The Pulpit Commentary — 1 Samuel — Section 302

the Anointed One, the God-given Saviour. He, transfusing our natural powers with his glorious energy, will make us "more than conquerors." General lessons :-1. Great natures may be nurtured in lowly places while engaged in quiet pursuits. 2. Amidst the intricacies of life God keeps his eye on his loved ones, and calls them forth in due time. 3. Aspirations are awakened, but insight into the future is not perfected at once. David was stimulated, but knew not all at first. 4. Full confidence is felt when God reveals his call: then the "horn," not the vial (eh. x. 1), may be used. 5. To God's true servants the Holy Spirit comes ns abiding Helper, to teach, sanctify, comfort, and elevate. Vere. 14-23.-Disquietude caused by sin. The facts are-1. Saul, being left to himself, is· troubled by an evil spirit from the Lord. 2. His servants, in their concern for bis peace, suggest music as an alleviation, and obtain permission to provide it. II. David, being famed for music, is sent for, and finds favonr with Saul. 4. The music of David brings relief to Saul's troubled spirit. The narrative relates the effect of God's judicial abandonment of Saul to the impenitent spirit he had deliber- ately cherished (eh. xv. 23-29). The transaction between him and Samuel in reference to bis sin and rejection had been private, and during the interval from the departure to Ramah (eh.xv. 34) up to the date of the reference in eh. xvi. 14, the secret knowledge of this fact had wrought its subjective effect on the mind of Saul. The secrecy of the business is a clue to much that follows. It matters not to our purpose what sense be put on "an evil spirit from the Lord;" the fact is clear that dis- quietude of mind follows on transgression duly brought home to conscience yet not repented of, and that this disquietude is aggravated by secrecy. I. THE CAUSES OF MENTAL DISQUIETUDE. There are instances of mental dis- quietude (Ps. xiii. 5; John xii. 27; xiv. 1) differing in character and cause from that before us. In the case of Saul there was a strange blending of sullen remorse, despondency, instability, passion, fear, and desperation. He was sometimes beyonrl self-control, and his outbursts aroused the apprehensions of his attendants. The manifestations of a disquieted spirit will be partly determined by natural tempera- ment, and partly by external conditions, and partly by bodily health. But of the class of which Saul's is an example, the general causes are akin to those which operated in him. 1. A secret consciousness of sin. That Saul had done wrong in the matter of the sacrifice (eh. xiii. 13), the rash vow (eh. xiv. 45), and the Amalekites (eh. xv. 18, 19) he knew full well; that the people knew that something was amiss with him is evident from their deliverance of Jonathan and Samuel's slaying of Agag; but that their knowledge of Saul's conduct was co-extensive with his own is not pro- bable. The more private interviews with Samuel had brought him face to face with sin as it appeared to the Lord. His admission," I have sinned" (eh. xv. 24), being IL conviction without true repentance, remained in bis memory after his final separation from Samuel. The fact that his people did not know all only served to make the sad secret of guilt more distressing. Now it is impossible for a man's spirit to be at ease when he carries with him at home and abroad a thorough conviction of being guilty before God. His sin haunts him as a ghost. It creates a desire to flee from himself. It causes him to feel that he is a disgmced, degraded being, the bearer of a dark secret, the subject of a remorse that will not die. 2. Knowledge of loss of a goodly lieritage. Saul's mind dwelt much in the past. He remembered the comparative innocence of rural life, when seeking his father's asses; the unexpected honour shadowed forth by the prophet; the private anointing;_ the bestowment of special gifts that won the confidence of the sons of the prophets; the high and elevating intercourse concerning the manrier of the kingdom, and the solemn proclamation of his kingship over the chosen race. Now all that was gone. It was of the past in a double sense. The splendid prospects had faded; the rejection by God had been privately announced by one whose word never failed. But the future had to be feared, and Saul, when daring to look into it, saw and felt that Providence was against him. The same elements of disappointment, bitter regret, and fearful fore- boding enter into the life of others. How many a man in crowded cities is forced by conscious secret guilt to look back on a splendid heritage of good gone for ever I How many feel that, though friends and the world may flatter, God has turned awav 304 THE FIRST BOOK OF SAMUEL. [CH. XVI. 1-28.