1 Samuel 18:1

FRIENDSHIP OF DAVID AND JONATHAN, 1 Samuel 18:1-4.

1. When he had made an end of speaking unto Saul That is, after the interview mentioned in the last verse of the preceding chapter, in which David informed Saul of his father. All their conversation on that occasion is not recorded, for it is manifest that that verse contains but a very small part of it. Enough is given, however, to acquaint us with the main subject of their conversation.

The soul of Jonathan was knit with the soul of David An instance of more touching and tender friendship is not recorded on the page of history, nor even in works of fiction. Here was a fellowship of souls. On the part of Jonathan it was the more remarkable, inasmuch as David became his rival for the throne. But even after this became well known Jonathan’s love never cooled, but rather warmed with intenser devotion to his friend, and he often gave aid and comfort to the son of Jesse in the time of his persecution. 1 Samuel 23:17. Well might the psalmist king say, in his requiem over the fallen hero, (2 Samuel 1:26,) “Thy love to me was wonderful, passing the love of women.”

On this subject Ewald’s note is fine. “Nothing can establish a true bond between two friends and produce pure friendship except a loftier necessity which stands above them both, and which both alike burn to satisfy with ever-increasing fulness the necessity. namely, of finding and loving in others, if possible in a yet higher degree, the purely divine power already felt within, and thus mutually living under its influence. It is in an age which is possessed, above all things, by a pure aspiration to obtain noble gifts, that the blessing of such a genuine friendship will also most readily be realized; and so the period in Israel’s history with which we are now concerned furnishes, among so many other glorious spectacles, that of a friendship which shines for all ages an eternal type.”