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is anointed secretly, pending the time many years later when he will eventually be crowned.

      (b) Skilled musician

      By this time Saul is deteriorating mentally as well as morally. We read that the Holy Spirit leaves him and an unclean spirit takes over. Saul becomes unpredictable, a man who can fly off the handle without a moment’s notice. His advisors find that the one thing that can calm him down is music, so David, known as a skilled harp player, is brought to court and his music soothes Saul’s spirit.

      (c) Superb warrior

      The story of David and Goliath is one of the best known in the Bible. It was the mismatch of the century, the sort of story Jews love: Goliath of Gath was 9 foot 6 inches tall, and David was just a little shepherd boy. It was customary for opposing armies to choose a champion each, who would fight each other. Whoever won would win victory for his side, which saved a lot of bloodshed.

      By this stage in the story Saul has abdicated his own role as ‘champion’ for the nation and so, after some discussion, he allows David to fight Goliath on behalf of Israel. Despite the odds, David is convinced God will give him victory. He believes the battle is the Lord’s and that his victory will show the whole world his power. He uses a sling, just as he had in his shepherd’s work, and with just one stone from the five he has picked, Goliath is dead and the Philistines routed.

      OUT

      (a) Suspected courtier

      If Saul could be jealous of his own son, what would he make of this new hero? He hears the people singing of how Saul had killed thousands, but David tens of thousands. David becomes a great national hero and Saul comes to hate him. From then on David’s life is in danger. David continues to play music to soothe Saul’s troubled mind, but there are times when Saul is so enraged that he flings a spear in David’s direction.

      Later Saul plots to kill him, first by offering him his daughter Merab in marriage in exchange for the defeat of the Philistines. David refuses to accept his daughter and Saul’s plans are foiled when David defeats the Philistines unscathed. Later David does marry Michal, another of Saul’s daughters.

      Saul then asks Jonathan to be involved in David’s death, but Jonathan and Michal are on David’s side, and in the course of several plots warn him of Saul’s intentions.

      (b) Stalked outlaw

      It becomes clear that David has to leave the palace, so he escapes and hides at Samuel’s home in Ramah. Then comes an extraordinary event as Saul and his men try to take David prisoner, but the Spirit of the Lord comes upon them and they prophesy, unable to carry out the plan.

      Jonathan continues to help David and they make a covenant whereby Jonathan promises to be David’s subject, despite being Saul’s son. He is a prince abdicating in favour of a shepherd boy. The Bible depicts a remarkable friendship. We are told that there had never been such love between two men as there was between David and Jonathan.

      The priest Ahimelech at Nob feeds David with consecrated bread and gives him Goliath’s sword. He flees west to Gath, where he is recognized by the Philistine king as the heir apparent and has to feign insanity in order to escape with his life.

      At Adullam some 400 malcontents join with David. He sends his parents into Moab, the home of his great-grandmother for protection, and is told by a prophet to return to Judah.

      While he is chasing David in the desert of En-gedi, Saul enters a cave to relieve himself, unaware that David is inside. David cuts off the bottom of his robe and when Saul leaves he shouts after him. Saul is so shaken when he realizes that David could have killed him in the cave that he repents temporarily. But before long the chase resumes.

      In the desert of Maon David meets a woman he later marries. Nabal refuses hospitality to David and his men. His wife Abigail, however, brings food to them and saves her family from David’s retribution. Nabal dies soon after this and David takes Abigail to be his wife.

      (c) Soldiering exile

      The most extraordinary part of David’s story is one that is not often taught. David becomes fearful that Saul will eventually catch up with him, and so offers himself and his men as mercenaries to the Philistines, Israel’s greatest enemy. Before long they become trusted allies.

      (IV) PHILISTINES – AGGRESSIVE FOE

      Saul’s end comes when Israel fights the Philistines. Although David and his men are mercenaries with the Philistines, the Philistine leaders leave them out of this particular battle, concerned that David and his men may not remain loyal to them if they are sent into battle against their own people. In the event they are not needed anyway. The Israelites are heavily defeated, and Saul and Jonathan are killed just as Samuel predicted. The injured Saul falls on his own sword when he realizes his life is ebbing away. Thus the book of 1 Samuel finishes with the death of one of the most enigmatic characters in the whole Bible.

      3. David – best king

      (I) TRIUMPHANT ASCENT

       UP

      (a) Single tribe

      We see the triumphant ascent of David in the first nine chapters of 2 Samuel. It begins with a lament at the death of Saul and Jonathan, which includes some moving words remembering the warmth of the loving friendship David had known with Jonathan.

      There is, however, a war developing between David’s house and Saul’s house, with tales of murder and revenge abounding. Saul’s chief commander Abner changes sides and brings Benjamin with him, but the nation is nonetheless torn apart.

      (b) Settled nation

      The tribe of Judah crowns David as king in Hebron in the south, where he remains for seven years. He eventually settles the nation as one unit, helped in part by the capture of Jerusalem from the hands of the Jebusites. The Jebusites are convinced that Jerusalem is safe from attack, but David takes the city by entering it via a staircase that runs from inside the city to a spring outside the walls.

      It is worth noting that not only did Jerusalem have excellent fortifications for a capital city, with cliffs on three of its four sides, but it was also on ‘neutral’ territory between Judah (the tribe who supported David) and Benjamin (Saul’s tribe). It was thus an appropriate political capital as neither Judah nor Benjamin could claim it was theirs.

      (c) Sizeable empire

      The book proceeds to chart David’s successful campaigns against the Philistines, the Ammonites and the Edomites, whose lands became part of a vast empire. For the first (and last) time, most of the land God had promised was in Israel’s hands. Israel was at the peak of her history.

      Even at such a time of personal success, however, David is keen to remember Saul’s house, and he honours Mephibosheth, the lame son of Jonathan, crippled in both feet.

      (II) TRAGIC DESCENT

       DOWN

      (a) Disgraced man

      David’s decline begins one fateful afternoon. The army is away fighting against Ammon and David, who should be leading them, is at home looking out of a palace window. He notices Bathsheba, the wife of his next-door neighbour, bathing on the roof and likes what he sees. He proceeds to break five of the Ten Commandments. He covets his neighbour’s wife, he bears false witness against the husband, he steals the wife, he commits adultery with her, and finally he arranges the murder of the husband. It is a terrible story and from that afternoon the nation goes downhill. Over the next 500 years they lose everything that God gave them.

      Bathsheba becomes pregnant, David seeks to cover it up and eventually arranges for Uriah her husband to be killed in battle. The baby dies and David takes Bathsheba into the palace as his wife. She becomes pregnant again, but this baby survives and is called Solomon (meaning ‘peace’). But David has no peace. A year later God sends the prophet Nathan to David to tell him of his sin through a parable and David realizes the gravity of his sin. Psalm 51 is a prayer of confession following this revelation.

      (b) Disintegrated family

      It seems as if David’s

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