Anointed king over Israel as a teen, he didn’t assume the throne until age thirty. After his heroic victory over Goliath, he spent the next thirteen years as a fugitive, hiding out in the caves of Engedi from King Saul, who had grown nearly insane with jealously. A few of David’s beloved psalms were born out of this crucible of solitude, but mostly he lived in obscurity, surviving in the Judean wilderness, one of the most rugged, harsh territories of the world.
