1 Samuel 1

Chapter 1. David, the Man After God’s Own HeartI have found David son of Jesse a man after my own heart; he will do everything I want him to do. (Acts 13:22)David is the antithesis of Saul, and as the latter foreshadowed the counterfeit kingdom which Satan is trying to palm off on the world, so David represents the true kingdom and the true spirit of His kingdom. Let us look for the present at David’s call and consecration to his high office as God’s anointed.

Section I: God’s Seeking

Section I—God’s SeekingIn 1 Samuel 13:14 the prophet is represented as saying to Saul, “The Lord has sought out a man after his own heart and appointed him leader of his own people.” God was seeking a true man to represent Him in the government of His people. It is peculiar to notice how this language is used by the prophet of Judah’s declining kingdom, “I looked for a man among them… but I found none” (Ezekiel 22:30). God is represented as seeking for a man who can understand His thoughts and represent His will. Even David afterwards failed to meet His expectation. And it was not until the Lord Jesus at length stood on Jordan’s banks, the first spotless man since Adam failed, that God at length could say, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased” (Matthew 3:17). God’s Man Saul had utterly failed and God was seeking for a man to take his place. But a little later the language changes and He exclaims, “I have found David my servant; with my sacred oil I have anointed him” (Psalms 89:20). God has discovered a true man, or, as the inspired Scriptures expresses it, “a man after my own heart; he will do everything I want him to do” (Acts 13:22). What God wanted was a man after His heart. Saul was a man after his own heart and after the world’s heart. He represented man’s ideals of manhood and he aimed to gratify his own ambitions and work out his own plans. God, the true theocratic King of Israel, wanted a man that would simply represent Him, that would catch His thought and reproduce it and work it out in his life. The same testimony is borne to David elsewhere, when it is said, “David had served God’s purpose in his own generation” (Acts 13:36). The aim of David’s life was to do the will of God. But there is a third passage in this chain of references which completes the story of David’s call. It is 1 Samuel 16:1 : “Fill your horn with oil and be on your way; I am sending you to Jesse of Bethlehem. I have chosen one of his sons to be king.” God had been seeking a man and He had found him at last, and here the secret is told: “I have chosen one of his sons to be king.” The reason he met God’s expectations was because God had provided him. The people provided Saul. He was their choice; but God provided David contrary to the expectations of man and all outward appearances or probabilities. God never will find things that will satisfy Him until He first provides them. The secret of pleasing God is to possess God, and let Him possess you; for He gives what He commands and enables for that which He requires. The Contrast As we look at these two men—Saul and David—it is not strange if we should sometimes be perplexed in reference to God’s strong preference of the one and unqualified rejection of the other, for there was much in Saul to commend, and there was much in David to condemn. Saul was naturally noble, generous and brave. The very act of the character of Jonathan, his son, implies that there must have been something naturally good in the character of his father, so far as any fallen man can have any good in him. Then the early life of Saul has many attractive features. He seems to have been a dutiful son, seeking industriously for his father’s lost asses, and when he failed to find them he quickly responds to the suggestion to go to the prophet and ask counsel of God. There were some elements of piety apparent in his conduct; and when Samuel gave him his extraordinary commission, he behaved himself with singular propriety. He kept his secret well. He opened his heart to receive the Holy Spirit, who came upon him in a peculiar power. He joined a band of prophets and sang and ministered like them. If we except excessive humility in connection with his inauguration—in his hiding among the stuff—he seemed unobtrusive and becoming in his deportment. His first exploits as commander and king of Israel’s hosts were marked; and still later in his life attachment to David breaks out in the midst of his wild and passionate vindictiveness, and he breaks down and cries like a baby when he discovers the generosity of the man whose life he had been seeking. Then, on the other hand, David had most glaring faults, notwithstanding all the beautiful traits of his personal character and his deep and genuine piety. God’s Word does not excuse the unbridled lust and the cool deliberate cruelty with which he could, as Nathan expresses it, snatch the one ewe lamb from the bosom of his faithful servant and soldier, Uriah, and then calmly and cunningly send that brave and loyal man, in the very ardor of his devotion to his king, right into the jaws of death, on purpose to get rid of his interference with his royal master’s shameful selfishness. The worst of all is the torpor and paralysis of David’s conscience, which for two whole years was utterly insensible to the double-dyed crime until God’s strong reproof and chastening at length brought him to his senses, and struck a flash of light into his deadened moral sensibilities. God’s faithful Word always tells the worst about the subjects of His grace. How then can we explain this strong language of preference in which God speaks of David and the unequivocal censure which condemned and rejected Saul? Self-Will and God’s Will

1. Saul represented self-will; David represents God’s will. Saul’s great object was to carry out his own ambition. David’s chief desire was to understand and accomplish the divine purpose concerning him. When he erred he did it blindly, but the moment he recognized and realized his disobedience, he broke down like a penitent child. There was no self-will, no obstinacy, no rebellion in his spirit. There was error, terrible error. There was impulse, there was earthly passion; but his will was true to God when he really understood the will of God. The Natural and Spiritual Man
2. Saul represented the natural man, and David the spiritual man. Saul was the embodiment of what was best in human nature. All that David had that was commendable was due to the grace of God, and speaking of his own life afterwards he could say with the deepest humility: “But who am I, and who are my people, that we should be able to give as generously as this? Everything comes from you, and we have given you only what comes from your hand” (1 Chronicles 29:14). David was a monument of divine grace. Saul was the embodiment of human nature, self, selfishness and pride. God hates our pride and wants our weakness, self-renunciation, nothingness and dependence. David had learned the lesson of divine grace, and therefore God allowed him to be one of the princes in that kingdom of grace where our highest hope is the mercy of our God. This is the kingdom to which we belong, and its watchword forever shall be, “Not to us, O Lord, not to us but to your name be the glory” (Psalms 115:1). It was because David had learned this watchword that God could choose him and use him notwithstanding even his gravest faults. Sorrow Hardening or Sanctifying
3. The sorrow and sins of Saul drove him further from God, while David’s brought him nearer. This is one of the most certain tests of our spiritual condition: how are we affected by our trials? Do they discourage us, or do they drive us to the bosom of our heavenly Friend? Still more searching is the question: how are we affected by our faults, our failures and our sins, when we discover them? Do we try to cover them, to excuse them, or, failing in this, do we give up in discouragement and despair, and say, “There is no use trying; everything is against me”? Poor Saul went from bad to worse, and at last turned from God and sought counsel from Satan when the heavenly Source on which he had depended failed him at last. His trust never was quite true, or he would have clung to it most closely in the hour of darkness and seeming despair. David came out of his worse faults a better man, and God could teach him, even by his temptations and sins, to die to self and rise to loftier heights of the grace of God. The 51st Psalm There is nothing more perfectly instructive and more supremely strong than the trial of David’s heart unfolded to us in the 51st Psalm, which gives us the inner history of his soul after his greatest sin. There is no notion of trifling, there is no excuse or palliation of anything. He paints his crime in the darkest colors. He talks of blood guiltiness. No, he goes deeper than his crime, to his own personal character, and he says, “I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me” (Psalms 51:5). He sees nothing good in himself. Every prop is gone, every hope is gone, as far as the human is concerned. After a life of blessed communion with God he stands self-convicted of inexcusable weakness and total depravity. Could a human soul ever be placed in a more terrible situation? But for the grace of God it would drive any man to despair and self-destruction. But we see this man looking straight up into the dear blue sky of heaven and claiming with unshaken confidence the infinite mercy of his God, and the higher spiritual blessing that he had not before. “Wash me,” he cries, “and I will be whiter than snow” (Psalms 51:7). According to the days wherein he has seen evil so he dares to claim that God will bless him with the days of heaven. His profound penitence is only surpassed by his boundless faith. He sinks to the uttermost depth, and then he rises to the very heights of heavenly grace. This was, doubtless, the crisis of David’s life. Out of this he came, not only a saved, but a sanctified man, crucified to self and to sin, and knowing, even as we know, in some measure at least, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. David and Peter One cannot help being reminded of the parallel between this Old Testament story and the New Testament picture of Judas and Peter. Like poor Saul, Judas was driven by his sin to desperation and suicide. Like David, Peter sinned as deeply, but he received the unspeakable grace of repentance, and there was something in his heart which led him in his darkest sorrow to the mercy of Jesus. Judas “went away and hanged himself” (Matthew 27:5). Peter “went outside and wept bitterly” (Matthew 26:75), and when Jesus was risen from the dead and stood at length upon the Galilean shore, Peter did not slink away from His presence abashed and guilty, but he leaped into the sea and was the first to swim ashore, and there he is at the blessed feet of Him whom he had once dishonored. God give us all the spirit of grace, which even in our darkest sorrows and deepest sins will turn heavenward for mercy that will pardon, and grace that waits to help in time of need (Hebrews 4:16).

Section II: David’s Anointing

Section II—David’s AnointingDavid is anointed to his high calling. God has called His servant, now He sets him apart. Let us notice: The Death of Self

1. David’s anointing immediately followed after the death of Agag. It is not until self dies that Christ can be enthroned as King in our hearts and lives. David cannot come in till Agag goes. God’s Thoughts Not As Ours
2. David’s anointing as the choice of God among all his brethren was contrary to every human appearance and expectation. Even Samuel expected that one of the other sons would have been chosen, but neither Abinadab’s appearance nor Shammah’s attractive person could meet the divine conditions. They were all passed by until the whole seven had been rejected, and they had to send for the youngest born, the lad of the family, whose extreme youth had made him kind of errand boy for all the rest and left him entirely out of sight on this occasion. It was not accidental that David was the eighth of Jesse’s sons, for the numbers seven and eight are especially significant and symbolic in the Scriptures. Seven represents the perfection of the old dispensation and the natural creation. It is the first week. Eight is the first day of the second seven, and thus it represents the new creation and divine order. Therefore, circumcision was on the eighth day representing the death of the old life and the beginning of a new life. Therefore was Christ’s resurrection on the first day, which is also the eighth day, the beginning of the second week. The seven sons of Jesse represent the perfection and the completeness of the earthly; David, the eighth, represents the new generation and the new dispensation, the supernatural and the divine. It is not based on the conditions and qualifications which appear in the natural; therefore the stronger, the wiser, and the attractive, are passed by, and little David is chosen, instead of Eliab and Shammah; because “God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong…. and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him” (1 Corinthians 1:27-29). The Holy Spirit
3. David’s anointing was more than an outward symbol. It was accompanied by a special impartation of the Holy Spirit, who came upon him from that day forward and enabled him for all his trials, duties and difficulties. David’s life henceforth was supernatural and divine. The Holy Spirit was his counselor and his strength, empowering his arm for battle and instructing his brain for the demonstration of his great trust, and the vessel of the Holy Spirit and the instrument of the power of God. In like manner the Holy Spirit is our divine enduement for every need of our Christian life and work, and the direct source of complete supply and the equipment for every situation in which God can place us. He will give us wisdom and counsel. He will give us courage and faith. He will give us patience and love. He will work for us in the providences and circumstances of life. He will influence for us hands and hearts of men, and He will carry through our plans and purposes which are according to the will of God to success and blessing; and it is our privilege to count upon Him for all needed supplies, for every trust that is committed to our hands. The Divine Seal
4. The supernatural anointing and enabling for this great trust is confirmed by God’s manifest seal upon his life, that all men were made to know by his actual life and character that he was God’s chosen and anointed one. God not only calls us, but He puts His credentials upon us and forces men to see that we are His chosen servants and representatives. And so we read in First Samuel, chapters 16 and 18 this extraordinary testimony that one of Saul’s servants brought to the palace of the king, “I have seen a son of Jesse of Bethlehem who knows how to play the harp. He is a brave man and a warrior. He speaks well and is a fine-looking man. And the Lord is with him” (1 Samuel 16:18). What a testimony! Personally attractive, wise, judicious, with cultivated tastes, and a brave, valiant soldier; and, above all, a man of God. Beloved, God wants the world to see this in us also and to bear witness to it so manifestly that we shall not need letters of commendation, but our lives shall be living epistles known and read of all men (2 Corinthians 3:2). First, God opened the way for his going to the court of Saul in the most natural and providential manner, as his companion and armor bearer, to cheer his nervous and distracted moments by his wonderful harp and gift of song, and to become acquainted with the life of the court which he was afterwards to fill so prominently. And so God will open our way if we are God’s men. No combination of circumstances can shut you out. If you are right with heaven, every circumstance and providence will conspire to bring you the occupation, the opening, the work, the friends, for which you and God have need. You do not need to plead the wiles of human diplomacy and selfish influence to ingratiate yourself. David was not seeking the kingdom, the kingdom was seeking him. Beloved, wherever God has a David, a Daniel or a Joseph, He has a place prepared for him, and all the powers of earth and hell shall be unable to keep him out of it. The Test
5. It was necessary once more that David should be proved; and so the situation came at last. The mighty Goliath had defied the armies of Israel and the God of heaven for days together, and no man had dared to answer his challenge. But one day David came to the camp to visit his brethren, and as he heard his defiant boast he modestly and simply answered, “Let no one lose heart on account of this Philistine; your servant will go and fight him” (1 Samuel 17:32). It did not even occur to him that he was doing anything unusual. It was so natural for him to be noble that he was unconscious of his own nobility. We need not dwell upon the stirring scene, the unobtrusive modesty and the fearless trust of the brave young warrior and the utter simplicity with which he committed the whole issue to the God of heaven—how could his trust be disappointed? There was but a minute of suspense, as the giant stalked forth in his defiant pride, and the shepherd lad with his loaded sling ran down the valley to meet his foe, and hurling that stone with heaven-directed aim, saw the giant fall, his skull crushed in and his life crushed out, while all the Philistine hosts were flying in dismay, and Israel knew that God’s choice was vindicated before earth and heaven. The ordination that every true worker must have is not the placing of human hands upon our heads, but the living power of the living God, and the actual works of Christ wrought out in our lives. These are the credentials that man can understand and that no criticism can silence or neutralize. Oh, may the Holy Spirit thus choose, thus call, thus qualify and thus seal our lives and ministries.