We all know the story of David and Goliath. It’s recorded for us in 1 Samuel 17. Chapter 18 describes what happened next. David, most likely still a teenage, is suddenly a hero. He is invited (perhaps it would be more accurate to say “required” 1 Sam 18:2) to relocate to King Saul’s headquarters.
As the chapter progresses, David’s popularity and fame steadily increase (cf. verse 5, verse 7, verses 13-16, verses 26-27, verse 30).
At the same time, King Saul’s attitude toward David flip flops from love (verse 1), to irritation, anger and jealousy (verses 8-9), to fear (verses 12, 28-29) and finally to hatred (verse 29).
This is not a simple case of jealousy. There are spiritual forces at work behind the scenes. Saul acts this way, the narrator tells us, because he realizes that “the Lord is with David” (verse 28). God’s empowering Spirit has left King Saul and Saul knows it. He is now at the mercy of an evil spirit that torments him and fans into flames his irrational hatred toward David.
In chapter 19, King Saul’s animosity explodes. He gives up trying to hid his hatred of David and openly orders him killed (1 Samuel 19:1). Chapter 19 records a “whole chain of deliberate plans to wipe out David” (Davis, 1 Samuel: Looking on the Heart, pg. 197).
The reader is led to ask, “How can this teenager survive is such a situation?” The answer is instructive.
David, humanly speaking can’t survive, but God steps in and delivers him. 1 Samuel 19 records four such deliverance episodes (vv 1-7, 8-10, 11-17, 18-24). God counters every attempt of King Saul to destroy his servant David.
The message of chapter 19 should be clear: Yahweh repeatedly protected his servant… Sometimes he uses human instruments (a Jonathan or a Michal) to provide such protection, but sometimes he bypasses them (e.g., Samuel) in order to make clear that “salvation is from the Lord”… As we take in the sweep of the whole chapter note how diverse Yahweh’s protection is. The means and methods of deliverance reflect the imagination of the Deliverer (Davis).
In these episodes, David may not even have known that God was protecting him. That became clear only upon later reflection. Davis, in his wonderful commentary on 1 Samuel, notes,
Sometimes the clearest evidence that God has not deserted you is not that you are successfully past your trial but that you are still on your feet in the middle of it.
I find this narrative wonderfully encouraging. As we walk with God and serve him he takes care of us. Psalm 34, written by David while on the run from Saul, extends this truth to every who “fears God”: The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him, and delivers them (Ps 34:7).
The one who watches over us is none other than the One who possess all authority, in heaven and on earth. He has promised to “be with us always, even to the end of the age.”
