anoint for me the one I indicate."
4 Samuel did what the LORD said. When he arrived at Bethlehem, the elders of the town trembled when they met him. They asked, "Do you come in peace?" 5 Samuel replied, "Yes, in peace; I have come to sacrifice to the LORD. Consecrate yourselves and come to the sacrifice with me." Then he consecrated Jesse and his sons and invited them to the sacrifice.
6 When they arrived, Samuel saw Eliab and thought, "Surely the LORD's anointed stands here before the LORD." 7 But the LORD said to Samuel, "Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The LORD does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart." 8 Then Jesse called Abinadab and had him pass in front of Samuel. But Samuel said, "The LORD has not chosen this one either." 9 Jesse then had Shammah pass by, but Samuel said, "Nor has the LORD chosen this one." 10 Jesse had seven of his sons pass before Samuel, but Samuel said to him, "The LORD has not chosen these." 11 So he asked Jesse, "Are these all the sons you have?" "There is still the youngest," Jesse answered, "but he is tending the sheep." Samuel said, "Send for him; we will not sit down until he arrives." 12 So he sent and had him brought in. He was ruddy, with a fine appearance and handsome features. Then the LORD said, "Rise and anoint him; he is the one."
13 So Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the presence of his brothers, and from that day on the Spirit of the LORD came upon David in power. Samuel then went to Ramah.
14 Now the Spirit of the LORD had departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the LORD tormented him. 15 Saul's attendants said to him, "See, an evil spirit from God is tormenting you. 16 Let our lord command his servants here to search for someone who can play the harp. He will play when the evil spirit from God comes upon you, and you will feel better." 17 So Saul said to his attendants, "Find someone who plays well and bring him to me." 18 One of the servants answered, "I have seen a son of Jesse of Bethlehem who knows how to play the harp. He is a brave man and a warrior. He speaks well and is a fine-looking man. And the LORD is with him." 19 Then Saul sent messengers to Jesse and said, "Send me your son David, who is with the sheep." 20 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. 21 David came to Saul and entered his service. Saul liked him very much, and David became one of his armor-bearers. 22 Then Saul sent word to Jesse, saying, "Allow David to remain in my service, for I am pleased with him." 23 Whenever the spirit from God came upon Saul, David would take his harp and play. Then relief would come to Saul; he would feel better, and the evil spirit would leave him.
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From grieving to hope
The heart of this chapter is verses 13 and 14.
13 So Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the presence of his brothers, and from that day on the Spirit of the LORD came upon David in …
14 Now the Spirit of the LORD had departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the LORD tormented him.
The Spirit left Saul and came upon David. Chapter 16 describes the dawn of a new day in Israel. For the first time in the book the name “David” appears, and the dark, black cloud of Saul’s apostasy develops this bright silver lining of the rising sun of David’s coming reign. You can even sense a change in the mood of God Himself, as the time has finally arrived for Him to turn attention to the man after His own heart.
1 The LORD said to Samuel, "How long will you mourn for Saul, since I have rejected him as king over Israel? Fill your horn with oil and be on your way; I am sending you to Jesse of Bethlehem. I have chosen one of his sons to be king." (Lit: I have chosen one of his sons for Myself to be king.)
There is a tone of joy in that. Instead of “OK, give the people what they want,” this time God says, “This is what I want!” And when you read that your heart should say, “Ooh – this is going to be good!” God has some truly great things in mind, and it is past time for Samuel to stop grieving so much over what is lost and start rejoicing in hope of what is coming.
Grieving should give way to hope
Initially it was appropriate for Saul to grieve over the downfall of God’s anointed. The LORD brought some measure of blessing to Israel through Saul.
But God’s grieving ended sooner than Samuel’s. Samuel’s affections had not followed God’s exactly.
When we mourn a loss, there is a time when that mourning should give way to joy in the hope of what is coming next in the plan of God. How do you know when it has been long enough and the time has come when joy ought to be overtaking grief in your heart? I don’t know. All I can say is that the closer your affections are to God’s the clearer that will be. And if joy just never seems to come it may be that the problem is too much of a focus on what is lost and not enough of a focus on future grace that is on its way. That old saying, “When God closes a door He opens a window” is not an empty cliché.
Preview of Saul’s jealousy
But sometimes the time interval between the closing of the door and the opening of the window can be very long. The window of David’s kingdom will not be all the way open until 2 Samuel. But God cracks just enough of an opening to give hope. And if you are wondering if Saul’s relationship with God has continued on the same downward trend that we watched from chapters 13-15, just look at Samuel’s response to God’s command to go anoint David:
2 But Samuel said, "How can I go? Saul will hear about it and kill me."
The last time we saw these two together Saul was clinging to Samuel’s robe. Now he is ready to kill him if he found out he was anointing another king. In the time between chapter 15 and chapter 16 Saul has just gotten worse and worse. And what we have here is a preview of Saul’s jealousy. From now until his death he is willing to do anything to avoid losing the throne.
God deceives Saul
So what does God tell Samuel? You might expect God to say, “Just go, and I will protect you.” But what He does instead is a shock.
The LORD said, "Take a heifer with you and say, 'I have come to sacrifice to the LORD.' 3 Invite Jesse to the sacrifice, and I will show you what to do. You are to anoint for me the one I indicate."
God tells the great prophet, “Worried about Saul killing you? Just tell him a half-truth.” God deceived Saul through the prophet Samuel.
How do we deal with the problem that God seems to be telling Samuel to lie here? I hope you don’t deal with it by saying, “Technically it is not a lie, because he did offer a sacrifice.” If we use that reasoning we have justified deceiving people by means of half-truths. If your child says, “No, we didn’t steal a candy bar,” and later you find out they stole m&ms, which technically is not really considered a candy bar; are you satisfied that your kid was being totally honest with you? Of course not. When you intentionally cause someone to believe something that is not true, you are deceiving that person – period.
The fact was Samuel’s whole reason for going to Bethlehem was to anoint the next king. And to lead Saul to believe otherwise was deception. We run into this same difficulty (of God either commanding or condoning deception) in Ex.1, James 2, and Josh.8.
So how do we deal with this problem? I did an entire message on this one question in the ethics class – it is the lesson on truthtelling. It is also condensed into an article – both are available on TreasuringGod.com. I won’t rehearse that whole study here, but I will just tell you this: When God prohibited lying He did not intend for that command to be applied in the case where deception is needed to prevent a murderer or criminal from committing a crime. That is what Rahab and the midwives were doing in Josh.2 and Ex.1. And that is what God is commanding Samuel to do here. This is why I believe it was right for Corry Ten Boom to lie to the Nazis. And it is also why I believe it is okay to leave your porch light on when you are not home for the purpose of deceiving burglars into thinking you are home. For more on that, read the blog.
Whatever your take on that, one thing I think we would all agree on is that Saul is in the last category of 2 Sam.22:27.
2 Sam.22:26-27 To the faithful you show yourself faithful, to the blameless you show yourself blameless, 27 to the pure you show yourself pure, but to the crooked you show yourself shrewd.
This is a scary thing when the LORD starts dealing with you this way. Once you start dealing crookedly God will outsmart and out-crooked you, and He will allow you to be tricked and deceived and fooled and jerked around by everybody. Saul has placed himself in that last category, and God is showing Himself shrewd to Saul. And so we are going to see God deal very roughly with Saul in this chapter.
The Spirit comes to David
4 Samuel did what the LORD said. When he arrived at Bethlehem, the elders of the town trembled when they met him. They asked, "Do you come in peace?"
5 Samuel replied, "Yes, in peace; I have come to sacrifice to the LORD. Consecrate yourselves and come to the sacrifice with me." Then he consecrated Jesse and his sons and invited them to the sacrifice.
God’s perception vs. man’s
6 When they arrived, Samuel saw Eliab and thought, "Surely the LORD's anointed stands here before the LORD." 7 But the LORD said to Samuel, "Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The LORD does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart."
At first you read that and think, How could Samuel be so foolish? Didn’t he learn anything from the whole debacle with Saul?Why does he think Eliab is the one just because of impressive external appearance? But if you think about it, that is all Samuel had to go on. What else is he going to look at? He is a man. He cannot see into a person’s heart. Only God can do that.
Jn.2:25 He did not need man's testimony about man, for he knew what was in a man.
Human assessments of other humans are always superficial. Even if you take the person with the most spiritual insight of anyone alive in the whole world – one of the greatest prophets of all time (Samuel), and you make it easy for him by narrowing it down to a single family, even then he is way off – it is his last guess. Samuel’s first choice was Eliab, who was a lot more like Saul than like David.
That is not to say anything negative about Samuel – other than he is a human being. But it is to say wonderful things about God, who alone can see the heart. Never trust your own judgment about someone’s heart – or motives or faith. You do not have more insight than Samuel. Even your assessments of your own heart are superficial. Moses wanted to argue with God because he did not think he had it in him to do what God was calling him to do.
Rejoice in knowing the God who sees what you cannot see. I love reading about the insight Jesus had into people’s hearts. He knew just which kinds of obstacles would expose (and build) the faith that was present, or expose the unbelief that was there. When He dealt with a phony that phony would walk away sad, because his “faith” was shown to be unbelief. And when He dealt with a true believer, by the time He was finished all people for all time could easily see the beauty of her great faith. The obstacles of life are precious because they enable you to see what otherwise only God can see.
So here comes the parade of sons starting in verse eight. Samuel has seven sons pass in front of Samuel, and each one Samuel says, “Nope, the LORD has not chosen him.”
11 So he asked Jesse, "Are these all the sons you have?" "There is still the youngest," Jesse answered, "but he is tending the sheep." Samuel said, "Send for him; we will not sit down until he arrives."
The word “youngest” is actually “smallest” - in contrast to David with tall Saul and big Eliab. So we get this major lesson on the meaninglessness and irrelevance of external appearance. And so the next verse is absolutely the last thing you would expect.
David is good-looking
12 So he sent and had him brought in. He was ruddy, with a fine appearance and handsome features.
Ruddy means red (actually reddish-brown). We do not know if it speaks of hair color or skin color, but whatever it was it was a good color for a guy to be. The text is emphatic about the fact that David was very good-looking – three different descriptors are given for how good-looking he was.
I think the writer fully intended this verse to throw us a curve. He has made such a point of the fact that Saul’s striking, impressive appearance was superficial and meaningless. Eliab’s striking appearance was superficial and had nothing to do with whether or not he was qualified. So why is it worth mentioning that David was good-looking?
You expect this big contrast. You would think that instead of choosing the big, impressive-looking firstborn Eliab God would choose small, young, unimpressive, ugly lastborn David. That is almost what it says, but instead of saying David is ugly – or just not commenting at all about his physical appearance, he goes out of his way to talk about how attractive he was. David is presented as a lowly nobody – a very unlikely candidate for the kingship, but we need to know that he is a really good-looking lowly nobody. There has to be a reason for the writer pointing that out. What is it?
One thing about the writer of 1 Samuel is he is really into suspense. He likes to introduce a question or difficulty, and then let you wonder about it for a while. So we will have to table that question for now.
12 … Then the LORD said, "Rise and anoint him; he is the one."
So David now joins Seth, Noah, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Ephraim, and Moses as a non-firstborn who was selected by the Lord over his more socially powerful older brothers.
13 So Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the presence of his brothers, and from that day on the Spirit of the LORD came upon David in power. Samuel then went to Ramah.
The anointing took place in front of the brothers, so they know he is supposed to be the next king.
The Spirit leaves Saul
Not a pretty picture when the Spirit leaves
14 Now the Spirit of the LORD had departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the LORD tormented him.
The Holy Spirit leaves, and an evil spirit comes. If you ever decide that some sin or some relationship or way of thinking is so precious that you just cannot give it up – even if it means putting distance between you and God, and you decide, I can live with being estranged from God for now, you are not going to like what you get. The less you experience the nearness of God the more you suffer the nearness of some things you really do not want to be near.
Most of the time God will not let demons torment people, but once in a while He will let one loose on someone. And when God does that the Bible does not hesitate to say that it is from God, because even though the demon is wicked, God’s purpose in letting him loose on someone is righteous.
Saul is the only person in the entire Old Testament who is said to be tormented by an evil spirit. The word torment is a very strong word. This demon would terrorize Saul and fill him with fear and make him irrational and even incapacitate him.
The advice: superficial solution of music
15 Saul's attendants said to him, "See, an evil spirit from God is tormenting you. 16 Let our lord command his servants here to search for someone who can play the harp. He will play when the evil spirit from God comes upon you, and you will feel better."
It is a good thing that they had the honesty and courage to tell Saul that his problem was an evil spirit from the LORD. But the advice they give Saul is terrible. If they know it is an evil spirit from the LORD their advice should be for Saul to fall on his face in repentance before the LORD, and seek the LORD’s face, and ask Samuel to intercede for him. They should have advised him to beg the LORD to return His Spirit to him and to allow Saul to draw near to His presence. Instead they suggest music.
Talk about a superficial solution to a deep problem! And yet this is so common. When people are distressed or discouraged or depressed or worried or afraid or empty, instead of turning to the Lord for peace and courage and joy and refuge and hope and fullness, they just turn on the radio or CD player. There is nothing wrong with enjoying the grace of God through music – as long as it is the grace of God you are enjoying through the music. But when you turn to music instead of God you turn music into an idol.
Well, this sounds like a great idea to Saul.
Music like mood drugs
17 So Saul said to his attendants, "Find someone who plays well and bring him to me."…
19 Then Saul sent messengers to Jesse and said, "Send me your son David, who is with the sheep."
21 David came to Saul and entered his service. Saul liked him very much, and David became one of his armor-bearers. 22 Then Saul sent word to Jesse, saying, "Allow David to remain in my service, for I am pleased with him." 23 Whenever the spirit from God came upon Saul, David would take his harp and play. Then relief would come to Saul; he would feel better, and the evil spirit would leave him.
Music can be a great soother to the soul. But it was a superficial, temporary relief that did nothing at all to remove the cause of the suffering.
I think Saul has been diagnosed with more mental diseases than any character in the Bible – especially bipolar disorder. Every commentator talks about his mental illnesses. But the mental part is a symptom not a cause. What Saul has is a theological disorder. The text is very explicit about the fact that Saul’s problems were due to the departure of the Holy Spirit from him, and the tormenting of an evil spirit.
And the solution Saul sought was very much like the solutions people today seek for those kinds of problems. Most mood medications and antidepressants either do not work at all, or they work like David’s music. They mitigate the suffering temporarily, but they do not cure anything. It is like taking morphine when you have a nail in your foot – it does not do anything to remove the nail; it just makes the pain bearable.
I do not mean to suggest that the kinds of struggles people have with mood disorders are all caused by demons. But I do think in most if not all cases they are caused by factors that are deeper than a mere chemical imbalance. And even if they are caused by a chemical imbalance, the solutions offered in Scripture are spiritual ones, not chemical ones (or musical ones for that matter). It would not have been wrong for Saul’s officials to send for a musician to sooth Saul’s nerves if they had also sent for a prophet to instruct his heart. They should have asked David to not only play good music but also recite and expound on some of the lyrics to his psalms. Morphine is good if it helps you stay still while the doctor removes the nail.
The throne without the Spirit
Remember when God punished Israel by giving them exactly what they asked for back in chapter eight? He does the same thing with Saul here. Saul gets exactly what he wanted – the throne without having to bother with closeness to God. From an earthly point of view it seems like God did not really follow through on His threat to Saul. In chapter 15 Saul was rejected as king and the kingdom was ripped away from him. But as you read the rest of the book – if you read it from a physical point of view – it seems like God’s Word was not fulfilled. Saul remained on the throne until the day he died. He ruled 40 years! (Acts 13:21) And David, after he was anointed, first went back to tending sheep, then served as a musician, then an armor bearer. Later he had to run for his life from Saul, not for hours or days but for many years (possible a decade or more). He found himself hiding in caves, dodging spears, acting insane to save his life, living with the Philistines, moving from place to place – all the way until the end of 1 Samuel when Saul finally died in battle.
If you just care about physical things, it is seems like God’s judgment did not really happen. But from the point of view of someone who loves God and spiritual things, the judgment on Saul was immediate and severe. God took His Spirit away from Saul. Saul may have been on the throne, but he was hardly reigning. Instead he was quivering in fear and torment at the hands of a demon in his house, chasing around the countryside unsuccessfully trying to kill his most loyal servant, disguising himself and consulting a medium - his life was a curse.
But David had success in everything he put his hand to. Yes, his life was full of hard trials – very hard trials. But God was with him in those trials. Saul sat in a palace in misery and torment, and David danced for joy in caves and deserts. How much better to have the Holy Spirit in the darkest pit than be without His spirit in the most glorious castle. A crown and scepter, riches and power, position and title – all add up to zero without His Spirit. But the man who has the Lord with him has everything. He has joy and protection and help and guidance and blessing and hope. And when there is hope in God’s promises the waiting can be as delightful as the reality, even if the waiting lasts for decades.
In chapter 15 Saul cried, “Take not the kingdom from me.” In Psalm 51 David cried, “Take not You Holy Spirit from me.” Saul cared more about the throne than about God’s Spirit, and so he lost both. David cared more about God’s Spirit than about anything, and he gained everything. The nearness of God is to be desired above anything else.
The Spirit without the throne
Providence
This chapter is another wonderful insight into the way providence works. If you just started reading from chapter 17 and on, David’s life would look just like our lives look – lots of seemingly random events, ups and downs, setbacks, successes, failures. Things seem to be moving one way – then they are going the other way. And it is absolutely impossible to put it all together into any kind of meaningful pattern.
David’s life and Saul’s life make sense to us, because we have chapter 16 to read. Right at the beginning of the story the reader is told right up front that David is God’s choice, and he is anointed as king in God’s eyes. And so we get to read the book and watch everything move inexorably toward the inevitable consummation in what God planned. But in your life and in my life there is no chapter 16 – we just start right out in chapter 17, and we have to trust God that there is a chapter 16. We have confidence in Him that He has a purpose behind all that He’s doing, and all of it is moving where He wants it to go even when it looks like sheer chaos to us.
The purpose of David’s good looks
So what about David’s good looks? After several verses of suspense, the writer finally lets us know in verse 18.
17 So Saul said to his attendants, "Find someone who plays well and bring him to me." 18 One of the servants answered, "I have seen a son of Jesse of Bethlehem who knows how to play the harp. He is a brave man and a warrior. He speaks well and is a fine-looking man. And the LORD is with him."
That is why it mattered that David was good-looking! Part of God’s providential plan for David required that he come into the service of Saul early on. Just as the boy Samuel came into the service of the rejected priest he would later replace, so David, in his youth, comes into the service of the rejected king he would later replace. And one of the things that enabled that to come to pass was David’s good looks. David was not only an excellent musician, but he was impressive militarily as a warrior, socially in his speech, physically in his appearance, and spiritually, as Yahweh was with him.
You see, God gives you whatever tools you need to get wherever He wants you to be. God will give you all that you need to do what He calls you to do. And conversely, whatever God gives you, it is safe to assume the reason you have it is so you can carry out your calling.
David: picture of Christ
Psalm 78 is the story of the history of Israel from the time of Moses up to the final climax and fulfillment of Jewish (and human) history. After describing the Exodus, the time in the desert, the conquest, and the first half of 1 Samuel, here is how the psalm ends:
70 He chose David his servant and took him from the sheep pens; 71 from tending the sheep he brought him to be the shepherd of his people Jacob, of Israel his inheritance. 72 And David shepherded them with integrity of heart; with skillful hands he led them.
You say, “Wait a minute – Why end there? Isn’t there some additional important stuff that takes place after that? Sort of. But in one sense that really is the final climax and consummation of human history. Ezekiel 34 gives us a glimpse into the end times, and here is what it says (now keep in mind this was written hundreds of years after David died):
Ez.34:23-24 I will place over them one shepherd, my servant David, and he will tend them; he will tend them and be their shepherd. 24 I the LORD will be their God, and my servant David will be prince among them. I the LORD have spoken.
Who is that talking about? King David was dead and gone. It is talking about the descendent that God promised David in 2 Samuel seven – the descendent who would rule forever. This great son of David would actually be greater than David. The ancestor, in that culture, was always considered greater than the descendent. And yet David writes about this offspring that he would come from his line someday, and in Psalm 110 calls him “Lord.” David knew that this great son of his would be far greater even than David himself was. And it is that descendent that Ezekiel is referring to.
Jeremiah says the same thing.
Jer.23:5-6 “The days are coming," declares the LORD, "when I will raise up to David a righteous Branch, a King who will reign wisely and do what is just and right in the land. 6 In his days Judah will be saved and Israel will live in safety. This is the name by which he will be called: The LORD Our Righteousness.
David’s greater Son will be Yahweh Himself!
And the main purpose of King David’s life was to serve as a picture of what his greater Son would be. The final, great consummation of all things in the most glorious and wonderful fruition of God’s marvelous, perfect plan is the spectacularly wonderful reign of the great Son of David forever and ever – the eternal reign of the Lord Jesus Christ.
So there is a sense in which everything from David to the Second Coming of Christ is a kind of parenthesis. From king David to Jesus’ birth was nothing but a time of waiting and longing for the great Davidic King. Then He arrived 2000 years ago in human form, born of a virgin in Bethlehem, the town of David. That was His first coming. From then until His glorious Second Coming is a time of the “already but not yet” first stage of His kingdom. But everything that is happening now is anticipating and preparing for the full, final arrival of His kingdom - that Day when every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory and praise of God, and Jesus will rule all in eternal blessedness and to the increase of His kingdom and peace there will be no end.
The joy in the heart of God as He talks about David as a man after His own heart, and the king who is God’s very own choice and the one He desires - is that joy over the king David of 1000 B.C.? Yes, in part. But much more importantly it was over the great Son of David, who was God’s own dear Son from eternity past.
So as we study the life of David, which is designed by God to be a picture of the great King of kings, let’s take great delight in every aspect of that picture because they give us glimpses of the final glory of Jesus Christ.
David’s/Jesus’ beauty
David was ruddy and handsome and beautiful to look at. A lot of commentators get confused about that, because according to Isaiah 53 David’s great Descendent would have no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men, (Isa.53:2-3)
But the picture of David’s beauty points not to Jesus’ humiliation but to His glory! (not to the first stage of the kingdom, but to the final stage) The unattractive condition of Jesus’ humiliation was temporary. Now He has been re-clothed with the robes of splendor that He set aside when He came to earth as a man - even more splendorous and glorious robes as He has now been super exalted by the Father to the highest place. Throughout eternity we will look to our great and beautiful King!
Isaiah 4:2 In that day the Branch of the LORD will be beautiful and glorious
After just one glimpse we will say “One thing I ask ... that I may gaze upon the beauty of the Lord Jesus Christ forever.”
One of the great pleasures of life is sight – seeing beautiful things. People travel thousands of miles just to see things (like the Grand Canyon or Niagara Falls or the Swiss Alps). The photography industry is massive. So much pleasure and enjoyment in life comes from seeing beauty. But all of the enjoyment of every beautiful sight ever seen all put together will not even begin to compare to what your eyes will behold on that great day when the trumpet sounds and we are all gathered to Him.
David’s/Jesus’ strength and victory
One thing that is going to be a lot of fun in this study is to read about David’s exploits in battle. David was so strong and seemingly invincible in battle. We love that kind of thing. We have stories about that by the millions – books, movies, TV shows, plays, comics, cartoons - every culture throughout history has been enamored with stories of great heroes. Something deep inside us just loves it when the good guy is stronger than the bad guys.
David’s prowess on the battlefield is a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ, who, without breaking a sweat can bind the strong man (Satan – whom no one else in the universe can bind), and plunder his house. As we study through this book and enjoy the great feats of Davidic strength, let that teach your heart to hope in and long for the time when you will be in Jesus’ massive entourage and witness with your own eyes how He will effortlessly defeat not just a powerful foe, but all evil that is in existence in the entire universe! Let the stories of these victories cause your heart to yearn for and rejoice in advance over those marvelous, endless days in which you will be awed by His invincible might. And even today let it cause you to delight in His superiority over and domination of Satan as you enjoy victories by His strength in your fight against him between now and when you go to bed tonight.
Shepherding
Another thing I love to read about is David’s shepherding of God’s people. God took him from tending the flocks to shepherding His people.
Ez.34:23 I will place over them one shepherd, my servant David, and he will tend them; he will tend them and be their shepherd.
We love to be shepherded. Those people the Lord has given us to feed us and nurture us and care for us and protect us and guide us and love us - the more faithful they are in doing all that the more we delight in them. But all good shepherding from men is nothing but the tiniest and most imperfect illustration of the shepherding our hearts need and long for. Let this study of the life of David stoke the fire of your desire for that Great Shepherd.
Intimacy with God
So David’s beauty points to Jesus’ beauty, David’s strength and heroism point to Jesus’ strength and heroism, David’s tender, loving, shepherd’s heart points to Jesus’ perfect shepherding; but of all the qualities of David that point to and illustrate the glory of his greater Son, the most precious is David’s intimacy with God. David loved God deeply and delighted in Him so greatly. He longed for God’s presence so intensely and drank from His river of delights so deeply.
And God loved David. He listened to David and spoke to him and guided him. Even when it was a contest between God’s disfavor of Saul and God’s favor of David - what happened when it was the evil spirit from God vs. the blessing from God through David’s harp playing? God’s favor for David was stronger even than God’s punishment of Saul.
It is so good to have a leader who has God’s favor. It is so good to be ruled by a King who has such access into His presence. The godliest man on the planet could pray for me right now and it is possible that he would not be heard. He may be praying the wrong thing, or have some sin hindering his prayer, or be undergoing some test that involves God’s distancing Himself from him, or whatever. But when God’s own dear Son speaks on my behalf, He is never denied access to the Father’s most profound presence. He is never distanced from the Father in the slightest degree. He is never unable to discern the Father’s exact desire and plan. He never lacks favor in God’s eyes.
Those of you who have faith in the Lord Jesus Christ but who have failed terribly this past week - listen: The one who speaks for you on your behalf is the very one in whom the Father takes the greatest delight; whom He loves more than anything else in existence; the only one the Father loves and esteems without measure because Jesus Christ is His very glory. The Father will never deny Him anything He wants. The Father will never say no to anything the Son asks for – ever.
David’s successes came because God’s Spirit was with Him. And God has given the great Son of David His Spirit without limit (Jn.3:34). So as we study this book and see the benefits of God’s blessing on David, let that ignite in your heart a delight in the grace you receive because the Son of David has that favor from God in infinite measure.
Beloved
David’s name means “beloved,” and he truly was. David was not only loved by God, but by the people. His men would die for him in a heartbeat. The women danced and sang about him in the streets.
But the delight they had in the model is a fraction of the joy God’s people have in David’s greater Son. No king has ever been loved like the Lord Jesus Christ - ever. Even 2000 years after His death millions of people around the world would die for Him – not just a handful of brave bodyguards, but millions of women, children, and men throughout the world. Some people will die for their religion – but what other king do you know of whose subjects gather together by the millions every week and spend an extended time just singing for joy in him?
Brilliant scientists and philosophers love this King. Small children sing in sheer delight in Him. People in every culture are brought to tears of joy just thinking about Him. His subjects run to Him with their biggest tragedies and their smallest discomforts. He is a sweet refuge for us in times of trouble. He is a perfect Guide for us in the darkness. He is a rich, generous supplier of our needs. Nothing about Him is distasteful to the righteous soul. Eternity will resound with the shouts of exuberant joy and laughter from His people as they take delight in their ideal King.
Invitation
And you can know this King – through faith. Just believe Jesus is all He said He is, and entrust your life and your eternal destiny into His hands. Prefer Him over any other treasure in this world – look to Him as the priceless treasure that He is. Repent of your sin – let go of it. It is not doing you any good. Let go of anything that your heart has been holding on to as something you absolutely have to have. Just let it all go and freefall into the arms of the Good Shepherd, the Lord Jesus Christ, and He will forgive all your sins and fill you with joy in Him. The only other option is to be His enemy, and I promise you no pleasure of this world is worth that. You will be crushed on Judgment Day and suffer unimaginable agony and torment forever. But if your delight is in the Lord it will be unimaginable joy and rapture forever in the Kingdom of the Son of David.
Benediction: Heb 4:1-11 Therefore, since the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us be careful that none of you be found to have fallen short of it. 2 For we also have had the gospel preached to us, just as they did but…I declared on oath in my anger, 'They shall never enter my rest.'" So "Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts." …Let us make every effort to enter God’s rest
