And David came to Saul, and stood before him: and he loved him greatly; and he became his armourbearer.- 1Sa_16:21.
And he said to David, Thou art more righteous than I: for thou hast rendered unto me good, whereas I have rendered unto thee evil.- 1Sa_24:17.
We now turn to the passages in the history of Saul which properly belong to David. And first of all we have to look at Saul's fear and jealousy of the young man concerning whom the virgins of Israel sang, “Saul hath slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands.” There are many ways of describing how such a passion as this enters into the soul and takes a direction towards a person who had once been loved,-is baffled for a while, sometimes gives way to fits of returning affection, then absorbs the man completely,-till it becomes an ungoverned frenzy prompting the most extravagant and ferocious acts. But one who is considering the subject in earnest, trying to turn it to account for himself and his fellow-men, will do well to pause before he abandons the language in which the Bible speaks of this awful mental process and takes up any other. It tells us that “the Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the Lord troubled him.”
