Charles Ellicott Commentary 1 Samuel 15:31

"So Samuel turned again after Saul; and Saul worshipped Jehovah." — 1 Samuel 15:31 (ASV)

So Samuel turned again after Saul. —The prophet, after the king's repeated and pressing request, consents publicly to worship the Lord with him. There is little doubt that the principal motive that led Samuel on this occasion not to withdraw from the public thanksgiving was a desire to prevent any disaffection toward the monarchy. His known disapproval of Saul’s conduct, and his refusal of the king’s earnest plea for him to stay, would probably have been the signal for the discontented people in Israel to revolt, under the pretext that such a revolt would please the great seer. Such a revolt in those critical times would have been disastrous to the growing prosperity of the chosen people.

It has been well suggested that many blessings came upon the unhappy Saul and the nation he ruled in answer to Samuel’s intercession for him on this occasion.

The result was what might have been expected. Saul apparently remained in undiminished power; but the will of God, as declared by His servant Samuel, was slowly but surely accomplished. The doom of the reigning family, pronounced by the prophet on this momentous occasion, was irrevocable.

The story of Israel in this book shows how the solemn procession of events moved onward, each year bringing the ill-fated rebel king nearer to the execution of the stern sentence that his own self-willed conduct had called down on him.