Anyone who thinks the Old Testament is boring has surely never read it. Yes, some bits are undeniably dull, not least the lists of names and laws in books like Leviticus or Numbers. But many of the stories in other parts are simply unforgettable, some – like the one I’m focusing on today – known by many outside of the Church as well as within it. The tale of David and Goliath has captured people’s imagination since time immemorial, and with good reason, for it’s a classic illustration of triumphing against the odds, of the little man putting one over on the apparently mighty. For the Christian – as the following meditation from my book The Unfolding Story (see here for more info and here for more posts on the Old Testament), first published in the Grappling with God series in Conquest and Kingdom, it’s more than that: it’s a reminder of God’s strength in our weakness; of the truth that what we can’t do, he can.
Reading
When the Philistine drew nearer to meet David, David ran quickly towards the battle line to meet the Philistine. David put his hand in his bag, took out a stone, slung it, and struck the Philistine on his forehead; the stone sank into his forehead, and he fell face down on the ground. 1 Samuel 17:48, 49
The Meditation of David
You should have seen their faces as I walked out there –
a look of sheer disbelief on every one of them –
amused,
appalled,
astonished!
Honestly, they didn’t know whether to laugh or cry,
a mere boy like me
going out to meet a monster like him.
And as for Goliath, he was furious,
convinced it was all some dirty trick,
some devious scheme to humiliate him before his own men.
If looks could kill I’d be dead now, no doubt about that!
They all thought it would be over in a moment,
not one of them giving a fig for my chances once battle commenced.
Was I scared?
Well, that’s one way of putting it!
Petrified, more like,
shaking like a leaf beneath that cool facade of mine,
for I was no soldier,
just an ordinary boy, fresh from the fields.
Yet I couldn’t just stand by, could I,
and see our people humiliated?
It reflected on us all –
our nation,
our faith,
our God.
I’d watched them jeering day after day,
sniggering behind our backs,
hurling their insults,
and it was too much to bear,
so I went to Saul and begged him:
‘Let me fight!’
He laughed at first, along with the rest of them,
even tried to talk me out of it –
men against boys, you know the sort of thing.
And humanly speaking he was right, of course,
I didn’t stand a chance,
the odds being hopelessly stacked against me.
But he was reckoning without God,
seeing the scale of the problem
instead of the immensity of our resources.
They’d lost sight of that, every one of them,
trusting in human brawn rather than divine power,
and had I taken their advice,
I’d have staggered out to fight with armour I couldn’t walk in,
a shield I couldn’t carry,
and a sword I couldn’t lift!
Better that, you may say, than a sling and five stones,
but you’d be wrong,
for it proved to be four stones too many,
just the one all I needed.
They saluted me afterwards,
welcomed me back like a conquering hero.
But they shouldn’t have,
not if they’d stopped to think,
for it wasn’t me they owed their lives to;
it was God,
he alone who gave me strength.
It took some doing, don’t think otherwise,
some audacity to swallow my doubts and take up the fight,
but when the call came I had to respond,
for, let’s face it, if God was with me,
who could be against?
Prayer
Gracious God,
there are times in our lives when we feel up against it,
when everything seems to conspire against us.
We look at the problems confronting us,
and we feel small and helpless,
powerless to do anything about them.
Yet you are a God who time and again has used
what seems insignificant in this world
to achieve great things;
a God who has overcome the strong through the weak;
and a God who is able to accomplish within us
far more than we can ask or even imagine.
Help us, then,
when we are faced by obstacles which seem insurmountable,
to put our trust in you,
knowing that you will give us the strength we need,
when we need it.
Amen.