*Sacred Scripture* Saul and David – Rembrandt

Saying the holy name of Jesus is the simplest way of praying always.

1-A prayer from Raphael the Archangel:

*While you are on this earth, you must praise the Lord God and give him thanks.

2-A prayer from Tobit and Tobias:

*They began to sing hymns of praise, giving thanks for all the mighty deeds God had done while his angel Raphael had been with them.

3-A simple Jesus prayer:

*Lord, Lord, Jesus Christ…Son of God…have mercy on me…Be kind to others…Work Hard…Be joyful.

4-Another prayer:

*When all that God asks of us is to be quiet and keep ourselves at peace-attentive to the secret work He is beginning in our souls-Be Empty and See That I Am God.

But as for me, I watch in hope for the Lord, I wait for God my Savior; my God will hear me. Do not gloat over me, my enemy! Though I have fallen, I will rise. Though I sit in darkness, the Lord will be my light.

Mi 7:7–8

Saul and David by Rembrandt

David Playing the Harp Before Saul was considered one of Rembrandt’s most famous paintings. The deep human suffering of the tyrant king was never expressed so well as in this work. Rembrandt, the greatest master of rendering the human soul in painting, filtered out of the twenty-five-hundred-year-old story what he had to say to his own seventeenth century Holland, while at the same time he fashioned a musical solution to spiritual suffering with the use of an eternal allegory of uplifting influence of artistic beauty.

David has beaten the Philistines and is returning to the court of King Saul. The superstitious king considers David a threat to his already weakened position. We see him trying to think of a way to get rid of the young hero. At the same, he is moved by David’s harp playing – Saul dries his eyes with a curtain.

The people would probably rise against him if he were to kill David. The spear in his hand is useless, although in a flash of anger he does try to kill David with it. So he promotes David to “captain over a thousand”, hoping he will die in battle.

In Rembrandt’s painting, the old suffering king is clearly touched by David’s playing. David is completely absorbed in his music.

Symbolism: The painting reflects how Rembrandt imagined the scene in which David was playing the harp for the depressive King Saul. Most elements in the painting come directly from the 17th-century translation of the Bible, but most notably Rembrandt added the curtain. It allowed him to express two different emotions of Saul at once. The tears in his left eye because of the beautiful music and the anger and jealousy of David’s growing popularity in his other eye.

​More generally, Rembrandt expresses in this painting how music can help to diminish depressive moods. Rembrandt painted an earlier version on this same topic in which he did not express these emotions that clearly.

But as for me, I watch in hope for the Lord, I wait for God my Savior; my God will hear me. Do not gloat over me, my enemy! Though I have fallen, I will rise. Though I sit in  darkness, the Lord will be my light.  

MICAH 7:7–8