Saul Repeatedly Attempts to Take David’s Life
19:1 Then Saul told his son Jonathan and all his servants to kill David. But Saul’s son Jonathan liked David very much.
Saul met with his government officials in an attempt to assassinate David. The entire government of Israel was funded and focused upon David’s assassination.
19:2 So Jonathan told David, “My father Saul is trying to kill you. So be careful tomorrow morning. Find a hiding place and stay in seclusion.
Jonathan’s earlier covenant with David turned Jonathan against his own father.
19:3 I will go out and stand beside my father in the field where you are. I will speak about you to my father. When I find out what the problem is, I will let you know.”
Jonathan was going to attempt to solve this conflict by talking personally with his father.
19:4 So Jonathan spoke on David’s behalf to his father Saul. He said to him, “The king should not sin against his servant David, for he has not sinned against you. On the contrary, his actions have been very beneficial for you.
Jonathan attempted to turn his father in favor of David. It would be a sin for a king to kill God's servant.
19:5 He risked his life when he struck down the Philistine and the Lord gave all Israel a great victory. When you saw it, you were happy. So why would you sin against innocent blood by putting David to death for no reason?”
Saul would be guilty of spilling innocent blood.
19:6 Saul accepted Jonathan’s advice and took an oath, “As surely as the Lord lives, he will not be put to death.”
Saul agreed not to kill David.
19:7 Then Jonathan called David and told him all these things. Jonathan brought David to Saul, and he served him as he had done formerly.
Jonathan brought Saul and David back together.
19:8 Now once again there was war. So David went out to fight the Philistines. He defeated them thoroughly and they ran away from him.
General David once again defeated the Philistines.
19:9 Then an evil spirit from the Lord came upon Saul. He was sitting in his house with his spear in his hand, while David was playing the lyre.
Satan was about to attempt his third assassination on David. There was no way that Satan could succeed, because David was protected by Samuel’s prophecy. Until David was made king, then no one could kill him.
19:10 Saul tried to nail David to the wall with the spear, but he escaped from Saul’s presence and the spear drove into the wall. David escaped quickly that night.
Saul missed David with a spear three times at point blank range. Saul’s bad aim was due to God’s divine intervention in protecting His future king.
19:11 Saul sent messengers to David’s house to guard it and to kill him in the morning. Then David’s wife Michal told him, “If you do not save yourself tonight, tomorrow you will be dead!”
Saul attempted his fourth assassination attempt. However, this time David was warned by his wife. Saul’s own children were acting against their father in order to protect David. Psalm 59 was written by David in order to commemorate this escape.
19:12 So Michal lowered David through the window, and he ran away and escaped.
Michal helped David escape through the window.
19:13 Then Michal took a household idol and put it on the bed. She put a quilt made of goat’s hair over its head and then covered the idol with a garment.
Notice that Michal was involved in idolatry. She was not a believer in Jehovah.
19:14 When Saul sent messengers to arrest David, she said, “He’s sick.”
The messengers were executioners. Michal told the executioners that David was sick in bed.
19:15 Then Saul sent the messengers back to see David, saying, “Bring him up to me on his bed so I can kill him.”
Saul sent the executioners back to retrieve David.
19:16 When the messengers came, they found only the idol on the bed and the quilt made of goat’s hair at its head.
The executioners found only an idol.
19:17 Saul said to Michal, “Why have you deceived me this way by sending my enemy away? Now he has escaped!” Michal replied to Saul, “He said to me, ‘Help me get away or else I will kill you!’”
Michal lied to her father in order to protect David and herself from royal execution.
19:18 Now David had run away and escaped. He went to Samuel in Ramah and told him everything that Saul had done to him. Then he and Samuel went and stayed at Naioth.
David escaped and informed the prophet Samuel of Saul’s assassination attempts.
19:19 It was reported to Saul saying, “David is at Naioth in Ramah.”
Saul used Israelite taxes to send out spies in order to find and assassinate David.
19:20 So Saul sent messengers to capture David. When they saw a company of prophets prophesying with Samuel standing there as their leader, the spirit of God came upon Saul’s messengers, and they also prophesied.
The assassins attempted to capture David, but they began prophesying. This means that they fell into an ecstatic trance. They were immobilized and incapable of accomplishing their assassination. God most likely forced the messengers to prophesy in David’s favor against their will. This was Saul’s fifth assassination attempt against David.
19:21 When it was reported to Saul, he sent more messengers, but they prophesied too. So Saul sent messengers a third time, but they also prophesied.
Saul sent two more assassin groups to kill David, but they began prophesying as well. This was the sixth and seventh assassination attempts aimed against David.
19:22 Finally Saul himself went to Ramah. When he arrived at the large cistern that is in Secu, he asked, “Where are Samuel and David?” They said, “At Naioth in Ramah.”
Saul and some assassins went to Ramah to kill David himself.
19:23 So Saul went to Naioth in Ramah. The Spirit of God came upon him as well, and he walked along prophesying until he came to Naioth in Ramah.
Saul could not kill David either, because he was too busy prophesying God’s word. This was Saul’s eighth attempt of assassination upon David.
19:24 He even stripped off his clothes and prophesied before Samuel. He lay there naked all that day and night. (For that reason it is asked, “Is Saul also among the prophets?”)
God has a sense of humor. Instead of Saul assassinating David, he stripped himself of his clothes and began prophesying. This was a very degrading insult to a king, because God forced Saul to humiliate himself in the sight of his followers by prophesying positively for David in his naked body. This should have deterred Saul from further assassination attempts, but it did not.