1 Samuel 16:15

_AND SAUL'S SERVANTS SAID UNTO HIM, BEHOLD NOW, AN EVIL SPIRIT FROM GOD TROUBLETH THEE._ Saul's servants said unto him. The Hebrew physicians knew of no remedy for a malady of the sort but music, which 'has charms to soothe the savage breast;' and accordingly they advised to obtain the services of a person skillful in instrumental music....

14-23 Saul is made a terror to himself. The Spirit of the Lord departed from him. If God and his grace do not rule us, sin and Satan will have possession of us. The devil, by the Divine permission, troubled and terrified Saul, by the corrupt humours of his body, and passions of his mind. He grew fretful, peevish, and discontented, and at times a madman. It is a pity that music, which may be serviceable to the good temper of the mind, should ever be abused, to support vanity and luxury, and made an occasion of drawing the heart from God and serious things. That is driving away the good Spirit, not the evil spirit. Music, diversions, company, or business, have for a time often been employed to quiet the wounded conscience; but nothing can effect a real cure but the blood of Christ, applied in faith, and the sanctifying Spirit sealing the pardon, by his holy comforts. All other plans to dis...

The “evil” or “melancholy” spirit here spoken of was “the Spirit of God,” or “of Jehovah,” as being God’s messenger and minister, sent by Him to execute His righteous purpose upon Saul (see 1 Kings 22:19 note)....

DAVID ANOINTED AS THE FUTURE KING, AND HIS FIRST INTRODUCTION TO SAUL. (1 Samuel 16:1) EXPOSITION CHOICE OF DAVID AS SUCCESSOR TO SAUL (1 Samuel 16:1). 1 SAMUEL 16:1 HOW LONG WRIT THOU MOURN? The grief of Samuel was prolonged almost to a sinful extent, nor can we wonder at it. We who see Saul's whole career, and know how deeply he fell

AND SAUL'S SERVANTS SAID UNTO HIM,.... His courtiers, who observing him to act in a frantic manner, to be dull and melancholy, timorous, and irresolute, unsteady, divided, and distressed; or his physicians, who were called in to assist him, and remove his disorder from him: BEHOLD, NOW AN EVIL SPIRIT FROM GOD TROUBLETH THEE: the disorder was not from any natural cause, or any bodily disease, and therefore out of the reach of physicians to do any service, but was from an evil spirit suffered of God to harass and disturb him....

III. DAVID, THE KING AFTER GOD'S HEART--HIS EXILE AND SUFFERING 1. David Anointed King and the Departure of the Spirit from Saul CHAPTER 16 _ 1. David anointed king (1 Samuel 16:1)_ 2. The Spirit departs from Saul and David with Saul (1 Samuel 16:14) The king after the people's heart has failed and is set aside, and now Jehovah brings forth His king after His own heart. That king like Jonathan, a man of faith, is devoted to Jehovah and in perfect subjection unto Him. Furthermore, from the tribe of Judah (Judah means “praise”) he is a worshipper through whom the Spirit of God pours forth the sweetest strains of praise and worship. He prospers into a great kingdom and Jehovah makes an oathbound covenant with him ...

DAVID, SAUL'S MINSTREL. (J), the ancient narrative, continues 1 Samuel 14:52. The earlier and more authentic of the two accounts of David's introduction to Saul (_cf._ 1 Samuel 17:55 ff.). Saul became possessed with some form of recurrent mania, which the primitive combination of pathology and theology explained by saying that the Spirit of Yahweh had departed from him, and that Yahweh had sent an evil spirit to torment him; so, according to Micaiah, 1 Kings 22:23, Yahweh put a lying spirit in the mouth of Ahab's prophets. For us such statements connect themselves with the problem of the relation between the Divine Omnipotence and the origin of evil, but here they show that the Israelites did not yet ful

GOD. Hebrew. _Elohim_ (App-4). Saul's servants not in communion with Jehovah, the Covenant God. App-4....

David's introduction to the Court of Saul 14. _But the spirit of the Lord departed from Saul_ Note the contrast to 1 Samuel 16:13. As David rose, Saul sank. _an evil spirit from the Lord_ The cause of Saul's mental disorder is described as "an evil spirit from Jehovah," or "of Jehovah" (1 Samuel 19:9); "an evil spirit of God" (1 Samuel 16:15; 1 Samuel 18:10); "the spirit of evil" (1 Samuel 16:23); even "the spirit of God" (1 Samuel 16:23

SAUL'S SERVANTS SAID, &C.— The remainder of this chapter is undoubtedly an anticipation, but introduced by the sacred historian very properly and very naturally; for, having related at large how God had rejected Saul, and anointed David, he goes on (as it was a matter of the utmost moment in a religious history,) to inform us of the effects both of one and the other; though we are not to suppose them the instantaneous effects. The effects of Saul's rejection were, he tells us, the departure of God's spirit from him, and his being troubled with an evil spirit. This leads him naturally to speak of the effects of David's election, namely, his being endowed with many divine graces. So that the true chronology of this part of David's life stands thus: He is anointed by Samuel; he carries provisions to his brethren; he fights and overcomes Goliath; is received in the king's court; contracts a...