Providence Leads The Way Series

This tormenting spirit is part of God’s judgment on King Saul for his sinful and willful disobedience. We began our study of David’s life last week and I chose not to dig too much into Saul who was king before him (1 Samuel 1-15). King Saul disobeyed God in 1 Samuel 13 and again in chapter 15 in significant ways and God judged him. God is allowed to do that. God is The Judge. God took His Spirit from Saul and as a result, allowed a troubling spirit to harass him. Before this time, the Spirit of God had protected Saul, but now the Holy Spirit was taken away. In the Holy Spirit’s absence, God allowed a harmful spirit to torment Saul. The hedge of protection was gone.

So, we have at the beginning of this passage a phrase that we are uncomfortable with because it flies in the face of a simple and elementary understanding of God. Yes! God is good. Yes! God is righteous. Yes! God is also beyond us and He is also completely sovereign and The Judge of all things. We do not have a contradiction here or two different gods presented or God changing between the Testaments or a pastor forgetting something, but a deeper understanding of God’s sovereignty and what He allows in His creation.

TRANSITION

I apologize to you if you weren’t confused by those verses and now you are or you were confused by those verses and you are still confused. Issues like this are not solved in a sermon setting and are more for Bible Study discussions. I’d love to chat with you this next week to talk more on this subject. I also added a few verses in the sermon notes to read over if you like.

[For further personal study: Ezekiel 18:23-32, Judges 9:23, Luke 22:31, Romans 2:5-11, Hebrews 12:10]

What we have in 1 Samuel 16 is a Sovereign God in charge of all things weaving His will in the life of King David. We will see in this passage that God is working all things “for good for those who are called according to His purpose” (Romans 8:28). David is called to His purpose. There is a church-y word for this which we will hit later: providence. Let’s dig deeper into Saul a little bit, David a little bit, and then see how God was leading the way the whole time through His providence.

SAUL’S SUFFERING (VERSES 14-17)

We find in this passage that King Saul was suffering because of his disobedience to the Lord. That suffering took the form of an evil spirit that was tormenting him. The Hebrew word in verse 15 means “to terrify” or “to overwhelm” or “to be greatly troubled.” I imagine Saul was having nightmares, feeling depressed, and feeling anxiety about ruling God’s people. His anger was also overwhelming him. I imagine he felt fear in new and unsettling ways.

The people around Saul saw what was happening and decided that they needed to help the king. They decided that music would soothe his soul. His emotions were being attacked and they sought relief in music.

Why music?

ILLUSTRATION… sermonillustrations.com/a-z/m/music.htm

Johann Sabastian Bach said, "All music should have no other end and aim than the glory of God and the soul's refreshment; where this is not remembered there is no real music but only a devilish hub-bub."