Of all the Old Testament characters that typify the Lord Jesus, particularly as Messiah the King, none so clearly expresses these divine offices as David. A study of the life of David as shepherd, warrior and king offers profound lessons on faith, leadership, humility, and the importance of a relationship with God.
Israel added to their sins by rejecting their King, Jehovah (1Sa 12:19), and asked for a man to be set up over them, to judge them, to go out before them and to fight their battles, to be like the nations around them (8:5-22). They had forgotten the fact that the Lord had chosen them to be a special people unto Himself, above all people on the face of the earth (Deu 7:6). They had forgotten that the Lord fought for them and delivered them from their enemies from the time of their deliverance from Egypt up to that time, as Samuel acknowledged, “Hitherto hath the LORD helped us” (1Sa 7:12).1
The Lord gave the people of Israel their request, but Saul ruled in self-will and failed to keep the commandments of the Lord. Samuel advised Saul that because of his disobedience his kingdom would not continue, and that the Lord had sought a man after His own heart to be captain over His people (13:13-14). However, it was ever and always in the mind and heart of God that a man should rule His people. The Lord instructed Samuel to go to Bethlehem, to the house of Jesse, saying, “I have provided me a king among his sons” (16:1). In the statement “I have provided me a king,” we get the sense of divine sovereignty, and also of a predetermined choice in the counsels of God.
When Isaac asked Abraham, his father, concerning the lamb for the burnt offering, Abraham, guided by the Holy Spirit of God and looking into the future, replied, “God will provide himself a lamb” (Gen 22:8).
When Samuel came to the house of Jesse in Bethlehem, he looked at the physical stature and appearance of Jesse’s older sons, thinking that the Lord had chosen one of them. The Lord said to Samuel, “Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the LORD seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the LORD looketh on the heart” (1Sa 16:7). Surely this would have been a reminder to Samuel of his own words earlier to Saul, how that the Lord sought for a man after His own heart.
When Samuel asked if all of Jesse’s sons were present, he was informed that there was still the youngest to be presented, and he was keeping (tending) the sheep. David was not initially accepted by his family. He was not present when Jesse’s sons passed before Samuel; he was assigned the lowly place, the place of the shepherd.
When David was sent to the battlefront to check on the welfare of his brothers, his oldest brother, Eliab, despised him and said, “Why camest thou down hither? And with whom hast thou left those few sheep in the wilderness? I know thy pride, and the naughtiness of thine heart; for thou art come down that thou mightest see the battle” (17:28).
The Lord Jesus’ brothers challenged Him to show Himself to the world. The Scriptures record, “Neither did his brethren believe in him” (Joh 7:4-5).
Later, David would be reminded of his humble beginnings. The Lord spoke these words to David through Nathan the prophet, “I took thee from the sheepcote, from following [tending] the sheep, to be ruler over my people, over Israel” (2Sa 7:8).
In those early years as a shepherd, David learned many lessons of leadership, guidance, protection and care, qualities that would be essential for his future role as king. Like Moses before him, he had a shepherd’s care for God’s people. Moses asked the Lord to provide a man who would go before the people of God, to lead them out and to bring them in, so they would not be like sheep which have no shepherd (Num 27:17).
How like our blessed Lord Jesus who had compassion on the multitudes because He saw them as sheep having no shepherd (Mat 9:36; Mar 6:34). The Lord Jesus spoke of the shepherd of the sheep: “The sheep hear his voice: and he calleth his own sheep by name, and leadeth them out. And when he putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth before them, and the sheep follow him: for they know his voice” (Joh 10:3-4).
David not only learned how to care for the sheep, but in those hours, while left alone with his father’s sheep, he learned much of communion and fellowship with his God, as well as devotion to Him and dependence upon Him. The Lord Jesus knew much of communion and fellowship with His heavenly Father. John records of Him, “Every man went unto his own house. Jesus went unto the mount of Olives” (7:53-8:1).
Psalm 23 is attributed to David, who confessed, “The Lord is my shepherd.” Likely those themes presented in the psalm of the Lord’s presence, provision, pathway, protection and prospect were learned in those hours spent in solitude, alone with his God, while keeping the flock. David’s care for the sheep is evident in the account he related to King Saul of how he slew a lion and a bear while feeding and protecting his father’s sheep. The care of the Lord Jesus for the sheep went far beyond that of any other shepherd. He said, “I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep” (Joh 10:11).
David’s love for the Lord and his dependence upon Him are borne out in many of the psalms written by him. Very often he wrote of the Lord being his strength and song, his defender and deliverer. He was raised up on high, the anointed of the God of Jacob and the sweet psalmist of Israel. At the close of his life he said, “The Spirit of the LORD spake by me, and his word was in my tongue. The God of Israel said, the Rock of Israel spake to me, He that ruleth over men must be just, ruling in the fear of God” (2Sa 23:2-3).
Lessons David learned from being alone with God as he tended and cared for the sheep were manifested later in his life as he guided and governed and guarded the people of God. The psalmist wrote concerning him, “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. So he fed them according to the integrity of his heart; and guided them by the skilfulness of his hands” (Psa 78:70-72).
1 Bible quotations in this article are from the KJV.
