I Samuel 16:14-23

This post is the lesson I gave at Brainerd Baptist Church on June 29, 2025. 

This seems to be a story tucked in right before David’s anointing and David and Goliath and we might say, “Why is this included?” I don’t want to make more of it than what it is supposed to be, but it reveals several truths to us about

Saul’s spiritual condition despite his failures.

David’s purpose and mindset

Mental health and where God is in it.

A necessary transition to the second part of the kingdom narrative in Israel.

I. Saul’s spiritual condition.

Verse 14.

But the Holy Spirit of the LORD departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the LORD troubled him.

Whoa, how can God send an evil spirit? Is this a contradiction? Before we get to that, the Holy Spirit departed. At that time the Holy Spirit came upon but did not dwell in humans. That is a major, major difference between the Old and New Testaments. It is one of the main aspects that makes us Christians and makes us different.

Jesus said, I will send a Helper or Comforter.

Weak Word. Parakletos, (helper beside you), a Comforter

summoned, called to one's side, esp. called to one's aid

1. one who pleads another's cause before a judge, a pleader, counsel for defense, legal assistant, an advocate

2. one who pleads another's cause with one, an intercessor

   1. of Christ in his exaltation at God's right hand, pleading with God the Father for the pardon of our sins

3. in the widest sense, a helper, succourer, aider, assistant

   1. of the Holy Spirit destined to take the place of Christ with the apostles (after his ascension to the Father), to lead them to a deeper knowledge of the gospel truth, and give them divine strength needed to enable them to undergo trials and persecutions on behalf of the divine kingdom

In Acts 2, And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit. This was not a thing in the Old Testament (rarely mentioned).

Back to the second part:  

Something can be evil in its motivation or its actions or its results, or all three. This spirit was intended to cause distress and to cause Saul to look for relief from God. It put him into a deep depression. This is after the Holy Spirit left him and after a series of bad choices, not just a random thing that happened or God did. We can take this apart in different ways. God was directly punishing him, but not taking away Saul’s ability to repent. He could have repented and just not been king; as the story goes on, he holds onto power more and more. Saul was also having a common human reaction to failure and rejection. He might have also had a propensity toward depression or unstable behavior (from his earlier actions). But it’s clear this period in his life is from God. And through his disobedience, Saul opened himself to demonic influence. Does God cause our illness or permit it? Was God doing evil to send this tormenting spirit? Was it a real spirit or a physical condition/brain condition? Spirit is an ambiguous word. It can be human spirit or demonic spirit or Holy Spirit—but all those are really real persons, not just concepts.

We don’t know everything, nor should we think we can speculate and figure it out. What we do read is (rest of the passage) that his servants suggested David, Saul commanded his father to send David, and David’s playing and singing calmed him down, brought him out of the depression, and the spirit departed.

Simple story. Right?

II. What about David?

In this account, we don’t get a sense of what David is thinking. He is a young man under his father’s authority, and he does what he is told. It is interesting they call him a man of war. Had he already been in battle? It’s possible he was, since there were so many battles. Nothing specific, but the fact he was made the armor bearer means he was trusted.

David kept his mouth shut. He would be king eventually; he lived in hope and assurance of that. So much where we are. Time is linear for us but not God.

III. Mental illness and God.

For most of my life as a Christian mental health was a shadowy thing. What was mental health? Was it really a spiritual problem? Was it all brain chemistry? Was there an in-between? Was it emotional or mental? (mood disorders like bipolar vs. disruptions in ways of thinking, like schizophrenia)? Should we let secular thinking control the way we think about it? What is the relationship between mental and emotional health? What is healthy? In this world, won’t we just suffer and have to deal with these things? Yet so many of us have mental or emotional health challenges, I will call them. Anxiety (which Jesus addressed), depression (common in the Bible and Christian history, Luther and Spurgeon, David and Elijah).

I want to emphasize: we are bodies, souls, and spirits. We know this from the Bible. The brain is part of the body, and it gets sick. The body is not “the flesh,” that is the sin nature, our natural bent to do wrong and want wrong. It’s when children say, “I’m sitting on the outside but standing on the inside.” The soul is the heart we talked about last week—mind, emotions, will, intellect, etc. The spirit is the eternal part of us. It is “dead” before salvation and “made alive” in salvation. Hebrews says the Bible is like a sharp scalpel/sword that dissects the two.

These identities we have in bodies are so complicated and marvelous, mysterious and marvelous, that we shouldn’t have simple answers to things. “You’re suffering depression because of past sin.”

Perhaps the best place to start is to accept the reality and be kind. (Show video).  https://www.facebook.com/KristinaKuzmic/videos/705021655303124