Therefore Saul sent messengers to Jesse and said, “Send me David your son, who is with the sheep.”
We have here Saul falling and David rising. I. Here is Saul made a terror to himself (Sa1 16:14): The Spirit of the Lord departed from him. He having forsaken God and his duty, God, in a way of righteous judgment, withdrew from him those assistances of the good Spirit with which he was directed, animated, and encouraged in his government and wars. He lost all his good qualities.
Commenting on 1 Samuel 16:14-23
Wherefore Saul sent messengers to Jesse,.... For David; not choosing to take him without his leave, though Samuel suggests that kings would do so, Sa1 8:11. and said, send me David, thy son, which is with the sheep; he had learnt his name, and what was his employment; and which last he mentions not by way of contempt, it not being reckoned mean and despicable...
Saul sent messengers unto Jesse, and said, Send me David--In the East the command of a king is imperative; and Jesse, however reluctant and alarmed, had no alternative but to comply.