This is where we pick up today, with Saul helping David to prepare himself for the showdown ahead. "Then Saul dressed David in his own tunic. He put a coat of armor on him and a bronze helmet on his head. David fastened on his sword over the tunic and tried walking around, because he was not used to them. 'I cannot go in these,' he said to Saul, 'because I am not used to them.' So he took them off." (1 Samuel 17:38-39)
David doesn't have any battle armor because he hasn't been serving in the army; he's been working as a shepherd for his father and as a part-time musician for the king. Saul dresses him in his own armor and hands him his own sword. I think this should be considered as a symbol of Saul's high esteem for the courageous young man and it should be taken as proof that Saul cares about David's welfare. That won't always be the case, but in this moment I believe Saul is honestly in awe of David's courage. Whether or not David survives his meeting with Goliath, in Saul's estimation he is a great hero.
David is willing to wear the armor until he realizes it will be a handicap to him. Soldiers had to train in their armor until they were used to it, for it was quite heavy and stiff, and David has not had this training. Saul's armor is likely heavier than most because as the king he would have had the best of the best and because we were told earlier in the book that he stood head and shoulders taller than any other man in Israel. I think David must be quite tall himself or else the king would have thought it ridiculous to try to put his armor on him, but the tunic and coat of armor are probably a few inches long enough to hinder his movement and the sword may be a bit longer than average. On top of these items not being custom made for him, David doesn't even know how to walk and move about normally in them, much less how to fight in them. Saul meant well in supplying the armor but it will be a disadvantage to David and he respectfully hands these items back to him.
Being a shepherd and a man who composes songs and plays a musical instrument, David isn't experienced at wielding a sword. But he's accustomed to using a slingshot. He's had to find a way to fill many long, quiet, dull hours over the years while the sheep grazed calmly in the meadows and I think he probably filled some of those hours doing target shooting with his slingshot. He isn't at all confident he can fight with a sword but he knows he's pretty accurate with a slingshot. "Then he took his staff in his hand, chose five smooth stones from the stream, put them in the pouch of his shepherd's bag and, with his sling in his hand, approached the Philistine." (1 Samuel 17:40)
Earlier in Chapter 17 we were informed that Goliath is heavily armored from his head to his feet and that he has a shield bearer who walks ahead of him with a shield to help deflect any arrows that fly Goliath's way. The armor and the shield are quite effective in protecting Goliath from being stabbed by a sword or shot with an arrow; the only part of him that isn't covered in metal is his face (at least the upper half of it) so he can see where he's going. David is going to have to strike him in the one place his armor isn't protecting him, and if David had not had so many hours to fill while guarding the sheep alone in the fields and in the wilderness, he would not have had a chance of hitting his target. But the Lord has been using his time as a shepherd to prepare him for this pivotal moment.
We may think a lot of the things we've done and a lot of the places we've been and a lot of the circumstances we've experienced have been pointless. But the Lord can use all those things for our benefit. David, as the youngest child of the family, was assigned the task of watching the sheep because it was considered a menial job fit only for a servant or for a youth whose family isn't ready to trust him with jobs that require a lot of critical thinking or hard manual labor. I am sure there were many times when David felt restless and wished he had more to do. He may have felt that his smarts and his strengths and his talents were being wasted while he watched over sheep in the back of beyond. But instead of wasting time complaining about his job he used the time to develop a personal relationship with the Lord and to learn to use a slingshot and to practice scaring away or fighting away predators with his shepherd's staff. All of those things were training for what he's doing in our passage today. If David had never been a shepherd, he wouldn't have come to know and love the Lord as much as he does. If David had never been a shepherd, he could never have defeated a giant. If David had never been a shepherd, he could never have been a great king.
The Lord is not wasteful. He can use every experience of our lives, dull though some of them may have seemed and unpleasant as some of them may have been, to help us develop more faith and trust in Him and to help us do great things for His kingdom. Who would have thought David's time in the sheepfold would prepare him to become a giant-killer? And yet that's the very thing that will ensure his success as we study Part Four tomorrow.
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