The real David

1 Samuel 16-20

It’s been a while since I’ve posted, but I thought I’d do something quick. I’m on the way to a funeral, and that will probably show up here.

The last few days we’ve been working through the beginnings of story of David, his anointment by Samuel, that whole business with Goliath, falling into and out of favor with Saul. I’ve always identified with David by accident of having the same first name. I think we feel a connection to anyone who shares our name, but it is an arbitrary association, like the association in poetry of words that sound alike. “Cat” and “caught” do not have any particular semantic connections, but if you put those two words in proximity to each other in a line of verse the mind links them together.

Biblical names are quite common, and certainly in olden days you assume the Biblical source for the name was a primary consideration. In the case of my name, my mother has said she liked the name and liked the people she knew with the name. But just because a child is given that name doesn’t mean the child will have any more similarities to the original than anyone else. But maybe we see those characteristics more readily, sort of like reading the personalities associated with Zodiac signs. And once the association is made, maybe naming becomes destiny and we gravitate to qualities associated with the name. When painter Charles Wilson Peale names his kids after famous painters (Rembrandt, Raphaelle, Rubens, Titian), what choice did they have but to follow in Dad’s footsteps.

I always think of the Biblical David as a youthful figure, even thought there are stories from his whole life. The defining story for David is his improbable youthful victory over Goliath. And somehow I’ve always had trouble picturing myself as an adult, even though now that I have sailed into my late 40s, I don’t think anyone else has trouble seeing me as an adult. I think I associate the name with a kid. On the other hand, I associate the name Abraham with old age, because the defining stories of Abraham are the improbable gift of a child late in life, and terrible request that he sacrifice that child. I have some friends who named their boy Abraham, and I think it will take him a good 50 years to grow into the name. But the name also makes me feel connected to him, because it was my grandfather’s middle name. The mind always grasps for those connections.

Just some random thoughts now on David’s story.

I think one of my favorite lines is what he says to the Israelite army, fleeing from Goliath: “For who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God?” There is no word from God, just a simple faith that if God is powerful, why would a believer back away from a challenge. I don’t think that God brings us victories in the literal and military sense of David’s story, and I know that our story do not have as neat a dramatic arc. I am certain that the most worrisome giants we face are inside ourselves. That’s where the action is for us simple mortals.

As Saul proceeds in his increasingly ambivalent relationship to David, he offers his daughter Michal in marriage but tests David. So he sends David out to kill him some more Philistines. And to prove he had met the test (sort of like the credit card ad on TV where the king reneges on the prize for slaying the dragon with lots of technicalities), he asks this: “The kind desires no marriage present except a hundred foreskins of the Philistines.” Wow. This could be out of Gilgamesh or something.

I should probably dedicate a separate entry to Saul. A fascinating character who descends into madness through these pages. He is constantly throwing his spear at David and his son Jonathan, and sits holding while David plays music. You can see him glowering and growling.