Sermon Bible Commentary
1 Samuel 17:1-58
Notice:
I. David was on God's side. This was a religious war. Goliath fought for Dagon and cursed David by his gods. David fought for Jehovah. Let every child know for certain that he is, like David, a warrior and champion.
II. David fought in God's strength. God's Spirit gave him his holy courage, suggested his weapons, and guided the stone from the sling to Goliath's temples. Was not David the man after God's own heart because he so frankly owned God in everything? David and Goliath represent two systems and two kingdoms. The war between the Israelites and Philistines is still raging. On which side are you?
III. David the conqueror. If on God's side, you shall win in the end, because God shall win, and all His shall win with Him. The world's creed often is that might is right; ours is that right is might, for God is with the right, and makes it at length almighty as Himself.
J. Wells, Bible Children,p. 145.
David's fight with Goliath was: (1) a good fight, and (2) a fight of faith. It was a good fight because David was fighting for a good cause: for the cause and people of God. Goliath was a bad man, and he was the soldier of a bad cause. He had mocked God's people and God. And David went down to fight with him, because he both heard and saw that he was an enemy of God. And it was a fight of faith, because in going down to the fight David did not trust in sword, or spear, or shield, nor in his youth, or his strength, or any seen thing, but in God, whom he could not see. In the strength of God's presence he went to meet Goliath. Our fight now is with badness itself. That is the great giant Christ sends us to fight with; that is the one chief enemy He Himself fights against.
A. Macleod, Talking to the Children,p. 191.
References: 1 Samuel 17:16. Clergyman's Magazine,vol. x., p. 329. 1 Samuel 17:29. Parker, vol. vii., p. 72; Bishop Claughton, Church Sermons by Eminent Clergymen,vol. i., p. 249. 1 Samuel 17:36; 1 Samuel 17:37. Spurgeon, Sermons,vol. xxi., No. 1253, and vol. xxx., No. 1810. 1 Samuel 17 R. Lorimer, Bible Studies in Life and Truth,p. 211; W. M. Taylor, David King of Israel,p. 26; Sunday Magazine,1886, p. 258.