Samuel, saying, It repenteth me that I have set up Saul to be King: for
he is turned back from following me, and hath not performed my
commandments,” and the Lord bid Samuel fill a “horn with oil,” and sent
Samuel, who anointed David the son of Jesse in the midst of his
brethren, and the spirit of the Lord came upon David from that day
forward. If a man takes to spirits his life will probably be one of
vice, misery, and misfortune; and if spirits take to him, the result in
the end is nearly the same. Every evil deed which the Bible records as
having been done by David was after the spirit of the Lord had so come
upon him. Saul being King of Israel, an evil spirit from the Lord
troubled him. The devil has, it is said, no love for music, and Saul was
recommended to have David to play on a harp, in order that harmony might
drive this evil spirit back to the Lord who sent it. The Jew’s harp was
played successfully, and Saul was often relieved from the evil spirit by
David’s ministrations. There is nothing miraculous in this; at the
People’s Concerts many a working man has been relieved from the “blue
devils” by a stirring chorus, a merry song, or patriotic anthem; and on
the contrary many evil spirits have been aroused by the most unmusical
performances of the followers of General Booth. David was appointed
armor-bearer to the King; but curiously enough, this office does not
appear to have interfered with his duties as a shepherd; indeed, the
care of his father’s sheep took precedence over the care of the king’s
armor, and in the time of war he “went and returned to feed his father’s
sheep.” Perhaps his “prudence in matters” induced him thus to take care
of himself.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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