Saul, self-willed and capricious, had shown himself unfit for his position, so the Spirit of God was taken from him, and an evil spirit from the Lord terrified or troubled him.
Notice:
I. Men must either have the Spirit of God or an evil spirit. (1) God loves to dwell in the human heart. That is His chosen temple. The sky is vast, and its canopy is thick with worlds, but that is not the temple that God seeks. The earth is beautiful and sublime, but God does not choose that temple. Man rears lofty piles, but God's chosen temple is not there. His temple is in the lowly heart, in the bosom of the meanest of the sons of men who cries out for God. (2) But if man will not have God, he cannot shut the door of his heart against other visitors. Spirit cannot isolate itself from spirit, any more than matter can from matter. But the spirit can decide whether it will ally itself with the good or the evil. If God is not received, evil spirits enter, being invited by the sympathies and affinities of the soul. Man is like a house situated between two winds. Every one must decide to which side he is going to open. Both doors cannot be shut. You can only get the dismal, fatal door shut by opening wide the door that looks to the sea of eternity and the sunshine of God. The wind blowing in through this open door keeps the door of ruin shut.
II. The stress of inward temptation and trouble is often peculiarly fitted and evidently intended to drive men to God.
Of temptations and troubles which have this adaptation in a marked degree may be mentioned first: (1) Melancholy. Saul's was a very conspicuous and overmastering melancholy. Melancholy is essentially the feeling of loneliness, the sense of isolation, of having a great burden of existence to bear. It is the soul's fear, and shrinking, and chill in the vast solitude of its house. It has driven many souls to God. (2) A feeling of the vanity of existence is another great temptation and trouble. This is the cause of much feebleness of purpose, and want of principle, and bitterness, and cynicism. There is no remedy for it but in faith in God and an eternal future. (3) The mystery of life weighs on others what Wordsworth calls "the weight and mystery of all this unintelligible world." When the night of mystery comes down and closes round us, let us press close to Christ. (4) The gloom and desolation of doubt and unbelief constrain men to turn to God. (5) Fierce temptations to evil drive many souls to God.
J. Leckie, Sermons Preached at Ibrox,p. 244 (see also Contemporary Pulpit,vol. iv., p. 25).
References: 1 Samuel 16:14. Phillips Brooks, Twenty Sermons,p. 297; F. W. Hook, Parish Sermons,p. 44; I. Williams, Characters of the Old Testament,p. 171; R. D. B. Rawnsley, A Course of Sermons for the Christian Year,p. 281. 1 Samuel 16:14-23. W. M. Taylor, David King of Israel,p. 13.