Scripture Daily

Context No. 2581 of 4322 · 1 Samuel

Context · Reflection

1 Samuel 18:19-23: in context

19But at the time when Merab, Saul’s daughter, should have been given to David, she was given to Adriel the Meholathite as wife. 20Michal, Saul’s daughter, loved David; and they told Saul, and the thing pleased him. 21Saul said, I will give her to him, that she may be a snare to him and that the hand of the Philistines may be against him. Therefore Saul said to David a second time, “You shall today be my son-in-law.” 22Saul commanded his servants, “Talk with David secretly, and say, ‘Behold, the king has delight in you, and all his servants love you. Now therefore be the king’s son-in-law.’” 23Saul’s servants spoke those words in the ears of David. David said, “Does it seem to you a light thing to be the king’s son-in-law, since I am a poor man and little known?”

Saul, already jealous of David, offers him his daughter Michal in marriage, secretly hoping the bride-price he sets will get David killed by the Philistines. But David does not hear the trap; he hears only the honor, and his response is pure humility. Who am I, he asks, and what is my family, that I should be the king's son-in-law? I am a poor man and little known.

Set aside Saul's scheming for a moment and look at David. Offered a place in the royal family, he does not puff up or act as though it were owed him. I am a poor man and lightly esteemed, he says, and he means it. This is not false modesty fishing for reassurance; it is a genuinely low estimate of his own standing, from a man God had already anointed to be king. The one heaven had chosen for the throne saw himself as a nobody unworthy of the honor. That combination, chosen by God and humble about himself, is rare and worth wanting. Honor did not go to David's head, because he never thought he had earned it.

When honor or advancement comes my way, do I receive it with David's humility, or take it as something I was owed?

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