Bible Commentaries

16:1-19:24 THE RISE OF DAVID

David brought to the royal court (16:1-23)

When told by God to go and anoint a king to replace Saul, Samuel feared to, lest Saul kill him. God therefore told Samuel to keep the matter secret (16:1-3). Reassured by this additional word from God, Samuel went to Bethlehem, where he met the leading men of the important families in that area (4-5).

The outcome of Samuel's visit was that he anointed David, youngest son of the family of Jesse. Anointing was a way of marking out people for other important positions besides kingship, and Samuel gave no indication to the onlookers why he had anointed David. For David's sake, as well as for Samuel's, Saul was not to know that Samuel had already anointed David as Saul's successor. Many years would pass before David actually became king (6-13).

Now that the special power of God's Spirit came upon David (see v. 13), it departed from Saul. Troubled by his own jealousy and sense of insecurity, Saul became emotionally and mentally unstable. Meanwhile David matured. He became skilled in speech, writing and music, and learnt to be a brave fighter through having to defend his flocks from wild animals and Philistine raiders (14-18; cf. 17:34-36). The next step in his preparation for kingship was his introduction to Saul as one who could play music to relax the king's troubled nerves. The outcome of this was that eventually he became a permanent member of the royal court (19-23).