1 Samuel 16:14 - Meaning and Application

Here we see Saul falling and David rising. Saul became a terror to himself, and the Spirit of the Lord left him (1 Samuel 16:14). Since he had turned from God and from his duty, God withdrew the help of his good Spirit in righteous judgment. Saul lost the good qualities that once helped him rule and fight well. This showed both the result of rejecting God and the proof that God had rejected him.

When the Spirit of the Lord leaves a person, all that is good begins to fail. When people resist and quench the Spirit by willful sin, he does not stay forever. Then God allows an evil spirit to trouble them. Those who drive away the good Spirit soon become easy targets for the evil one. If God and his grace do not rule us, sin and Satan will take hold of us.

The devil, by God’s permission, troubled Saul through the bad moods of his body and the unrest of his mind. He became irritable, moody, unhappy, fearful, and suspicious. He kept jumping in alarm and shaking with dread. Josephus says that at times he seemed almost choked or strangled, like a man under demonic control in sudden fits. This made him unfit for work, hasty in his decisions, laughed at by his enemies, and hard for everyone around him to bear.

Here David is made Saul’s healer, and this brings him to court. David had just been privately chosen for the kingdom. It would help him to go to the king’s house and learn the world, and God arranged that for him without any plan from David or his friends. Those whom God intends for service will have his providence work with his grace to prepare them for it.

Saul’s servants were honest enough to tell him what was wrong, that an evil spirit troubled him, and that it came from God’s providence, not chance (1 Samuel 16:15). They advised music as the remedy (1 Samuel 16:16). They should have urged him to make peace with God through true repentance, and to send for Samuel to pray and plead with God for him. Then he might have found not only relief for the moment, but the return of God’s good Spirit.

Still, their idea was not useless. Music can help cheer the mind when it is burdened. But they should have joined it with better counsel for his soul. It was also a mercy that they did not send for a witch or fortune-teller to try to cast out the evil spirit by evil means, which is a wicked practice. People who turn to Satan in trouble only tighten their bond to him, and it takes more than human strength to break free from that.

One of Saul’s servants suggested David as the right man for the task, without knowing that David was the one Samuel had spoken of, the better neighbor who would have the kingdom (1 Samuel 15:28). The servant gave David a high recommendation (1 Samuel 16:18). He said David was not only handsome and skilled with the harp, but also brave, wise, and able in every matter, fit for greater honor, and best of all, the Lord was with him. Even though David had been anointed, he returned to his shepherd work, and no outward sign of the oil remained. He kept the matter secret. Yet the work of the Spirit, shown by that anointing, could not be hidden. It made him stand out even in ordinary life, so that his neighbors saw his sudden growth with wonder. David, even in shepherd clothes, had become a man of wisdom, courage, and honor. His reputation quickly reached the court, for Saul had always been interested in able young men (1 Samuel 14:52). When the Spirit of God comes on a person, it makes his face shine.

David was then sent to court. His father was willing to let him go and sent a gift with him to Saul, as was the custom then, bread and wine (1 Samuel 16:20). That gift showed respect and loyalty from the sender. Jesse may have understood that God was preparing David for his future work, so he did not push him ahead on his own. Instead, when Providence clearly opened the way, he gladly followed it. Some think Jesse feared Saul had learned that David had been anointed and meant him harm, so he sent the gift to calm him. More likely, whoever brought the request explained why David was wanted.

Saul took David kindly, loved him much, and planned to make him his armor-bearer. In a way unlike most kings, he asked Jesse’s permission to keep David in his service (1 Samuel 16:22). “Let David, I pray you, stand before me.” Saul had good reason to value him, because David served him well with his music (1 Samuel 16:23). Only the harp is mentioned here, but Josephus says David also sang, likely sacred songs of praise with his harp.

David’s music became Saul’s medicine. Music naturally has a calming and lifting effect on a troubled mind, as Elisha also used it to quiet his spirit (2 Kings 3:15). It affects some people more than others, and Saul was likely one of those. It did not control the evil spirit itself, but it calmed Saul’s spirit and eased the storms in his body and mind, through which the devil worked against him. Music cannot strike the devil, but it can close the openings by which he gets at the mind.

David’s playing was also more than ordinary. In God’s mercy, it helped give him a good name at court, showing that the Lord was with him.

God made David’s skill in music more effective in this case than anyone else’s skill would have been. Even after Saul had grown hostile toward David, he still found that no one else could help him in the same way (2 Kings 19:9, 10). That only made Saul’s anger against David worse.

It is sad that music, which can do so much to calm and steady the mind, is sometimes used to feed pride and luxury. It can also pull the heart away from God and from serious things. When music has that effect, it drives away the good Spirit, not the evil one.