“So Saul died because he was unfaithful to the Lord. He failed to obey the Lord’s command, and he even consulted a medium instead of asking the Lord for guidance. So the Lord killed him and turned the kingdom over to David son of Jesse.”
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1 Chronicles‬ ‭10‬:‭13‬-‭14‬ ‭NLT

Obviously, Saul was going to die. This isn’t a statement of Saul’s carnality and finiteness so much as it’s a statement of God’s hand of providence. God was the provider of Israel, and for the benefit of Israel, the provider of Saul. But Saul had no interest in God’s providence other than for selfish ambitions. He consistently made rash decisions and let his wickedness run rampant. This is, of course, the problem with being the king. Ease of access mixed with agency is sure a recipe for disaster when a person is oriented toward his own destruction. There is no one with more ease and agency than a king. Therefore, there is no one in need of more providence than him. Without God’s hand upon him and his hedge of protection surrounding him, man would surely destroy himself or be destroyed by others. This is exactly what happened with Saul. He died a sad death so that there was no real understanding of who God was because he refused to recognize him as he had revealed himself. God didn’t kill him; he simply removed his protection. This followed Saul’s final act of wickedness, witchcraft. The attempt to control things by a power other than submission to God. This was the supreme and blatant act of unfaithfulness that killed him. It was always going to be.