The Life of DavidSample

The Price of Fame

People often pay a high price when they achieve instant fame. Perhaps no one exhibits this truth more clearly than David. When he killed Goliath, his fame spread across the nation of Israel and beyond its borders. He became an overnight hero. But the acclaim heaped upon him did not sit well with the man he displaced as Israel’s most famous warrior—King Saul.

After the battle against the Philistines, women came out to meet the king and his men as the Israelite armies were returning. But reports about the battle had already been brought back, and the women knew who the catalyst was. Dancing about and playing musical instruments, they sang a small, insignificant song: “Saul has struck down his thousands, and David his ten thousands.” The women were not putting actual battle statistics to music—it is impossible that David personally killed tens of thousands of Philistines (or that Saul killed thousands). The song represents hyperbole designed to magnify David’s contribution to the victory—the killing of Goliath. Unfortunately, Saul heard what was said. It galled him that David was accorded greater military success than he, even though David behaved more bravely than he. His spirit was not magnanimous enough to give David a day in the spotlight. And so, although he brought David to the palace permanently (18:2) and set him over the army (18:5), Saul began to watch him with suspicion. He started to wonder whether this might be the “neighbor” to whom God would give his kingdom (1 Sam. 15:28). Later, when he was troubled by a “distressing spirit” from God, Saul tried to kill David with a spear, but David would escape. David found that his success bred jealousy in Saul and, perhaps, in others among Saul’s loyal men.

By God’s grace, however, David could conduct himself with wisdom, by which he safely navigated the minefields of ill feelings against him. God was with him in his battle against Goliath, and He remained with David. In time, even Saul realized that God had departed from him and was instead with David, which led him to fear David. He understood that if David was God’s newly anointed king, nothing could prevent him from ascending the throne in time.

CORAM DEO Living before the face of God

God could have left David in obscurity on his father’s farm until it was time for him to be crowned, but He used him to defeat Goliath and brought him to the palace to refine him through struggle and trial. If you are facing difficult times, do as David did and rely on God, trusting He is working out His purposes in your trials.