As soon as the boy was gone, David arose out of [a place] toward the South, and fell on his face to the ground, and bowed himself three times: and they kissed one another, and wept one with another, until David exceeded.
This chapter reveals that both Saul and Jonathan realized that David was the Lord’s anointed who would one day replace Saul. However, their responses to this inevitable situation were opposite because their desires were opposite. Saul wanted to see his own plans fulfilled, but Jonathan wanted to see God’s will done. Jonathan ended up choosing David, his natural rival, in preference over Saul, his natural father. His sister Michal had made the same choice. David later kept his covenant with Jonathan (2 Samuel 9:1), showing that he was a covenant-keeping individual similar to Yahweh. This is another evidence that David was a man after God’s own heart (1 Samuel 13:14).