I am reading 1 & 2 Samuel along with Walter Brueggemann’s First and Second Samuel commentary (Louisville: John Knox Press, 1990). After the fall of Saul (1 Sam. 9-15), the narrator deals with the rise of David (1 Sam. 16ff). David was chosen and anointed as king in 1 Sam. 16. However, David didn’t become king immediately. There was a long process from being a shepherd boy to the shepherd of Israel (2 Sam. 5:2). I come into a realization that God chose and anointed David as the king of Israel, but God didn’t make him king at once. In God’s sight, David was a king. Nevertheless, in reality, Saul was the king. David was a shepherd boy, a musician in Saul’s court, and a warrior in Saul’s army. After being chosen and anointed, David lived under the shadow of Saul. The narrator spends a lot of chapters to record and depict the life and the rise of David.
From a shepherd boy to the shepherd of Israel, Saul started to eye David (1 Sam. 18:6-9). He then planned to kill David (1 Sam. 18:10ff). A chosen king fled from Saul and ended up in exile. “Then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the midst of his brothers. And the Spirit of the Lord rushed upon David from that day forward. And Samuel rose up and went to Ramah” (1 Sam. 16:13). David should have been excited about it even though he was taken aback at first. He didn’t think of being a king. He was the eighth son, “the one outside the completed number, the one who surely is an outsider.”[1] He had “no king material within.”[2] He was not outstanding. He was below average. He was insignificant. He was ordinary. That was it.
After being anointed in front of his family, it changed the whole landscape of David inwardly. He was still the baby boy. But he started to see himself differently. Perhaps, he gradually acted in a different, yet subtle way. The anointed event must have changed and shaped him. From a shepherd boy to the shepherd of Israel, he ended up in exile due to Saul’s jealousy and hatred towards him (1 Sam. 18-30). How did he interpret the anointed event in exile?
Eugene Peterson notes:
Wilderness stories are temptations/testing stories. Wilderness is the place of testing, the place of tempting. Wilderness is wildness. Nothing is tamed or domesticated. The accustomed supports of civilization aren’t there, and life is sheer survival.
In the Moses wilderness story the people of Israel were trained to discern between idols and the living God, taught to worship; through their wilderness experience they were prepared to live totally before God. In the Jesus wilderness story our Lord learned to discern between religion that uses God and spirituality that enters into what God does, and he was thereby prepared to be our Savior, not merely our helper or adviser or entertainer. In the David wilderness story we see a young man hated and hunted like an animal, his very humanity profaned, forced to decide between a life of blasphemy and a life of prayer—and choosing prayer. In choosing prayer he entered into the practice of holiness. A very earthy holiness it was, but holiness all the same.[3]
In exile, there were two paths: the path of apostasy and the path of holiness. David chose the latter. He developed a life of prayer in wilderness. When David was in the cave, he prayed Psalm 142: “With my voice I cry out to the Lord; with my voice I plead for mercy to the Lord…when my spirit faints within me, you know my way!...Bring me out of prison, that I may give thanks to your name! The righteous will surround me, for you will deal bountifully with me.”
He could have chosen to curse God and his own life. But he chose to pray to God: “In choosing prayer he entered into the practice of holiness.” As David chose to pray and enter into the practice of holiness, he began to store up king material within himself. When David prayed a prayer like Psalm 142, he prayed to God with his naked self. David’s humanity was profaned by Saul; David found his new humanity in God.
In 1 Sam. 10:9, it says “When he [Saul] turned his back to leave Samuel, God gave him another heart.” I wonder why God didn’t give David “another heart” after being anointed. God didn’t give him a new heart, but He shaped David’s heart. God tuned it, refined it, reformed it, and reshaped it. God used the wilderness experience to give David a new heart. David disobeyed and profaned God’s name, he ended up like Saul. David obeyed and chose God, he stored up king material in his heart.
“For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart” (1 Sam. 16:7). David’s heart might not be perfect and right when he was chosen and anointed. God saw the potential in David’s heart.
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