Bede

Behold, I have seen the son of Jesse the Bethlehemite, skilled in playing, etc. One of the youths is the unity of the humble of Christ, with one and the same heart and soul agreed. To the Jews inquiring about the faith, and knocking step by step, so to speak, on the locked doors of the life-giving cross, immediately clearer answers to the questions of faith, and illuminating the mysteries of the Lord's dispensation: Behold, he says, with the eyes of either flesh or faith I have seen and known the one born from the root of Jesse, in Bethlehem of Judah, a man knowing how to bear infirmities, and submitting to the gibbet of death, able to vanquish the aerial powers, sublime in both strength and prudence; indeed, the very power of God, and the wisdom of God, beautiful in form beyond the sons of men, in the innocence of life and the exhibition of heavenly deeds; and, to put it succinctly, he is the one who alone could say: I am in the Father, and the Father is in me; and, He who sees me, sees also the Father (John XIV); whose exceptional virtues indeed celebrate the glory of the name. For he is called David, that is, strong with the hand, or desirable. He is strong with the hand, indeed, in the power of his passion, because he laid low his adversaries. Desirable in the splendor of the resurrection, by which he exalted his own. For it is written of him: The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle: he is the one whom the angels desire to behold (Psalm XXIII); and who, as the prophet says, will come as the Desired of all nations, and the glory of the house of the Lord will be filled (Haggai II).

Saul therefore sent to Jesse, saying: Send David to me, etc. Newly catechized Jews sent words of their intention as signs to those who had gone before in Christ, saying: Believe in our fellowship of salvation through baptism in Christ, whom we have always learned in our hearts by faith, hope, and charity, to be born, ministering the pastures of eternal life to all the blessed, both angels and men. Complying with the just petitions of the brethren, they lent to them the mysteries of Christ to be received. They did not do this hesitantly, but according to him who, saying to his disciples: Go, teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit (Matt. 28): he immediately added and said, Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you (Ibid.). Among the sacraments of faith, with which they were initiated outwardly, they also sent examples of virtues, by which they were inwardly nourished: for bread and wine are spiritual virtues and doctrine. For bread strengthens the heart of man (Psalm 103). And your cup, he says, inebriating, how glorious it is (Psalm 22)! A kid from the goats is a humble sign of repentance, separated from the wanton flock of sinners: for a kid used to be offered for sins according to the law. These David carries to Saul on a donkey given by Jesse, when any wise teacher by the grace of Christ instructing his listeners, frequently recalls that the grace of virtues which they should imitate abounds in the humble and those despised by human judgment. It is notable that in the anointing of Saul, which also signifies the kingdom of Christ, donkeys, bread, a jug of wine, and also kids are found: as has been discussed in its proper place.

Therefore whenever the evil spirit of God seized Saul, etc. The sense is clear from the preceding, and it is suitable not only to the faithful Jews but also to us. For it must be that whenever any temptation of the evil spirit seizes our mind and turns it away from the tranquility of its state, whoever of the spiritual brothers is present should bring to our memory the humility of the Lord's passion, earnestly exhorting us; because He who was innocent and just sustained the punishment of the cross for us voluntarily, leaving indeed an example that following His steps, we may act innocently in prosperity and patiently in adversity. Thus it will come to be that, refreshed by brotherly consolation as if by David's playing of the harp, we may bear it more lightly. For David always signifies our Redeemer, but sometimes in himself, sometimes in his members: and with the departure of the dire spirit's influence, immediately the grace of the Holy Spirit succeeding will enlighten us. But if it moves anyone why the Spirit is called both of God and evil; let him know that it is called of God indeed because of His most just permission, but evil because of the most wicked will of that spirit. For God uses even evil spirits for the testing of some, for punishment or correction, or even for the maintenance of good things. For testing, indeed, as the Lord tested blessed Job by allowing Satan; for punishment, as the lying spirit deceived King Ahab to perish in battle because of his preceding crimes by the Lord's permission; for correction, as the Apostle handed over the sinner in Corinth to Satan (I Cor. V), that his spirit might be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. Furthermore, for the preservation of virtues, as the same Apostle, lest he be exalted by the greatness of revelations, received an angel of Satan to buffet him (II Cor. XII). Josephus mentions this passage in his history of Antiquities: "And Saul was suddenly seized by certain passions and demons, bringing him suffocations and distress;" and a little later: "They ordered, he says, that when demons attacked and disturbed him, standing over his head, he should play the harp and sing hymns." For it is not to be thought that that harp, however sweetly sounding, could have had such great power as to drive away evil spirits; but the figure of the holy cross, and the very passion of the Lord which was sung, already then was breaking the audacity of the devil; just as the destroying angel of Egypt did not pass by because of the virtue of the blood placed on the doorposts (Exod. XII), but because that blood was a type: the place of the middle lintel, and of each doorpost, where it was anointed, expressed the very figure of the salutary cross. The angel passed by the houses of the Hebrews, seeing them marked, unharmed, by the divine foreknowledge, indicating the coming of Him in the flesh who would by His blood through the cross free us from eternal death.

And the Philistines stood on the mountain on this side, etc. And even to this day, unclean spirits contending against the Church stand lifted up with proud boasting, after the example of that first proud one, of whom it is written in the Revelation of John: And as a great mountain burning with fire, it was cast into the sea (Rev. VIII). And the soldier of righteousness stands, not relying on his own arms, but exalted by His help, who says: A city set on a mountain cannot be hidden (Matt. III). And there was a valley between them; the place of their conflict is the temporal life itself, in which the good and the wicked fight among themselves, and the tree of life in the middle helps and refreshes the worthy, condemns and casts out the wicked; and that same life of the world is common, and the just pass through it, hoping in Christ as the highest mountain, with diligent mind, saying: But our conversation is in heaven (Phil. III). And the reprobates through the devil, by swelling up, despise the society of their neighbors and transcend. Against this the Apostle admonishes the faithful, saying: Be not wise in your own conceits, but condescend to men of low estate (Rom. XII). For the Philistines represent no less the perverse men than the angels, serving in the one and the same kingdom of the devil.

And a man went out from above... named Goliath, etc. This notable man is the devil, who, daily going out from the camps of the Philistines, that is, from the hearts of the impious to rebel against God, does not cease to provoke the pious. And rightly he is called Goliath, that is, revealed or transmigrating. For he had long been hidden from mortals, seemingly in vain troubling Saul and the men of Israel; in vain boasting in the minds of the depraved, as in the camps of the Philistines, that he was the strongest; but now, through the diligence of the boy David, he is revealed to them, who can say: For we are not ignorant of his thoughts. Long pridefully inhabiting the hearts of the wretched, he is now transmigrated through the same strong hand, that is, the Lord Savior, who said: Now is the judgment of this world, now the prince of this world will be cast out (John XII). Or certainly, he is rightly called transmigrating because he transmigrated from angelic happiness to hell through pride. But if we wish to understand him who transmigrates others, that is, transfers them from place to place, in an active sense, the name should be referred to him; because he strives to transmigrate all his followers from the land of promise to the land of perdition, from life to death. He is well described as being six cubits and a palm high, because he who boasts to be similar to the Most High, promises to preach perfect works and a blessed end through his philosophers. For God made the world in six days and rested on the seventh; and he established for mortals through the law six days of work, the seventh of rest. Indeed, Ezekiel saw in the hand of the man measuring the new city, a reed of six cubits and a palm; because the Lord measures the perfection of work in His chosen ones, as if in six cubits; and He contemplates the hope of eternal rest, which will be completed in the future, as if the part of the seventh. Therefore, what the Lord truly exhibits, the devil falsely promises. The height of Goliath, comparable to the Lord's measure, is asserted to fall. His city also, Gath, which is interpreted as "press," aptly shows the multitude of the wicked, namely the devil’s city, always practiced in the torments of the good in the world. It is also worth informing those unaware that he is a bastard, who is generated by an ignoble father but a noble mother; just as conversely, one generated by a noble father, but an ignoble mother, is customarily known.

And he had bronze greaves on his legs, etc. Helmet, mail, shield, and greaves, are different types of arguments or reasoning methods, by which the devil rebelling against the Lord, or defending the foolishness of his own head, namely, all the wicked, or his miserable body, attempts to defend. For he covers the head of sin, when, even condemned, he does not fear to say and be believed to be God. He also covers the body when the heart of the wicked inclines to the evil word, to excuse excuses in sins. He covers, when he hedges all sides of the human mind against the darts of the truth. All these types of defenses are declared to be made of bronze, a metal more resonant than others; because whether by wicked deeds, or perverse doctrine, he is accustomed to defending not by the recognized reason of invincible truth, but by the fabulous sweetness of secular eloquence. And it is well said that the weight of his mail is five thousand shekels of bronze; because through the sweetness of deceptive speech, he does not protect all the senses of his soldiers from the enemy's incursion as he promises; but on the contrary, he closes all their senses, the five most notable, from receiving the word of truth, by which they would be saved. But he arms his right hand with a spear, when he even attempts to disturb or attack the faith of the Church through some men of sharper intellect. For with helmet, mail, or shield, and other such things, we protect ourselves from wounds: but with a spear or sword we are accustomed to strike the adversary. Hence, it is not inappropriate that those weapons which are defenses for the fighters, when carried by the Philistine, signify those persons or speeches by which the wicked cover their crimes; but those by which the adversary is accustomed to be wounded, signify those speeches or men, by which even the virtue of the good is wounded and disturbed. Concerning which it is rightly added:

Therefore, with three major ones following Saul, David went, etc. Because we all stumble in many ways, the only one conceived in sanctification, (James V), Anamartitos, that is, without sin, could live in the flesh, is rightly understood as God; because even teachers, certain lawgivers in Judea, prophets, and psalmists, as some interpret, priests, scribes, and Pharisees, sweating in the spiritual struggle against the law of sin opposing the law of their mind, only our Creator and Redeemer remained free from the conflict of all assaulting faults, who exceedingly also, with the generous mercy of eternal divinity, although humble in mortal flesh, refreshed the faithful flock of His Father; for He indeed agreed with mortals in the truth of nature, but differed from them in the power of sinning, imbuing men with spiritual gifts, but committing no vices among them. Rightly, David the Psalmist is brought forth to heal Saul, but in fighting the Philistines, he returns as if free from the enemy. Furthermore, like a good shepherd, with others placed in the readiness of war, he himself, free from war, invites his most gentle lambs to the pastures of Bethlehem.