June 23, Ordinary 12B (1 Samuel 17:(1a, 4–11, 19–23), 32–49)

When David steps out to challenge Goliath, he’s fighting for the people of God but also claiming his faith and vocation. Until that point in the narrative, David had been more the acted upon than the actor. He’s the kid brother that father Jesse forgets to call in from tending the sheep (1 Sam. 16:11). He’s at the front lines because his father sent him to take lunch to his brothers and deliver cheese for the soldiers (17:18). At the beginning of his story, everyone is summoning David: Jesse, Saul, even Goliath. When David himself finally speaks, his first words in the narrative are a question: “What shall be done for the man who kills this Philistine and takes away the reproach from Israel?” (17:26).

The scriptures give us a picture of a young person moving from being enmeshed within his family and community, asking questions and figuring out what his place and role are, to becoming himself and discovering his vocation. When David makes the decision not to fight in Saul’s armor, it’s really just the latest in a string of reversals in the story. He’s not merely the baby brother or the cheese deliverer. He’s more than the sweet harpist at the back of the room whom Saul forgets (16:18–23; 17:55). God has looked at David’s heart, Samuel has anointed him as king, and the Spirit of the Lord has come mightily upon him (16:7, 13). Something turns in David, and he steps out.

The defining moment comes when David tells Saul, “Your servant will go out and fight.” The Philistine’s terms were “sword and spear and javelin,” but young David comes out “in the name of the Lord of hosts.” Humanly speaking, it is an impossible trial, one man a “warrior from his youth,” the other merely a youth. Goliath’s armor likely weighs more than David, who goes out to face him without a sword. Even after David has slain the giant, Saul still calls him a “stripling” (17:56). Yet it is the moment David steps forward that the course shifts in his story and he begins to become his own person and see the faintly traced path that will lead to the kingship. David takes up his sling and picks his five smooth stones and claims his faith and vocation as his own.