Chapter 1
Samuel at the Lord's command anoints David the Bethlehemite, brought from the pastures, as king, immediately adorned with the perpetual grace of the Spirit, so as even to relieve Saul, seized by an evil spirit, by playing the lyre. (1 Samuel 16). “How long will you mourn for Saul?” etc., up to what is written: "for the evil spirit departed from him." This passage signifies the Lord Savior, singularly anointed with the oil of gladness to reign in the Church, whose bright command, the shadow of the law having been removed, urged part of the Jews to persecution, and part were saved by accepting the faith of the Lord's incarnation and passion. Therefore the Lord said to Samuel: “How long will you mourn for Saul, since I have rejected him from reigning over Israel?” God the Father said to the prophets and apostles, grieving over the present or even future rejection of the Jews: "How long will you mourn the downfall of the stubborn people? Since I have thrown him away as deserved by their faults, so that he does not usurp for himself the singular kingdom of faith and truth, as being more excellent than the other nations and more familiar to God; rather, let the nations of the Gentiles, saved by the mercy of Christ, recognize themselves as much more exalted." For that you may know that even the ancient prophets grieved and indeed lamented over the future blindness of their own people, which became our cause of illumination, listen to Isaiah, who, after preceding with the grace of the Lord's advent, says: "To the inhabitants of the region of the shadow of death, light has arisen for them" (Isaiah 9:2). Immediately responding to the advent of this light, he added and said: “You have multiplied the nation and increased its joy” (Isaiah 9:3). And elsewhere, recounting the affliction of the same people, he says among other things: “And the angels of peace shall bitterly weep” (Isaiah 33:7); meaning the prophets, the messengers of the divine word. But Jonah the prophet, ordered to preach to the Ninevites, preferred to flee by the danger of the sea than to commit the word of faith to the Gentiles by preaching (Jonah 1); naturally fearing lest, with the branches of the good olive broken off by unbelief, the wild olive, grafted through faith, should become a companion of the root and fatness of the olive tree.
[1 Samuel 16:1] -- Fill your horn with oil, and come, etc. Leaving behind, he says, the care of the carnal kingdom, embrace rather that dominion, which by the light of the Holy Spirit is ascertained to be most rich, to be hoped for and loved. This not coming from yourselves, but sent by my Spirit, carefully disclose to that people, which separated from the enticements of the world, sighs for the joys of eternal salvation. For I have provided for myself a king among the sons of the same people. For Isaiah is interpreted as an island of holocaust or sacrifice, Bethlehem as the house of bread. But an island is each faithful soul; the whole Church of the saints is an island, which by seeking higher things is separated from the waves of this world, now purifying itself entirely by the fervor of the Holy Spirit, making itself an acceptable offering to God, and making its heart a dwelling place of the living bread.
[1 Samuel 16:2] -- And Samuel said: How shall I go? etc. The prophets said to the Lord, and the apostles said: How can we preach the kingdom of the New Testament? For the zealous Jews of the law will hear and kill us. Which of the prophets did they not persecute? They killed those who foretold the coming of Christ. To whom the Lord responding, commanded that his body, separated from the conversation of the people, be taken up by the hand of stricter continence, and worn ready to embrace death for the Lord, and also to inflame his listeners to undertake the glory of martyrdom, as if commanded to call Isaiah to the sacrifice. For death is never better overcome than when it is endured with divine love. And I, he said, to you, O my prophets, and heralds of the future, not by men but by the infusion of my Spirit, will show what you should say or do, and who, where, or when Christ will come. These can be specially understood of John the Baptist, whom the Jews heard evangelizing about Christ and killed; but he, ready in body and mind for martyrdom, called his listeners to the sacrifice, that is to the baptism of repentance. Not any human teacher, but God Himself showed him what he should do; and having given the sign of the Holy Spirit, he taught to whom he should give the testimony of divinity from all those who he baptized.
[1 Samuel 16:4] -- And he came to Bethlehem, etc. When the prophecies about Christ arose in the world from the prophets, those who were more prudent, meeting the same prophets with a devout mind, already deemed their words worthy of a miracle, and with eager intention inquired whether these same oracles of the prophets signaled peace to come to the ages; or if they were going to impose an unbearable yoke similar to the Mosaic Law upon the necks of the disciples. And the prophets answered, and each of them proclaimed in their books, that they were sent to the city by God to bear witness to the one who was to come to reconcile the earthly with the heavenly; and after the long discriminations of enmity that human iniquity deserved, to reconcile the world to God through the venerable mysteries of His blood. This can be understood in the same manner about John, because the people, admiring his life and doctrine, thought he was Christ, and inquired deeply about his situation. But he testified that he was announcing peace to come to the earth,
[1 Samuel 16:5] -- I have come to sacrifice to the Lord, etc. That is, I have come to teach and suffer for the Lord; be baptized and believe with me, so that we may live together in Christ.
[1 Samuel 16:5] -- Therefore, he sanctified Jesse and his sons, etc. He sanctified them all, but anointed David alone with the oil of chrism; because the Church has many members, but one head. John baptized many, but the dove descended upon one.
[1 Samuel 16:6] -- And when they had entered, he saw Eliab, etc. He introduces the sons of Jesse, the first, the second, and the third. Among them, none is found worthy to be anointed: because the Synagogue produced doctors of the law, prophets, and psalmists; but all these are participants, in none of them is the author of human salvation found.
[1 Samuel 16:10] -- Therefore Jesse brought seven of his sons before Samuel, etc. The number seven is fitting to the law because of the sabbath, just as the number eight is fitting to the Gospel because of the mystery of the resurrection. Therefore, none of those who are perfect according to the law, hoping for the sabbath either of the body in the present or even of the Spirit in the future age, preach, perceive, even though being high in merits and strong in virtues, can suffice to save the world.
[1 Samuel 16:11] -- And Samuel said to Jesse: Are all the children finished? etc. After the teachers of the law, the herald of prophecy, the sweetness of psalmody, and the long devotion of the people had been sent forth into the world, with the people instructed in divine services by the law of Moses, prophets, and psalmists, the incarnation of Christ was still to come in the fullness of time. Of which it is rightly understood what Jesse said: There is yet the least one, and he tends the sheep. For a child is born to us; a son is given to us (Isaiah IX). He who speaks in the Gospel: I am the good shepherd, and I know mine, and mine know me (John X). Nor without a certain reason of mystery is the same little one said to have tended the sheep before being anointed by the prophet; because that good Shepherd, who came that they might have life and have it more abundantly, tended ninety-nine sheep in heaven before he sought and found the hundredth on earth. He completed the number eight; for he gave us both the hope of our resurrection and his own example. Indeed, the day on which the Lord rose, from the day of his passion was the third, but from the day of the first creation, it is the eighth. Thus also after the six ages of this world, and the seventh, which is now being conducted in this life, the Sabbath of souls, as it were, the eighth age of our resurrection is hoped to come.
[1 Samuel 16:11] -- And Samuel said to Jesse: Send and bring him, etc. The prophets of that time said to the holy ones: Send the devoted intention of your mind, and with prayers frequently offered to God, obtain the advent of Christ, saying: Show us, O Lord, your mercy, and grant us your salvation (Psalm 34); and other such things. For indeed, we cannot recline with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, until the Son of God, humble and poor, comes and, having broken the snare of death, grandly opens for us the gates of life. For He himself in the Gospel testifies that we cannot recline, that is, rest in the kingdom, by our own means but by His grace: Amen, I say to you, that He will gird Himself, and make them recline, and will come and serve them (Luke 12).
[1 Samuel 16:11] -- So he sent, and brought him, etc. The old man Simeon desired, as did the other saints of that time, for the Lord to come in the flesh, and He came. However, he was red from the blood of the Passion; because the good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep (John 10). He was also fairer in form than the sons of men; because He committed no sin, nor was deceit found in His mouth (Psalm 44; 1 Peter 2). This is similar to what the bride speaks in his praise: My beloved is white and ruddy (Song of Solomon 5); white in action, ruddy in blood. And what follows there, Chosen from thousands; this is what is signified here as David, rejected by his brothers, is anointed alone.
[1 Samuel 16:13] -- So Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him, etc. The prophet received the task of proclaiming the glory of the true king, and said: "You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness; therefore God has anointed you" (Psalm 44). He who was conceived of the Holy Spirit never ceased to have the fullness of that same Spirit from the hour of his conception. John received the duty of bearing witness to Christ; and when the Holy Spirit descended upon him in the midst of those he baptized, he saw and bore witness that this is the Son of God; and Jesus went forth in the power of the Spirit into Galilee.
[1 Samuel 16:13] -- Samuel arose and went to Ramah. Having completed the duty of anointing, Samuel returned home; for now, with the coming of the Lord who was foretold to come, the proclamations of the prophets were silenced. For the Law and the prophets prophesied until John (Matthew 11), from then on the kingdom of God is preached. But John himself, by the duty of his forerunning, said: "He must increase, but I must decrease" (John 3).
[1 Samuel 16:14] -- But the Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul, etc. As the proclamation of Christ increased, the grace of the Spirit soon deserted the hearts of the faithless Jews, and incited them with impious fury to persecute his name; and this the Lord permitted by just judgment, so that the tested ones might be made manifest in the Church, and the wicked, by their deserving merits, might be plunged further into the depths of their own malice.
[1 Samuel 16:14] -- Behold, the evil spirit of God agitates you, etc. The apostles said to the Jews, desiring in all things to serve their salvation: See and recognize how evil the spirit is, which, because of your fault, has been sent by the Lord against your minds, to oppose the name of his only begotten Son, and has led you to conspire against him: yet now, having performed penitence for your errors, flee to the aid of the life-giving wood, where the innocent limbs of the same spotless Lamb of God and our Lord Jesus Christ are stretched out. For we seek, that is, we will obtain for you, faith by explaining it more fully if you wish, that man, very well known to us but still unknown to you, endowed with singular knowledge among men, who by the saving wood of his cross knows how to put to flight all the deadly weapons of the harmful adversary: so that whenever the devil begins to move you to envy against the grace of the Gospel, under the shadow of the law, the memory of the Lord’s passion may be present, and may soon restrain your hearts from furious intention.
[1 Samuel 16:17] -- Provide for me someone who sings well, etc., Indeed, he said, I know many who are skilled in singing, but provide and bring to me someone who sings well; which is like the Jews agreeing with the words of the apostles, saying, indeed we know many who have been crucified for their sins, but we have recognized that they are of no benefit to themselves or to us. Therefore, ensure that you imbue us with his sacraments, instructing us in his faith and love in our hearts, who, by mortifying his limbs on the wood, would redeem us from eternal death.
[1 Samuel 16:18] -- Behold, I have seen the son of Jesse the Bethlehemite, skilled in playing, etc. One of the youths is the unity of the humble of Christ, with one and the same heart and soul agreed. To the Jews inquiring about the faith, and knocking step by step, so to speak, on the locked doors of the life-giving cross, immediately clearer answers to the questions of faith, and illuminating the mysteries of the Lord's dispensation: Behold, he says, with the eyes of either flesh or faith I have seen and known the one born from the root of Jesse, in Bethlehem of Judah, a man knowing how to bear infirmities, and submitting to the gibbet of death, able to vanquish the aerial powers, sublime in both strength and prudence; indeed, the very power of God, and the wisdom of God, beautiful in form beyond the sons of men, in the innocence of life and the exhibition of heavenly deeds; and, to put it succinctly, he is the one who alone could say: I am in the Father, and the Father is in me; and, He who sees me, sees also the Father (John XIV); whose exceptional virtues indeed celebrate the glory of the name. For he is called David, that is, strong with the hand, or desirable. He is strong with the hand, indeed, in the power of his passion, because he laid low his adversaries. Desirable in the splendor of the resurrection, by which he exalted his own. For it is written of him: The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle: he is the one whom the angels desire to behold (Psalm XXIII); and who, as the prophet says, will come as the Desired of all nations, and the glory of the house of the Lord will be filled (Haggai II).
[1 Samuel 16:19] -- Saul therefore sent to Jesse, saying: Send David to me, etc. Newly catechized Jews sent words of their intention as signs to those who had gone before in Christ, saying: Believe in our fellowship of salvation through baptism in Christ, whom we have always learned in our hearts by faith, hope, and charity, to be born, ministering the pastures of eternal life to all the blessed, both angels and men. Complying with the just petitions of the brethren, they lent to them the mysteries of Christ to be received. They did not do this hesitantly, but according to him who, saying to his disciples: Go, teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit (Matt. 28): he immediately added and said, Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you (Ibid.). Among the sacraments of faith, with which they were initiated outwardly, they also sent examples of virtues, by which they were inwardly nourished: for bread and wine are spiritual virtues and doctrine. For bread strengthens the heart of man (Psalm 103). And your cup, he says, inebriating, how glorious it is (Psalm 22)! A kid from the goats is a humble sign of repentance, separated from the wanton flock of sinners: for a kid used to be offered for sins according to the law. These David carries to Saul on a donkey given by Jesse, when any wise teacher by the grace of Christ instructing his listeners, frequently recalls that the grace of virtues which they should imitate abounds in the humble and those despised by human judgment. It is notable that in the anointing of Saul, which also signifies the kingdom of Christ, donkeys, bread, a jug of wine, and also kids are found: as has been discussed in its proper place.
[1 Samuel 16:21] -- And David came to Saul, etc. The Lord came to the hearts of the believing Jews through faith and stood before them with the indefatigable desire of that acknowledged and coveted sweetness. To those who loved him, he ministered abundant and invincible weapons of faith and truth against all the malign strife of the enemy: indeed, the breastplate of justice, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God (Ephesians VI).
[1 Samuel 16:23] -- Therefore whenever the evil spirit of God seized Saul, etc. The sense is clear from the preceding, and it is suitable not only to the faithful Jews but also to us. For it must be that whenever any temptation of the evil spirit seizes our mind and turns it away from the tranquility of its state, whoever of the spiritual brothers is present should bring to our memory the humility of the Lord's passion, earnestly exhorting us; because He who was innocent and just sustained the punishment of the cross for us voluntarily, leaving indeed an example that following His steps, we may act innocently in prosperity and patiently in adversity. Thus it will come to be that, refreshed by brotherly consolation as if by David's playing of the harp, we may bear it more lightly. For David always signifies our Redeemer, but sometimes in himself, sometimes in his members: and with the departure of the dire spirit's influence, immediately the grace of the Holy Spirit succeeding will enlighten us. But if it moves anyone why the Spirit is called both of God and evil; let him know that it is called of God indeed because of His most just permission, but evil because of the most wicked will of that spirit. For God uses even evil spirits for the testing of some, for punishment or correction, or even for the maintenance of good things. For testing, indeed, as the Lord tested blessed Job by allowing Satan; for punishment, as the lying spirit deceived King Ahab to perish in battle because of his preceding crimes by the Lord's permission; for correction, as the Apostle handed over the sinner in Corinth to Satan (I Cor. V), that his spirit might be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. Furthermore, for the preservation of virtues, as the same Apostle, lest he be exalted by the greatness of revelations, received an angel of Satan to buffet him (II Cor. XII). Josephus mentions this passage in his history of Antiquities: "And Saul was suddenly seized by certain passions and demons, bringing him suffocations and distress;" and a little later: "They ordered, he says, that when demons attacked and disturbed him, standing over his head, he should play the harp and sing hymns." For it is not to be thought that that harp, however sweetly sounding, could have had such great power as to drive away evil spirits; but the figure of the holy cross, and the very passion of the Lord which was sung, already then was breaking the audacity of the devil; just as the destroying angel of Egypt did not pass by because of the virtue of the blood placed on the doorposts (Exod. XII), but because that blood was a type: the place of the middle lintel, and of each doorpost, where it was anointed, expressed the very figure of the salutary cross. The angel passed by the houses of the Hebrews, seeing them marked, unharmed, by the divine foreknowledge, indicating the coming of Him in the flesh who would by His blood through the cross free us from eternal death.