(20) В¶ Then David returned to bless his household. And Michal the daughter of Saul came out to meet David, and said, How glorious was the king of Israel to day, who uncovered himself today in the eyes of the handmaids of his servants, as one of the vain fellows shamelessly uncovereth himself! (21) And David said unto Michal, It was before the LORD, which chose me before thy father, and before all his house, to appoint me ruler over the people of the LORD, over Israel: therefore will I play before the LORD. (22) And I will yet be more vile than thus, and will be base in mine own sight: and of the maidservants which thou hast spoken of, of them shall I be had in honour. (23) Therefore Michal the daughter of Saul had no child unto the day of her death.
I did not notice, in its place, the conduct of Saul's daughter, because the subject is again reviewed and enlarged upon in these verses. The Reader of discernment, who is a partaker of grace, will not fail to observe, I hope, in this conduct of Michal, the real cause from whence it sprung. It certainly was from the same sad stock of the enmity in the seed of the serpent to the seed of the woman, which gave rise at the first, and hath run through the whole race ever since, to all the conflicts between grace and corruption. Hence Cain was wroth and his countenance fell. Genesis 4:5. Hence Esau hated Jacob, because of the blessing. Genesis 27:41. Hence Michal disliked the Ark, and her husband's love to it was hateful. In the conduct of David towards his wife, on this occasion, we see how his natural temper got the better of grace. Surely it was neither generous nor becoming to upbraid a daughter with the gracelessness of her father; much less to vaunt himself upon the Lord's predilection of him to her father. But we see in this instance a renewed example of human infirmity. Where shall we turn our eyes to see a perfect pattern of unsinning obedience, holiness, and grace, but to thee, thou blessed Jesus, who in all the revilings thou didst receive, reviledst not again, See Isaiah 53:7; 1 Peter 2:23.