1 Samuel 17 shows us the relentless pressure of living with doom and gloom, with the Israelites ‘dismayed and terrified’ by Goliath’s constant taunting and fear-mongering. We live in an age of doom and gloom, with 24/7 news telling us of wars, disasters, catastrophes and injustices all the time. Social media and the ever-present presence of the smartphone add to the picture; there is no wonder that people feel despairing, depressed and defeated most of the time. It’s very hard to be positive when there is a one-sided drip-drip-drip of negativity and hopelessness pounding your brain every day.

What can we do to combat this? David had not lived in a stress-free environment as a shepherd; he had had to deal with lions and bears wanting to decimate his flock. Nor was he universally popular; his brothers were scornful to say the least when he arrived on the scene: instead of protecting him, they simply criticised and ridiculed him. So we cannot say it was easy for him! But he had soaked himself in God and therefore he was not afraid of the enemy or of ridicule and scorn. If we want to avoid living life dismayed and terrified, we must learn to fix our hearts, minds and thoughts on God (see Col 3:1-2, Heb 3:1, Heb 12:1-3) and must learn to take control of our thoughts. (2 Cor 10:5, Phil 4:8) The battle was won long before David launched the stone at Goliath. The battle is always won in our minds first.

The story of David and Goliath (1 Samuel 17) is one of the most well-known stories in the whole Bible; even people who have never read the Bible have heard of this epic tale. It’s a great hero story, the underdog David triumphing against the giant Goliath, and it reminds us that God is able to bring victory out of seeming defeat. All he needs is a person soaked in God-truths and unintimidated by the relentless taunts and hostility of the enemy – the battle belongs to Him, after all!

The story has much to teach us about human relationships (and how easily we are crushed by intimidation, ridicule, taunts and criticism), about the relentless battering of words (for forty days Goliath kept on putting the Israelites down) and about the impossibility of trying to do things in our own strength or according to other people’s ideas (David in Saul’s armour clearly didn’t work!) Mostly, we see in David a shepherd who had fought off the lion and the bear because he trusted in God; his knowledge of God and his conviction that God ruled (not an uncircumcised Philistine!) were the keys to his confidence. ‘God was the reality with which David had to deal: giants didn’t feature largely in David’s understanding of the world.’ (Eugene Peterson, ‘Leap Over A Wall’, P 40)

David shows us that trust in God is the key to victory. Whatever the giants we may face – unemployment, recession, illness, bereavement, anxiety, fear (the list is endless) – we can have confidence that God is bigger and more powerful, and therefore we have hope.