In 1 Samuel 16 we find King Saul needing help. He was “tormented” and wanted someone to play some soothing music to calm his mind and spirit. We read:
17 So Saul said to his attendants, “Find someone who plays well and bring him to me.”
18 One of the servants answered, “I have seen a son of Jesse of Bethlehem who knows how to play the lyre. He is a brave man and a warrior. He speaks well and is a fine-looking man. And the Lord is with him.”
19 Then Saul sent messengers to Jesse and said, “Send me your son David, who is with the sheep.”
Just in these few verses we discover some remarkable things about David (who was still only a young man at this stage). Those things are:
- vv. 17-18, he was a good player of the lyre (a stringed instrument like a small U-shaped harp with strings fixed to a crossbar – see picture from https://www.daviddarling.info/encyclopedia_of_music/L/lyre.html )
- vv. 18, he was a brave man and a warrior – this despite the fact that he was not a soldier and had not fought in a war.
- vv. 18, he was eloquent (speaks well – and was a good singer and composer of spiritual songs/psalms 2 Sam. 23:1) and was a fine-looking man.
- vv. 18, and most important of all, the Lord is with him.
- vv.19, all the above found in one who was a humble shepherd – he was to be found with the sheep.
Shepherd, psalmist/musician, soldier, king, sinner and saint. No wonder David is considered such an important person in Israel’s story.
Psalm 144, a “Royal Psalm”, like so many others is attributed to David. As we read it, we can see a number of these different “faces” of David as described above, e.g., in vv. 1-2 we see the worshiping psalmist and the warrior king.
1 Praise be to the Lord my Rock,
who trains my hands for war,
my fingers for battle.
2 He is my loving God and my fortress,
my stronghold and my deliverer,
my shield, in whom I take refuge,
who subdues peoples under me.
In this psalm though, “the King praises God for His warring activity on behalf of the kingdom. The Lord is the king’s Protector and thus guards the community. Verses 5-8 suggest that there is a present crisis to which the psalmist asks God to respond. He wants God to rout the enemy and save him from their lies.” (# 30)
5 Part your heavens, Lord, and come down;
touch the mountains, so that they smoke.
6 Send forth lightning and scatter the enemy;
shoot your arrows and rout them.
7 Reach down your hand from on high;
deliver me and rescue me
from the mighty waters,
from the hands of foreigners
8 whose mouths are full of lies,
whose right hands are deceitful.
“The psalm ends [vv. 9-15] with a reflection on the blessed condition of those whom God does save from trouble.” (# 30)
9 I will sing a new song to you, my God;
on the ten-stringed lyre I will make music to you,
10 to the One who gives victory to kings,
who delivers his servant David…. 12 Then our sons in their youth
will be like well-nurtured plants,
and our daughters will be like pillars
carved to adorn a palace…
Longman concludes: “The New Testament understands that the Divine Warrior came in the person of Jesus, who comes to fight a spiritual battle (not with sword and spear) and will come again to defeat all human and spiritual enemies once and for all (Rev. 19:11-23).” (# 30)
And so, the psalmist concludes:
15 Blessed is the people of whom this is true;
blessed is the people whose God is the Lord. Amen.
Worship and Wisdom - Psalms and Proverbs 