1 Samuel 18:1-11

Discipline

1Sa 18:9

WE now enter upon scenes which show that long and most painful discipline is compatible with divine election to high office. David had been anointed, yet he afterwards was hunted as a beast of prey. The secret of the Lord was in his soul, yet the hand of an enemy was madly against him day and night. The inference of mere reason was obvious, it was this: "Samuel has deceived me the old prophet has mistaken me for another man; and now through his blunder I am exposed to intolerable vexations and injuries: had God chosen me, he would have set me on a high mountain, where no evil hand could have reached me, or hidden me in a defence far away from the storm." This reasoning, as a mere intellectual effort, would have been sound and unanswerable. Yet David never uttered words so reproachful and distrustful. He accepted his ill-fortune in a spirit of wisdom, and went in and out before his enemy with a circumspection more terrible than anger. "Saul was afraid of David, because the Lord was with him." Saul himself could see the divine presence. There is an indefinable something about elect men which guards them without display, and announces them without ostentation.

Let us gather what instruction and comfort we can from a study of the severe discipline which David underwent immediately after victory. Remembering the undoubted anointing of David, let us see what untoward and heart-breaking experiences may befall men whom God has sealed as the special objects of his favour and the high ministers of his empire. Given, a man called of God to a great work, and qualified for its execution, to find the providences which will distinguish his course. A child might answer the easy problem: His career will be brilliant; his path will be lined with choice flowers; he will be courted, blessed, honoured on every hand. Look at the history of David for a contradiction of this answer. We shall find persecution, hatred, difficulty, hunger, cold, loneliness, danger upon danger; yet he who endures them all is an anointed man a favourite of Heaven.

The history shows four things respecting the discipline of an anointed man:

1. That great honours are often followed by great trials. The graciousness of this arrangement in human training. These trials not to be looked at in themselves but in their relation to the honours which went before. Imagine a garden discussing the year as if it were all winter. Look at the temptation assailing David in the fact that he alone had slain the enemy of Israel. Something was needed on the other side to chasten his feeling. Men must be taught their weakness as well as their power.

2. That great trials generally bring unexpected alleviations, "The soul of Jonathan was knit with the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul." "Jonathan and David made a covenant, because he loved him as his own soul. And Jonathan stripped himself of the robe that was upon him, and gave it to David, and his garments, even to his sword and to his bow and to his girdle." The love of one true soul may keep us from despair. Love is fertile and energetic in device. See what Jonathan did. Love is more than a match for mere power. Love is most valued under such circumstances as David's. "There is a Friend that sticketh closer than a brother."

3. That no outward trials can compare in severity with the self-torment of wicked men. We are apt to think that Saul did all the mischief, and David suffered it. That is an incomplete view of the case. Saul was himself the victim of the cruellest torment. When the women came out of all cities of Israel, singing and dancing, to meet King Saul, with tabrets, with joy, and with instruments of music, they said, "Saul hath slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands." Then there entered into Saul the cruellest of all infernal spirits, the spirit of jealousy. "Saul was very wroth, and the saying displeased him; and he said, They have ascribed unto David ten thousands, and to me they have ascribed but thousands: and what can he have more but the kingdom? And Saul eyed David from that day and forward." And truly, even in suffering, Saul had the worst of it. See how unjust is jealousy, the great work of David undervalued. Saul was the slave of jealousy, and as such all his peace was destroyed. There was bitterness in his wine; the charm of sleep had perished; the bloom of summer had faded; there was a cruel serpent gnawing at his heart. "The way of transgressors is hard." Let us not suppose that unjust opposition or enmity has an easy life. Better be the martyr than the persecutor, the oppressed than the oppressor. Read Saul's inner life, anger, envy, madness, murder, evil scheming, chagrin, hell!

4. That great trials, though calling for self-scrutiny, may not call for self-accusation. This is a point which should be put with great delicacy, because we are too apt to exempt ourselves from self-reproach. David would be utterly at a loss to account for his treatment so far as his own behaviour was concerned; for he had the distinct consciousness that God was with him: and as to his outward relations, it is upon record that "David behaved himself wisely in all his ways," and that Saul was afraid of him because of the wisdom of his behaviour.

The question which the tried man generally asks himself is, What have I done? Days of misery have been spent in brooding over that inquiry. The question is only good so far as it goes. It should be succeeded by another What is God doing? Imagine the silver in the refining fire asking, What have I done? not knowing that it is being prepared to adorn the table of a king! Imagine the field asking, What have I done, that the plough should cut me up? We are strong only so far as we see a divine purpose in the discipline of our life. "Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth." "Let patience have her perfect work." We are polished by sharp friction. We are refined by divine fire. Sorrow gives the deepest and sweetest tone to our sympathy. We should be driven mad by uninterrupted, ever-augmenting prosperity. Over every jealous soul the hand of the Lord is omnipotent. Look at Saul, and the case of David is hopeless; look beyond him, and see how by a way that he knew not the shepherd was being trained to be mighty among kings, and chief of all who sing the praises of God.

Selected Note

" And the women answered one another as they played, and said, Saul hath slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands" ( 1Sa 18:7 ). This is quite characteristic of the manners of the East. Everywhere in that part of the world the people are accustomed in this manner to hail the arrival of those who have been any time absent from them. More especially do they do so on the return of a victorious army. Multitudes then issue from the towns and villages through which they are expected to march, in order to form a triumphal procession to celebrate their valour, the principal part being composed of women and children, who band together, and, as they go along, gratify the heroes with dancing, music, and songs in honour of their martial deeds, particularly of such of the chiefs as have greatly distinguished themselves. We find this custom in Persia, Turkey, etc Mr. Campbell, the missionary, witnessed it even in Africa. When he was leaving the city of Lattakoo, he fell in with a party of men who were returning from a distant expedition, after an absence of several months. The news of their approach had reached the town, and the women were hastening to meet them. On joining the party the females marched at their head, clapping their hands and singing with all their might, till they arrived at their homes in the town.