So Lord, may you graciously help
me, I will turn your prayerful attention to the first book of
Samuel, chapter 17 and verse 37. 1 Samuel 17 and verse 37. David said, moreover, the Lord
that delivered me out of the paw of the lion and out of the
paw of the bear, he will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine. And Saul said unto David, Go,
and the Lord be with thee. We have in this account in the
Word of God the beginnings of David, who was written so much
of. I understand there's more chapters
of Scripture given over to the life and the writings of David
than anybody else in the Word of God, although, of course,
all the Word of God is speaking of Christ. And David was, I believe,
and In the New Testament it speaks very often that he was that type
of the Lord Jesus in many ways. And Jesus came to be, to sit
on the throne of his father David, we read. Jesus was going to be
that one who was the fulfillment of all the types in the Old Testament. And here we have David, this
one who is introduced to us Firstly, the first time we read his name
is in that chapter that we read in 1 Samuel 16. It is referred
to in the book of Ruth before that, but that is really a genealogy
showing how the line of Boaz and Ruth went forward to the
coming of the King David. But really we do not know David's
name until he has been anointed. We're told that there's a youngest
in chapter 16, but we're not told what the youngest name was
until We're told that he was anointed in verse 13, then Samuel
took the horn of oil and anointed him in the midst of his brethren. This was a somewhat private anointing. It was not done with many people
there because of the fear for Saul. But this was a private
anointing, the Spirit of the Lord came upon David from that
day forward. And of course the Anointed One,
that is a name for Christ. Christ is the Anointed One. And
so there's types and shadows of the Old Testament looking
forward to the Lord Jesus Christ who is the Anointed, that is
anointed with the Spirit and the Lord Jesus. His first anointing
really was very private, really, as we're told of it in Luke's
Gospel, that the Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power
of the Almighty shall overshadow thee, and that holy thing that
is formed in thee shall be called the Son of God. That was told
to Mary. So the anointing of our Saviour
in the womb itself of the Virgin Mary. But we have here then the
name David means beloved. David means beloved. And he was
obviously loved by many and yet also hated, as you might well
know. And of course the Lord Jesus
is both loved and both hated. The question is, where do we
stand? Are we amongst those that love
the Saviour, or are we amongst those that despise Him and seek
to put Him down from His excellency? We spoke to the children this
morning in the Sunday School regarding this event that happened
in David's life. When he was still young, he was
caring for his father's sheep, the sheep that his father had
given him to look after. And at a young age, he was notably
diligent, diligent at caring for those sheep. And you see,
here we have a picture, another picture of what the Lord Jesus
is to his sheep. He is the great shepherd of the
sheep, that cares for his sheep, that will not let one of those
sheep be lost. And how David then goes and fights
with those that are coming against it, those wild animals, the lion
and the bear, as we have in our text, David proved in that place
where he was shepherding those sheep, around I guess Bethlehem
area, that he proved that God was his helper. And I think this
is very important. We have favoured with many young
people here this morning. David learned these truths at
a young age and he put them into practice in simple personal things
that he was involved with. And you are not too young to
prove the Lord and to see the Lord working and helping you
in your situations. And the great message here is
the diligence, that we need to be diligent. We need to do what
God has told us to do. You see, David was very diligent
in keeping those flocks, those lambs. Jesus, you see, in speaking
in John chapter 10, he speaks of this, I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd layeth down
his life for the sheep. And you see David in caring for
those lambs of the flock. He was prepared to lay down his
life, he was prepared to risk his life. Jesus says the hireling,
that is the person that's just paid to be there but doesn't
really take ownership of the sheep, if he sees a wolf coming
he's going to run away. But the true shepherd He's going to give his life that
those lambs are not lost. And you see, this is a picture
of what the Lord Jesus has done for his people. He has done this. And Jesus says this in John chapter
10, verse 27. My sheep hear my voice. I know
them and they follow me and I give unto them eternal life and they
shall never perish. Neither shall any man pluck them
out of my hand. My Father which gave them me
is greater than all, and no man is able to pluck them out of
my Father's hand. So in this simple account that
we read of David rescuing the lamb out of the mouth of the
lion and out of the mouth of the bear, This should be a sweet
encouragement to the people of God that just as David would
not let those lambs be lost, so the Lord Jesus will not let
any of his people perish. He will not let Satan and all
the hellish hosts that would seek to rip them and ruin them
and destroy them. He will not let them do it. He
will be victorious. And you see, David showed his boldness in
these simple things. It wasn't before many people.
I don't think there was any other human being there when these
things happened with this lying and the bear. This was something
between David and the work that he was in and God. But God But
God was proved to David in these things. And David believed in
God at a young age. And he was diligent, you see.
And you see, there's another lesson, really, that we really
need to take on board with these things. There was in the New Testament,
Jesus speaks in Matthew's 25 of the parable of the talents.
There was the five talents, the two talents, and the one talent. And the one who had gained five
talents and the one who gained two talents, or been given, sorry,
two talents, they both doubled the number that they were given.
And the same thing is said really to both. And in verse 21 of chapter,
Matthew 25, His Lord said unto him, Well done, thou good and
faithful servant! Thou hast been faithful over
a few things. I will make thee ruler over many
things. So here we have the idea that
in the little things of life, and early on in our years, and
you children are young, prove the Lord in the little things.
You might say, well, it doesn't matter when it's only little.
It's only the big things that matter. That's not how it was
with David. That's not how it is. It's not
how God sees it. You see, the Lord Jesus himself
said this. This is Luke 16, verse 10. He that is faithful in that which
is least is faithful also in much. And he that is unjust in the
least is unjust also in much. There's an encouragement there
and that we at a young age should should walk in those ways that
are right. Thou, God, seest me. God sees
us when we perhaps see not him, but he sees what we're doing.
He sees whether we're being faithful, whether we're being honest, whether
we're doing that which is right. And he can see that when we're
young. And David, you see, he proved
the Lord. through these early things in
his life. And then when a greater problem
came, although the lion and the bear were big problems, but when
a greater problem came, this Goliath of Gath, this great Philistine
who was seeking to defy the armies of the living God who was defying
them, David used godly logic to say that the God who delivered
him from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear, he will
deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine. And we need
to use this godly logic in our lives. Because you see, we have,
we need to look back in our lives and see what the Lord has done
for us, the obstacles, the difficulties, the discouragement that God has
brought us through. And therefore we are to then
thank the Lord and move forward, realising that these are truths,
so that we stand on what God has done for us already and go
forward faithful to God. David said, moreover, the Lord
that delivered me out of the paw of the lion and out of the
paw of the bear, he will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine. So David used that realisation
of what God had done to trust God for the future. You see,
the first king of Israel was Saul. And they had said the people
wanted a king, and one of the qualifications of this king was
a king that would go out for them and fight their battles.
Well, where is Saul when this Goliath arrives? Where is he? We do not see him going out and
fighting. the battles of Israel. He did
lead armies against the Philistines at times. But here, when this
Philistine came, it was not already Saul, because he had
already been rejected by Samuel and by God for the kingdom. And
he now goes into that sort of cowering state and he doesn't
push forward and he doesn't stand and be a leader and lead his
people. He has, for 40 days, he's been
cowering under these things. And you see, we need to be given
that courage that comes from God. You see, David was despised
by Eliab, his elder brother. Eliab, you see, thought he was
doing something really big and great. He was in the army. He
was great. He was fighting real problems.
He was doing great things. But David, looking after those
few sheep, that's nothing. Despised, you see, and how we
can easily despise what people are walking through. But David
was proving God with those few sheep. Proving God's faithfulness
and God's help. And Eliab, with all his bigness
and all his greatness as he thought, was not prepared to stand against
the Philistine. He didn't see things in the light
that David saw them by faith. David by faith realized that
this Goliath, this great giant, was not able to overcome him
because God was with him. He saw God One plus God is majority. He realized that if God was on
his side, all would be well. Well David, you see, David was
anointed, as we read, to be king. He was anointed to be king but
For a long time, that kingdom didn't come to him, did it? He
had lots of trials to walk through, lots of disappointments, lots
of discouragements. Lots of enemies seemed to stop
him and to make it that it would never take place. But God, we
read at the beginning of 1 Samuel 16, I have provided me a king
among his sons. And this king that was provided
from the line of Jesse, we have it in the book of Ruth, that
line at the end of it that goes from Phares, which was the son
of Judah. It goes right through these ten
generations to David, Faraz, to Hezron, to Ram, to Abinadab,
to Nashon, to Salmon, to Boaz, to Obed, to Jesse, and then to
David. There was these ten generations,
and God had appointed that from the lion of the tribe of Judah
that the Messiah would come to sit on the throne of his father
David. So God, you see, had all this
in mind. And there was these 10 generations,
a long time. But if you think of the difficult
circumstances in which Phaerus was born, he was illegitimate.
He was born to Tamar by Judah, who was actually her father-in-law. He didn't realize it, who she
was at the time, but there was basically, he was illegitimate. Those two pharaohs and his twin
brother. And it's interesting to note
that there is actually 10 generations between that and David. And it
does speak of in Deuteronomy, in Deuteronomy 23, It says, a
bastard shall not enter into the congregation. There it's
talking about an illegitimate child. Shall not enter into the
congregation of the Lord. Even to the tenth generation,
shall he not enter into the congregation of the Lord. And as we see here,
David, the sweet psalmist of Israel, that says in his Psalm
23, I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever. You see here how the grace of
our Lord Jesus Christ came from such difficult circumstances,
far as born in such untoward circumstances by prostitution
and so forth. It was all so difficult And yet,
you see, out of that God graciously brings his servant David to be
the sweet psalmist of Israel, to be this one that was anointed
king, the one that would be a man after God's own heart, and to
be a blessing to Israel. And we see here that the Lord
Jesus, you see, was raising David up for this very purpose. And
yet, you see, there was many things, many difficulties that
David had to walk through. And that's a reminder for us,
you see, that we are to walk by faith. We are to walk by faith. If David walked by sight, how
often he would have been totally and utterly baffled. God had
anointed him to be king, And the king that he was then serving,
which was a rejected king, which was Saul, started off being his
friend and soon became his enemy and hunted him and hated him.
And yet you see David, the beloved one, was that one who was beloved
of his God, was beloved of Israel in many ways. and he was raised
up to be in that position of king. But you see there was many
discouragements and there was many people that were against
him. And so we need that in our lives
to realise that God is faithful and that God is able to do those
things which we cannot do. He's able to make a way where
there is no way. There didn't seem a way for David.
It seemed impossible. He was the least of the tribes
of Israel. But you see, that's where Christ
came. He was born in Bethlehem, wasn't he? Bethlehem, though
thou least amongst the towns of Judah, yet out of thee shall
come that ruler. David was despised, set at naught,
and yet David knew his God. And David knew that he needed a God. You see, if
you look in Psalm 23, Psalm 23 speaks very sweetly of the relationship
that David knew between him and his God. The Lord is my shepherd,
I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green
pastures, he leadeth me beside the still waters. You see, David
realised that he needed, he needed a God to care for him like he
on a natural level was caring for his sheep and there was these
lions and bears that were coming to take the sheep and to kill
them and to ruin them and to destroy them. But David saw on
a higher plane that he needed, he needed one to undertake for
him. He needed a shepherd and you
see the Lord describes himself as a shepherd. You see and David
cared for his sheep, and how God cares for his people. He
leads them, he guides them, he directs them, he loves them,
and he cares for them. And indeed, David didn't lay
down his life literally for his sheep. He put his life on the
line, but he didn't actually die on behalf of them. But you
see, David was but a type, the great anti-type. He did lay down
his life. He did experience death, the
one who we sung of, that made everything, that commanded everything,
that created everything for his glory. That very one experienced
death because he would not leave any of those sheep, any of those
lambs to be wrecked and ruined by Satan and to be left in hell. Love to those sheep he laid down
his life. You see, this is the one that
we need to start to appreciate. We live in a world that cracks
up these people who are great in the eyes of men. They walk
in pride, but the Lord Jesus Christ was one that humbled himself. became of no reputation, despised
and rejected of men, doing things on the behalf of people who despised
him and rejected him, and yet he was doing it for their eternal
good. You think of it with David. There was Eliab criticising David,
ridiculing David, saying that he'd come with evil motives.
and how much they said about Christ, that they derided him,
didn't he, on the cross. If he be the son of God, let
him come down from the cross. But you see, David was despised
and yet David was going to be used of God to slay Goliath. And in slaying Goliath, he was
going to free the whole of Israel from the dominion and the tyranny
of the Philistines. And you see, but David was despised,
hated by some. And yet, you see, he had a concern
for the glory of God. And that's the vital thing that
we need to notice in David, was one, that he was concerned for
the glory of God. And he saw this great Philistine
as one that was defying God, defying his armies, and therefore
one who he saw to be not that great. See, there's a hymn that says,
had I a glance of thee, my God, kingdoms and men would vanish
soon, vanish as though I saw them not, as a dim candle dies
at noon. And if the Lord touch our hearts
and eyes, then the things of this life will grow strangely
dim. The great Philistines, the great
Goliaths, the great impossibilities that we look at naturally, Well
you see, as we know the story, that great man who said that
he would take David's flesh and give it for the birds to eat,
and he was really angry that Israel had put up somebody who
seemed so unsuitable a candidate to fight him. To kill David,
it seemed to Goliath such a walkover that it wouldn't really give
him much glory. And yet, you see, Goliath was going to be
the one that would die. And you see, David, you see,
he fought the fight. He gained the victory. He slew
that giant. And you see, the Lord Jesus has
done this for his people. And there comes a respect, you
see. There comes a honour. for the warrior who's slain the
enemy. And you see, therefore, David,
as he was that one who gained the victory, later on we hear
the women crying out in their songs about how rejoicing in
what David had done. Of course, they also paralleled
it with Saul. And Saul is slain his thousands
and David his tens of thousands. But you see, that caused Saul
to hate David. But you see, the point was that
David had gained a great victory. And you see, we need to rejoice
in the great victory that our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ
has fought against a formidable enemy, an enemy that none of
us could ever overcome. The fact that we are in the grip
of Satan, the fact that we're under his control, he is able
to use us to do his will, to live for him, to live to do his
dictates, as that pictured by John Bunyan as man's soul, under
the dominion of Diabolus, under the dominion of Satan. But you
see the Lord Jesus, the true Prince, El Shaddai, as it's described
of in the Holy War, comes, you see, to set that man so free
from the dominion of Satan. And you see, he came to conquer
them. He came to do them real, lasting, eternal good. And you
see, that's what's so vital. As we see in David, this one
who was a carer, one who protected and one who was a blessing to
Israel and one who received the praises of Israel, You see, if
you look in the Psalms, there's so much about David, there's
so much imagery about David and how it points to David and then
points beyond David to the great David's greatest son. If you
look in Psalm 78, it says this, in verse 70, he chose David,
also his servant, and took him from the sheepfolds. From following
the ewes, great with young, he brought him to feed Jacob his
people. and Israel, his inheritance. You see, God used David, this
one who had been caring for his sheep, and yet used him also
as a mighty warrior. You see, there's these two sides
to David, isn't there? There's the tenderness of David
over one little lamb to rescue that lamb's life. You'd say that's
tender, that's gentle. to lead the young and to use
great with young. There's a tenderness you see,
but there's also a formidableness with David. This great man, this
great giant, he was able to slay, he was able to deal with the
greatest enemy that threatened Israel at that time. And here
I think you have a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ in his
gentleness. but also in his greatness. You
could have somebody that's very gentle, and that's lovely, but
when a formidable enemy arrives at your doorstep, you want somebody
who is also able to address that enemy. And you see the Lord Jesus
is described as the lion of the tribe of Judah, as well as the
lamb of God. Two sides, the formidableness
of a lion and the gentleness of a lamb. And of course, a lamb
there also typifies the nature of the sacrifice, that he would
lay down his life for his sheep. The lamb in the midst of the
throne, as it had been slain. You see, it's a centerpiece of
glory. And so as we trace the life of David and see what he
has done, how we can see something of great David's greater son. If you look in also, Look at Psalm 89. It says this, Psalm 89 verse
3, I have made a covenant with my chosen. I have sworn unto
David, my servant. Thy seed will I establish forever
and build up thy throne to all generations. You see, there's
pictures, things spoken of David, which you say, well, ultimately
that didn't, his kingdom didn't last forever, did it? But you
see, it was picturing a kingdom. The pictures in the Bible are
pictures of something else, which is an eternal kingdom. There
was a natural king in David, and his kingdom didn't last forever.
But that was picturing great David's greatest son that would
have a kingdom that would last forever, that would care for
his sheep forever and ever. You see in verse 20 of Psalm
89 we read this, I have found David my servant, with my holy
oil have I anointed him. So David was this anointed one,
but the Lord Jesus Christ is the anointed one. The one that
was anointed to come to this earth, to to bring about a deliverance
for his people. He was able to fight the enemy. And you might say, well, what
is this great enemy? And why do I need it? You see, all have
sinned and come short of the glory of God. We had it in Sunday
school, the older class this morning. The great truth of the
fact that we all are under this condemnation of sin, which means
that we must go to be with Satan and his hellish hosts forever
and ever and ever, except there be found a ransom. And you see
it was with Israel. David became their representative. David represented the whole of
Israel as he stood before Goliath. The Lord Jesus Christ represented
his entire church as he went to fight the enemy. As he overcame
them, as he went through those temptations, and Satan was baffled. Satan did not gain the victory,
but then when it came to his conquest at Calvary, See, another
aspect of David we don't read of in all the wars that he was
involved with. I don't think we read of any wars that he failed
in. He was always the conqueror. He was always victorious. And
you see, the Lord Jesus Christ is that victorious king. He led
his armies. He fought for them and delivered
them, as David did with Goliath. He was mighty to save, and therefore
he rightly wears the crown. You see, You might have some
people that you have to give respect to and you can't see
really that they deserve it. But you see, when it comes to
David, he earned the respect of Israel. He really had delivered
them. He really had been a real blessing
to Israel. I know there was also failures
with David. David sinned in that matter of Bathsheba and Uriah.
But then we see here David knew what it was to know he was a
sinner. David was a type of the Lord
Jesus. He was not sinless himself. He was pointing to one that was. He was pointing to one and he
needed a saviour himself. That's why he said the Lord is
my shepherd. He needed a shepherd. And I ask
you, do you need a shepherd? Or are you self-confident? Can
you run life yourself? Can you run it your own way?
Can you make your own decisions? Can you do your own thing? Or
do you realise that you need a shepherd? You need the care
of a shepherd. You need, there is wolves out
there and lions and bears, spiritually speaking, which will devour you,
except the Lord save you. Do you realize you need that?
And what a comfort it is to realize that we do have this great salvation,
that there is a way whereby sinners can be saved. God had raised
this one up. You see, you think of it, all
the generations from Judah, all the way to David, all those sad
times, all the times of the judges, all the times, but there was
working out that would come a time when David, that 10th generation,
would enter into the house of the Lord, would write those many
Psalms to the praise of God, would glorify God, and what a
blessing David has been to the church. No wonder, you see, when
he fell, his greatest sorrow was not just what it would mean
for him. If you look in Psalm 51, it's
very interesting to look at what David prays for in Psalm 51. He prays for forgiveness, but
you see, he prays also in verse 12, restore unto me the joy.
of thy salvation. David knew joy that came with
salvation. And uphold me with thy free spirit,
then will I teach transgressors thy ways. So you see, even from
his position of falling, he had a view that from that fall he
could teach others that had transgressed. the way back to God from the
dark paths of sin. In verse 16, for thou desirest
not sacrifice, else would I give it. Thou delightest not in burnt
offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken
and a contrite heart. O God, thou wilt not despise. Do good in thy good pleasure
unto Zion. Build thou the walls of Jerusalem.
You see, he had broken them down by his sin, but he wanted the
Lord once again to build them up. And you see, he wanted...
The point I'm really making at, O Lord, open thou my lips and
my mouth shall show forth thy praise. You might say, well,
look, David, what you've done with Bathsheba and Uriah, that shut
your mouth forever. But you see, he wanted the Lord
to yet again open his mouth, that he might be able to declare
the Gospel of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. This one that at
a young age he came to know the Lord, came to love the Lord,
came to prove the Lord in the circumstances he He walked in. He was despised by others, but
he held on to his God. He held on to the promises. You
see, we are to be those that walk by faith. And if we don't
walk by faith, we're going to lose heart. We're going to give
up. But you see, we need to be amongst those who walk by faith,
who take those exceeding precious promises. We've sung of them
this morning. We need to lay hold of them and to anticipate
them. And the Lord's Day is a wonderful
day, really, where we can stop doing all the things that we
normally do. And as we stop doing them and focus on the eternal
things, so as we do that in a natural way, that is a picture of what
we will all do. We will all have to lay our lives
down. And however busy we are, when
we come to die, we'll have to stop. We can't carry on, can
we, when we're dead? So we have to stop. And so as
this weekly reminder of the fact that we have to stop however
busy we are and consider our latter end. Consider how stands
the case my soul with thee. For heaven are thy credentials
clear. Is Jesus Christ thy only plea? Is he thy great for runner there? Pray for the children and young
people amongst us. There's so much to draw you and
tempt you away. There's so many things that Satan
would dangle before you and try and tell you that they won't
hurt you, they won't do you damage, they won't be any problem. But
you see, keep to the Lord, serve him, walk humbly before your
God. That is the way that Solomon
ends up with all What is it, what shall man do at the end
to walk humbly before his God? You see, this is the great thing
that we should do, is follow Him and serve Him and not be
left unto ourselves. Well, and David said, moreover the
Lord that delivered me out of the paw of the lion and out of
the paw of the bear. This is David's testimony. He
will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine, David's confidence
in his God. And we need to do that. And how
we are to stand up day by day, what God has done, what God has
said. As we had that precious text
recently, as I was with Moses, so will I be with thee. A God
that is from everlasting to everlasting. The God that is faithful. If
we didn't have a faithful God, then it would be no point trusting
in his promises, would it? Because if he promised one thing
and then didn't deliver, what would be the purpose of his promises?
But you see, great is thy faithfulness. He's faithful in his promises
of blessing those that fear him and flee to him for mercy. But
there's another side, he's faithful in his judgments. And those,
he said, those that go their own way, those that desire not
the knowledge of his ways, want to live their lives to themselves,
want to despise him all their lives, he will be faithful also. in his judgments. Well may we
be amongst those who know that his faithfulness in his mercy
to care for those lambs and to bring them safe to glory.