Year One, August 20

He Has Delivered Us…and He Will Deliver Us1

1 Samuel 17:20-37

20And David rose early in the morning and left the sheep with a keeper and took the provisions and went, as Jesse had commanded him. And he came to the encampment as the host was going out to the battle line, shouting the war cry. (David was a good shepherd. He did not leave his sheep without someone to watch over them. In this he is a picture of the great Shepherd and Overseer of souls.) 21And Israel and the Philistines drew up for battle, army against army. 22And David left the things in charge of the keeper of the baggage and ran to the ranks and went and greeted his brothers. 23As he talked with them, behold, the champion, the Philistine of Gath, Goliath by name, came up out of the ranks of the Philistines and spoke the same words as before. And David heard him.

24All the men of Israel, when they saw the man, fled from him and were much afraid. 25And the men of Israel said, “Have you seen this man who has come up? Surely he has come up to defy Israel. And the king will enrich the man who kills him with great riches and will give him his daughter and make his father’s house free in Israel.”

The Church, the bride of Christ, was offered to our champion the Lord Jesus. “All glorious is the princess,”2 was to be the reward of his battle.

26And David said to the men who stood by him, “What shall be done for the man who kills this Philistine and takes away the reproach from Israel? For who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the living God?” 27And the people answered him in the same way, “So shall it be done to the man who kills him.”

28Now Eliab his eldest brother heard when he spoke to the men. And Eliab’s anger was kindled against David, and he said, “Why have you come down? And with whom have you left those few sheep in the wilderness? I know your presumption and the evil of your heart, for you have come down to see the battle.” 29And David said, “What have I done now? Was it not but a word?” (Brave people may expect to be misunderstood and charged with self-promotion. It will be to their honor if they bear it patiently and continue on. Our Lord was rejected by his brothers, but he did not stop from his work of love, or answer them roughly. If we can conquer our own spirits we shall be able to conquer others.) 30And he turned away from him toward another, and spoke in the same way, and the people answered him again as before.

31When the words that David spoke were heard, they repeated them before Saul, and he sent for him. (Saul was at his wit’s end and therefore jumped at any opportunity to fix his desperate situation. Sometimes people are driven to Jesus because everything else they have tried has failed to save them.) 32And David said to Saul, “Let no man’s heart fail because of him. Your servant will go and fight with this Philistine.” 33And Saul said to David, “You are not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him, for you are but a youth, and he has been a man of war from his youth.” (Saul despised David because he did not believe he could save him. The Jewish nation did not think our Lord could save them and they despised him too. Nevertheless, David won the victory over the enemy Goliath and our Lord won the victory over our fearful enemy Satan.)

34But David said to Saul, “Your servant used to keep sheep for his father. And when there came a lion, or a bear, and took a lamb from the flock, 35I went after him and struck him and delivered it out of his mouth. And if he arose against me, I caught him by his beard and struck him and killed him. (Christ also delivers his own sheep out of the power of him who prowls around like a roaring lion.3 The Psalmist says of Christ: “You will tread on the lion and the adder; the young lion and the serpent you will trample underfoot.”4)

36Your servant has struck down both lions and bears, and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be like one of them, for he has defied the armies of the living God.” 37And David said, “The LORD who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine. And Saul said to David, “Go, and the LORD be with you!”

Wisdom teaches us that what God has done for us once, he can and will do again. We have an unchanging helper to depend on and therefore we may depend on his continual help.

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¹ From 2 Corinthians 1:10

² Psalm 45:13

³ 1 Peter 5:8

⁴ Psalm 91:13