# A Tale of Three Kings ![rw-book-cover](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51Vbz5JyPJL._SL200_.jpg) ## Metadata - Author: [[Gene Edwards]] - Full Title: A Tale of Three Kings - Category: #books ## Highlights - “Behold the Lord’s anointed!” Quite a day for that young man, wouldn’t you say? Then do you find it strange that this remarkable event led the young man not to the throne but to a decade of hellish agony and suffering? On that day, David was enrolled, not into the lineage of royalty but into the school of brokenness. ([Location 188](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0055UIP9S&location=188)) - David was caught in a very uncomfortable position; however, he seemed to grasp a deep understanding of the unfolding drama in which he had been caught. He seemed to understand something that few of even the wisest men of his day understood. Something that in our day, when men are wiser still, even fewer understand. And what was that? God did not have—but wanted very much to have—men and women who would live in pain. God wanted a broken vessel. ([Location 205](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0055UIP9S&location=205)) - Saul did what all mad kings do. He threw spears at David. He could. He was king. Kings can do things like that. They almost always do. Kings claim the right to throw spears. Everyone knows that kings have that right. Everyone knows very, very well. How do they know? Because the king has told them so—many, many times. ([Location 213](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0055UIP9S&location=213)) - You can easily tell when someone has been hit by a spear. He turns a deep shade of bitter. ([Location 254](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0055UIP9S&location=254)) - David never got hit. Gradually, he learned a very well-kept secret. He discovered three things that prevented him from ever being hit. One, never learn anything about the fashionable, easily mastered art of spear throwing. Two, stay out of the company of all spear throwers. And three, keep your mouth tightly closed. In this way, spears will never touch you, even when they pierce your heart. ([Location 254](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0055UIP9S&location=254)) - First, recognize this immutable fact: You cannot tell (none of us can) who is the Lord’s anointed and who is not. ([Location 261](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0055UIP9S&location=261)) - “Is this man the Lord’s anointed? And if he is, is he after the order of King Saul?” Memorize that question very well. You may have to ask it of yourself ten thousand times. Especially if you are a citizen of a realm whose king just might be mad. ([Location 264](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0055UIP9S&location=264)) - You have your eyes on the wrong King Saul. As long as you look at your king, you will blame him, and him alone, for your present hell. But be careful, for God has his eyes fastened sharply on another King Saul. Not the visible one standing up there throwing spears at you. No, God is looking at another King Saul. One just as bad—or worse. God is looking at the King Saul in you. ([Location 278](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0055UIP9S&location=278)) - There is only one way to get rid of him. He must be annihilated. You may not find this to be a compliment, but at least now you know why God put you under someone who just might be King Saul. David the sheepherder would have grown up to become King Saul II, except that God cut away the Saul inside David’s heart. That operation, by the way, took years and was a brutalizing experience that almost killed the patient. ([Location 285](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0055UIP9S&location=285)) - David accepted this fate. He embraced the cruel circumstances. He lifted no hand nor offered resistance. Nor did he grandstand his piety. Silently, privately, he bore the crucible of humiliation. Because of this he was deeply wounded. His whole inner being was mutilated. His personality was altered. When the gore was over, David was barely recognizable. ([Location 292](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0055UIP9S&location=292)) - How strange, is it not, what suffering begets? There in those caves, drowned in the sorrow of his song and in the song of his sorrow, David became the greatest hymn writer and the greatest comforter of broken hearts this world shall ever know. ([Location 320](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0055UIP9S&location=320))