(The view expressed in this blog are my own and should not be taken as inspired in any way.)
1 Samuel 16:14–23, “But the Spirit of the LORD departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the LORD troubled him. And Saul’s servants said unto him, Behold now, an evil spirit from God troubleth thee. Let our lord now command thy servants, which are before thee, to seek out a man, who is a cunning player on an harp: and it shall come to pass, when the evil spirit from God is upon thee, that he shall play with his hand, and thou shalt be well. And Saul said unto his servants, Provide me now a man that can play well, and bring him to me. Then answered one of the servants, and said, Behold, I have seen a son of Jesse the Bethlehemite, that is cunning in playing, and a mighty valiant man, and a man of war, and prudent in matters, and a comely person, and the LORD is with him. Wherefore Saul sent messengers unto Jesse, and said, Send me David thy son, which is with the sheep. And Jesse took an ass laden with bread, and a bottle of wine, and a kid, and sent them by David his son unto Saul. And David came to Saul, and stood before him: and he loved him greatly; and he became his armourbearer. And Saul sent to Jesse, saying, Let David, I pray thee, stand before me; for he hath found favour in my sight. And it came to pass, when the evil spirit from God was upon Saul, that David took an harp, and played with his hand: so Saul was refreshed, and was well, and the evil spirit departed from him.”
As soon as Saul disobeyed the Lord and the Lord rejected him as king, he was no longer empowered by the Lord’s Spirit to be king. Once the Lord’s Spirit had left Saul he was possessed by an evil spirit and was deeply troubled by depression. It is a well known fact these days the good music and calm a person and allow them to relax. It is also true that off beat music can have the opposite effect. Saul’s servants realised that he needed a clever musician to play for him so that the could relax and be relieved of his tormenting depression. They made a search among all the tribes of Israel to find the best musician in the Land. As Saul was the king, exactly as Samuel had predicted, he was able to conscript whoever he wanted to serve him. They discovered that David, Jesse’s son, was the sweetest psalmist in Israel. (compare 2 Sam 23:1, “Now these be the last words of David. David the son of Jesse said, and the man who was raised up on high, the anointed of the God of Jacob, and the sweet psalmist of Israel,”) Saul sent some of his servants to conscript David to be his musician. He hadn’t met David before and didn’t know who he was at that stage. When Jesse received the summons, he sent David with some gifts for the king. Saul was probably in one of his deep moods when David first played and the music was so sweet that he soon relaxed and his depression lifted. Saul was very impressed by David and appointed him as his armour bearer. This meant that David would constantly be with Saul but it didn’t mean that Saul would necessarily know him by sight as he would always be in the background but would play music for Saul when Saul was in a depressive mood.
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