Remember God's acts of old

David was a grateful worshipper of God. He remembered and recounted God's goodness towards him in the past. When Goliath defied the army of the Lord, this aroused a holy anger in David. He had first hand experience of God as the Lord of Hosts , leading His own in battle. David therefore proclaimed what ushered his tiny feet before Saul. Saul sized David up, and dismissed him outright as being unable to fight Goliath, however , David did not relent, he recalled how God had in the past helped him in battle .


1 Samuel 17:34-37 But David said to Saul, “Your servant has been keeping his father’s sheep. When a lion or a bear came and carried off a sheep from the flock, I went after it, struck it and rescued the sheep from its mouth. When it turned on me, I seized it by its hair, struck it and killed it. Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear; this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, because he has defied the armies of the living God. The LORD who rescued me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will rescue me from the hand of this Philistine.”

Saul said to David, “Go, and the LORD be with you.”


The rest is history - As the Philistine moved closer to attack him, David ran quickly toward the battle line to meet him. Reaching into his bag and taking out a stone, he slung it and struck the Philistine on the forehead. The stone sank into his forehead, and he fell face down on the ground.

So David triumphed over the Philistine with a sling and a stone; without a sword in his hand he struck down the Philistine and killed him.

David ran and stood over him. He took hold of the Philistine’s sword and drew it from the sheath. After he killed him, he cut off his head with the sword. I Samuel 17:48-51


David, unlike the Israelites in the wilderness, cherished the past acts of God. He allowed God's mighty acts in the past to encourage him in his present circumstance. Contrarily, in spite of God's mighty deliverance, the Israelites murmured against God shortly afterwards - they murmured about not having food and water (Exodus 16, 17) ; They murmured that they had eaten too much manna ( Numbers 11); They murmured against the authority of Moses ( Numbers 16). They murmured out of fear of the giants on the promised land ( Numbers 14). The Israelites that God delivered from Egypt saw God's mighty works, but were so quick to forget them whenever they faced a new challenge, hence their constant murmurings. This angered God, who ensured that that generation would not see the promised land, except Caleb and Joshua who never forgot God as their Lord of Hosts - mighty in battle! Hebrews 3:7-11


Forgetting too soon who God is, and what He is capable of doing, breeds unbelief , murmurings and complaints. This can anger and evoke the wrath of God, as happened to the Israelites in the wilderness - Hebrews 3:19 So we see that they were not able to enter, because of their unbelief.