1Samuel 16:14-23

Relax, Read and Reflect
Prayer- Lord, Open our hearts and open our minds and help us learn. Go-Fight-Win. Amen.

1 Samuel 16:14-23 (The Message)

David—An Excellent Musician

¹⁴ At that very moment the Spirit of God left Saul and in its place a black mood sent by God settled on him. He was terrified.

^15-16 Saul's advisors said, "This awful tormenting depression from God is making your life miserable. O Master, let us help. Let us look for someone who can play the harp. When the black mood from God moves in, he'll play his music and you'll feel better."

¹⁷ Saul told his servants, "Go ahead. Find me someone who can play well and bring him to me."

¹⁸ One of the young men spoke up, "I know someone. I've seen him myself: the son of Jesse of Bethlehem, an excellent musician. He's also courageous, of age, well-spoken, and good-looking. And God is with him."

¹⁹ So Saul sent messengers to Jesse requesting, "Send your son David to me, the one who tends the sheep."

^20-21 Jesse took a donkey, loaded it with a couple of loaves of bread, a flask of wine, and a young goat, and sent his son David with it to Saul. David came to Saul and stood before him. Saul liked him immediately and made him his right-hand man.

²² Saul sent word back to Jesse: "Thank you. David will stay here. He's just the one I was looking for. I'm very impressed by him."

²³ After that, whenever the bad depression from God tormented Saul, David got out his harp and played. That would calm Saul down, and he would feel better as the moodiness lifted.

Today I chose to use "The Message " paraphrase as text. It is good to be able to look at several versions when studying the Bible. Sometimes one may leave you scratching your head going "huh" and another may bring it home.

God left Saul. When he did a dark mood or bad spirit came in. Today most scholars think it was a mental illness, probably manic-depression. When Saul began to suffer he looked for someone who could sooth him, make him feel better. Saul was king, and a big and powerful dude. If I was one of his advisers and he was freaking out-I would want him to sooth down. They say that music calms the savage beast, so the advisers-his cabinet- looked for a good harp player. Guess what? David played the harp. God does work in mysterious ways.

They sent for David and when Saul would get depressed, David would play for him and make him feel better. This made Saul-and his cabinet- feel better.

Questions:

1. Think about verse 14. Does this give us a clue about our lives?

2. Wouldn't have been easier if God had not brought David and Saul together? Why or why not.

3. What did this do for David? Why was his relationship with Saul important?