1 Samuel 16

16 1 AND the LORD said unto Samuel, How long wilt thou mourn for Saul, seeing I have rejected him from being king over Israel? fill thine horn with oil, and go, I will send thee to Jesse the Beth lehemite: for I have provided me a king among his sons. And Samuel said, How can I go? if Saul hear it, he will kill me. And the LORD said, Take an heifer with thee, and say, I am come to sacrifice to the LORD. And call Jesse to the sacrifice, and I will shew thee what thou shalt do: and thou shalt anoint unto me him whom I name unto thee. And Samuel did that which the LORD spake, and came to Beth-lehem. And the elders of the city came to meet him trembling, and said, Comest thou peaceably? And he said, Peaceably: I am come to sacrifice unto the LORD: sanctify yourselves, and come with me to the sacrifice. And he sanctified Jesse and his sons, and called them to the sacrifice. And it came to pass, when they were come, that he looked on Eliab, and said, Surely the LORD’s anointed is before him. But the LORD said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have rejected him: for the LORD seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the LORD looketh on the heart. Then Jesse called Abinadab, and made him pass before Samuel. And he said, Neither hath the LORD chosen this. Then Jesse made Shammah to pass by. And he said, Neither hath the LORD chosen this. And Jesse made seven of his sons to pass before Samuel. And Samuel said unto Jesse, The LORD hath not chosen these. And Samuel said unto Jesse, Are here all thy children? And he said, There remaineth yet the youngest, and, behold, he keepeth the sheep. And Samuel said unto Jesse, Send and fetch him: for we will not sit down till he come hither. And he sent, and brought him in. Now he was ruddy, and withal of a beautiful countenance, and goodly to look upon. And the LORD said, Arise, anoint him: for this is he. Then Samuel took the horn of oil, and anointed him in the midst of his brethren: and the spirit of the LORD came mightily upon David from that day forward. So Samuel rose up, and went to Ramah. Now the spirit of the LORD had departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the LORD troubled him. And Saul’s servants said unto him, Behold now, an evil spirit from God troubleth thee. Let our lord now command thy servants, which are before thee, to seek out a man who is a cunning player on the harp: and it shall come to pass, when the evil spirit from God is upon thee, that he shall play with his hand, and thou shalt be well. And Saul said unto his servants, Provide me now a man that can play well, and bring him to me. Then answered one of the young men, and said, Behold, I have seen a son of Jesse the Beth lehemite, that is cunning in playing, and a mighty man of valor, and a man of war, and prudent in speech, and a comely person, and the LORD is with him. Wherefore Saul sent messengers unto Jesse, and said, Send me David thy son, which is with the sheep. And Jesse took an ass laden with bread, and a bottle of wine, and a kid, and sent them by David his son unto Saul. And David came to Saul, and stood before him: and he loved him greatly; and he became his armor-bearer. And Saul sent to Jesse, saying, Let David, I pray thee, stand before me; for he hath found favor in my sight. And it came to pass, when the evil spirit from God was upon Saul, that David took the harp, and played with his hand: so Saul was refreshed, and was well, and the evil spirit departed from him.

From this point onward, the historic thread runs on the life of David, not of Saul. David is the primary character, Saul only the secondary. Whatever is said of Saul is here because of its relations to David. H. C.

Good Samuel mourned for him that had not grace to mourn for himself. It grieved him to see the plant, which he had set in the garden of Israel, thus soon withered. God did not blame this sorrow, but moderated it; “How long wilt thou mourn for Saul?” It was not the affection he forbade, but the measure. In this is the difference betwixt good men and evil, that evil men mourn not for their own sins, good men do so mourn for the sins of others that they will hardly be taken off. Bp. II.—This personal sorrow of Samuel shows a man’s heart in the Prophet, as the very terms of God’s address, so like to human, show His thorough appreciation of genuine feeling in a true man. And God reasons with this grief while gently reproving it—“seeing I have rejected him.” The command to go forth and execute his office, is God’s further remedy to counteract the grief of Samuel, and to carry out His own purposes. B.

The character of Samuel is, in every stage of his career, one of the grandest in the Old Testament. The exquisite beauty of his holy childhood; the vigor and wisdom of his administration as judge; the calm dignity with which he yields to the demands of the people, and bows to what he feels to be the Divine will; the energy with which he throws himself into the new system, alien as it was to his own personal feelings and cherished convictions; his warmth of affection for the youthful monarch who had supplanted him in the popular favor; the depth of his sorrow at the repeated failure of the chosen one whom he had been the instrument of raising to his high office; the reluctance with which he regards the breach as final, and seals Saul’s rejection by anointing a successor; all combine to make up a portrait on which the mind rests with unqualified admiration. E. V.

2. God orders him to cover his design with a sacrifice. Say, I am come to sacrifice; and it was true he did, and it was proper that he should, when he came to anoint a king. As a prophet, he might sacrifice when and where God appointed him; and it was not at all inconsistent with the laws of truth to say he came to sacrifice, when really he did so, though he had also a further end, which he thought fit to conceal. H.—Manifestly Samuel was not actuated by fear, as all his previous words and acts in Saul’s presence abundantly show, and as there is no reproof of such fear in God’s answer. He was stating a fact. Saul had already become a subject of that frenzy from the control of “an evil spirit” of which we read so much afterward, and Samuel simply stated what he had reason to know, that Saul would kill him if he learned of this errand. And naturally he asked “how” he could go without encountering this peril. And to the fact and question so stated, the Divine answer corresponds. Go and sacrifice! There was no pretence thought of, much less any attempt at deceit. It was Samuel’s well-known office, as the Prophet of Israel, to offer sacrifice when and where he might be directed of God. It was God’s purpose that was to be carried out in the mere anointing of David now. It was not God’s purpose to supplant Saul, nor did he design that this act of Samuel should set up a rival king, and stir up civil war. Therefore the transaction must be secret—hidden entirely from Saul. For this reason Samuel is bidden simply to conceal it, not to enact any duplicity or falsehood in what he did. B.—The principle, of course, can only be applied to those cases where we have a right to conceal; but all partial and evasive answers when we are bound to speak the whole truth, or when they are given for the purpose of deception, are inconsistent with veracity. Then a man does not hide, but lie. Thornwell.

3. The specific direction to call Jesse to the sacrifice, and to anoint one that God would name. Jesse was the head of a family that had been distinguished as Bethlehemites for several generations. Himself and his sons were to be summoned to attend the social feast that immediately followed the offering of sacrifice. In all minor particulars God promises to disclose at the time all that Samuel should do, only instructing him to anoint the person He should then designate.

4,5. Samuel’s prompt obedience, and his reception at Bethlehem. He “did that which the Lord spake.” Between five and six miles south of Jerusalem stood (and still stands) the little town so noted in Old and New Testament history, whose adjoining hill-side slope is especially and forever memorable as the scene of that transcendent vision and song of the angelic host at the birth of Christ. B.—As we follow Samuel to Bethlehem, we seem to mark the same primitive simplicity and life of piety as of old. When the “elders” hear of Samuel’s coming, they go to meet him, yet with fear lest the unexpected visit betoken some unknown sin resting on their quiet village. This apprehension is removed by Samuel’s explanation, and they are invited to attend the “sacrifice.” But the sacrificial meal which usually followed was to be confined to Jesse and his family, in whose house, as we infer, Samuel was a welcome guest. A. E.

6,7. Samuel’s mistaken judgment, and its instant correction by the Lord. When he looked on the stately appearance of Jesse’s first-born son, in his own unguided thought, prophet as he was, he too hastily judged as any other man would judge, and said within himself, Surely this is the Lord’s anointed. But the Lord answered his thought by the refusal of Eliab, and instructed him in the grand principle of the Divine judgment concerning men, and the only basis of the Divine dealings with men. God’s choice of men is based upon the quality of the heart; while man’s choice rests upon what he counts most desirable, upon personal grace or mental gifts, or a seemingly fair demeanor and conduct. Not the outward appearance or conduct, which man beholds, but the disposition of the heart, which God only can discern, reveals the true character of the man, and determines the dealing of God with men. Not what a man appears to be in outward form and demeanor, or even in external acting, but “as a man thinketh in his heart, that is he.” And God’s true judgment goes with his searching vision, to every heart of man. B.

Israel’s second king was to be chosen on the ground of qualities pleasing to God, and not of those that were popular with men. In the case of the first king the people had a man to their notion—of tall and commanding presence, who in these points might compare with the champion monarchs of the nations round about them. In the case of David the Lord sought and found a man whose chief qualities were that he knew and loved the Lord, and that his heart was true and trustful toward the God of Israel. H. C.

8, 9, 10. Six other sons of Jesse refused. As one after another passed before the instructed Prophet, he kept back his own thought, waiting and looking for the Divine direction and choice. And herein, this noble and comparatively stainless Judge of Israel, crowning and completing many previous similar instances in his history, forcibly commends the cardinal duty of obedience, even as Saul, by contrast, in all the marked actions of his life, emphasizes the evil—the sin and the wretchedness—of disobedience.

11, 12. The eighth and youngest sent for, and brought from the field. Not from any lack of affection or appreciation on his father’s part was David set to the care of the sheep, but simply because he was the youngest son. The active toil of life was assigned to the others. At Samuel’s direction, Jesse sent a messenger for David, and afterward presented his youthful son to the prophet. And this fair youth, with his fairer temper and noble qualities of character, least thought of by his father and brethren because of his immature age, was the choice of God. As in so many instances in the inspired history, nay, rather as in every instance of God’s choice of men to do his work, the younger, the feebler, the least noticeable is preferred, and preferred on account of recognized fitness of disposition and character for the accomplishment of his special purposes. Thus it was pre-eminently with this appointment. The son of Jesse proved to be “a man after God’s own heart.” B.—David was a man after the Lord’s heart in loyally doing his will. He was not without fault; he certainly displeased God more than once; but he thoroughly apprehended what Saul never could understand—that a king of Israel should without question or murmur carry out the paramount will of God. In this respect David never failed. He had many trials and temptations, afflictions that might have made him discontented, and successes that might have made him proud; but he continued steadfast in his purpose of heart to be the Lord’s, to consult the Lord about everything, and carry out his revealed will. D. F.

13. In silence, as it would seem, Samuel anointed him. Whether the secret of his high destiny was imparted to him then, or left to be disclosed in future years, is not told. But at all events, whether with full understanding of what was before him or no, he must have been conscious of a call that would carry him far away from the pastures and olive yards of the little hamlet, and of a new Spirit stirring in him from that day forward. A. M.

In the midst of his brethren. It should have been translated, from the midst of his brethren; that is, he singled him out from the rest and privately anointed him. For it is manifest that Samuel was afraid to have it known, and therefore did not anoint him publicly in the midst of his brethren. And by Eliab’s treatment of David after this, it plainly enough appears that he did not know him to be the king elect of God’s people. Patrick.—It is little likely that Samuel, who anointed Saul secretly when there was no direct danger to apprehend, should have anointed David in the presence of several persons when there was much to be apprehended from the wrath of Saul. There were those at Saul’s court who were well acquainted with David and his family, yet no one seems to have been aware of the fact of this anointing. The conviction that David was the man appointed to succeed him, seems to have gradually dawned upon the mind of Saul from circumstances, and to have been confirmed beyond question when David eventually fled to Samuel. Kit.

The ancestral “root” of Christ, David stands as the most signal character of the Old Testament history. No one is so personally and closely associated with Christ; none is so typical of Christ in his highest relations. With David God made special covenant. His name and his dominion, also many particulars of his personal history, are so closely interwoven by psalmists and prophets with the history and reign of the predicted Messiah, that the Jewish people came to characterize the coming Deliverer as the Son of David—a title and relationship recognized by Christ himself in his own words, and afterward, through John, in the Apocalypse. To this signal character, to these sublime relations, David was now anointed, solemnly set apart by the Divine command in the anointing act of Samuel. Not only his choice and consecration by Jehovah, but his name, his kingship, his inspired words and acts, all have reference to the lofty place assigned him in the history of human redemption. B.

The sacrifice past, and the sacrificial meal over, Samuel returned to Ramah, and David to his humble avocation in his father’s household. And here also we love to mark the print of our Lord’s footsteps, and to see in the history of David the same submission to a lowly calling, and the same subjectness to his parents, as we adoringly trace in the life of Him who humbled himself to become David’s son. But there was henceforth one difference in the life of the son of Jesse. From the day of his anointing forward, “the Spirit of Jehovah seized upon David,” as formerly upon Saul, to qualify him by might and by power for the work of “God’s anointed.” A. E.—He was endued with courage, resolution, and prudence to fit him for the events which awaited him, and for the government of God’s people, whenever he should be promoted to that dignity. Chandler.—“From that day forward” David entered upon a new stage in the development of his inner life, which was wholly consecrated to God. The rich talents wherewith he was endowed from his birth received on all sides fresh unfolding. The holy record of the Books of Moses, in which he had been instructed from his earliest years, was opened to his enlightened eye more and more. The peaceful stillness of nature amid which, tending his father’s flocks, he spent his days, and often also the mild, starry nights, favored his penetration into the secrets of the Divine revelation. His heart, moved and directed from above, already poured itself out in sacred song and poem, which he sang to the accompaniment of his harp, to the praise of that God before whom from his childhood he had learned to bow the knee. Krummacher.

14. The Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul.** This Spirit is represented as a power proceeding from Jehovah,—a something communicated by Him, which clings to the person to whom it is communicated, so that it may be apportioned from him to others (Nu. 11 : 17, 25 ; 2 K. 2 : 9), but it can also be taken away from him, as here from Saul. A full indwelling of the Spirit in man, a penetration of the human spirit by the Holy Spirit, is not reached in the Old Testament, but only a working on the human mind. Though we must not read the New Testament doctrine of the Trinity into the Old Testament, it is yet undeniable that we find the way to the economic Trinity of the New Testament already prepared in the doctrine of the Malakh and of the Spirit. O.

An evil spirit from the Lord troubled him. An evil spirit, by permission of God, troubled him, by causing in him or putting into his mind, suspicious, timorous, envious, and melancholy thoughts. Wells.—The remorses of his conscience, the menaces of Samuel, God’s rejection of him, and his continual apprehensions of being dethroned by his competitor, exasperated his natural temper, generated a melancholy habit of mind, and carried him by fits into actual madness. Stackhouse.—That dark heart was haunted by the gloomy delusions which usher in despair. Reason trembled on her seat of rule, while passion and hatred led madness on, and seated her instead upon that throne of inward mystery. For years the awful conflict lasted ; gleams of light there were, but ever more the darkness deepened, and its evil, half discerned figures thronged him in wilder and denser companionship, and gathered closer around him. Wilberforce.—It only remains to say that there is need of no other agency from God than the permissive. What can be said against his wisdom or his love in leaving sinners to their own chosen ways? What reason can be given why he should not thus leave them? How can sin be more effectually forestalled and resisted in a moral universe than by sometimes giving it scope to develop its full and fearful power to sink human souls under an unutterable desolation? H. C.

There is a deeply instructive but awful pathos in this inspired statement, joined so closely as it is with that which precedes. Read them together : “The Spirit of the Lord came upon David from that day forward. But the Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the Lord troubled him.” Fearful indeed the lesson of Saul’s after life! A king, unshorn of earthly power and possession, having everything that man could have, yet living consciously under doom, knowing and feeling a blight upon all his seeming prosperity and enjoyment, with the conviction seated immovably in his soul that his own foolish self-indulgence, his wilful disobedience, had already wrought his utter and irretrievable ruin. These contrasted statements show that there is an abiding of the Spirit of God with the obedient trusting soul, which makes the heart peaceful and the life blessed and useful. And there is a grieving and quenching of the Spirit of God by wilful disobedience, and a final departure of the Spirit which leaves the soul forevermore a prey to the evil spirit, and a subject of unmitigated and unending anguish. Either God and His grace, or Satan and his malignity, must rule in every heart. Ours is the choice, and ours now the opportunity of wise and happy choice. And ours the responsibility of the final changeless result! B.

17-21. This reference to the evil spirit upon Saul appears here to account for David’s coming to court. He was brought there to relieve Saul in his paroxysms of melancholic insanity. David (as appears here) had other fine and promising qualities besides his skill in music—a mighty, valiant man, a man of war, of knowledge and skill in words (so the Hebrew); of agreeable person, and, as was well understood, a man who walked with God, and whose ways the Lord made to prosper. Hence, even Saul was favorably impressed, and, as the record puts it—“loved him greatly.” H. C.

23. It is said that the evil spirit departed, but not that the good spirit returned. Saul’s trouble was alleviated, but not removed. The disease was still here. The results of David’s harp were negative and superficial. So there are many outward applications which soothe and calm and please, but that is all; they do not go below the surface, nor touch the deep seated malady within. Our age is full of such appliances, all got up for the purpose of soothing the troubled spirits of men. H. Bonar.—But they cannot pluck out the vexing memory that has rooted itself in the very depths of the soul. The harp of David could make Saul occasionally forget, could wile him away from himself for a few moments; but it did not, could not effectively and permanently allay the inward sorrow, or chase the dark spirit away. It could charm into momentary forgetfulness, but it had no spell to break the link that bound the monarch to his fate. Hanna.