1 Samuel 17:31-37

Reasonable confidence in God.

The facts are—

1 . David's words being reported to Saul, he sends for him.

2 . David volunteers to go forth and fight the Philistine.

3 . In justification of his confidence, he refers to God's deliverance of him from the lion and bear.

4 . Saul bids him go, and desires for him the Lord's presence. It was doubtless a relief to Saul to be informed that at least there was one in Israel who dared to accept the Philistine's challenge. His surprise was equal to his relief, and may have lessened his hope, when he saw the stripling. The quiet confidence of David was natural and reasonable to himself, but evidently required some justification before Saul. The story Of the lion and bear was adduced, with beautiful simplicity of spirit, to indicate to Saul that the confidence cherished was amply warranted by past experience. To David's mind the logic was unanswerable. It is by tracing the mental process by which David rested in his firm conviction that we shall see the true ground of our confidence in God, when called by his providence to enter upon undertakings of a serious nature.

I. A PRIMARY TRUTH . The power of God is adequate to any human need. This general truth was the basis of David's reasoning. It was involved in his very conception of Jehovah, and found beautiful utterance in his language of later years. The power of the Eternal was not a mere philosophic idea requisite to complete the notion of God, but a living energy permeating all things. The ascription of natural changes and events immediately to God ( Psalms 18:1-50 .) is only the expression of a faith which sees the Divine energy in and through all things. The people at Elah, on seeing Goliath, thought of his strength. The reverse effect produced in the mind of David by Goliath's boast was the thought of the eternal power. The influence of general truths on our life is great— greater than some suppose. They lie deep down in the mind, and yet are ever at command to regulate thought and feeling, and to suggest lines of conduct. Hence those in whom they are most fresh and clear are persons of wider range of view, sounder judgment, and deeper convictions. It is important to have the mend well fortified with those general truths that relate to God ; and, in view of the difficulties and dangers of life, it is well to keep clear the truth that in Jehovah is "everlasting strength."

II. AN EXPERIENCE . David referred to the experience he had had of the power of God in delivering him from the lion and bear while in the discharge of his life's calling. The Almighty hand had befriended him at a time when he put forth his own energies to subdue his dangerous enemies. Without having recourse to miracle in these cases, it is enough to notice that David recognises Divine aid in the putting forth of effort, and the primary truth had been translated into the experience of life: and so become strikingly verified. A fact is an unanswerable argument. The logic strengthens. Most of us can fall back on deliverances from lions and adders ( Psalms 91:13 ). The mental record of the past furnishes a premiss on which to build an argument of hope for the future ( 2 Timothy 4:17 , 2 Timothy 4:18 ).

III. A REVEALED FACT . David could not cherish the confidence he did without welding with his primary truth and personal experience the fact that the Almighty was always the same, and that, therefore, continuity in aid might be looked for. The unchangeableness of God was an assured fact, not from philosophic speculation on the necessary nature of the Supreme, but because made clear to the mind by the Holy Spirit ( 2 Peter 1:21 ). "From everlasting to everlasting thou art God," keeping covenant forever ( Psalms 89:34 ). Therefore the argument from past experience of his power was, so far, available for conflict with a gigantic foe. The force of this revealed fact concerning the Divine Being is great. It gives our mind a resting place amidst the incessant flux of things. It opens up to view a rock on which we can stand calm and secure in face of all changes of earth. The frailty of our life seems a blessing in association with so precious a reality. As the uniformity in the laws of nature furnish a basis of wise calculation and confidence in action, so the unchanging power of God in relation to human need is a ground of hope and confidence in pursuit of legitimate objects.

IV. A PRESENT EMERGENCY . David found himself in presence of an emergency more trying than when lion and bear were confronted, for the interests were wide. He was too sensible a youth to imagine that the eternal power would be manifested because men desired it, whatever the occasion. But if aid was given formerly in real need, and now a need more pressing was felt, the argument of faith was conclusive. Moreover, the earlier occasions were private and personal; this was public, affecting the interests of Israel; and were not these the interests of him for whose advent Israel lived? The ruddy youth perhaps saw a connection between the overthrow of Goliath and the great kingdom of which he sang in Psalms 72:1-20 . We have here a safe criterion of the reasonableness of confidence in God's aid. When an emergency arises which deeply affects the honour and safety of Christ's Church, and the diffusion of the blessings of his reign, we are warranted to cherish fullest confidence that God will help us in our endeavour, by such means as we possess, to meet the peril. Let Churches and individuals act by this rule, and they will never be disappointed. It is involved in the promise, "Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world."

V. A PROVIDENCE . The previously noticed elements in the ground of David's confidence were more influential from the fact that he did not force himself into the position, but was there by providential leading, in which he was quite passive. A man may at the last moment shrink from a dangerous work if conscious that he, by contrivance, sought it out; but when we are literally urged by circumstances into difficulties and dangers, and have a good cause in hand, then we may take the providence as an encouragement to go through. Providence led the apostles into conflict with rulers, and, hence, they dared to be confident.

VI. A PLEA . David could fortify his expectation of help by the plea that his heart was honest in intent. He sought not to fight the giant for love of fighting, for securing renown, for any private end, but for love to his people Israel and the honour of Israel's God. Purity of motive in ordinary life is no substitute for faith in Christ for acceptance with God; but it is a condition on which God grants his aid to us in our exertions. If we face gigantic evils, in themselves too great for our wisdom and strength, from an intense desire to conquer them for Christ, cherishing no vain personal ambition, then the highest confidence is justified. A power equal to our need, unchanged by time, realised in past experience, required for an emergency in which the honour of Christ is at stake, sought by one providentially led to face the difficulty, and desired not for vain reasons, but purely for the glory of God—such a process of thought places confidence in God's help on a most reasonable basis.

General lessons : —

1 . We should consider whether Providence has really given us arduous work to do for Christ.

2 . Our wisdom is to go forth, not under the influence of the opinions of unspiritual men, but under the full force of our own religious convictions.

3 . We must not expect to know in what way the power of God will work with us; the fact that it will is enough.

4 . Success or failure in perilous enterprises for Christ depends much on the purity of motive, and this should receive prayerful attention.