Live-Wire Bible Study - Day 86 - 1 Samuel 18–19 · Acts 13 · Psalm 59 - FeedTheGoodHorse
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Day 86: 1 Samuel 18–19 · Acts 13 · Psalm 59 · Commentary · Commentary²
The Bible text is included for reading continuity; it is accurate in substance, aligned with major modern translations, and may be read alongside any Bible you prefer.1
Special Note about the following Bible text: The following translation uses the Hebrew terms tamé (טָמֵא) and tahor (טָהוֹר) instead of the traditional “unclean” and “clean.” These terms describe ritual status in relation to sanctuary access, not moral fault, shame, or physical dirtiness. A fuller explanation will follow in a dedicated article.
1 Samuel 18
When he finished speaking to Saul, the life of Jonathan was bound to the life of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own life. Saul took him that day and did not let him return to his father’s house. Jonathan made a covenant with David because he loved him as his own life. Jonathan removed the robe that was on him and gave it to David, and his tunic, and even his sword and his bow and his belt.
David went out wherever Saul sent him and acted wisely, so Saul set him over the men of war. This was good in the eyes of all the people and also in the eyes of Saul’s servants.
As they were coming home, when David returned from striking down the Philistine, the women came out from all the cities of Israel singing and dancing to meet King Saul with tambourines, with joy, and with musical instruments. The women sang as they played, and said,
“Saul has struck down his thousands,
and David his ten-thousands.”
Saul became very angry, and this saying was displeasing in his eyes. He said, “They have given David ten-thousands, but to me they have given thousands. What more can he have except the kingship?” Saul watched David with suspicion from that day onward.
On the next day, a troubling spirit from God rushed upon Saul, and he raved within the house while David played with his hand, as he did day by day. Saul had a spear in his hand, and Saul threw the spear, for he thought, “I will pin David to the wall.” But David escaped from his presence twice. Saul was afraid of David because the Lord was with him but had departed from Saul. So Saul removed him from his presence and made him commander of a thousand, and he went out and came in before the people. David acted wisely in all his ways, and the Lord was with him. When Saul saw that he acted very wisely, he stood in awe of him. But all Israel and Judah loved David, for he went out and came in before them.
Saul said to David, “Here is my older daughter Merab. I will give her to you as a wife. Only be a valiant man for me and fight the battles of the Lord.” For Saul thought, “Let not my hand be against him, but let the hand of the Philistines be against him.” David said to Saul, “Who am I, and what is my life or my father’s family in Israel, that I should become the king’s son-in-law?” But when the time came to give Merab, Saul’s daughter, to David, she was given to Adriel the Meholathite as a wife.
Now Michal, Saul’s daughter, loved David, and they told Saul, and the matter pleased him. Saul said, “I will give her to him, so that she may become a snare to him and the hand of the Philistines may be against him.” So Saul said to David a second time, “You shall today become my son-in-law.” Saul commanded his servants, “Speak to David secretly, saying, ‘Look, the king delights in you, and all his servants love you. Now then, become the king’s son-in-law.’” Saul’s servants spoke these words in David’s hearing. David said, “Does it seem to you a small matter to become the king’s son-in-law, since I am a poor man and lightly regarded?”
The servants of Saul reported to him according to these words that David spoke. Saul said, “Thus you shall say to David: ‘The king desires no bride-price except a hundred foreskins of the Philistines, to take vengeance on the king’s enemies.’” But Saul thought to make David fall by the hand of the Philistines.
When his servants told David these words, the matter pleased David to become the king’s son-in-law. Before the days had expired, David rose and went, he and his men, and struck down two hundred Philistines. David brought their foreskins, and they counted them out in full to the king, that he might become the king’s son-in-law. So Saul gave him Michal his daughter as a wife. Saul saw and knew that the Lord was with David, and that Michal, Saul’s daughter, loved him. Saul was even more afraid of David, so Saul became David’s enemy continually.
Then the commanders of the Philistines came out to battle, and as often as they came out, David acted more wisely than all the servants of Saul, so that his name was held in high honor.
1 Samuel 19
Saul spoke to Jonathan his son and to all his servants about killing David. But Jonathan, Saul’s son, delighted greatly in David.
Jonathan told David, saying, “Saul my father seeks to kill you. Now therefore please be on guard in the morning. Stay in a secret place and hide yourself. I will go out and stand beside my father in the field where you are, and I will speak about you to my father. What I see, I will tell you.”
Jonathan spoke well of David to Saul his father and said to him, “Let not the king sin against his servant David, because he has not sinned against you, and because his actions have been very beneficial to you. He took his life in his hand and struck down the Philistine, and the Lord worked a great deliverance for all Israel. You saw it and rejoiced. Why then will you sin against innocent blood by killing David without cause?”
Saul listened to the voice of Jonathan, and Saul swore, “As the Lord lives, he shall not be put to death.” Jonathan called David, and Jonathan told him all these things. Jonathan brought David to Saul, and he was in his presence as before.
War broke out again, and David went out and fought with the Philistines and struck them with a great blow, so that they fled before him.
Then a troubling spirit from the Lord came upon Saul as he sat in his house with his spear in his hand, while David was playing with his hand. Saul sought to pin David to the wall with the spear, but he slipped away from Saul’s presence, so that he struck the spear into the wall. David fled and escaped that night.
Saul sent messengers to David’s house to watch him, so that he might kill him in the morning. But Michal, David’s wife, told him, saying, “If you do not save your life tonight, tomorrow you will be killed.”
So Michal let David down through the window, and he went away and fled and escaped. Michal took the household image and placed it in the bed and put a covering of goats’ hair at its head and covered it with the garment. When Saul sent messengers to take David, she said, “He is sick.” Saul sent the messengers back to see David, saying, “Bring him up to me in the bed, so that I may kill him.” When the messengers came in, look, the household image was in the bed, with the covering of goats’ hair at its head.
Saul said to Michal, “Why have you deceived me like this and let my enemy go, so that he has escaped?” Michal said to Saul, “He said to me, ‘Let me go. Why should I kill you?’”
David fled and escaped, and came to Samuel at Ramah and told him all that Saul had done to him. Then he and Samuel went and stayed at Naioth.
It was told Saul, saying, “Look, David is at Naioth in Ramah.” Then Saul sent messengers to take David. When they saw the company of prophets prophesying, and Samuel standing as leader over them, the spirit of God came upon the messengers of Saul, and they also prophesied.
When it was told Saul, he sent other messengers, and they also prophesied. Saul sent messengers again a third time, and they also prophesied. Then he himself went to Ramah. He came to the great well that is in Secu, and he asked, saying, “Where are Samuel and David?” Someone said, “Look, they are at Naioth in Ramah.”
He went there to Naioth in Ramah, and the spirit of God came upon him also, and he went on prophesying until he came to Naioth in Ramah. He also stripped off his clothes, and he also prophesied before Samuel and lay down naked all that day and all that night. Therefore they say, “Is Saul also among the prophets?”
Acts 13
Now in Antioch, in the assembly that was there, there were prophets and teachers: Barnabas, Simeon who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch, and Saul.
While they were serving the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” Then after fasting and praying and laying their hands on them, they sent them away.
So, having been sent out by the Holy Spirit, they went down to Seleucia, and from there they sailed to Cyprus. Arriving in Salamis, they began proclaiming the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews. They also had John assisting them.
After going through the whole island as far as Paphos, they found a certain man, a magician, a false prophet, a Jew whose name was Bar-Jesus. He was with the proconsul Sergius Paulus, an intelligent man. This man summoned Barnabas and Saul and sought to hear the word of God.
But Elymas the magician (for that is how his name is translated) opposed them, seeking to turn the proconsul away from the faith. But Saul, who is also called Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, fixed his gaze on him and said, “You who are full of every kind of deceit and trickery, child of the accuser, enemy of everything that is right, will you not stop making crooked the straight paths of the Lord? And now look, the hand of the Lord is against you, and you will be blind, not seeing the sun for a time.”
Immediately mist and darkness fell upon him, and he went about seeking someone to lead him by the hand. Then the proconsul, seeing what had happened, believed, being astonished at the teaching of the Lord.
Now Paul and those with him set sail from Paphos and came to Perga in Pamphylia, but John left them and returned to Jerusalem. But they went on from Perga and came to Antioch in Pisidia, and entering the synagogue on the Sabbath day, they sat down.
After the reading from the Law and the Prophets, the synagogue leaders sent word to them, saying, “Brothers, if you have any word of encouragement for the people, speak.”
So Paul stood up, motioned with his hand, and said:
“Men of Israel and you who fear God, listen. The God of this people Israel chose our ancestors and made the people great during their stay in the land of Egypt, and with an uplifted arm he led them out of it. For about forty years he put up with them in the wilderness. After destroying seven nations in the land of Canaan, he gave their land to them as an inheritance for about four hundred fifty years.
After these things he gave them judges until Samuel the prophet. Then they asked for a king, and God gave them Saul son of Kish, a man from the tribe of Benjamin, for forty years. After removing him, he raised up David as king for them, about whom he also testified and said, ‘I have found David son of Jesse, a man after my heart, who will do all my will.’
From this man’s descendants, according to promise, God brought to Israel a rescuer, Jesus. Before his coming, John proclaimed an immersion of change of mind to all the people of Israel. As John was finishing his course, he said, ‘What do you suppose that I am? I am not he. But look, one is coming after me, the sandals of whose feet I am not worthy to untie.’
Siblings, children of the family of Abraham, and those among you who fear God, to us the message of this rescue has been sent. For those living in Jerusalem and their leaders did not recognize him, nor did they understand the voices of the prophets that are read every Sabbath, but they fulfilled them by condemning him. Though they found no cause worthy of death, they asked Pilate to have him killed. When they had carried out everything written about him, they took him down from the wood and laid him in a tomb. But God raised him from the dead, and for many days he appeared to those who had come up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem, who are now his witnesses to the people.
We are proclaiming to you good news of the promise made to the ancestors, that God has fulfilled this for us, their children, by raising Jesus, as it is also written in the second psalm:
‘You are my Son;
today I have begotten you.’
That he raised him from the dead, never again to return to decay, he has spoken in this way:
‘I will give you the holy and trustworthy promises of David.’
Therefore he also says in another place:
‘You will not allow your Holy One to see decay.’
For David, after serving the purpose of God in his own generation, fell asleep, was laid with his ancestors, and saw decay. But the one whom God raised did not see decay.
So let it be known to you, siblings, that through this one forgiveness of wrongdoings is proclaimed to you, and by him everyone who believes is set right from everything from which you could not be set right by the law of Moses.
So watch out, so that what is spoken in the prophets does not come upon you:
‘Look, you mockers,
be astonished and perish;
for I am doing a work in your days,
a work you would never believe
even if someone told you.’”
As they were going out, the people kept asking that these words might be spoken to them again on the next Sabbath. After the synagogue gathering broke up, many of the Jews and devout converts followed Paul and Barnabas, who spoke with them and urged them to continue in the grace of God.
On the next Sabbath almost the whole city gathered to hear the word of the Lord. But when the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy and began contradicting what was spoken by Paul and speaking abusively.
Then Paul and Barnabas spoke boldly, saying, “It was necessary that the word of God be spoken first to you. Since you reject it and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, look, we are turning to the nations. For so the Lord has commanded us, saying:
‘I have placed you as a light for the nations,
that you may bring rescue to the ends of the earth.’”
When the nations heard this, they rejoiced and glorified the word of the Lord, and as many as had been appointed for eternal life believed.
The word of the Lord was being spread throughout the whole region. But the Jews stirred up the prominent God-fearing women and the leading men of the city and raised persecution against Paul and Barnabas and drove them out of their district. But they shook off the dust from their feet against them and went to Iconium. And the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit.
Psalm 59
Deliver me from my enemies, my God;
set me securely beyond those who rise against me.
Deliver me from those who do wrongdoing,
and save me from bloodthirsty people.
For look—they lie in wait for my life;
fierce people stir up strife against me,
not because of my rebellion
and not because of my sin, Lord.
For no fault of mine, they run and prepare themselves.
Awake to meet me, and see!
You, Lord God of hosts, God of Israel,
rise to punish all the nations;
show no favor to any treacherous wrongdoers.
Each evening they return;
they snarl like dogs
and prowl around the city.
Look—they pour out words from their mouths;
swords are on their lips,
for they say, “Who hears?”
But you laugh at them, Lord;
you mock all the nations.
O my strength, I watch for you,
for God is my secure refuge.
My God, in his steadfast love, will meet me;
God will let me look in triumph
on those who watch me.
Do not kill them, or my people will forget;
scatter them by your power and bring them down,
Lord, our shield.
For the sin of their mouths, the words of their lips,
let them be trapped in their pride,
because of the curses and lies they speak.
Consume them in wrath—consume them so that they are no more;
then it will be known to the ends of the earth
that God rules in Jacob.
Each evening they return;
they snarl like dogs
and prowl around the city.
They wander about for food
and growl if they are not satisfied.
But I will sing of your strength;
I will sing aloud of your steadfast love in the morning.
For you have been a secure refuge for me,
a place of refuge in the day of my distress.
O my strength, to you I will sing praises,
for God is my secure refuge,
my God of steadfast love.
Commentary - Day 86
1 Samuel 18–19 · Acts 13 · Psalm 59
Summary:
In 1 Samuel 18–19, covenant and hostility grow together. Jonathan binds himself to David even as Saul’s jealousy hardens into pursuit. Spears are thrown, marriage becomes strategy, and David escapes by night while messengers sent to seize him begin to prophesy instead. In Acts 13, Barnabas and Saul are sent out from Antioch; opposition rises in Cyprus and Pisidian Antioch even as belief spreads and the message turns toward the nations. In Psalm 59, enemies circle at evening, yet refuge is named in the morning. Across these chapters, favor and threat, sending and rejection, pursuit and protection move together without final resolution.
In 1 Samuel 18, covenant and jealousy emerge side by side. Jonathan binds himself to David, giving robe and weapons, while the women’s song alters the atmosphere of the court. The refrain—thousands and ten-thousands—lodges in Saul’s hearing, and suspicion begins its steady work. Spears are thrown inside the house where music once steadied unrest. Fear grows in proportion to David’s success, and what began as royal favor shifts into guarded hostility. Marriage arrangements become strategy, and affection becomes a snare within Saul’s design. Public honor gathers around David even as private enmity hardens in Saul.
In 1 Samuel 19, intent becomes explicit. Saul speaks of killing David; Jonathan intercedes; oaths are spoken and then broken. The spear returns to Saul’s hand, and David flees by night. Michal lowers him through a window while a household image takes his place in the bed. Messengers sent to seize him begin to prophesy instead, and finally Saul himself stands stripped of royal posture among the prophets. The pursuit does not end with resolution but with reversal that unsettles the pursuer more than the pursued.
In Acts 13, the movement begins in Antioch where Barnabas and Saul are set apart and sent out. In Cyprus, confrontation meets opposition as Elymas is struck with blindness before Sergius Paulus believes. In Pisidian Antioch, Paul recounts Israel’s history, naming Saul and David before proclaiming resurrection. Some receive the message; others contradict and stir resistance. The word spreads even as expulsion follows, and the turning toward the nations occurs within rejection rather than apart from it.
In Psalm 59, enemies circle like dogs at evening, words sharp as blades. The plea for deliverance stands beside the refrain of watchfulness and refuge. Pursuit and protection occupy the same space, and the song ends not with the disappearance of threat but with strength named in the morning.
Across these chapters, favor and hostility, sending and rejection, pursuit and refuge remain intertwined. Authority attempts to secure itself; opposition rises; yet movement continues through covenant, proclamation, and song without settling the tension into final rest.
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