The Daily Audio Bible Reading for Thursday May 16, 2019 (NIV)

⁵ David went wherever Saul sent him and was successful in battle; and as a result, Saul made him commander of his army. And all the people, even those who served Saul, were pleased.

⁶ On the day they were returning from David’s victory over the Philistine, the women came out from all the cities of Israel to meet the king, singing and dancing with tambourines and other instruments, making joyful music. ⁷ At one point, the women sang as they danced and celebrated.

⁸ This chant made Saul tremble with fury.

⁹ From that moment on, Saul was suspicious of David.

¹⁰ On the next day, the True God sent an evil spirit to overwhelm Saul and put him in a prophetic state inside his residence. While David was playing the harp, as he did every day to try and soothe the king, Saul had his spear in his hand ¹¹ and decided to throw it at David, thinking, “I will pin him to the wall.” But David twice escaped Saul’s angry attacks.

¹² Saul was afraid of David because the Spirit of the Eternal was with him but had left Saul. ¹³ So, at last, Saul removed David from his presence, making him a commander over 1,000 men, hoping he would die in battle. But David went out to the battle and returned. ¹⁴ David was successful in everything he did because the Eternal One was present with him.

¹⁵ When Saul saw that David achieved such success, he was amazed and afraid of him. ¹⁶ All of Israel and Judah loved David, who led their soldiers into battle and brought them back victorious.

Saul came up with a plan and called David.

Saul was thinking that he did not need to murder David himself; instead, the Philistines would eventually kill David.

¹⁹ But at the time when Saul’s daughter Merab was to be given to David as his wife, she was instead given in marriage to Adriel the Meholathite. ²⁰ Saul’s daughter Michal, however, loved David; and when Saul heard this, he was pleased.

²¹ He thought that he would give her to David to trap him in a dangerous situation where the Philistines could still destroy David. So Saul spoke to David again.

²³ So Saul’s servants spoke these words to David as requested, but again he replied modestly.

²⁴ Saul’s servants reported David’s concerns back to the king.

Saul thought David would be killed by the Philistines while attempting this task. ²⁶ When the servants repeated Saul’s words, he agreed to Saul’s terms and decided to fulfill these conditions to be the king’s son-in-law. Before the allotted time elapsed to pay the dowry, ²⁷ David went with his men, killed 200 Philistines, and presented their foreskins to the king so that he could become the king’s son-in-law. So Saul gave David his daughter Michal in marriage; ²⁸ but when the king saw how David enjoyed the favor of the Eternal One, and that his daughter Michal loved him, ²⁹ he felt even more threatened by David. After his plan failed, Saul considered David his constant enemy.

³⁰ Whenever the commanders of the Philistine army came out to fight, David distinguished himself against them more than any of Saul’s other servants, so that everyone valued him.

19 Saul ordered his son Jonathan and all his servants to figure out a way to kill David, but Jonathan was very fond of David.

⁴ Jonathan spoke generously on behalf of his friend to his father, Saul.

⁷ Jonathan found David and told him everything that had happened, and then Jonathan brought David back into the service of Saul the king.

⁸ Once again there was war between Israel and the Philistines, and David went out to fight them. He crushed them and made them flee.

⁹ Again the Eternal sent an evil spirit to disturb Saul as he sat at home, spear in hand, listening to David play music; ¹⁰ again Saul tried to pin David to the wall with his spear, but Saul missed him and the spear stuck into the wall. David escaped that night and ran to his home.

¹¹ Saul dispatched some of his officers to watch David’s house so that they could kill him the next day. David’s wife Michal warned him.

¹² So Michal lowered David down through the window, and he escaped. ¹³ Then she laid a large idol on the bed, made it a wig of goat’s hair, and covered it with clothes. ¹⁴ When Saul’s officers came to take David to the king, she told them, “He’s sick.”

¹⁵ Hearing this report, Saul ordered his officers to return and see David for themselves. He would not be deterred.

¹⁶ When the officers returned, they threw back the blankets and, instead of David, they discovered the idol with its goat-hair wig in the bed. So they took Michal to Saul.

¹⁸ David fled to Samuel in Ramah, and he told him everything that had happened. Samuel took David to the town of Naioth, and they lived there.

¹⁹ Saul soon learned that David was at Naioth in Ramah, ²⁰ so he sent officers to arrest him and bring him back. But when they came, they found a group of prophets in a prophetic trance with Samuel standing and leading them, and the Spirit of the True God entered Saul’s officers so that they, too, were caught up and prophesied.

²¹ When Saul heard this news, he sent other officers who were also affected in this way. He sent a third set of officers, and again, the same thing happened when they encountered Samuel and the prophets.

²² So finally Saul went, himself, to Ramah. When he arrived at the large cistern at Secu, he asked where he might find Samuel and David and was told they were at Naoith in Ramah. ²³ As Saul traveled, the Spirit of God entered him, and he, too, fell into a constant prophetic trance. When he reached Naoith in Ramah, ²⁴ he stripped off all his clothes and fell into a prophetic ecstasy before Samuel, lying naked all that day and night. (This is another way the saying arose, “Is Saul also one of the prophets?”)

⁵⁹ The people picked up stones to hurl at Him, but Jesus slipped out of the temple. Their murderous rage would have to wait.

Psalm 112^[a]