Reading for the Day: Last Song Syndrome

Poor Saul. Here he was, chosen by God to be the first king of Israel and he's replaced by the youngest son of Jesse's family who just happened to kill Goliath and made the Philistines flee. And then after speaking to this David and learning to love him,

women came out from each of the cities of Israel to meet King Saul,

singing and dancing, with tambourines, joyful songs, and sistrums.
The women played and sang:
"Saul has slain his thousands, 
and David his ten thousands."


And Saul became 


very angry and resentful of the song, for he thought:
"They give David ten thousands, but only thousands to me.
All that remains for him is the kingship."

Poor Saul. And all because he wanted to make sacrifices to God. 

From there Saul tries to get David killed. What isn't narrated in today's reading is that Saul tries to kill David with a spear twice, made David lead military expeditions to get him killed (a tactic David would use later to have Bathsheba all to himself) He offers his daughter's hand in marriage but only if David brings back 100 Philistine foreskins (!) And because the Lord was with him, Saul escaped unharmed through all of these trials, became a hero to Israel and Judah, and got to marry Saul's daughter.


Saul was a man possessed with envy leading him to use his energy to bring about the destruction of David. 


And this was all triggered by those women singing that song. It must have been a catchy tune to have driven Saul absolutely nuts. 


I think we all live with those kinds of "songs" inside our head. And they could be tunes or memories or images that taunt us. Of course, they're rarely the kinds of ghosts-inside-our-head that drive us to kill people. But still they lead us down slippery slopes and make us do things we know we shouldn't do. 


Saul's story is a cautionary tale of what could happen to us if we let these ghosts take permanent residence in our heads.