Tuesday after the Fifth Sunday after Trinity Sunday

Scripture: 1 Samuel 18:1-21 (NKJV)

18:1 Now when he had finished speaking to Saul, the soul of Jonathan was knit to the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul. 2 Saul took him that day, and would not let him go home to his father’s house anymore. 3 Then Jonathan and David made a covenant, because he loved him as his own soul. 4 And Jonathan took off the robe that was on him and gave it to David, with his armor, even to his sword and his bow and his belt.

5 So David went out wherever Saul sent him, and behaved wisely. And Saul set him over the men of war, and he was accepted in the sight of all the people and also in the sight of Saul’s servants. 6 Now it had happened as they were coming home, when David was returning from the slaughter of the Philistine, that the women had come out of all the cities of Israel, singing and dancing, to meet King Saul, with tambourines, with joy, and with musical instruments. 7 So the women sang as they danced, and said:

“Saul has slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands.”

8 Then Saul was very angry, and the saying displeased him; and he said, “They have ascribed to David ten thousands, and to me they have ascribed only thousands. Now what more can he have but the kingdom?” 9 So Saul eyed David from that day forward.

10 And it happened on the next day that the distressing spirit from God came upon Saul, and he prophesied inside the house. So David played music with his hand, as at other times; but there was a spear in Saul’s hand. 11 And Saul cast the spear, for he said, “I will pin David to the wall!” But David escaped his presence twice.

12 Now Saul was afraid of David, because the Lord was with him, but had departed from Saul. 13 Therefore Saul removed him from his presence, and made him his captain over a thousand; and he went out and came in before the people. 14 And David behaved wisely in all his ways, and the Lord was with him. 15 Therefore, when Saul saw that he behaved very wisely, he was afraid of him. 16 But all Israel and Judah loved David, because he went out and came in before them.

17 Then Saul said to David, “Here is my older daughter Merab; I will give her to you as a wife. Only be valiant for me, and fight the Lord’s battles.” For Saul thought, “Let my hand not be against him, but let the hand of the Philistines be against him.”

18 So David said to Saul, “Who am I, and what is my life or my father’s family in Israel, that I should be son-in-law to the king?” 19 But it happened at the time when Merab, Saul’s daughter, should have been given to David, that she was given to Adriel the Meholathite as a wife.

20 Now Michal, Saul’s daughter, loved David. And they told Saul, and the thing pleased him. 21 So Saul said, “I will give her to him, that she may be a snare to him, and that the hand of the Philistines may be against him.” Therefore Saul said to David a second time, “You shall be my son-in-law today.”

Devotion

Oh, the difference between glory being grasped by an earthly king and the glory shared by the King of Heaven and Earth!

To the flesh, Saul’s displeasure at David’s acclaim seems reasonable. First, David’s body count grows because war is his whole job; second, David’s victories should be counted as the king’s. The singing of the women plays on Saul’s insecurities, triggering the thought that, since David had been anointed as Saul’s successor, he might simply rise up and take the kingship. (How different from Jonathan, who considered himself one spirit with David, thinking that if God chose David to rule and not Jonathan, “the will of God is always best”! Cf. TLH #517.)

What does the King of Kings and Lord of Lords says concerning the works of those who confess Him to be The Anointed (that is, the Christ)? “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father” (John 14:12). St. John repeatedly calls the miracles of Jesus “signs.” They display in temporal reality what the eternal reality is. We see a Christ who casts demons out of the bodily possessed and restores bodies destroyed by sin: the paralyzed, the leprous, the dead. Those who follow by baptizing and teaching, though, will remove those born dead in trespasses from the grasp of sin, death, and Satan.

We pray: We thank you, O Lord, for the greater works being done: giving the eternal life of body and soul through the forgiveness of sins, all redounding to Your glory, because only in You are such works given, and as always, You graciously credit us with what You have earned and what You continue to do. Amen.

Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.