Commentaria in I Regum (I Samuelis)
AND THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD WAS DIRECTED IN DAVID FROM THAT DAY.—You will ask, what was this spirit? I answer, first, it was a spirit of fortitude, both of mind and of body, which made him warlike and victorious; whence after this anointing David so …
… life by his conversation. For He was ruddy, because He ardently loved those for whom He laid down His life: beautiful to behold, because He knew all things; of comely face, because He did all good things.”
13. THEN SAMUEL TOOK THE HORN OF OIL, AND ANOINTED HIM IN THE MIDST OF HIS BRETHREN.—“Not, as Josephus says, as if Samuel whispered into his ear; but that all the brethren might see and understand the anointing, and that they might thereafter make more of him, and suffer less from envy when they saw him preferred to themselves,” says Theodoret, Question 37. Moreover he was anointed, not that he should reign at once, but that he might succeed the dying Saul in the kingdom. Hence it is plain … both the lion and the bear, and Goliath the giant. Hence the Septuagint render, the spirit of the Lord leaped upon him, as it leaped upon Samson, and rushed upon him as often as he undertook some heroic work of fortitude. So Lyranus, Abulensis and Vatablus, who renders, the spirit of the Lord began to stir him; the Chaldee, the spirit of fortitude from God abode upon David.
Secondly, it was a spirit of a great and royal mind. For as God, calling Saul from the asses to the kingdom, changed his rustic heart into a magnanimous and royal one: so now He transferred the same spirit from Saul to David, so that he who before had thought only of feeding sheep now thought of governing and defending all Israel: great and new thoughts, therefore, new spirits, new reflections, new counsels, new desires and wishes He put into him; for this is what the Hebrew tislach signifies.
Thirdly, it was a spirit of Poetry and Music, namely of playing the harp and composing and singing psalms: for from the anointing he began to play and to compose psalms. So Abulensis, Dionysius and others.
Fourthly, it was a spirit of prudence, that in all his sayings and doings he might be wonderfully prudent, discreet, provident, and govern with great wisdom not only himself and his household but the whole kingdom. Whence Solomon the son of David asked and obtained the same from God, 3 Kings chap. 3, verse 12. Finally the Hebrew tislach, which our version renders “was directed,” you may render with Marinus and others, prospered, made fortunate, directed to a happy effect; namely that David might do all things prudently and happily, and bring them to the desired end.
Fifthly, it was a spirit of prophecy: for David was a prophet, and in the Psalms not only sings but prophesies of Christ, and of Christ’s life, death, the Apostles, the Church, etc. So St. Jerome, Josephus and others.
Moreover this spirit did not pass away, but constantly remained in David, at least as to some of his operations. For this signifies “from that day and thenceforward.” So St. Gregory.
Suddenly, then, David, by the anointing of God and of Samuel, was here made, from a despised little shepherd of sheep, a most valiant and most prudent king, and a Psalmist and divine prophet: for if he had had any of these before, surely his father and brethren would not have thrown him off so to the sheep, but would have made more of him.
THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD IN DAVID.—David is named from love, as lovable. For David in Hebrew is the same as dod, that is, beloved, or love and dilection, according to that in Canticles 1: “Thy breasts (in Hebrew, thy loves, dodecha) are better than wine.” Hence Solomon his son also received the same name from God, and was called Iedidia, that is, “beloved of the Lord,” 2 Kings chap. 12, verse 25. Moreover St. Augustine, book 22 Against Faustus, chap. 87, and on Psalm 34: “David,” he says, “is the same as strong of hand or desirable,” so that David is said as if dai yad, that is, sufficient (that is, strong, powerful) of hand. Hear St. Chrysostom, in the homily On David and Goliath, comparing David with Saul and preferring him: “I have found me David, a man according to my own heart, who shall do all my wills. O blessed merit of the most holy David, which God praises, the Lord proclaims, the supreme judge prefers! For while the most holy David is a man according to God’s heart, whatever God thinks he does; whatever He conceives in mind he accomplishes. For while David, I say, joins his own heart to the heart of God, and attaches his mind to His mind; that is, to will what God wills, and likewise not to will what He wills not; so the Lord loved him with indivisible love and joined charity.” And a few words later: “This one is chosen from the sheep to the kingdom, that one is destined from the kingdom to the sword. A holy life advanced this one, contempt of the commandments reprobated that one. David, still a shepherd, vanquishes the lion, kills the bear; Saul, by despising the Lord, provokes an evil spirit against himself. David, most holy, reigns, but secretly: Saul is made reprobate openly.
This one is already king, that one is thought so; this one already holds, that one is only said to; this one possesses a hidden dignity, that one has the public image of a kingdom; David is flooded by God with the Holy Spirit, but Saul is deserted by that Spirit. Finally Saul persecutes David, who is innocent, but David shows Saul, delivered to him, unharmed, though a sinner; that in David the Holy Spirit might grow mild, and in Saul the evil spirit rage against the innocent, so that diversity of life might show diverse merits, and these causes be attributed to men and not to God, who, to those who act ill or well, would either take away or confer the kingdom.”
14. AND THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD DEPARTED FROM SAUL,—namely the spirit of fortitude, goodness, prudence, magnanimity, liberal and royal mind, etc., “departed from Saul,” and he himself fell back into his primitive depravity of mind, dejection, imprudence, levity, pusillanimity: whence he who before was keen in wars and a victor, afterwards was unwarlike, cowardly, inert, nor did he do anything notable.
AND AN EVIL SPIRIT FROM THE LORD TROUBLED HIM.—You will ask, who was this “evil spirit troubling Saul”? First, the Hebrews, Josephus, Cajetan, Genebrard in the Chronicle, year of the world 3006, Delrio, book 3 of the Magic Disquisitions, chap. 4, think it was black bile, or melancholy and mania, which created for Saul sad imaginations, suspicions, envies, griefs, anxieties, despairs, furies, deliriums, madness: for these he conceived from seeing himself rejected by God and deprived of the kingdom by Samuel. It is proved first, because the Septuagint render, an evil spirit suffocated him; the Chaldee, terrified him; Vatablus, disturbed him. Secondly, because by Josephus this spirit is called “a perturbation and disease inflicted by a demon, which created suffocations and strangulations for him.” Thirdly, because, agitated by this spirit, he envied David the succession to the kingdom, and therefore wished to kill him, chap. 18, verse 11. Fourthly, because this disease of Saul was relieved by David’s music, playing the harp, namely because music cheers, and so puts sadness to flight.
Moreover, how malignant the melancholic humour is, Galen, Fernelius and Levinus Lemnius the physician teach, in the book On Complexions, near the end, p. 162, where he recounts the wonderful fancies of melancholics and their cures. “The first,” he says, “had persuaded himself that a nose had grown on him like the trunk of an elephant. The physician held a sausage to his nostrils, and with a knife cut off both it and finally the last skin of the nose: and so tore away from him the imaginary nose. The second believed that frogs and toads were boring through his intestines. The physician purged him by a clyster through the bowels, and, receiving the excrements in a basin, threw frogs and toads into it. Behold, he said, the frogs and toads of your belly: know that you are now freed from them; and so he drove out of him this fancy of his. The third imagined that his thighs were of glass; so he dared neither sit down nor touch anything, lest they be struck together and shatter. The fourth thought himself dead, and therefore would not take food: and he had been fasting already seven days (and physicians reckon the seventh day of fasting lethal), the physician sent into his chamber certain persons masked and wrapped in linen sheets, who said they were dead, and yet feasted sumptuously before him. Invited both by the voice of the feasters and the savour of the dainties, he began to taste, and at last to eat more freely: and when the supper was ended a healing sleep stole over him, a draught having been prepared for that purpose; and so he returned to life and mind.” This sense is true; but in this place it is not sufficient.