Then answered one of the servants, and said, Behold, I have seen a son of Jesse the Bethlehemite, that is skillful in playing, and a mighty valiant man, and a man of war, and prudent in matters, and a handsome person, and the LORD is with him.
Read Chapter 16
George Leo Haydock
AD 1849
Him. Some think that this took place before David's victory over Goliath; others believe, that David was only made armour-bearer to Saul, after that event. We must not disturb the order of the sacred historian without some cogent reason: and the courtiers might already have heard of David's prowess and virtue, of which he gave such evident proofs, after he was confirmed by the Holy Spirit, ver. 13. (Calmet)
It is agreeable to lift up eyes of faith to the power of this Worker, and to look here and there at our ancestors in the Old and New Testaments. With the eyes of faith open on David, Amos, Daniel, Peter, Paul and Matthew, I wish to analyze the nature of the workman, the Holy Spirit. But I fail in my analysis. The Spirit filled a boy who played upon a harp and made him a psalmist, a shepherd and herdsman who pruned sycamore trees and made him a prophet, a boy given to abstinence and made him a judge of mature men, a fisherman and made him a preacher, a persecutor and made him the teacher of the Gentiles, a tax collector and made him an evangelist.
What a skillful workman this Spirit is! There is no question of delay in learning. It no sooner touches the mind in regard to anything it chooses than it teaches; its very touch is teaching. It changes a human mind in a moment to enlighten it; suddenly what it was it no longer is, suddenly it is what it was not. - "Forty Gospel Homilies 30"
