V.7 Contrast the choice Israel made for a king to satisfy its carnal desires to Yahweh's selection of a king (1Sam 9:2).  Note, the Lord Jesus, despite popular depictions of Him, was not physically attractive (Isa 53:2). 

V.12 David, however, was physically attractive.  It is not uncommon, as some might suppose, for Semites to have red hair and light complexion.  I have seen both Israelis and Arabs like this.

V.14 The evil spirit that Yahweh gave Saul could only be soothed by the lyrical strains of David's harp (vs.17,23).  Perhaps William Congreve (1670-1729) had this episode in mind when he penned his famous line: Music hath charms to sooth the savage breast. 

16:16    In seeking for a ‘cunning player’ to play to Saul the advice he had addressed the symptom not the problem. The problem was that he was astray from God. Listening to music did not resolve that problem. How often do we use distraction methods to solve our problems when we should be looking at the cause of the problem and dealing with that?

16:2  Samuel’s fear of Saul indicates that even before David was chosen Saul had begun to show his instability and fear of his successor.

16:6   So we see that Samuel possibly was looking for a replacement for Saul who matched his stature. We are advised of this so we can really learn the lesson that God looks on the heart.

V.14 Saul was given over to a brooding, melancholy, irritable personality which was going to be pivotal to the trials David would have to endure.  We saw a hint of Saul's mental instability earlier in the issuing of an irrational command (1Sam 14:24).  It is interesting to speculate what sort of mental illness Saul had as described by today's analyses - perhaps paranoia or schizophrenia, or a combination of the two?

V.4 Bethlehem was not a town on Samuel’s usual circuit (Bethel, Gilgal, and Mizpah were, 1Sam 7:16).  And so, imagine the reaction to the prophet of Yahweh in making a special visit to Bethlehem.  The elders of the town trembled because they thought that Samuel might have come to pronounce God’s judgment on them.

Vs.6-12 Yahweh knew that He wanted David as king to succeed Saul.  Why, then, did He have Samuel go through this selection process?

V.20 Taking a present to Saul via David was an act of homage (recall 1Sam 10:27).

I've often wondered if this chapter is in chronological order with chapter 17, because at the end of 16 Saul enquires about the identity of David, and in chapter 17 David is sent, from the fields, by his father to enquire after his brothers who are engaged in the war with the Philistines. 

After his conquest of Goliath, Saul again enquires after David's identity.  Any thoughts on this?

16:7 God highlights a fundamental principle here. It would have been possible for God to ensure that David was present when Samuel arrived so the choice could have been made quickly. However Samuel had to learn through repeated meetings with Jesse’s sons that God is not moved by outward appearance but by the heart. We would do well to note this.

The echo of the words of Psalm 102 may well be an element of the fellowship that existed between Isaiah and Hezekiah - it seems likely that Hezekiah wrote Psalm 102.

Vs.1-3  proclaim the Lord Jesus as Redeemer of the world (See also Isa 9:2; John 8:12).  The rest of the chapter paints a beautiful picture of conditions after Christ has returned to earth to assume His kingly role. 

V.9 Jews from all over the world will stream to Israel to serve their king.  Perhaps Britain and her allies (Tarshish) will play a role in transporting them. 

V.11 Open gates to the new Jerusalem will be maintained (Rev 21:25). 

V.12 All nations will be invited to submit to the King of all the earth.  Those who refuse to submit shall be destroyed (Rev 14:19,20).

V.19 In that time, Yahweh's glory alone will illuminate the earth (Rev 22:5).

Let us be diligent so that we will be invited into Yahweh's rest (Heb 4:1).

60:3  Notice the repetition of ‘shall come’ in this chapter (60:3,4,5,6,7) Israel must have seen the force of this message when Isaiah spoke. They had not yet gone into captivity with the Babylonians but here Isaiah is speaking of their return! And also of gentiles being involved in the work after the return (60:10)

60:2 The ‘darkness’ over the earth echoes Isa 9:2 as a basis for the redemption. Unless we can see that the world is in darkness we will not appreciate the light of the gospel.

60:3 In saying that ‘the gentiles shall come to thy light the prophet is returning to a theme he presented in Isa 42:6

V.3 Jesus is the light of the world (John 8:12).  Physical light phenomena have been used to describe the brilliance of Jesus.  He is seen as the sun (Mal 4:2); and the morning star (Rev 22:16).  Venus, the brightest planet, is called the morning star because it can be seen at its maximum brightness just after sunrise, and, also, just after sunset.  And so, Jesus' radiance will shine from sunrise to sunset when He returns to set up His new order of government.

60:6 the way in which gentiles will ‘show for the praises of the Lord’ is used by Peter to highlight the responsibility of believers – 1Pet 2:9

The Isles ("coastlands" in NKJV) in v9 appear to refer to the lands Tyre & Sidon sent merchant ships to. This can be deduced from the way the phrase is repeated in Jer 25:22, Eze 26:15-18, 27:3. So it includes Crete, Greece, Malta but also further affield to Italy, Spain, the rest of Europe and North Africa. During the reign of Solomon, there was a trade agreement between these merchants and Israel so that trade in the Middle East was effectively controlled from Jerusalem (1Kin 10:22-29, 2Chron 8:18, 9:10-13, 21-24).

So v9 suggests that this arrangement will exist again when Jesus administers the world from Jerusalem. This gives us an enormously vivid picture of the Kingdom time, because we can read all about the reign of Solomon, his splendour and glory, and how he administered his kingdom, and apply it to Jesus' rule. See Psalm 72 especially v8,10.

60:10 The way in which Isaiah speaks of the ‘sons of strangers’ helping build the walls is echoed by the later prophet – Zech 6:16

v.1 - Note that Jesus went up into a mountain with the disciples when he saw the multitude, therefore the 'sermon on the mount' was delivered to the disciples - not to the multitude. In the gospels there are a number of times when Jesus took himself away from the crowds up into a mountain. [Matthew 5:1 8:1 14:23 15:29 17:1 24:3 28:16 Mark 3:13 6:46 9:2 13:3 Luke 6:12 9:28 22:39 John 6:3 15 8:1] It seems that this was either for solitude for himself of privacy in order to instruct his disciples. We should note that whilst Jesus went about preaching and teaching and devoting himself to the Father's work he did take time out to fulfil his own personal needs.

LOVE EVERYONE
God is good to everyone no matter who they are or what they do. He sends the rain on the good and the bad and the sun rises and sets for all of us. God is perfect and he does good things for everyone whether they love him or not. If we want to be perfect and want to be imitators of God we must follow his example in this. Just as he loves everyone and gives his good gifts to all of us, we must love everyone too. This is one of the things that makes a Christian so different from most people in the world. Most people love their friends and they stop there. They speak to people that they like or think they might get on with. If they prayed they would stop before they got to the people that they dislike. But we must aim to be more like God. We must aim to be good to all people whether we like them or not. "Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. … Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly father is perfect."

Jesus teaches His disciples what is commonly referred to as the Beatitudes.  Notice the reward of the meek (v.5) and the reward of the persecuted (v.10).  As Yahweh has the same reward for all His faithful, then the inheritance of the earth and possession of the kingdom of heaven is the same thing.  Thus, the idea of souls floating off to heaven at death is not scriptural.  Indeed, Christ will bring the reward of inheritance to the faithful when He returns to earth (Col 3:24; Rev 22:12).

V.13 Salt is a preservative which has the quality of being hygroscopic (ability to absorb water from the air).  Being the salt of the earth implies absorbing the water of the Word. 

Jesus was the Word made flesh (John 1:14) and following His commandments ensures hydration (John 7:38).  Failing to absorb water makes salt a useless commodity.  Failing to absorb the water of the Word renders one useless in the sight of the Lord.

Jesus may have taken his teaching in Matt 5:41 about going the second mile, from David's double dowry for Michal (1Sam 18:25-27), and Jacob's double dowry for Rachel (Gen 29:27).  On both these occasions the father-in-law sought to ensnare his future son in law (1Sam 18:21, Gen 31:6-7), and in both cases the son in law gave double the asking price for the hand of their daughter.  The lesson for us is that despite these men being used by their fathers in law, God made a distinction between them and blessed them all the more.  The lesson Jesus brings out is that men who "do good to those that hate you" will be called "sons of your Father in heaven" (Matt 5:45) rather than a son of Saul or Laban.

5:20 The righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees was in their own eyes through the keeping of the law of Moses. Our righteousness must be conferred on us by God because we believe - Like Abraham Gen 15:6 - it is harder to believe that God will do something than it is to think that we can achieve righteousness by our own actions.

5:34 The teaching of Jesus is used a number of times in the letters. ‘Swear not …’ is used by James 5:12

5:48     Moses’ charge to Israel – Deut 18:13 –shows that Jesus’ words are not new. He is simply restating the principles of the law of Moses.

V.5  The word meek comes from the Greek praus which implies humble.  We are told that Moses was a very meek man (Num 11:3).  The word meek used here is from the Hebrew anav which implies to depress (one’s ego).  Peter exhorts us to be humble (1Pet 5:6). The Greek word for humble, here, is tapinoo, which also implies to depress (one’s ego).  And so, we can see that meekness really implies humility.

However, one does not have to skulk around apologetically to be meek, as some suppose.  One can be bold and vigorous and still be humble.  Think of some of the Biblical characters who had boldness and vigor and yet were humble (otherwise they would have been rejected by Yahweh) - such characters as Phinehas, Caleb etc.

5:5 In this world the meek do not get anything, they are pushed around. However the spirit of those who are children of the kingdom is to be meek quoting Psa 37:11,22

V.17 The Law pointed forward to Jesus who had not been born yet.  But, now that Jesus is here, the Law has done its job. The job of the Law (schoolmaster (KJV); guardian (ESV)) was to lead Israel to its Messiah, Jesus (Gal 3:24,25).

Vs.23,24 We should make sure that we are at peace with our brethren before engaging in any activity with them. If a problem with someone still exists, it is better to opt out of the activity.

V.28 Although males are the ones more likely to offend, women are not above casting an adulterous eye.  And so, this observation applies to them also (See also 1Pet 2:14).

Vs.31,32 See Matt 19:4-9.

Vs.34-36 Neither should one swear on the Bible, because it is God’s Word.

V.44 How, then, can a true follower of Jesus join the army, police force, or any organization that could cause harm to another human being?

5:48 Jesus call to be ‘perfect’ is alluded to by Paul – 1Cor 2:6 – when encouraging the believers in Corinth.