Archives for April 2012

When we left David, he was the preteen annointed King of Israel who was still moonlighting as a shepherd.

Now the Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul, ^X)’> who are before you to seek out a man who is skillful in playing the lyre, and when the harmful spirit from God is upon you, he will ^Z)’> a man of valor, a man of war, prudent in speech, and a man of good presence, ^AB)’> who is with the sheep.”   ^AD)’> and entered his service. And Saul loved him greatly, and he became his armor-bearer. And Saul sent to Jesse, saying, “Let David remain in my service, for he has found favor in my sight.” And ^AF)’> and played it with his hand. So Saul was refreshed and was well, and the harmful spirit departed from him.

1 Samuel 16: 14-23

I’m not sure how much time has passed here.  This servant refers to David as a man so I think David must be older by now.  But he apparently still is ok to just be a servant to the other king.  I think it’s pretty clear that Saul is suffering from a mental illness here.  And this makes me even more awestruck at David’s behavior.  He’s a king who is completely ok with being a servant.  It’s an attitude that is mostly foreign to our modern sensibilities.  We are a people obsessed with getting what we deserve (and we always think we deserve more and better than what we actually get.)  But David doesn’t demand his rightful place.  He just does what he is told.  That’s refreshing as heck, isn’t it?