Saga: The Story of David: I Got My Eyes on You
June 26, 2016
Dr. Linda Christians
I Samuel 18:5-16

David went out and was successful wherever Saul sent him; as a result, Saul set him over the army. And all the people, even the servants of Saul, approved. As they were coming home, when David returned from killing the Philistine, the women came out of all the towns of Israel, singing and dancing, to meet King Saul, with tambourines, with songs of joy and with musical instruments.And the women sang to one another as they made merry, “Saul has killed his thousands, and David his ten thousands.”
Saul was very angry, for this saying displeased him. He said, “They have ascribed to David ten thousands, and to me they have ascribed thousands; what more can he have but the kingdom?”So Saul eyed David from that day on. The next day an evil spirit from God rushed upon Saul, and he raved within his house, while David was playing the lyre, as he did day by day. Saul had his spear in his hand; and Saul threw the spear, for he thought, “I will pin David to the wall.” But David eluded him twice.
Saul was afraid of David, because theLordwas with him but had departed from Saul.So Saul removed him from his presence and made him a commander of a thousand; and David marched out and came in, leading the army. David had success in all his undertakings; for theLord was with him.When Saul saw that he had great success, he stood in awe of him.But all Israel and Judah loved David; for it was he who marched out and came leading them. (I Samuel 18:5-16 NRSV)
Let us pray. O God, may the words of my mouth and the mediations of all of our hearts be acceptable to you our Lord, our Strength and Redeemer. Amen.
David has become an overnight sensation. His hits on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, his endorsements on LinkedIn have skyrocketed. People everywhere are in awe of this up and coming young leader who’s taken charge of Saul’s army. He is a man who has achieved overnight success, and it just continued as time went by. People loved David. They were passionate about what they saw in him and what they had heard. Everyone loved David and everyone was curious about him. Even King Saul.
From the moment the giant fell Saul had his eye on him. And he took an interest in David and brought him into his royal courts and put him in charge of his royal army. This turned out to be a pretty smart move, because the Lord was with David. And the Lord was with David, and wherever David went he just happened to have success after success after success. Everyone approved of the promotion. Everyone eyed him with a measure of awe. There’s no hint of jealousy or envy or resentment known or represented in the Scripture. Everyone loved David. But who wouldn’t?
Well, this is where the saga begins. Up until this time Saul is so well pleased with his young leader. He’s pleased with him, he loves the success, and everything’s going well, until Saul hears the words the women are singing, “Saul has killed his thousands, and David his ten thousands.” Oh, that is so not good. That would be like me preaching a sermon and you going to Dr. Pace and saying, “You know, Linda did such a great job. Maybe…” Please don’t do that, and it won’t be like that. You don’t have to worry, there will not be a temptation to do that.
But it’s the same kind of thing. Now Saul was the king but the Spirit of the Lord was not with him. And Saul’s emptiness, that void, was filled with envy. Some suspicion grew. And from that time on he eyed David differently, not as one of his trusted commanders-in-chief, not as someone who would bring victory to his army, but he eyed David with suspicion and he was fearful that David would take away everything including his throne. And in that jealous rage he even screams, “What next? What more will he have but my kingdom?”
Imagine Saul pacing back and forth. His mind is racing and there’s that paranoid fear he has of losing everything. He’s tormented by it all. And then imagine David. He’s sitting at ease, has his harp in hand. He’s doing exactly what he was accustomed to doing when Saul had his rages or rants. Whenever Saul was out of sorts, David created beautiful music, much like what we just heard here, that just soothed your soul.
But this time it’s different. Saul’s soul and his mind were not soothed. In fact, he was so incited with fear and rage and anger and jealousy that he tried to kill David by throwing a spear at him twice. He wanted David pinned to the wall. He could see it! He wanted David dead, so there would be no rival for the throne, no rival for affection or attention or fame.
Now earlier in I Samuel we learned that there was a time when Saul turned away from the Lord. He purposely turned away from the Lord. And when he did, the Spirit of God left him. Saul’s behavior now clearly indicates that the Spirit of the Lord was still so not with Saul. David didn’t turn away. At this point in the Scripture, David is still faithful, and the Lord remained with him. So regardless of wherever Saul sent him into battle, David met with continued success, and everybody was in awe of him.
So this story happened 3000 years or so ago. What difference does it have for us? I think there are lessons to be learned, and I’m going to point out the three that rose to the top for me.
The first is that a faithful relationship with God affects the way we see. How close we are to God, how strong our faith is in God affects the way we see.
Did you notice the difference between Saul and David? It’s really hard not to. David was close to God, and his time working as a shepherd, playing the harp, singing the hymns, the Psalms, I think played over and over in his mind, and he worshipped the Lord continually. He was drawn near to the heart of God. That’s how I see it anyway.
When you’re right with God you can see people through the lens of grace. You can see people through the lens of love and mercy, forgiveness and second chances. On the other hand, if you’re like Saul and the Spirit of the Lord is far from you, you’re more apt to see people through the lens of envy, suspicion, fear, jealousy, malice.
When I’ve turned away from God – and I have – I’ve seen people differently by looking at them and then assuming the worst. I’d look them over and make judgments. There are times I’ve walked into a room, and I knew because of my insecurity and because the Lord was far from me, I felt as though every eye in the room was on me and that they were talking about me. Because I wasn’t right in my relationship with God, I couldn’t see people clearly through the lens of grace. My insecurities would get the better of me.
Have you ever experienced a time when someone younger, more gifted, more skilled, more charismatic, entered your workplace or your volunteer organization, someone who threatened just your piece of that kingdom? Or maybe someone joined your new group of friends, and a new member came in. And you really weren’t right with God, and you kind of eyed them a little differently. Not so much as a welcoming spirit but maybe one of perhaps suspicion or envy. People size each other up. We’re humans. That’s what we do, unfortunately. We make judgments, and we automatically assume that what we see is how it really is.
When you or I read or heard the words of the women’s song, “Saul killed his thousands and David killed his ten thousands,” we took that literally. And we probably thought the women were having a disparaging remark about Saul, that they were elevating David above Saul. Commentators would tell you that’s probably not true. In ancient Hebrew poetry the second line enhanced the first. Or ten thousand was another way of saying a thousand or thousands. It could be many. So in effect, what the women were singing was, “Saul and David have slain the thousands.” There’s victory. That was what they would have been thinking and singing.
And Saul would have known that, I think. Saul was a learned man. He would have known Hebrew poetry. If he had been filled with the Spirit of God, Saul would have joined in the celebration. He would have joined in the celebration, and possibly he would have sung and danced, but he certainly would have a positive attitude and appreciated that celebratory experience.
So a faithful relationship with God affects how we see.
The second thing we learn is that seeing by faith affects the way we behave. I think this is one of the main reasons I continue to go to ongoing Bible studies, continually studying the Bible, continually being in the Word so that I can remain close to God, and God can continue to shape me. Because when I spend time in God’s Word, and I’m in prayer, I have my times of silence and solitude. I can look at people with a much kinder eye. I can be more gracious and compassionate and caring.
So I want you to go back and think again. A junior staff member comes into your firm or your volunteer organization, and this person goes out and accomplishes something great, something beautiful. If you’re seeing by faith, and if your relationship with God is right, you think to yourself, “Wow. He or she is doing well. And we’re doing well because he or she is doing well. We all look good because he or she is making us look good. It’s all about the team.”
You know that when they look good the whole team looks good. Your eyes have a broader focus. I see how David trusted God, and I see how David directly related to God in how he handled Saul, how he behaved toward him. David saw Saul as the king, King Saul. And he submitted to his authority. Time and time again Saul sends David into battle, and time and time again David goes. He didn’t know he was going to have success when he went, but he did. And when he came back, he came back humble. There’s no hint that he came back bragging or gloating over his accomplishments. I believe he led the army with faith that God was working out his own purposes.
It’s kind of reminiscent for me, and I know this is going to sound weird, but it’s reminiscent for me of the evil queen in “Snow White.” I think about Saul, I think about the evil queen in “Snow White.” And my poor family has heard me rehearse this over and over. “Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who is the fairest of them all.”
You see the evil queen is looking in this mirror, and every time she does she asks the mirror, and she eagerly expects to hear the voice to say “You are the fairest. You are the most beautiful.” And for years that’s what happened until that time when the voice says, “It’s not you. Snow White is the fairest of them all.”
You see, the evil queen looked at the same mirror, the same reflection, and now how she saw Snow white was as her rival, as someone to be destroyed, so she could again be the fairest of them all. So our relationship with God affects the way we see, and seeing by faith affects the way we behave.
The third thing we learn is that acting out our faith, or enacting our faith in God affects our relationships. Relationships, as you know, are hard enough without drama. Bad behavior causes drama. And bad behavior happens when we begin to suspect or think something of one another, or any other event. It could happen just because of something we’ve assumed. And bad behavior creates that anger, and anger alienates.
We all deal with anger at some point in our lives, nearly every day. It could be that a wife looks at her husband, and she’s angry, and then she begins to behave that way. My personal favorite though – and I’m just going to confess to you – is when I go into a grocery store, and I have my beautiful, beautiful loaf of bread. You know what I’m talking about, right? You go through the check out line, and I’ve sorted all my groceries out so that the most delicate are in the back. And the bagger without regard just throws the bread in and then throws the produce on top of it. Then the bread is no longer round.
Now I will say if I’m right with God, I behave one way. If I’m not so right with God, I’m not. My eyes can seemingly pierce through someone’s soul. And I have to say that when my heart and my soul and my relationship with God has not been that, I indeed have. But I would say to you that when I’m right with God, though I can be super annoyed, really annoyed, I’m more apt to ask the bagger, “Are you okay? You seem a little angry. Because you just took it out on my bread.”
There’s a difference. There’s just a difference. The more I’m right with God, the more I’m apt to respond that way. And I can tell you, I’m a work in progress, just ask my family.
If Saul had had that right relationship with God, his relationship with David would have been different, and he would not have alienated himself from David. Saul began focusing on himself. He became narrowly focused, and David’s success was affecting every aspect of Saul. Instead of nurturing his relationship in love, he, which I believe… and I love this definition of love - it’s how I look at it. “Love is an overwhelming desire to wish someone well.”
We’re called to love one another which means we should have that overwhelming desire to wish someone well whether they deserve it or not. We say we love chocolate cake. I love coconut cream pie. Well, I don’t really love coconut cream pie, because when I eat it I’m not wishing it well. I enjoy my coconut cream pie. There’s a difference. When you really love someone, you do everything you can to wish them well.
In the New Testament we have two other figures who I think do it very well. They teach us about relationships. John the Baptist and Jesus. John knew that Jesus was greater than he, and he told his own disciples that someone greater than himself was coming. And John stepped aside without malice, without envy, without any jealous thought so Jesus could be exalted. And he was able to do this, the Scripture will say, because the Spirit of the Lord was with him. John kept his eyes on God’s kingdom, not his own. And he paved the way for Jesus to come to show us how to really love God and one another.
Last week I had lunch with a new friend, Linda McCarty. She’s the Executive Director of Faith in Practice. Faith in Practice is a non-profit organization that goes to Guatemala to provide nursing and medical care to the impoverished. She shared during lunch about her ministry, and then she made a statement and I said, “Could you send that to me? That is so good.” I didn’t have a pen. She said, “Well, it’s in my blog, I’ll share it with you.”
It is a blog, I think, that pulls the three lessons together in one. Our relationship with God affects how we see, how we see affects the way we behave, how we behave affects our relationships. Her blog is called Irrevocable Love. It’s not very long. Listen to what she says, “Why Guatemala? That is the question I most often receive. Of all the places in the world with a need, why Guatemala? The answer is complex and simple, just like Guatemala herself. I suppose the answer is found in their eyes. Maria’s eyes, so young and yet a depth, a calmness there which belies knowledge beyond years. Juanita’s eyes, appearing to be over 60, and yet a twinkle that reveals the young woman she still is.
As if in their eyes young or old an entire lifetime is held, accessible, palpable, elusive, mysterious, drawing us in, drawing us more deeply into their eyes demanding somehow that we look more deeply into our own lives, challenging us, beckoning us to be more authentic, more present. Maybe it is because they live so closely to the earth or their life is so hard or because their faith is so deep, it’s hard to say.
And yet they never fail to demand something of me. Forcing me to see somehow what I could not otherwise see, revealing to me a challenge, a call, a claim on my own life, revealing to me a beauty that transcends, a beauty that transcends her life that transcends mine.”
I love that line. She writes, “Drawing us more deeply into their eyes, demanding somehow that we look more deeply into our own lives.”
Gosh, if we only had people like Maria and Juanita in our lives to remind us daily of the correlation between our faith in God, our relationship and how that plays out in our relationship with others. Our relationships with others would improve by leaps and bounds.
And this is God’s greatest desire for us that we would love God with all our heart, mind, soul and strength, that we would love others as ourselves. God’s desire for us is to see others with his eyes.
Brandon Heath has a song that my daughter played for me. It’s called “Give Me Your Eyes.” I don’t know if you’ve heard it but it contains these powerful lyrics:
“Give me your eyes for just one second. Give me your eyes, so I can see everything that I keep missing. Give me your love for humanity. Give me your arms for the brokenhearted, the ones that are far beyond my reach. Give me your heart for the ones forgotten. Give me your hearts, your eyes, so I can see. Give me your eyes, Lord, give me your eyes.
All those people are going somewhere. Why have I never cared? Well, I want a second glance, so give me a second chance to see the way you have seen people all along. Give me your eyes, Lord, give me your eyes.”
Give me your eyes. God has his eyes on you, wants only the best for you and for me. And the good news for today is that God gives us second chance after second chance after second chance, every opportunity because God is pursuing a relationship with us. We have to turn toward God, strengthen our relationship with God which will indeed have an effect on how we see the world and the people in it will then affect the way we behave which will then affect our relationships.
You have a choice to make. Are you going to draw near to God? You have a second chance and another second chance to do it or not.
May it be that you draw close to the heart of God now and forever. Amen.