The Tragedy Behind Psalm 23
King David
David’s unfiltered story makes a centuries-old narrative feel as immediate and captivating as a modern thriller.
Psalm 23, one of the Bible's most cherished passages, was written by King David. It stands as a poetic portrait of his unwavering trust in God, even amid constant war and bitter family turmoil. Its peaceful imagery of green pastures and still waters is not a reflection of a life of ease, but rather the quiet confidence forged in the fires of his personal history.
When God anointed David as king, He did not immediately bestow a crown or a palace. Instead, He delivered Goliath and a life in the wilderness, forcing the shepherd-turned-king to live on the margins of society, constantly hunted by his father-in-law, King Saul. This deep experience of danger and displacement is considered the primary source of the psalm's famous line about "the valley of the shadow of death."
David's tumultuous journey is a powerful demonstration of faith, not only because he found hope in desperate circumstances, but also because of his response to his own failures. His life revealed the painful consequences of sin, including the period of self-imposed silence and attempts to manage the consequences of sin, rather than immediately seeking God's forgiveness. Yet, David's story is defined by a deep and sincere love for God. He pursued a lifestyle of repentance and sought out the heart of God above all else.
We learn from David's legacy that, regardless of our past, we are called to repent of our sins and to establish healthy boundaries, both with ourselves and with others, so that we may live lives that genuinely glorify God.
THE MAKING OF A KING
The story begins with King Saul, Israel's first king, who was chosen by God but later disobeyed His commands. Because of this disobedience, God decided to remove the kingdom from his lineage and told the prophet Samuel to find a new king.
In David’s day, the eldest son typically held the most prominence and was expected to inherit the family's legacy. As the youngest of eight, David was an overlooked shepherd boy tasked with tending his father’s flock—a humble role not seen as a path to leadership.
When God led the prophet Samuel to Jesse's house in Bethlehem to anoint a new king, Jesse presented his seven older, more impressive sons. David, still out in the fields, was not even considered.
Like Jesse, the prophet Samuel was initially focused on physical appearance. He saw the oldest son, Eliab, and thought, "Surely this is the Lord’s anointed." But God was seeking something else entirely. He made this clear to Samuel, saying, "Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart" (1 Samuel 16:7).
The concept of God "looking at the heart" is central to this story. It meant that God was not interested in physical qualities that impressed people, but was seeking inner qualities like integrity, humility, courage, and a sincere faith. It was only after all of David’s brothers were passed over that he was brought in from the fields.
In David, God saw a person who would be a shepherd to His people and a king after His own heart, and Samuel anointed David as the future king of Israel. However, David did not assume power immediately. The anointing was kept secret to protect him from King Saul, who would have surely tried to kill him, as it represented a direct threat to his throne.
Due to King Saul’s disobedience, the Lord's Spirit had departed from him, allowing a distressing spirit to begin tormenting him (1 Samuel 16:14). Ironically, it was this torment that led Saul's servants to seek out David, a skillful harp player, to soothe the king with music, bringing the future king right into the royal court. He found favor with Saul and became an armor-bearer. While in this service, David would go back and forth to tend his father’s sheep, a humble reminder of his position and a preparation for his destiny as king.
The battle with Goliath highlights the lasting and bitter tension between David and his older brother, Eliab. This hostility was rooted in the humiliation Eliab felt from being passed over as the future king. When David, trying to help out, went to the front lines to deliver food to his brothers, who were actively serving in Saul's army, Eliab immediately confronted him with anger, saying: "Why have you come down here? With whom did you leave those few sheep in the wilderness? I know how conceited you are and how wicked your heart is; you came down only to watch the battle" (1 Samuel 17:28). Eliab's venomous reaction perfectly illustrates the lasting impact the secret anointing had on the family dynamic.
Despite his brother's anger, David asked questions about the reward for defeating Goliath. His courageous words were eventually overheard and reported to King Saul.
The king sent for David, who then boldly volunteered to fight the giant. David reassured a skeptical Saul by recounting his past victories over lions and bears while protecting his sheep, demonstrating that God was with him. After rejecting Saul’s heavy armor, which he was unaccustomed to, David chose his own simple weapon: five smooth stones and his shepherd's sling. With a single stone, David brought the giant down, instantly elevating him to a national hero.
However, David's victory ignited a deep-seated jealousy and paranoid fear in King Saul. The songs of the women of Israel, proclaiming David a greater warrior than the king, led to a hostility captured in 1 Samuel 18:9, which notes that Saul "eyed David from that day on," transforming him from an ally into a relentless enemy. Fueled by this hostility, Saul repeatedly attempted to kill David, even using the marriage of his own daughter as a trap. When David survived Saul's plots, the king's animosity grew, and he ultimately dissolved David's marriage.
For an estimated 10 to 15 years, David was a fugitive, relentlessly hunted by the man who had once treated him like a son. This period of persecution forced him to live in fear on the margins of society, hiding in the wilderness. He even had to feign insanity to escape King Achish, the former king of Goliath. Despite numerous opportunities to kill Saul and seize the throne, David refused, showing respect for God's anointed king and a willingness to wait for God's timing. This restraint becomes even more significant when considering Saul's troubled and volatile mind.
SAUL’S DECLINE & DAVID’S LEGACY
From a modern, secular perspective, scholars have proposed several psychological conditions to explain King Saul's erratic behavior. Some suggest that Saul's actions align with narcissistic personality disorder. He displayed a desperate need for public approval, a need that was severely threatened by David's popularity, leading to his intense jealousy and rage. His profound lack of empathy, seen in his repeated attempts to kill his own loyal servant and son-in-law, is a hallmark of this condition, as is his obsession with maintaining his own glory and status at all costs.
Other diagnoses include major depression or bipolar disorder, as Saul experienced severe mood swings. He would have periods of deep melancholy and despair. These depressive episodes were often interspersed with moments of intense anger, paranoia, and rage.
His deep-seated suspicion and fear of David also align with paranoid delusional syndrome. He became convinced that David was trying to usurp his throne and would go to extreme lengths to eliminate him.
Finally, some scholars propose that Saul's erratic behavior was a manifestation of combat trauma or PTSD. As a king who led his people in constant warfare, he endured high levels of stress and violence, which could have led to his violent outbursts and dramatic shift in personality.
However, the Bible itself attributes Saul's decline to a spiritual cause - Pride.
From a theological standpoint, pride is considered a fundamental sin, intrinsically linked to Satan's rebellion and fall from heaven. It is believed to be the first sin ever to occur, with Satan being the first to commit it. As the root of all other sins, it was the basis of the temptation in the Garden of Eden that resulted in the fall of humanity.
Pride is not a healthy sense of self-worth; rather, it is a deep-seated arrogance that leads to a rejection of God and His authority. Saul was fueled by his pride and insecurity. It drove his destructive actions, transforming him from a king into a man consumed by his own inner turmoil. The consequences of pride are grave, and Saul’s pride ultimately resulted in his defeat and death on the battlefield.
Following Saul's tragic end, David ascended to the throne, but the years he spent as a fugitive, relentlessly hunted by the jealous king, had left a deep impression on him. The traumas David experienced seemed to inform his choices as a ruler. His celebrated reign was vitally flawed. As a husband, his personal conduct was often manipulative and neglectful toward his many wives and concubines. This same trauma also seemed to manifest in his passive approach as a father.
David's most grievous sin was his abuse of power as king. He used his authority to summon Bathsheba to his palace, which resulted in an adulterous act and her subsequent pregnancy. To conceal his actions, David then committed the premeditated murder of her husband, Uriah, a loyal and elite soldier in his army. Because of this, the prophet Nathan foretold that the sword would “never depart” from David’s house. This prophecy was fulfilled in the tragic violence and family discord that marked the rest of David's reign and continued for generations.
The tragic unraveling of David's family began with the death of his first son with Bathsheba, followed by the sexual assault of his daughter, Tamar, by her half-brother, Amnon. Although David was enraged by the crime, his failure to punish Amnon ignited a cycle of violence. In an act of vengeance, Absalom, Tamar’s full brother, murdered Amnon.
David's inaction regarding the murder set off a chain of events that culminated in Absalom's rebellion against him, forcing David to flee Jerusalem. The rebellion ended with Absalom's death, who was killed by David's commander, Joab, even after David had ordered his life to be spared. This marked the third recorded death among David's children, a direct consequence of the turmoil that had overtaken his house.
This pattern of family turmoil and passive parenting continued as David's life drew to a close. Adonijah, his fourth and oldest living son, saw himself as the heir to the throne and proclaimed himself king, taking advantage of his father's old age. Adonijah's sense of entitlement, which David had never checked, was a direct result of his passive approach.
Instead of confronting Adonijah, David responded by having his youngest son, Solomon, publicly anointed as king while Adonijah’s coronation celebration was underway.
Soon after, David passed away. Solomon inherited a kingdom marked by disorder and past failures. Among his first actions, he had to resolve political threats left from the previous reign.
THE DIVIDED KINGDOM
Solomon's reign began under the shadow of violence. His actions to secure the throne—resulting in fratricide, as he ordered the execution of his own brother, Adonijah—strained his leadership and foretold its tragic collapse. Yet, this political burden was soon eclipsed by a deeper moral failing.
Despite his celebrated wisdom, Solomon adopted the same pattern of disobedience as his father, specifically by taking numerous foreign wives and concubines. These relationships ultimately led Solomon away from God and into the worship of false gods.
This ultimate defiance fully realized the tragic cycle of disobedience. The disorder escalated irreversibly, culminating in the division of the kingdom under Solomon’s son, Rehoboam. The prophet Nathan's prophecy—that the "sword shall never depart from your house"—was fulfilled across several generations of David's descendants.
DEEP FAITH & TRAGIC FAILURE
David's story, though marked by glorious anointing and devastating personal failure, offers an unparalleled look into the character of God. The analysis begins and ends with the same sustaining truth: God looks at the heart, not outward appearance, status, or talent. This divine sight first called the overlooked shepherd boy from the fields.
True worth comes from inner character, integrity, and a sincere heart for God, which means that God uses flawed people; His plans are accomplished through imperfect individuals who possess a repentant spirit.
This also clarifies that faith isn't immunity from trouble. David experienced triumphant victories alongside devastating moral failures. God provides strength, comfort, and hope through adversity, but not an exemption from it. David's life is a vivid illustration that humanity's greatest achievements and our deepest moral failings often reside in the same person. Christianity is not about perfection, but about living a godly life through a continual turning back to God.
GRACE & CONSEQUENCES
The life of David powerfully underscores the reality of sin. It is a serious matter with lasting effects, even after forgiveness. These effects extend to family members, and parents aren't exempt. The sword that never left David’s house, the family discord, and the cycle of sin passed to Solomon, serve as a grave reminder that grace doesn't negate earthly recompense. While Jesus Christ died for our sins, demonstrating God's grace, this grace doesn't release us from the fallout of our actions.
ACCOUNTABILITY & BOUNDARIES
David's life serves as a cautionary tale: forgiveness is possible, but the consequences endure. It was this understanding—the coexistence of forgiveness and enduring earthly penalty—that restored the repentant king after his most serious transgression, underscoring the necessity of accountability and discernment. This is vital because the sin of pride and a hardened heart can manifest in behaviors that secular assessment today might categorize as personality disorders. Yet, according to scripture, King Saul’s paranoid and destructive behavior toward David is a vivid example of a leader whose heart became hardened. Therefore, while true neurological impairment requires compassion, a hardened heart requires accountability.
This principle of holding the heart accountable naturally demands that we set clear limits on behavior. This commitment to limits is also necessary in relationships, emphasizing the importance of boundaries.
Boundaries are essential for healthy connections. They are not an act of withholding forgiveness; rather, they are a necessary measure of self-protection. Forgiveness is an internal decision to release bitterness and resentment toward the offender, a process that is often instantaneous and ongoing. However, forgiveness does not mean removing the limits that prevent people from persistently sinning against you.
Boundaries are not merely a human invention; they are a divine concept. It mirrors the fundamental nature of God, who established pattern and separation from the very beginning of creation when He divided light from darkness, the waters, and the land. In this way, setting healthy boundaries in our lives reflects the inherent design of creation, and God's fundamental concept of order.
THE ENDURING HOPE
The story of King David is the story of every person: an often messy journey between divine calling and human fallibility. What makes his story crucial for all believers is that we must always return to genuine repentance. Yes, sin leaves its residue. But it leaves it on a conquered battlefield. Jesus Christ, the ultimate King, bears our scars. Our hope is that He is redeeming us, right now, under the secure, eternal reign of the King who will never be overthrown.