Commentary - 1 Samuel 17:31-54

Bird's-eye view

The story of David and Goliath is perhaps the most famous underdog story in history, but to leave it there is to miss the point entirely. This is not a story about the little guy winning; it is a story about the great God winning. It is a story of covenantal faithfulness in the face of pagan blasphemy. Saul, the anointed king, is paralyzed by fear, trusting in the arm of flesh and the height of his soldiers. David, the forgotten shepherd boy, is moved by zeal for the honor of God's name. The central conflict is not between a boy and a giant, but between Yahweh, the living God of Israel, and the pathetic, dead gods of the Philistines. David is simply the instrument, the willing vessel. This entire episode is a magnificent type, a foreshadowing of the work of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of David, who confronts our ultimate Goliath, Satan, and crushes his head, not with the world's armor, but with the apparent foolishness of the cross.

Outline

Commentary

1 Samuel 17:31-33 Then the words which David spoke were heard. And they told them to Saul, and he sent for him. And David said to Saul, “Let no man’s heart fail on account of him; your servant will go and fight with this Philistine.” Then Saul said to David, “You are not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him; for you are but a youth while he has been a warrior from his youth.”

David's words of faith are so out of place in this camp of fear that they are immediately noteworthy. When everyone else is calculating odds, David is considering the honor of God. He comes before Saul, the king who should be leading the charge, and encourages him. "Let no man's heart fail." This is the language of a true shepherd, a true king. Saul's response is pure pragmatism, the wisdom of the world. He looks at the externals: David is a youth, Goliath is a seasoned warrior. Saul's mistake is that he is comparing David to Goliath. David's strength is that he is comparing Goliath to God.

1 Samuel 17:34-37 But David said to Saul, “Your servant was shepherding his father’s sheep. And a lion and a bear would come and take a lamb from the flock, and I would go out after it and strike it and rescue the lamb from its mouth. Then it rose up against me, and I would seize it by its beard and strike it down and put it to death. Your servant has struck down both the lion and the bear; and this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, since he has reproached the battle lines of the living God.” And David said, “Yahweh, who delivered me from the hand of the lion and from the hand of the bear, He will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine.” And Saul said to David, “Go, and may Yahweh be with you.”

David does not present a military resume, but rather a resume of faithfulness in the small things. He was a good shepherd. He risked his life for the sheep, which is precisely what a good king does for his people. And in those private battles, unseen by any but God, he learned to trust God for deliverance. Notice the logic: God delivered me then, so He will deliver me now. This is not presumption; it is applied theology. He then makes the crucial theological point. Goliath is an "uncircumcised Philistine." This is not a playground insult. It means he is outside the covenant. He has no part in the promises of God. And his crime is that he has "reproached the battle lines of the living God." He has mocked God, and for David, that is intolerable. Saul is finally shamed into a weak blessing, a far cry from the leadership he should be showing.

1 Samuel 17:38-40 Then Saul clothed David with his robes and put a bronze helmet on his head, and he clothed him with armor. And David girded his sword over his armor and tried to walk, for he had not tested them. So David said to Saul, “I cannot go with these, for I have not tested them.” And David took them off. Then he took his stick in his hand and chose for himself five smooth stones from the brook and put them in the shepherd’s bag which he had, even in his pouch, and his sling was in his hand; and he approached the Philistine.

Here is the great temptation for the man of God: to fight God's battles with the world's weapons. Saul's armor represents the best of human technology, strategy, and strength. It is the arm of the flesh. But it doesn't fit David. It is untested for him. A believer must fight with the weapons he has tested in his own walk with God, not with borrowed methods that seem impressive to the world. David sheds the heavy, cumbersome armor and takes up his simple, familiar tools: a stick, a sling, and five smooth stones. He is not under-equipped; he is properly equipped, because his trust is not in the stones but in the God who guides the stones.

1 Samuel 17:41-44 Then the Philistine came on and drew near to David, with the shield-bearer in front of him. And the Philistine looked and saw David. And he despised him; for he was but a youth and ruddy, with a handsome appearance. And the Philistine said to David, “Am I a dog, that you come to me with sticks?” And the Philistine cursed David by his gods. The Philistine also said to David, “Come to me, and I will give your flesh to the birds of the sky and the beasts of the field.”

The world always despises the instruments God chooses. To Goliath, David is contemptible, a pretty boy with a stick. The world judges by sight. Goliath's question, "Am I a dog?" is deeply ironic. From a covenantal perspective, as one outside the household of faith, that is precisely what he is. He then does what all pagans do when threatened; he appeals to his false gods, cursing David. His threats are entirely carnal, focused on what he will do to David's flesh. This is the voice of the bully, the blasphemer, the serpent.

1 Samuel 17:45-47 Then David said to the Philistine, “You come to me with a sword, a spear, and a javelin, but I come to you in the name of Yahweh of hosts, the God of the battle lines of Israel, whom you have reproached. This day Yahweh will deliver you up into my hands, and I will strike you down and remove your head from you. And I will give the dead bodies of the camp of the Philistines this day to the birds of the sky and the beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel, and that all this assembly may know that Yahweh does not save by sword or by spear; for the battle is Yahweh’s, and He will give you into our hands.”

This is the theological center of the entire story. David's speech is one of the great declarations of faith in all of Scripture. He draws the battle lines perfectly. It is Goliath's sword, spear, and javelin versus the "name of Yahweh of hosts." The name of God represents His character, His power, and His authority. David is not fighting on his own behalf, but as a representative of the God of Israel. And he states the purpose of the battle with absolute clarity: it is for the glory of God. The outcome will be so decisive "that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel." This is doxological warfare. The ultimate point is not Israel's safety but God's reputation. The battle is the Lord's.

1 Samuel 17:48-51 Then it happened when the Philistine rose and came and drew near to meet David, that David ran quickly toward the battle line to meet the Philistine. And David sent his hand down into his bag and took from it a stone and slung it and struck the Philistine on his forehead. And the stone sank into his forehead, so that he fell on his face to the ground. Thus David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and a stone, and he struck the Philistine and put him to death; but there was no sword in David’s hand. Then David ran and stood over the Philistine and took his sword and drew it out of its sheath and put him to death and cut off his head with it. Then the Philistines saw that their champion was dead, so they fled.

Faith is not passive. While the armies of Israel cowered, David ran toward the enemy. He engaged the threat head-on. The result is a glorious anticlimax. The giant who terrified an army is brought down by one smooth stone. The stone sank into his forehead, a beautiful picture of the seed of the woman crushing the head of the serpent. And note the detail: there was no sword in David's hand. God's victory did not depend on David possessing the world's weapons. But then, in a stunning reversal, David uses Goliath's own sword to cut off his head. Evil is undone by its own instruments. The very thing in which Goliath trusted becomes the means of his ultimate humiliation and demise. When the ungodly see their champion fall, their collective courage evaporates and they flee.

1 Samuel 17:52-54 But the men of Israel and Judah arose and shouted and pursued the Philistines... And David took the Philistine’s head and brought it to Jerusalem, but he put his weapons in his tent.

The faith of one man unleashes the courage of the whole army. The victory of the representative champion becomes the victory of the people. This is a profound picture of our relationship to Christ. He is our champion who defeated sin, death, and the devil. Because He was victorious, we who are in Him share in that victory and are enabled to rise up and pursue the routed enemies of God. David bringing the head to Jerusalem is a prophetic act. Jerusalem was not yet fully an Israelite city, but David brings the trophy of God's victory there, anticipating the day it would become the city of God, Zion.

Application

Every Christian faces Goliaths. They may be temptations, cultural pressures, personal sins, or institutional evils that seem insurmountable. They mock God and seek to intimidate His people. The lesson from this passage is not to try harder or to find a clever technique. The lesson is to see the battle for what it is: an opportunity for the living God to be glorified.

We must, like David, reject the world's armor. The church is constantly tempted to adopt the world's methods for success: marketing strategies, therapeutic moralism, political compromise. But these are Saul's armor; they do not fit the people of God and we have not tested them. We must use the simple weapons God has given us: the Word of God, prayer, faith, and fellowship, our sling and smooth stones.

Most importantly, we must fight in the name of the Lord of hosts. Our confidence is not in ourselves, but in Him. The battle is His. Our task is to show up, full of faith, and declare His name and His glory. When we do, we will find that our Champion, the Lord Jesus, has already won the decisive victory. He has crushed the serpent's head, and He calls us to stand in His victory and put the routed enemies of God to flight, all so that the whole earth might know that there is a God in Israel.