And Saul sought to pin David even to the wall with the javelin; but he slipped away out of Saul's presence, and he drove the javelin into the wall: and David fled, and escaped that night.
All Commentaries on 1 Samuel 19:10 Go To 1 Samuel 19
Gregory of Nyssa
AD 394
Now it is certainly obvious what the sequence is looking to through the figures of the story. The one of David is predicted by means of David, and the one who was anointed signifies the Christ. And the lyre is a human instrument, but the song which comes from it is the Word which has been made manifest to us through the one who was made flesh, whose work is to destroy the derangement that comes from demons so that “the gods of the nations” may no longer be “demons.”
That king, however, who had the demons in himself, when the spirits withdrew at the song of him who adapted his instrument to this purpose, smote him with his spear (now a spear is wood which has been equipped with iron), but the wall received the spear instead of him. And we think that the wall is the earthly building, by which we understand the body, in relation to which we see the wood of the cross and the iron. But that David, who is both Christ and king, is without suffering. For the deity does not experience the cross and the nails.
