1 Samuel 18:6-16
1 Samuel 18:6-16 – “Forever will it dominate your destiny”
Scripture Introduction: At this time, I would encourage each of you to turn with me in your own Bibles to 1 Samuel, chapter 18, as this morning we will see the danger of clinging to our anger – and clinging to our jealousy – as we see the sin which so often results from holding onto such feelings. This we will do as we look this morning at verses 6-16 of 1 Samuel 18.
Two weeks ago, when we first looked at this chapter, we saw that there were presented to us three different responses to David’s heroism witnessed in chapter 17, as he defeated the Philistine giant, Goliath. We saw that Jonathan, heir to throne of Israel – Jonathan’s soul was knitted to David’s. There was a loving friendship formed between the two – one sealed with a covenant – a covenant wherein Jonathan abdicated his rights as the crown prince of Israel and submitted himself to David as the Lord’s Anointed. And then there was Saul – Saul was impressed by all of the blessings which this young shepherd, musician, and warrior could provide for him. So, Saul selfishly kept David, he promoted David, and he sent him out to gain more victories for himself. And this arrangement was described as good in the eyes of the people. Saul’s family approved. Saul’s court approved. Saul’s troops approved. And all of Saul’s people approved.
And that approval will lead us directly into our text this morning, and into several more to come. But before we hear of the consequences for David’s being found good in the eyes of all of the people – let us come first, before the face of the Lord. Let us seek his wisdom, his purpose, and his calling upon us as His people – let us come before the Lord now in prayer.
Prayer
We turn now to the inspired, the inerrant, the infallible Word of the Lord. This morning I place before us
Read Text: 1 Samuel 18:6-16.
Hear now the Word of the Lord.
6 As they were coming home, when David returned from striking down the Philistine, the women came out of all the cities of Israel, singing and dancing, to meet King Saul, with tambourines, with songs of joy, and with musical instruments. 7 And the women sang to one another as they celebrated,
“Saul has struck down his thousands,
and David his ten thousands.”
8 And Saul was very angry, and this saying displeased him. He said, “They have ascribed to David ten thousands, and to me they have ascribed thousands, and what more can he have but the kingdom?” 9 And Saul eyed David from that day on.
10 The next day a harmful spirit from God rushed upon Saul, and he raved within his house while David was playing the lyre, as he did day by day. Saul had his spear in his hand. 11 And Saul hurled the spear, for he thought, “I will pin David to the wall.” But David evaded him twice.
12 Saul was afraid of David because the Lord was with him but had departed from Saul. 13 So Saul removed him from his presence and made him a commander of a thousand. And he went out and came in before the people. 14 And David had success in all his undertakings, for the Lord was with him. 15 And when Saul saw that he had great success, he stood in fearful awe of him. 16 But all Israel and Judah loved David, for he went out and came in before them.
Thus ends the reading of God’s most-holy Word.
The grass withers, the flower fades, but the Word of our God stands forever.
Introduction: The year was 1977, and I was only 9 years old when I went with my best friend to the Towson movie theatre and saw the defining movie of my generation – Star Wars – A New Hope. That movie, and its countless sequels, prequels, and spin-offs have influenced entire generations of people even to this day. But I have been saddened by the number of Christians who have tried to Christianize these films – in some cases, almost turning Luke Skywalker into a Christ-figure. But the Star Wars universe of films is most definitely not Christian – if anything, it is more Buddhist in its worldview. But there are, given our Lord’s guiding hand, his general revelation, and his common grace – there are things that can be learned from the films.
One of the most important scenes in the original trilogy of films actually occurs in the second film – The Empire Strikes Back. In the scene, Luke Skywalker has travelled to the planet Dagoba to be trained by Yoda – a jedi-master. In the scene, Yoda is teaching Luke about the force – the source of the Jedi’s power. “A jedi’s strength flows from the force, but beware of the dark side. Anger, fear, aggression, the dark side of the force are they. Easily they flow. Quick to join you in a fight. If once you turn down the dark path, forever will it dominate your destiny – consume you it will.” While the force, the Buddhist essence of a “god” is not real – there is, nonetheless, some truth to Yoda’s warning about the dark-side.
And as we see in this text, and indeed, as we will see throughout the rest of 1 Samuel, Saul needed to hear this advice, he needed to heed this advice from Yoda. Anger, fear, aggression – they will consume his thoughts and dominate his actions as he repeatedly seeks to kill David, to assassinate the Lord’s Anointed, to thwart the Sovereign Lord’s plans. What we must learn from Saul’s example is that
Proposition: We must guard our hearts against unjust anger, jealousy, and fear.
So, let’s try to learn from Saul’s bad example. In seminary I was taught that you don’t want to preach a “be like” sermon (“be like David,” for example), but this morning, I want to preach a “don’t be like” sermon: “don’t be like Saul.”
Now previously we have seen that Saul was selfish with regard to David (so much for not being like Saul) – David was valuable to him because of what David provided for Saul: he provided calm when Saul was dealing with a tormenting spirit; he provided victory when Saul needed an enemy overcome. Yes, Saul was self-centered in his relationship with David – but at this point, he held his soon-to-be son-in-law in high regard. But then, something must have happened to spoil that relationship. And something did happen – such that we find
Main Point 1: Saul’s Anger Provoked.
And the problem begins – with a group of women – but it is not the women-problem that is often the cause of animosity between two men. The animosity begins, as we see in verse 6 as
Point 1: The heroes are celebrated.
“As they were coming home, when David returned from striking down the Philistine, the women came out of all the cities of Israel, singing and dancing, to meet King Saul, with tambourines, with songs of joy, and with musical instruments.” Victory was miraculously achieved and so the ticker-tape parade is held. Everyone has specifically, according to the text, they have come out to greet – King Saul – but we can imagine that they also came out to greet David as well. The commander and the soldier are both celebrated. The rejoicing is underway – and nothing seems out of the ordinary up to this point.
But then the women open their mouths. Then we hear their song and the problem that will form the backdrop for the remaining 14 chapters of this book finds its root cause voiced. And all of the animosity/hatred/and murderous intent is so tragic because it is all based on the fact that from Saul’s perspective,
Point 2: The song is misunderstood.
Verses 7 and 8: “And the women sang to one another as they celebrated, ‘Saul has struck down his thousands, and David his ten thousands.’ And Saul was very angry, and this saying displeased him. He said, ‘They have ascribed to David ten thousands, and to me they have ascribed thousands, and what more can he have but the kingdom?’” Saul has heard the women ascribe victory to himself – but he hears them ascribe a much greater victory to David – and Saul’s blood begins to boil. And perhaps we can empathize with Saul – after all, he was the king – he should receive the greater honor – so, was this a case of the women showing him disrespect? That is certainly how Saul took it. And he even carries the disrespect to its fullest conclusion – “the next thing you know, they are going to want to make him king!” (And here, Saul actually speaks ironically, he speaks prophetically, as David is indeed the one who is better than him – David is the one who will ultimately replace him.)
But I should hope that you have noticed that my point in the sermon outline is that the song is misunderstood. Saul’s fearful, Saul’s angry, Saul’s jealous interpretation of the women’s song is off base. Obviously, the women were not being literal in their statement – and in fact, it was Saul who had, to this point, stuck down many more enemies than had David. But, as John Woodhouse notes, “If you understand the conventions of Hebrew poetry, and if you are not paranoid (as Saul was), you can appreciate that there may have been nothing deliberately sinister in the women’s song. They were [actually] linking Saul and David together in this victory. The convention of putting a number in the first line (Saul has killed his thousands) and [then] beefing it up in the second line (David has killed his ten-thousands) was normal Hebrew poetic style. It was if they were to say, more prosaically, ‘Saul and David have struck down … thousands and tens of thousands.’ And they did mention Saul first!” (Woodhouse, pg. 352) But for Saul, no doubt influenced by the evil spirit that maligned him, Saul was moved to a jealous hatred for David – he missed the entire point of the women’s song.
But there is one more thing we must take note of with regard to this song before we move on. Notice that the women’s praise only goes to men. But the battle belonged – to the Lord – the victory was his – but given Israel’s current spiritual state under Saul’s leadership, all that the women could praise were the instruments the Lord used, and not the Lord himself. This truly is a sad song – and this sad song definitely said too much – even if it wasn’t sad as Saul understood it.
Saul misunderstood the celebration – and moved by fear, anger, and jealousy, we see in verse 9 that
Point 3: The King’s heart was settled.
“And Saul eyed David from that day on.” “He ‘eyed’ him ([this is] a unique expression; [with] the NIV rendering [it] ‘kept a jealous eye on’ [but] should perhaps be modified to ‘kept a fearful eye on.’)” (Youngblood, pg. 708) Or as I would say, ‘he kept a murderous eye on,’ or ‘kept an opportune eye on.’ The point is that Saul was now settled in his mind – settled in his heart that David, David who had been nothing but faithful to him, David needed to be dealt with – the Lord’s Anointed needed to be eliminated as a threat to the throne. Oh how this should remind us of a group of future leaders in Israel who will settle their hearts and minds in hatred for THE Lord’s anointed and keep a murderous eye on Him – seeking His death.
But before we move on to the implementation of Saul’s settled heart – let me make two brief additional comments:
- How often do our own misunderstandings lead us to a settled heart of anger? To a settled heart of jealousy? Our confession of faith calls for us to believe the best about others – so when you are led to such feelings of anger, jealousy, and hatred – seek out the one you have such feelings for – go to them – openly discuss how you are feeling – allow them the opportunity to correct what may actually be your own misunderstandings. Don’t let a potential misunderstanding come between you and another – especially if that other is a brother or sister in Christ.
- And secondly, Saul’s settled heart leads him to begin a long series (which continues even until Saul’s death at the end of this book) – a long series of Saul’s attempts to take David’s life. We’ll see it twice in the remainder of our text this morning. We will see it again next week, and many more times in the weeks to come. Indeed, as Yoda said, “If once you turn down the dark path, forever will it dominate your destiny – consume you it will.” And consume Saul it did.
So, let’s dive into Saul’s actions which flow from Saul’s settled mind – even as he will take matters into his own hands as we read of
Main Point 2: Saul’s Anger Manifested
In verses 10 and 11. “10 The next day a harmful spirit from God rushed upon Saul, and he raved within his house while David was playing the lyre, as he did day by day. Saul had his spear in his hand. 11 And Saul hurled the spear, for he thought, ‘I will pin David to the wall.’ But David evaded him twice.”
I want to apply this simple series of events to us and to our lives through 3 simple questions which flow naturally from this little paragraph. The first question is from verse 10:
Point 1: What S(s)pirit leads us?
We are told at the beginning of verse 10 that a harmful/evil spirit “rushed” upon Saul. We have seen that verb (rushed) before. In chapters 10 and 11 the Spirit of the Lord rushed upon Saul – first enabling him to prophecy as a sign that he was set apart by the Lord to be Israel’s first king, and on the second occasion the Spirit of the Lord rushed upon Saul strengthening him to defeat the Ammonites. We were then told in chapter 16 that the Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul and at that time “rushed upon” (same verb) David where he would remain from that day forward. Therefore, as the Spirit of the Lord is now with David, leading David, a harmful/evil spirit now rushes upon Saul. Which leads us to ask ourselves: what spirit is leading us? Are we truly being led by the Spirit of God? It’s easy for “believers” to say ‘yes.’ But are we? Or, are we being led by a harmful/evil/tormenting spirit? Far too often, believers, indwelt by the Spirit of the Lord, believers submit themselves not to the Holy Spirit as He works by and with the Word of God, but far too often believers submit themselves to the leading of the spirit of this world, to the spirit of this age, to those evil spirits in the heavenly places. Make sure that you are being led not by such spirits – but by the Holy Spirit. The apostle John writes: “1 Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. 2 By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, 3 and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already. 4 Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. 5 They are from the world; therefore they speak from the world, and the world listens to them. 6 We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us; whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error.” (1 John 4:1-6)
And we can often determine what spirit is leading us as we consider this second question:
Point 2: What is in our hands?
We get a glimpse in verse 10 of Saul – brooding as he walks around in his home – raving, mad – but he is carrying a spear. As Richard Phillips writes (Meditation), “Sin cherished in the heart will invariably express itself through the mouth and the hands.” (Phillips, pg. 328) Saul has allowed sin (unjust anger and jealousy) to flourish in his heart – and now he carries around with him a means to let that sin express itself through his hands.
Contrast what is in Saul’s hand with hat is in David’s hand. David is also found with an instrument in his hand as he follows Saul around in his house. David has his lyre. David is faithfully trying to soothe, faithfully seeking to refresh the troubled king. So, what do we carry in our hands – or perhaps in our mouths – Do we carry instruments to soothe and to refresh? Or, do we carry instruments to bring hurt and pain?
We see in verse 10 the different spirits that are leading these two men – and we see as a result what is in their hands, but there is one final question that verse 11 poses to us:
Point 3: What is in our minds?
Saul is not just carrying his spear – he has in his mind to pin David to the wall with it – that is, to kill David with it. Twice Saul hurls his spear at his faithful servant – but twice he misses. His mind was bent on destroying the one he believed to be his rival – but the Lord thwarted his plans.
Saul tried to take matters into his own hands – but he failed twice. So, he thinks to himself, “maybe I could make use of his enemies’ hands” – he thinks to himself, “maybe the Philistines can help.” So, we read in the last paragraph of our text, of Saul’s second attempt on David’s life – we read of
Main Point 3: Saul’s murderous design.
In these verses, we uncover
Point 1: A fearful plan.
In verse 12 we read that “Saul was afraid of David because the Lord was with him but had departed from Saul.” Robert Chisolm notes that “Fear is attributed to Saul on two prior occasions (in 1 Sam. 15:24 when Saul confessed to Samuel that he “feared” the people instead of the Lord; and in 17:11 when he heard the words of Goliath). On both of those occasions, Saul’s fear was unwarranted and [actually] inappropriate (He was the Lord’s Anointed). Now, ironically, he fears David, even though David is loyal to him.” (Chisolm, pg. 124) Saul is afraid of David – why? – because of the Lord’s presence – so clearly with David – the Lord’s presence which had abandoned him. Of this fear leading to anger, resentment, and ultimately to a plot to kill, Richard Phillips aptly applies this situation to our lives – “Saul is just like people today who focus their resentment and frustration on other people when their real problem is God. Saul’s true problem was not David’s popularity, the foolish song of the women, or even the Philistines. Saul’s problem was his [own] hostile relationship with the Lord.” (Phillips, pg. 329) This led to Saul’s fear of David – a fear that escalates in verse 15 – where he was literally terrified of David because of David’s great success.
Saul’s fear then leads to a plan – “So Saul removed him from his presence and made him a commander of a thousand.” His motive, as we shall see moving forward, was that he would put David at the head of his army, and as they battled the Philistines – his hope was that David would then be killed by the enemy.
Fear led to a murderous design, and in that, we notice that Saul’s plan to kill David was also
Point 2: A foreshadowing plan.
Saul sends David to the front lines to face the Philistines so that he might be killed. This clearly foreshadows David’s own murderous design in 2 Samuel 11 when David does the very same thing to Uriah the Hittite so that David can claim Uriah’s David-impregnated wife, Bathsheba, for himself. Maybe it was this evil episode that came to David’s memory when he faced his own fearful situation. How tragic it is when a believer mimics the sinful designs of the unbeliever to deal with their “problems”. But we are often guilty of such mimicking – aren’t we? We follow the world’s plans instead of running to the Lord.
Saul’s fearful plan will be echoed in David’s own sinful plan, but we need to see one other thing in this paragraph, and that is
Point 3: The “face” of the plan.
In this paragraph, the Hebrew of “the word ‘face’ [occurs] four times. Saul feared David’s ‘face’ in verse 12 and stood in awe of his ‘face’ in verse 15. David went out and came in before the ‘face’ of the people in [both] verses 13, 16. It is a paragraph about how various people ‘faced’ each other or, we might say, ‘faced off.’” (Woodhouse, pg. 354) Therefore, David would have to face the Philistines because he looked good before the face of the people, creating fear in Saul who removed David from before his own face.
Such was the plan and the action of King Saul – but this plan, as ingenious as it was, and unlike David’s use of such a sinful plan later, for Saul, it was
Point 4: A failed plan.
The Philistines aren’t able to kill David (though they will later be the cause of Saul’s death). On the contrary, David will continue to strike down the Philistines – causing his popularity to grow more and more among the people. Saul’s plan to give David over to the hands of the Philistines failed just as much as Saul’s taking matters into his own hands in the previous paragraph had failed, and every other sinister plan Saul will hatch will meet with the exact same failure. God has established his King – his anointed – and no plan from any man (even from a king) can change that – the One enthroned in heaven laughs at such foolish plans of sinful man.
Conclusion: Saul, led by an evil spirit, drowning in fear, finds himself in a horrible cycle of destruction. Walter Brueggemann puts it this way, “Failing to understand his true situation, Saul is placed in an impossible circumstance. David drives Saul wild, but only David can soothe Saul. Saul is left with an endless cycle of rage and comfort, wherein the comforter evokes more rage, which [then] requires fresh comfort.” (Brueggemann, pg. 137-138)
Of course, Saul could not understand that for himself. And we are often left just as paralyzed as we try to understand our own actions. Author, and biblical counselor, Gary Chapman, in his book on Covenant Marriage, explains that we frequently can’t identify why it is that we respond in certain situations the way we do. For example, we are we struck with paralyzing fear, like Saul – simply because of the sound of a voice that we have heard. What happens is that everything we take in through our senses (the song of the women, the crowd’s response to David and his growing popularity), we run our observations through the matrix of our own life experiences and our own personal worldview. Running our observations through the matrix of our personal history then creates feelings – sadness, anger, fear – but it can do the same with positive emotions like joy and comfort. Our feelings – prompted by our internal matrix’s interpretation of what we have seen or heard, then leads to words and to action. In Saul’s case, his rejection of the Lord, his subsequent rejection by the Lord, and these circumstances lead him to see David as a rival. So, when the women sing, though Saul inherently knows better, his matrix interprets their song as a personal snub. And when the crowds rejoice in David’s victories, Saul sees it as a threat to his kingship. This leads to anger and to fear, which in turn, leads to a lifetime of repeated attempts to facilitate the death of his rival.
You can run your own responses to life’s occurrences through such a similar analyzation. But let me suggest to you that there is only 1 moment in your personal history that you need to run every observation and every experience through. It is this 1 moment in your own personal history which should alone shape all of your feelings – and therefore all of your words and actions. That moment: the moment you were born-again – the moment the Holy Spirit rushed upon you and gave you a new heart – the moment the Father drew you to the Son – the moment when you turned to Jesus in faith, repenting of your sin. That moment (and that which it points to – the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus on your behalf) should direct how you feel about everything! That moment should direct your every action and your every word! So, Believer, Run everything you observe – everything you think – everything through the matrix – of your salvation – and when you do, at least some of Yoda’s words will be true – when you focus only on the salvation life given to you – by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, “forever will it dominate your destiny.”
Let’s pray.
Prayer