1 Samuel 16
David is one of the major characters in the Bible - he wrote many of the songs found in the Bible's songbook, the book of Psalms. Here we are introduced to this remarkable future king, warrior, songwriter, giant slayer, and direct ancestor of Jesus Christ.
Samuel is instructed by God to visit Bethlehem to the house of Jesse to anoint one of his sons as the next king. Samuel is a bit hesitant since the current king, Saul would see this as treason and in all probability would lead to his death.
God advises him to bring a heifer and make it a sacrifice to God as a cover for his real mission.
When the leaders of Bethlehem greet Samuel, it is with some trepidation - Samuels visits could bring trouble as well as blessing evidently.
During the course of the ceremony Samuel meets Jesse's sons, who apparently are all strapping lads and really quite handsome, but God has other ideas and is looking deeper than initial impressions and appearances.
Jesse has 8 sons in total and after dismissing 7 of them he asked Jesse if that was all his sons.
"There is the youngest, he is out at the moment tending the sheep"
When David is bought in he is "Ruddy and handsome" and Samuel is told that he is the chosen of the LORD and to anoint him. Which Samuel did in the presence of his older siblings and family.
The Bible says that the Spirit of God rested on David from that time.
Samuel meanwhile went back home to Ramah.
Now comes a real twist in the story as the anointed future king winds up as a court musician to the current anointed king, Saul.
It seems that Saul had, in the words of the Bible "An evil spirit from God that tormented him"
Apparently music really helped Saul in these cases and somebody remembered David, son of Jesse played quite well and had a good voice, so David joined the court of Saul.
I don't know if today we would term Saul as mentally unstable rather than tormented by a spirit? In the UK we have had our kings who suffered from mental illness (They made a film about George the third - though it was titled the madness of king George so that audiences would not decide that they had not seen the madness of George 1 and 2 so why watch the madness of George 3?!)
Saul apparently liked David very much as he asked permission from Jesse for David to stay with him.
Two things confuse me about Saul in this chapter - first is can God send an evil, tormenting spirit to oppress Saul? Surely this is not what I would expect from god, though later on in the Bible is the book of Jeb where Job's life fell to bits, he lost everything but he would not curse God and Job said "Shall I accept only good from God and not evil?" I promise to explore this topic again when we get to Job.
The other one is why and how does music help?
I play trombone and Euphonium and yes I get a lot of pleasure and sometimes peace when playing and listening to music (even if the neighbours do not agree!), but I'm going to let you into a secret here - sometimes I wonder at church why we sing songs, sometimes (not always I must add) it seems like it is expected and something we do out of a kind of sense of duty - I'm here to meet with God, songs are happening so I'd better join in.
Sometimes though bursting into song at church can be extraordinarily liberating - the music lifts my spirit and well, I'm going to paraphrase from the Blues Brothers (2000) "No pharmaceutical product can ever equal that rush you get when the band hits that groove and the church is worshipping"
PS - I know the second film is not as god as the first, but I cannot just come out and say "Were on a mission from God" for this chapter - though keep reading I will use it one day!
David is one of the major characters in the Bible - he wrote many of the songs found in the Bible's songbook, the book of Psalms. Here we are introduced to this remarkable future king, warrior, songwriter, giant slayer, and direct ancestor of Jesus Christ.
Samuel is instructed by God to visit Bethlehem to the house of Jesse to anoint one of his sons as the next king. Samuel is a bit hesitant since the current king, Saul would see this as treason and in all probability would lead to his death.
God advises him to bring a heifer and make it a sacrifice to God as a cover for his real mission.
When the leaders of Bethlehem greet Samuel, it is with some trepidation - Samuels visits could bring trouble as well as blessing evidently.
During the course of the ceremony Samuel meets Jesse's sons, who apparently are all strapping lads and really quite handsome, but God has other ideas and is looking deeper than initial impressions and appearances.
Jesse has 8 sons in total and after dismissing 7 of them he asked Jesse if that was all his sons.
"There is the youngest, he is out at the moment tending the sheep"
When David is bought in he is "Ruddy and handsome" and Samuel is told that he is the chosen of the LORD and to anoint him. Which Samuel did in the presence of his older siblings and family.
The Bible says that the Spirit of God rested on David from that time.
Samuel meanwhile went back home to Ramah.
Now comes a real twist in the story as the anointed future king winds up as a court musician to the current anointed king, Saul.
It seems that Saul had, in the words of the Bible "An evil spirit from God that tormented him"
Apparently music really helped Saul in these cases and somebody remembered David, son of Jesse played quite well and had a good voice, so David joined the court of Saul.
I don't know if today we would term Saul as mentally unstable rather than tormented by a spirit? In the UK we have had our kings who suffered from mental illness (They made a film about George the third - though it was titled the madness of king George so that audiences would not decide that they had not seen the madness of George 1 and 2 so why watch the madness of George 3?!)
Saul apparently liked David very much as he asked permission from Jesse for David to stay with him.
Two things confuse me about Saul in this chapter - first is can God send an evil, tormenting spirit to oppress Saul? Surely this is not what I would expect from god, though later on in the Bible is the book of Jeb where Job's life fell to bits, he lost everything but he would not curse God and Job said "Shall I accept only good from God and not evil?" I promise to explore this topic again when we get to Job.
The other one is why and how does music help?
I play trombone and Euphonium and yes I get a lot of pleasure and sometimes peace when playing and listening to music (even if the neighbours do not agree!), but I'm going to let you into a secret here - sometimes I wonder at church why we sing songs, sometimes (not always I must add) it seems like it is expected and something we do out of a kind of sense of duty - I'm here to meet with God, songs are happening so I'd better join in.
Sometimes though bursting into song at church can be extraordinarily liberating - the music lifts my spirit and well, I'm going to paraphrase from the Blues Brothers (2000) "No pharmaceutical product can ever equal that rush you get when the band hits that groove and the church is worshipping"
PS - I know the second film is not as god as the first, but I cannot just come out and say "Were on a mission from God" for this chapter - though keep reading I will use it one day!
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