1 Samuel 19:9-10 And the evil spirit from the Lord was upon Saul, as he sat in his house with his javelin in his hand. and Saul sought to smite David even to the wall with the javelin, but he slipped out of Saul’s presence, and he smote the javelin into the wall: and David fled, and escaped that night.
A psychological axiom says, “Pain always produces anger.” The Bible says, “Whoso hates his brother is a murderer.” The heinous sin of murder stems from anger in the heart. David had slain Goliath, which resulted in a great victory for Israel. This event caused Saul’s pride to be hurt from fear of losing his popularity and position. This perceived pain, real or imagined, caused Saul’s anger, which drove him him to thoughts of murder, and then to the attempted murder itself. His emotions were exacerbated by the evil spirit from the Lord, which deceived him into thinking it was the right thing to do and that he could get away with it.
By the spirit living within, we are enabled to be humble and to forgive. We even pray for such help in the Lord’s Prayer. Humility, repentance, and forgiveness deals with the pain and hurt before it leads to the sin of anger and murder. For this reason, daily humility, repentance, forgiveness, and prayer is necessary, for no one is going to go through life very long without pain caused by something or someone. In this way the Spirit stops the chain of events leading to actual attempted murder.
The lesson for us is that what happened to Saul can happen to us. We are not exempt from pain, anger, and murder.