God tells Samuel something in verse 7 that he needed to here, Saul needed to hear, the Pharisees needed to hear, I need to hear. Man looks at the outward appearance, God looks at the heart. In this case, physical appearance was unimportant for the next king (David was also good looking, but that wasn't the important thing), in our case we are obsessed with our image and reputation - what other people see and think about us, trying desperately to show everyone the good stuff about ourselves while hiding the things we're ashamed of. God looks at our heart. There's no hiding place. He sees all the stuff that we work so hard to keep people from knowing. And He still came to earth and died for us. That's the beauty of the gospel.
God's spirit leaves Saul, the only time in the bible when the Holy Spirit is specifically said to have left someone, and is replaced by an evil spirit "from the Lord". This seems strange, but is this just God's next attempt to get Saul's attention so that he repents? Time after time, Saul has turned his back on God, is God allowing an evil spirit to torment him (and soothing him throught the Holy Sirit filled David) just another act of mercy from God, to potentially push Saul towards repentance? Similarly, God sends a locust plague in Joel to drive the people to repentance and back to Him. The short term effects of the locust plague were devastating, but the long term result of reconcilliation with God is far better.
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