The biblical account of David and Michal is found in 1 Samuel. Michal was the first wife of David and the daughter of King Saul of the tribe of Benjamin. She is first mentioned in 1 Samuel 14:49 as the younger of Saul’s two daughters. David was the youngest son of Jesse from the tribe of Judah. He served as a shepherd in his youth and was known for playing the harp. He played for King Saul before being promoted as his armor bearer. David came to national prominence in Israel when he killed the Philistine giant Goliath, an event that resulted in a major military victory (1 Samuel 16).
After the defeat of Goliath, Saul offered his older daughter Merab to David as a wife. David felt unworthy of this honor, and Merab was given to a man named Adriel instead (1 Samuel 18:17).
First Samuel 18:20 sets the stage for David and Michal, “Saul’s daughter Michal was in love with David, and when they told Saul about it, he was pleased.” Saul requested an odd bride price, however—a hundred foreskins of the Philistines. He demanded this price in order to see David killed: “Saul’s plan was to have David fall by the hands of the Philistines” (1 Samuel 18:25). However, David completed the mission and took Michal as his wife, making Saul an even greater enemy to him.
Later, Saul sent men to kill David, but Michal helped David escape through a window, and she covered for him with a story that he was sick. She afterwards claimed David had threatened to kill her if she didn’t help him (1 Samuel 19:11–17). In 1 Samuel 25:44, we discover Michal was taken from David and given as a bride to Palti son of Laish. After Saul died in a battle against the Philistines, David demanded Michal back as his wife as a condition of his becoming king of Judah. His condition was met (2 Samuel 3:13–16). 16”And her husband went with her along weeping behind her to Bahurim. Then said Abner unto him, Go, return. And he returned.”
The only other biblical account of David and Michal concerns David’s bringing the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem. Second Samuel 6:16 says that David danced with all his might before the Lord and that his wife “despised him in her heart.” We are then told, “Michal daughter of Saul came out to meet him and said, ‘How the king of Israel has distinguished himself today, going around half-naked in full view of the slave girls of his servants as any vulgar fellow would!’” (2 Samuel 6:20). David rebuked Michal, and the final verse of the chapter notes that Michal had no children.
What began as a “celebrity marriage” in Israel involved a series of dramatic events that ultimately led to David choosing multiple wives. Michal chose to speak against her husband and went through her life childless. Though David’s marriage relationships were problematic. Through David and Michal’s relationship, God worked despite their sinful nature, and the Lord likewise calls us today to live for Him despite past failures to pursue His direction for our lives.
1 Samuel 18:27b the king, that he might be the king’s son in law. And Saul gave him Michal his daughter to wife.
28 And Saul saw and knew that the Lord was with David, and that Michal Saul’s daughter loved him.
2 Sam. 6:15 So David and all the house of Israel brought up the ark of the Lord with shouting, and with the sound of the trumpet. 16 And as the ark of the Lord came into the city of David, Michal Saul’s daughter looked through a window, and saw king David leaping and dancing before the Lord; and she despised him in her heart.
20 Then David returned to bless his household. And Michal the daughter of Saul came out to meet David, and said, How glorious was the king of Israel to day, who uncovered himself to day in the eyes of the handmaids of his servants, as one of the vain fellows shamelessly un-covereth himself! “no royal robe” “one of the guys” 1Chro. 15 says he was in linen.” he must have removed it as he got “all excited” “pants on the ground”
21 And David said unto Michal, It was before the Lord, which chose me before thy father, and before all his house, to appoint me ruler over the people of the Lord, over Israel: therefore will I play before the Lord.
We can learn from Michal’s sad story what happens in a marriage when offenses go on for years, unaddressed. Michal’s youthful infatuation with Israel’s hero turned to bitterness when he treated her like property, tore her away from a loving husband, and apparently never made it right.
I. First, David’s trouble. LACK OF RESPECT Party time without wife. vs. 15-16
II. I shall now turn away from the consideration of the trouble, to look at holy David as he meets and encounters it. We have had David’s trial; now we will have David’s justification. LACK OF REMORSE What did David say in extenuation of what he had done? He said, “It was before the Lord,
III. not willing to change. NOT WILLING TO RECONCILE 2 Sam. 6:22 And I will yet be more vile than thus, and will be base in mine own sight: and of the maidservants which thou hast spoken of, of them shall I be had in honour. 23Therefore Michal the daughter of Saul had no child unto the day of her death.