Bible Tuesday - David Part 4

And David went out and was successful wherever Saul sent him...
1 Samuel 18:5

David has killed Goliath and sent the Philistines running.  He is still the annointed yet uncrowned King of Israel.  Just after this big victory, Saul's son, Jonathan, and David become friends.  They are serious BFFs and Saul keeps David at the palace with him full time.  It appears that David's shepherd days are over.

But then,

When the victorious Israelite army was returning home after David had killed the Philistine, women from all the towns of Israel came out to meet King Saul. They sang and danced for joy with tambourines and cymbals.  This was their song:

“Saul has killed his thousands,
and David his ten thousands!”

 This made Saul very angry. “What’s this?” he said. “They credit David with ten thousands and me with only thousands. Next they’ll be making him their king!”  So from that time on Saul kept a jealous eye on David.

1 Samuel 18:6-9

I feel pretty confident that Saul was bipolar.  And the next few stories shore up my supposition.  Basically Saul has a fit and when David tries to calm him down, Saul tries to kill him.  This won't be the last attempt at murder.  Saul is described as being afraid and jealous of David.  This is a bad combination for any relationship. 

By the next chapter, Saul is giving his daughter, Michal, to David for a wife.  He makes him commander of the army.  I can't believe that David thought any of this was going to go well given Saul's erratic mental stability.

When Saul realized that the Lord was with David and how much his daughter Michal loved him, Saul became even more afraid of him, and he remained David’s enemy for the rest of his life.

1 Samuel 18: 28-29

But the important thing, for me, about this transitional period is that David never once says, "This dude is crazy and I am the real king anyway!"  That's what I would have done.  The people loved David.  He was a young, handsome hero.  Do you really think he would have had any problems deposing Saul? 

 But David wasn't listening to the opinions of men.  I can only imagine that during each of these situations, God was telling David over and over "Not yet." And every time God said "Not Yet", David said "OK."