Khrietuonyü Noudi
The stories of Saul and David in the Bible are forever linked together. Their stories are linked not just because they were the first and the second kings of Israel respectively but because their stories are interrelated and interdependent in many ways. In other words one cannot have a complete comprehensive overview or analysis of the story of one without the story of the other. Though David succeeded Saul as the king of Israel, David was not a son of King Saul. So traditionally, David would not have been the successor of King Saul. But due to divine intervention and strange twists of destiny, David not only succeeded Saul as the king of Israel but also became arguably the greatest king of Israel.
It was during the reign of Saul that David appeared in the story as a young shepherd boy. During this time the Israelites were at war with the Philistines again. The elder brothers of David were also in the Israelite army. One day Jesse, the father of David, sent David to the battlefront with lunch for his elder brothers. What David witnessed at the battlefront would forever change his life and the history of Israel. There he heard and saw the champion of the Philistines, a giant named Goliath challenging and taunting the Israelites for a duel. When David saw his people being humiliated and taunted in this manner by a foreigner, David could not tolerate it and decided to fight the giant. David probably got the courage to fight Goliath because he had earlier also killed wild animals while looking after his father’s sheep in the wilderness and so he believed that his God would help him this time also.
When David decided to fight Goliath, the soldiers laughed at him because he was still just a teenager. His brothers also scolded and reprimanded him for his childishness and foolishness. But when David was adamant and confident, he was brought before the king Saul and the king put his armor on the young teenager for the upcoming duel. But the king’s armor did not fit the boy, so the teenager decided to confront the giant in his simple shepherd’s attire and weapon. And the rest is history as the young shepherd boy was able to defeat and kill the giant and the Philistines had to run for their lives.
This was the one event that would forever change David’s life and Israel’s history. Overnight David became a national hero. Up until this event, David was just a shepherd boy tending over his father’s sheep in the wilderness and nobody knew about him even though God had helped him to defeat wild animals while looking after the sheep. Yes, even though the prophet Samuel had already anointed David to be the next king of Israel, perhaps nobody even took this anointing seriously because they did not see anything special or extraordinary in the young boy. But all these changed after this historic event.
Up to this time, we see no strife or tension in the relation between King Saul and the young shepherd boy. Far from it, David was probably a darling of the king as David was a talented musician as well and the king would call and let David play the harp for him whenever he was feeling melancholy. So it was highly probable that the king had a soft corner for the young boy. It was also highly probable that Saul knew about the prophet Samuel anointing David to be the next king of Israel but the Bible does not say anything about the king becoming bitter or jealous over this. Moreover, David and Jonathan, the son of king Saul, were bosom friends. And when David decided to fight the giant, Saul was so concerned for the young teenager that he even offered his armor. And even after David killed Goliath and became a national hero, Saul was so happy that he even gave his daughter in marriage to David and thus David became the son-in-law of the King. But things were about to take a drastic change.
The eventual bottom-line is this: King Saul did not seem to mind the young David playing the harp for him, King Saul did not seem to mind the prophet Samuel anointing David as the next king of Israel, King Saul did not seem to mind the friendship of David and his son Jonathan, King Saul did not seem to mind David having courage and deciding to fight Goliath, King Saul did not seem to mind David becoming a national hero overnight and King Saul did not seem to mind David marrying his daughter and becoming his son-in-law. So what was it that ultimately caused such a seemingly normal and cordial relation to become so turbulent, wild and lethal? It was the song sung by the women in the streets.
After David killed Goliath and became a national hero overnight, his name was on everybody’s lips and the women in the streets jubilantly started singing praises to their new found hero. They sang, “Saul has killed a thousand but David has killed ten thousand”. This song proved to be the first and the last nail in the coffin of the relation between King Saul and David. When he heard this song, Saul felt humiliated, jealous and intimidated. After he had heard this song, Saul never looked at David with the same eyes again. For him, David was no longer a hapless shepherd boy, no longer a talented musician, no longer the best friend of his son Jonathan, no longer a brave and courageous national hero and no longer his son-in-law….. but a threat, a danger and a revolution about to explode. Saul became literally wild and mad over the popularity of David and David had to run for his life. And all these happened after ‘the song of the women’ entered the ears of King Saul.
This story once again reminds me of the power of the words that come out of our mouths. I believe our words have creative powers and it can literally change our lives for the better or for the worse. What we say and what we hear have the potential to change our mentality, attitude and thereby our behaviors and our lives. Even things which we say casually without any good or ill intention can have a drastic and lifelong impact on someone’s mind and life. I guess this is why we should not be casual and insensitive with our words. Even seemingly trivial things which we say off-the-records or in our kitchens and bedrooms can have long-lasting impacts on our friends, children or spouses. The scripture clearly says that we would be held righteous or guilty by our words.
When the Israelite women started singing praises to their new found hero, I don’t think they meant it to humiliate or embarrass King Saul in any manner. I believe they were singing genuinely from their hearts to thank their God for giving them victory over their enemies and also to glorify their new hero in whom they saw immense promise and potential. But when he heard this song, King Saul took it otherwise and began to feel humiliated, jealous and intimidated. And all these clearly demonstrate the ignorance, the foolishness, the shortsightedness and the arrogance of the king. No wonder that God had already rejected him as king. If Saul could have just stayed humble and submissive by remembering that nothing and nobody can thwart a process which God had set in motion, I believe things could have turned out much better for him and his family even if the throne was ultimately to go to David. Therefore this story also demonstrates the importance of how we need to react and respond positively to the words we hear and the circumstances we encounter. It is said that our life is 10% what we encounter and 90% how we react and respond to it. If one wishes to live a fruitful and meaningful life, I guess we need to take every word we hear and every circumstance we encounter with humility and in the right spirit without becoming bitter, anxious, jealous, angry, intimidated, impatient or toxic.
So, what are we saying and singing today in our streets, what are we saying to one another over our phones, what are we saying and singing in our markets and communities and , most important of all, what are we saying and singing to our children in our kitchens, bedrooms and behind closed doors. We may sometimes forget the things we hear in schools, churches and public platforms, but what we hear casually in kitchens, in the market places and in the streets may remain with us for a lifetime. So be wary and don’t ever think that the words which we speak and sing are trivial matters because our words, wherever they may be spoken, have the potential to influence minds, hearts, lives and the course of our society, history and future…
