Let our lord now command your servants who are before you to seek out a man who is skillful in playing the lyre, and when the harmful spirit from God is upon you, he will play it, and you will be well.”
Saul's servants see what is wrong with their master, and they tell him so: an evil spirit from God is tormenting him. Their fix is a skilled musician whose playing will make the king well. (Where the ESV says "lyre" and "harmful spirit," older translations read "harp" and "evil spirit." The writers below use the older words.)
A remedy for the symptom
The servants trace the trouble to God. Their plan reaches no further than the king's discomfort.
Leslie M. GrantHis servants discerned that it was God who had allowed this evil spirit to trouble Saul. Their solution is not to go to the root of the matter, but to treat its symptoms. This is characteristic of men's governments everywhere. A skilled musician could play the harp in a way that calmed the troubled king's spirit.
Evil on a leash
The servants say the spirit comes "from God." One writer weighs that phrase: the trouble is a sentence carried out, and the relief has a purpose of its own.
Numerical Bible NotesEvil as well as good has its commission from God — not its existence, but its liberty to act, and the limits of its action... The evil spirit's work with Saul carried out a penalty. Had it led him to judge himself, it would have proved mercy too. They knew where the relief came from, and it was that goodness of God which leads to repentance. The way it worked shows that Saul's own stormy spirit gave the evil one his opening — and brought Saul inside the limit God had set for him. David's harp does not act directly on Satan, but on Saul. Its strange power softens and calms the savage temper of the rejected king, though only for a time. So it drives back and shuts out the power that attacks him, and for a while he is free.
Saul's disobedience did not leave him merely emptied. It left him exposed.
Leslie M. GrantGod let Saul take his own headstrong way. And since Saul had refused the Spirit of God, he lay open to the opposite of this, an evil spirit. God allowed the evil spirit to trouble Saul to wake him up to the folly of his own self-will. Disobedience to God does not leave us in a merely negative state, but in a state of positive evil.
The player God has chosen
The court is hunting for a musician. Unknown to them, the only man who can help is the one on whom the Spirit has just come.
H. L. RossierNow the Spirit of the Lord comes upon David (v. 13) and leaves Saul, who falls into the power of "an evil spirit from Jehovah" (v. 14). This is a judgment from God, a discipline for the king... At the same time, when David takes a harp and plays with his hand before Saul, God shows that His Spirit alone can stir up the evil spirit and drive it away.
How David enters the palace
A servant's suggestion aims only at the king's comfort. It opens the door for the anointed shepherd to walk into the palace.
Samuel RidoutThe servants' idea of relief is that a sweet singer should soothe the poor king in his hours of despair. With his approval, they suggest a man just right for the job. It is none other than David. See how the providence of God brings him to the king! There is a solemn thought here. A ministry of Christ can be so soothing that it eases the fears and distress of a soul to some degree, while no real cure takes place.
David gets this work before he has done anything in public to prove himself.
William KellyDavid had not yet shown men a single sign of what God had chosen him for when He set him apart from his brothers. Still, he is put forward for a remarkable service... This is the first circumstance which brings the anointed of Jehovah into the company of Saul. It appears to have been only the most passing acquaintance that was formed with the king.
The true David and His harp
Commentators also read the scene as a picture of Christ's power over evil spirits. Yet Saul's relief did not last.
The Bible TreasuryThe true David, even Christ, has played on His harp to the refreshing of many a troubled soul. He has played to many a sinner on the harp of His great salvation, and refreshed him with His grace. Wonderfully sweet to Legion, to Mary of Magdala, when the evil spirits departed from them... But here David drives the evil spirit away from Saul — only for a season — and that is a picture of Christ, before Whom demons flee.
Summary
- Cause — Saul refused the Spirit of God, so he lay open to an evil spirit. Disobedience leaves a person not empty, but exposed.
- Commission — God does not give evil its existence, but He sets the limits of its action. The torment was a penalty that could have turned Saul to self-judgment.
- Cure offered — the servants traced the trouble to God, then treated only the symptom. Human government does the same.
- Channel — their plan for the king's comfort is how God brings the anointed shepherd into the palace, before he had shown men anything.
- Consequence — the harp worked on Saul, not on Satan. The relief was real but short. Comfort without repentance changes nothing at the root.