So far in the book of 1 Samuel, the people asked for a king, so the Lord had Samuel anoint Saul as the first king of Israel, but due to various sin in his life, the Lord was going to remove the kingdom from Saul and give it to someone better than him, someone who had a heart like God's. In chapter 16 Samuel anoints David to be the next king of Israel, and the end of that chapter we find that David is chosen to be the musician for king Saul when the evil spirit from the Lord came upon him. David also became one of Saul's armor bearers. Chapter 17 is the story of David and Goliath. Even though Goliath was big and had mighty weapons, David said, "I come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defiled" (vs. 45). Verse 50 says, "So David triumphed over the Philistine with a sling and a stone; without a sword in his hand he struck down the Philistine and killed him." David succeeded in everything he did, and when the women sang, "Saul has slain his thousands; and David his tens of thousands," Saul's jealousy got the better of him. He tried many times to kill David himself, but David escaped. He then purposefully gave him difficult battles thinking David would die at war, but he kept winning and his fame grew. He even married Saul's youngest daughter, Michal, with the price of 1,000 Philistine foreskins. (David brought 2,000 instead!) Saul had his men watch David's home one night with the plans to kill him the next morning, but Michal heard about it and let him out through a window. Saul found out David had run to Samuel, but the Lord delivered him again from Saul. This night, when the men watched David's house, was the event that David wrote Psalm 59. David cries out for deliverance and protection. He tells the Lord he did nothing wrong, and it is not fair. He asks the Lord to punish his enemies, and he praises the Lord for protecting him in the morning. The Lord is David's strength, fortress, refuge, and his loving God!
