Saul's paranoia

“Saul was afraid of David, because the Lord was with David but had left Saul.” 1 Samuel 18:12
After the Lord left Saul (1 Sam. 16:14), life went steadily downhill for him. He became jealous and afraid of David, even trying to kill him. He spent years pursuing David in the wilderness. His moral standards dropped, such that he consulted with a medium (1 Sam. 28). Finally he fell on his own sword in battle against the Philistines (1 Sam. 31).
Paranois is an unfounded fear. There was no reason for David to be his enemy, yet somehow Saul convinced himself that David was out to get him. He saw the success that the Lord was bringing about in David’s life, and feared for his own (1 Sam. 18:15, 1 Sam. 18:29). But David did not hate Saul. He always referred to him as ‘the anointed of the Lord’ (1 Sam. 24:6, 1 Sam. 26:9, 2 Sam. 1:14). Although God had promised David that he would become the king of Israel (1 Sam. 16:13), he still acknowledged Saul’s calling, even though his life had departed far from it. Nor did David think highly of himself (1 Sam. 18:23, calling himself ‘a poor man and little known’).
The contrast between David and Saul here is something we can learn a lot from. Both had been anointed by the Lord, at different times. Saul was afraid because David was being blessed, but David respected the position Saul had been given. Even when Saul pursued David and tried to kill him numerous times, David did not seek revenge, but trusted the Lord to make everything work out. Let us have David’s attitude toward these things.