Dysfunction in a young man's life

1 Samuel 18:10-13 (NLT)
10 The very next day a tormenting spirit from God overwhelmed Saul, and he began to rave in his house like a madman. David was playing the harp, as he did each day. But Saul had a spear in his hand, 11 and he suddenly hurled it at David, intending to pin him to the wall. But David escaped him twice. 12 Saul was then afraid of David, for the Lord was with David and had turned away from Saul. 13 Finally, Saul sent him away and appointed him commander over 1,000 men, and David faithfully led his troops into battle.


David, as a child, served King Saul by playing the harp for Saul whenever he was troubled. Growing jealous of David’s popularity rage suddenly filled Saul and he became like a madman. Saul threw the spear he held at David. In his rage Saul made another attempt to strike David, but David managed to escape Saul’s rage



As a young boy David was asked to live in Saul’s house so he might play harp music to calm Saul. In the verses above we see Saul would fly into fits of rage. On this one occasion Saul made an attempt to take David’s life. Imagine how confusing it must have been for David. One moment Saul was trying to take his life and the next moment he was appointing David as commander over an army of men. Even being the target of Saul’s anger David was determined to please Saul by faithfully leading the troops. Hopefully you recognize David lived a dysfunctional life. He was given up by his father to serve Saul. As a boy he was tasked to calm Saul whenever he was out of control. Even being the object of Saul’s anger David faithfully served. This life would drastically affect anyone; and later we see the dysfunction in David’s life was carried forward to his own family. There are many who have been affected by family dysfunction. Some may not even see it because it appears normal to them. David probably thought it was normal for someone to fly into rage. Yet when we look from the outside we know that not to be true. May God grant us the wisdom to see the dysfunctions in our life and make changes before we impact our own family.