The way God
works in our lives is amazing and baffling at the same time. God abandoned King Saul, and asked Samuel to
anoint a new king from among the sons of Jesse.
Samuel goes for the external appearance in choosing a new king but God
commands him to look into the heart of the man (1 Sam.16:7). Out of eight sons of Jesse, the last one,
David the unlikely, is chosen to be the new king.
As Samuel
anoints David the shepherd boy for the task of leading a troubled nation as its
king, the shepherd boy himself had no clue as what he was getting into. Yes, he had the experience of leading his
sheep in the woods and protecting them from the wild beasts. But leading a rebellious nation, a nation in
decline and surrounded by its enemies could have never crossed David’s mind. Yes, he was a daring shepherd who stood
against the lions and the bears, but leading a nation torn asunder from within
by its ruler could not be so much a possibility for the shepherd boy. If at all such an opportunity came his way,
he had seven elder brothers who would be far more promising than him for the
task ahead.
Even Samuel’s
judgment failed. After rejecting seven
handsome and promising sons of Jesse, he asks “are these all the sons you have?”
as if he was wondering whether God had made a mistake in calculating Jesse’s
sons.
Finally when David
appears in the scene; Samuel leaps to his feet and anoints the ruddy, handsome
looking lad. Oblivious to the human eyes
witnessing the scene, the Bible says, “So Samuel took the horn of oil and
anointed him in the presence of his brothers, and from that day on the Spirit
of the LORD came upon David in power” (1 Sam. 16:14).
From now onward,
the Spirit of the Lord would become David’s companion and guide to lead him in all
his physical and spiritual victories.
But there came a time in his later life in which he was so close in losing
the companionship of the Spirit. In such
a time, he cries out to God and laments; “Do not cast me away from your
presence or take your Holy Spirit from me” (Ps. 51:11). David knew the dangers of living a life
without the abiding presence of the Holy Spirit. He left no stone unturned to repent from his
sins so that God would be merciful to allow the presence of the Spirit in his
life.
David could
never imagine of a life without the guiding presence of the Spirit because,
right about the time he was anointed by Samuel, something had happened to Saul
and David knew it. In 1 Samuel 16:13,
David receives the Spirit of the Lord and in the very next verse it says “Now
the Spirit of the Lord had departed from Saul, and an evil (injurious) spirit
from the LORD tormented him”. From that
time onward, Saul was a man hunted and tormented by this evil spirit. Saul’s people tried everything to set him
free from this spirit but they could not.
As a last resort, they tried to see if music could soothe Saul’s
tormented soul. Amazingly, David
happened to be the man who would play the anointed music to relieve Saul from
the torment of this spirit. Because of
his music, David would also become Saul’s armor bearer.
The way God
works is amazing. When God brought David
in Saul’s palace as a musician and later as armor bearer; it was for David,
much less for Saul. David was given the
opportunity to learn some of the most valuable lessons of his life.
First, David saw
how life can lose all its pleasures and purposes when abandoned by God. Saul’s life was to serve David the lesson of
his lifetime that if he ever allowed this separation of the Spirit from his
life due to his sins, he would have nothing left in his hands. At one time, with his own sinful humanity,
David went toward this direction and in Psalms 32 we see him returning with
broken bones due to the power of un-confessed sins. He says “When I kept silent, my bones wasted
away…Then I acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity. I said, ‘I will confess my transgressions to
the Lord’ – and you forgave the guilt of my sin” (32:3-5). David could never imagine of living a life
like he saw Saul living without God’s favor upon his life.
Second, by
bringing David in the palace and putting him so close to Saul, God was teaching
David the art of kingship. God used the
abandoned and rejected king of Israel to teach David the art of rule and
royalty. Yes, many times David was
nearly killed by Saul. But when God has
his finger upon a life, not a hair would fall without his will. David proved to be a man after God’s own
heart because in all his dealings with Saul, he never once expressed hate and
bitterness toward a God appointed king; God only has the right to dethrone the
king he put upon the throne. Even when
he could easily take Saul’s life and usurp the throne, though tempted at first,
David followed the prompting of the Spirit, allowing God to take control of the
situation. He rebukes himself and his
people for even thinking a thought like that (1 Sam. 24:5-7).
Those of us who
love God, like David, whether we are in the field tending sheep, whether we are
in the palace playing some musical instrument to soothe a tormented soul, whether
we are the armor bearer to a leader helping him to fight, whether we are
sitting upon the throne ruling over our kingdom; whatever be the station in our
lives, let us learn like David the lessons he learned. Let us not live in sin and lose the abiding
presence of the Spirit; let us live in repentance. Let us also not be bitter for the suffering
and hardship that come our way when God prepares us for the task ahead. Like David, let us live in the Spirit and be
a faithful shepherd, a musician, an armor bearer and a king for God’s glory! God has a way of using our difficulties and our
enemies for our training and benefit; all we got to do is to rest in God and
live for his glory like David did while our enemy works in our behalf at God's bidding.
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