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The Evil Spirit Troubling Saul
George L. Faull
Dear Brother
Faull,
Regarding the interpretation of the “evil spirit”
being sent from the Lord in I Samuel
16:14, “But the Spirit of the LORD departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the LORD troubled
him”. What’s your take?
ANSWER:
I think the contrast is the Spirit of the Lord on
David to the Spirit of the Lord on Saul.
The ancient Jews said that Saul had hypochondria, a
bad air. I think it was a despondent
spirit or a spirit of melancholy. This
is not demon possession, but more like depression. It was demonic oppression, which the Lord allowed to come to him
for chastening. He was delivered over
to Satan for chastening.
Note that music often brought him out of the
melancholy spirit. A mournful
“pity-party spirit” of discouragement and gloom is a great evil.
Boothroyd says, “Conscious guilt, foreboding the
loss of his dominion, or perhaps the destruction of his house made him jealous,
sanguinity, and irrational and occasionally melancholy. This was the evil spirit that troubled him
and his courtiers properly advised music to soothe his mind and migrate his
complaint. Had he been possessed by a
demon, music would have had no effect.”
When
the Spirit of the Lord left him, a vacuum was created and the melancholy spirit
filled the vacuum.