And Saul said unto his servants, Provide me now a man that can play well, and bring him to me.
After rejection by God, Saul was left in bitter rebellion and despair, nearly losing his reason, with a distracted, melancholy and excited mind. On the advice of his counselors he asked his servants to provide a man who could play well and bring him to the king in order to calm and soothe his troubled spirit. In God's providence David was brought to Saul's notice as a skillful harp player, recommended also as a valiant man of war and as prudent and faithful in all matters because guided by the Lord.
While humbled and favorably disposed, Saul sent messengers for David, soon loved him and expressed delight in him and his music, and made him his armor-bearer and attendant, thinking that one favored by God would be a safeguard to him and perhaps save his life from his enemies. David's skillful, lofty, heaven-inspired playing charmed away the brooding gloom that settled like a dark cloud over Saul, soothed his troubled mind, and brought him into a more rational and happy state until the evil influence departed from him. Sacred and vocal music also brought Saul under a devotional influence in which he caught the spirit of devotion and poured out impassioned praise and prayer in lofty eloquence without rest day or night until the excitement spent itself, after which reaction came, his strength failed, he was left exhausted, and his old disposition returned.
His character joined strength with weakness in contradictory elements working at cross purposes with God, and his gifts of talent, had they been wholly consecrated to God, would not have ended in dishonor through his own transgression. At times he showed marked simplicity, tenderness and sympathy toward those who pleased him, but at other times jealousy, an overbearing spirit, injustice and cruelty toward his best friends, falling when his will was crossed into fury in words and deeds dishonoring to himself and still more dishonoring to God. In him good and evil were ever in collision, with evil ever striving for the supremacy. When his services were not required at court, David returned to his flocks among the hills, leaving the king's house for the fields with relief and gladness, and he was recalled when necessary to minister before the king and soothe the troubled monarch. The account places David, a shepherd lad holding God's promise of the throne, against Saul, the established monarch bent on keeping his power, making David an example of trusting God's word while appearing helpless before worldly power.
After rejection by God, Saul was left in bitter rebellion and despair, nearly losing his reason, with a distracted, melancholy and excited mind. On the advice of his counselors he asked his servants to provide a man who could play well and bring him to the king in order to calm and soothe his troubled spirit. In God's providence David was brought to Saul's notice as a skillful harp player, recommended also as a valiant man of war and as prudent and faithful in all matters because guided by the Lord.
While humbled and favorably disposed, Saul sent messengers for David, soon loved him and expressed delight in him and his music, and made him his armor-bearer and attendant, thinking that one favored by God would be a safeguard to him and perhaps save his life from his enemies. David's skillful, lofty, heaven-inspired playing charmed away the brooding gloom that settled like a dark cloud over Saul, soothed his troubled mind, and brought him into a more rational and happy state until the evil influence departed from him. Sacred and vocal music also brought Saul under a devotional influence in which he caught the spirit of devotion and poured out impassioned praise and prayer in lofty eloquence without rest day or night until the excitement spent itself, after which reaction came, his strength failed, he was left exhausted, and his old disposition returned.
His character joined strength with weakness in contradictory elements working at cross purposes with God, and his gifts of talent, had they been wholly consecrated to God, would not have ended in dishonor through his own transgression. At times he showed marked simplicity, tenderness and sympathy toward those who pleased him, but at other times jealousy, an overbearing spirit, injustice and cruelty toward his best friends, falling when his will was crossed into fury in words and deeds dishonoring to himself and still more dishonoring to God. In him good and evil were ever in collision, with evil ever striving for the supremacy. When his services were not required at court, David returned to his flocks among the hills, leaving the king's house for the fields with relief and gladness, and he was recalled when necessary to minister before the king and soothe the troubled monarch. The account places David, a shepherd lad holding God's promise of the throne, against Saul, the established monarch bent on keeping his power, making David an example of trusting God's word while appearing helpless before worldly power.