- 61-
The words, seemingly casually spoken, were acted upon, and David was sent for to
court. He came, bringing such gifts as the primitive habits of those times suggested
to Jesse as fitting for a loyal subject to offer to his monarch. And as he stood before
Saul in all the freshness of youth, with conscience clear, and in the Spirit-holpen
vigor of a new life - so like the ideal of what Saul might have become, like him even
in stature - the king's past and better self seems to have come back to him, "the king
loved David greatly," and took him into his service.^165 And God's blessing rested on
it: for, when the king heard, as it were, the sound of the rushing wings of the spirit of
evil, and almost felt the darkness as he spread them over him, then, as David's hands
swept the harp of praise, and it poured forth its melody of faith and hope, it seemed
as if heaven's light fell on those wings, and the evil spirit departed from Saul. And
thus we learn once more the precious lesson, how "God moves in a mysterious way
His wonders to perform."
What, if the result alone had been announced, would have seemed impossible, and
hence miraculous in its accomplishment, was brought about by a chain of events,
each linked to the other by natural causation. It is this naturalness, in many cases, of
the supernatural which most shows that "Jehovah reigneth." What He has promised
in His grace that He bringeth about in His providence. Next to inward humility and
strength in dependence on the Lord, perhaps the most important lessons which David
could learn for his future guidance would be those which at the court of Saul, and yet
not of the court, he would derive from daily observation of all that passed in the
government, standing in so near and confidential relationship to the king as to know
all - the good and the evil, the danger and the difficulty - and yet being so wholly
independent as to remain unbiased in his estimate of persons and judgment of things.
So time passed. But in the intervals of calmness, when Saul needed not the ministry
of David, the young Bethlehemite was wont to return to his father's home and to his
humble avocations, - to find in quiet retirement that rest and strength which he
needed (1 Samuel 17:15). And now once more had the dark cloud of war gathered
over the land. It was again Israel's hereditary enemy the Philistines, who, probably
encouraged by their knowledge of Saul's state, had advanced as far into Judah as the
neighborhood of Bethlehem. About ten miles to the south-west of that city lay
Shochoh (or Sochoh), the modern Shuweikeh. Here a broad wady, or valley,
marking a water-course, runs north for about an hour's distance. This is the modern
Wady-es-Sumt, the valley of the acacias, the ancient valley of Elah, or of the
terebinth. At the modern village of Sakarieh, the ancient Shaarim, the wady divides,
turning westwards towards Gath, and northwards by the Wady Surar towards Ekron.
Shochoh and Ephes-Dammim, the modern Damum, about three miles north-east of
Shochoh, between which two points the Philistine camp was pitched, lay on the
southern slope of the wady, while the host of Israel was camped on the northern
slope, the two being separated by the deep part of the wady. But no longer did the
(^)