How old was David when he was anointed, fought Goliath, became king, died?

2 Samuel 5:4 tells us that David was 30 year old when he began to reign, and reigned 40 years over Israel. Thus he died at 70 years of age and was buried in Jerusalem. For seven years he reigned in Hebron and for 33 years in Jerusalem (v.11). By the time David died, Solomon was already reigning and his kingdom was firmly established. Solomon also reigned for forty years (1 Ki.11:42). How short indeed is the span of earthly glory! The last days of Paul in prison were much more bright with rejoicing than were the last days of either David or Solomon! (2 Tim.4:6-8).

The years of David's preparation for reigning were not lost. He took the throne at the age of 30, the same age as the Lord Jesus was when He began His public ministry (Luke 3:23). It may seem that those 30 years of quiet obscurity are out of proportion to the short 3 ½ years of the public ministry of the Lord Jesus. But God's ways are not ours. Private life is far more important than we often think. Yet David reigned for forty years altogether, dying at 70 years of age. In Hebron he reigned 7 ½ years, then 33 years in Jerusalem.

Some knowledge of the ways of God is thus most desirable, nay more, most important; but it is by the knowledge of Himself, now in Christ perfectly manifest, that rest in the changing scene is given to the spirit. The wonderful thing is that, in the time of the law dispensationally and of Israel's degradation historically, one so young as David (he was only thirty when he came to the throne) should be so deeply, that is, experimentally, taught. While Saul's messengers were prowling round the house, like dogs greedy for their prey, he, far from being afraid, scornfully anticipated their defeat and disappointment, and rejoicing in the power of the Lord and His mercy, prepared a song for the morning appointed by Saul for his death — "But I will sing of thy power, Yea, I will sing aloud of thy mercy in the morning, Unto thee, O my strength, will I sing: For God is my defence, and the God of my mercy."

David was but a ruddy youth when he was anointed to be King over Israel.

I want to call special attention to v. 6, "Lo, we heard of it at Ephratah." We understand that when David went out to fight Goliath he was about seventeen years old. I believe he had the things mentioned in this Psalm in his heart at that time. The ark of Jehovah was in captivity through the failure of Israel, and it seems that while David was attending his father's sheep in Ephratah where he lived, hearing of the ark in captivity, he vowed to God that he would not rest till that ark was out of the hands of the enemy and once again in the centre of the people of God, its proper place. One shepherd lad, one out of eight and the youngest of the family, made this vow in his heart without the slightest idea how he would accomplish it. He made the vow, and only God knew about it; and having made the vow it becomes the point of the whole Psalm. I have the impression that it was this vow which caused God to say to Samuel (in the matter of the refusal of Saul) that He had found a man after His own heart, and He sent Samuel to anoint him. Samuel thought that Eliab was the man, then Abinadab — and so on. What was wrong with these men, probably valiant men in their way? I believe it was that there had been no decision in their hearts like that which was in the heart of the youngest of that family — David. He was not even there at the outset but Samuel said "Send and fetch him," and as he came in fresh from minding the sheep, the LORD said, "Arise, anoint him; for this is he," (1 Sam. 16:12). Samuel did not know of that vow but God knew as He said to Samuel in v. 7, "the LORD looketh on the heart."

At the time our account begins, King David was about seventy years old. He was far from having reached extreme old age, but a life of sufferings, conflict, and grief wears at the strength of even the most robust of men, so that the king "was old and advanced in age." At thirty-three years of age, the Lord Himself appeared to be fifty years old (John 8:57), but His strength was unbroken. He was not, like David, worn by grief, but, Man of Sorrows, His face was marred more than any man. Love impressed this character upon His features, for He in sympathy carried all the sorrows that sin had brought upon our miserable race.

David was about 70 years old and extremely feeble. The strenuous life he had led, the exposures and hardships of his youth, the cares and anxieties of his reign, and the chastenings through which he passed on account of his great sin, and much else were responsible for this enfeebled condition. It is but another illustration of that rigid law, What a man soweth that shall he reap. It was a premature decay with the complete loss of natural heat. While the king was in this helpless condition Adonijah (My Lord is Jehovah) exalted himself to be king and like his unhappy brother Absalom he prepared chariots and horsemen and fifty men to run before him. Like Absalom he also was of great physical beauty. There is a significant sentence which reveals the weakness of David towards his favorite children, a weakness which has borne its sad fruits in many families. "And his father had not displeased him at any time in saying, Why hast thou done so?" There had been no discipline in David's family; he had spared the rod. By right of primogeniture he thought of claiming the throne. However, he must have known that his younger brother Solomon had been selected by David to fill the throne after him. But Adonijah knew not the Lord nor was he subject to His will. In his selfish ambition he was upheld by Joab and Abiathar, the priest. No doubt but both of these men sought their own interests; Joab to continue in his position he held with David; Abiathar to get supremacy over Zadok his rival in the priesthood. But Zadok the priest, who ministered at Gibeon (1 Chron. 16:39), Benaiah, who had charge of the Cherethites and Pelethites (2 Sam. 8:18), Nathan, the faithful prophet, Shimei (not the one who cursed David), Rei and David's mighty men kept aloof from the revolt. They remained true to Jehovah and to His anointed. Then Adonijah made a sacrificial feast to give his self-exaltation a religious air. He invited all the king's sons, his brethren, and the men of Judah; but Nathan, Benaiah, David's mighty men and his brother Solomon were not called. It was meant to be his coronation. In this revolt, preceding the enthronement of God's king, Solomon, the king of peace, we have another foreshadowing of what will precede the reign of the Prince of Peace, our Lord. It seemed as if Adonijah might succeed. But Nathan, the prophet, begins to act. In agreement with the mother of Solomon the plan is made to discover what Adonijah had done to the aged King. Bath-sheba goes in first and after a while Nathan appeared to tell the King the same story he had heard from the lips of his wife. She reminded David of his oath, that Solomon her son was to be the successor to the throne, and after telling him of Adonijah's act, she appealed to him to proclaim now who was to sit upon the throne. She speaks to him repeatedly as "My lord the King." And when Nathan appeared before David he also said, "My lord O King." Some have gathered from this that aged David had become filled with the pride of life. However, the honour done to him may have been true reverence for the Lord's anointed King.

Joseph evidently was blessed by God before he was seventeen years old, for when he was sold into Egypt at that age he had enough spiritual decision to withstand temptations of no ordinary kind; and at the comparatively young age of thirty stood second only to Pharaoh. And Samuel is described as “the child Samuel” when the Lord made Himself known to him. David was “but a youth” when he met the giant, and even then could recount how that the Lord had delivered him from the paw of the lion and the bear when as a lad he kept his father’s sheep in the wilderness. Jeroboam’s child was taken away because of all his father’s house he was the only one in whom was found any good thing toward the Lord God of Israel. “Josiah was eight years old when he began to reign … And he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, and walked in all the way of David his father, and turned not aside to the right hand or the left.” Paul could write to Timothy, “that from a child thou hast known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make thee wise to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.”

How the onlookers must have wondered as they saw him go out with only those five smooth stones to meet yon enormous man. Remember he was but a stripling — a lad of tender years, yet in faith in God he goes out to meet this tremendous man that is coming forth to meet him. I do not wonder that Goliath, when he saw him, his sling, and his five smooth stones, disdained him. We are told, "And when the Philistine looked about, and saw David, he disdained him: for he was but a youth, and ruddy, and of a fair countenance." The giant, so to speak, snuffed at him. What could that youth do? Ah! my friends, do you know that God always uses simple instruments, and by ways and means that man does not approve, He saves man. God's way of giving you life is that another man should go into death for you. God's way for us to get into heaven is quite opposed to man's idea. Man's thought is that it is by his own works, God's way is by another Man — His own Son — going down into the depths of death for you.

Not only did David’s family forget him, but Saul considered him inadequate to the task of fighting Goliath. He said: ‘Thou art not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him: for thou art but a youth, and he a man of war from his youth’ (1 Sam. 17:33). Goliath was ‘a man of war from his youth’. And David? He was a shepherd from his youth. Saul thought that that was no match for Goliath. But what did David tell him? ‘Thy servant kept his father’s sheep, and there came a lion, and a bear, and took a lamb out of the flock: and I went out after him, and smote him, and delivered it out of his mouth: and when he arose against me, I caught him by his beard, and smote him, and slew him. Thy servant slew both the lion and the bear: and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be as one of them, seeing he hath defied the armies of the living God’ (1 Sam. 17:34–36). David not only learnt how to feed the sheep, but also to protect them from enemies. He had trusted the Lord when he went against lion and bear, and he trusted the Lord in his encounter with Goliath as well. Protecting the sheep was David’s training for protecting his people Israel when he became king. He was a man of war, a mighty man of valour later in his life, and in most of his battles he trusted in the Lord who had helped him in the past.