1 Samuel 16:14-23

the Young Harper before the Dejected King

1 Samuel 16:14

In one sentence we are told of the Spirit of the Lord coming upon David, 1 Samuel 16:13, and in the next of the departure of the Spirit from Saul. This does not necessarily imply that all religious sensibility had become extinct, but that the special enduement which had fitted him for his kingly office had been withdrawn. An evil spirit “from the Lord” troubled him; that is, God permitted this spirit to enter. The garrison of peace and love had, been willfully dismissed by Saul, and by the inevitable operation of the divine law, as He had banished the light, he was necessarily left in darkness. God gave him up to a reprobate mind, Romans 1:24; Romans 1:26; Romans 1:28.

The king's depression demanded an antidote, which was provided by music. Philip V of Spain was helped in the same fashion. The minstrel was none other than the young shepherd so recently anointed. A directing Providence superintends every incident in life. That a servant of Saul's had seen David in some country contest was only a link in the chain, 1 Samuel 16:18. God has a plan for each life. “All things work together for good to them that love God,” Romans 8:28.