Use what God gives you
1 Samuel 16:14 – Chapter 17
A number of stories in 1 Samuel are paired, including two different accounts of how David comes to Saul’s attention.
The best known is the story of David slaying the giant Goliath with only a slingshot (though in that day slingshots were used as weapons rather than toys).
The other is the story of David being recruited to play the lyre for Saul when Saul would be tormented by an evil spirit. Then, as now, music was known to soothe the troubled soul.
Both accounts highlight things that David will be known for throughout his life: he is a brave, effective and unorthodox warrior, and he his a skilled musician credited as author of much of the poetry in the psalms.
These aren’t seen as inconsistent—even in the story of recruiting David as a court musician, he is identified as a “brave man and a warrior.” In spite of the frequent story-book depiction of David as a child, he is identified as a young man, and his inability to effectively wear Saul’s armor is based on his not being used to them, not to his small stature.
The lute-playing account also foreshadows the relationship between Saul and David: Saul’s violent instability and David’s loyal devotion in the face of it.