didn’t reason out the implications of it. He was not an intellectual. But those words had roused him. He perceived that he had heard something totally new. He said Again. Sing it again. David repeated the song three times. The king sighed deeply, strange and unplumbed impressions crowding his mind. But he had no patience to go into them. The immediate thing was that he was again alert, and there were a hundred issues to attend to.
Saul stood, a changed man, exhibiting once more the erect height and bearing that everyone esteemed in him. With a smile he nodded at David and strode to the doorway, where Abner was peeking in. They conferred together.
David rewrapped his lute and waited. After a few minutes Abner entered, thanked David, gave him a few gifts of food for his father, and sent him back to Bethlehem.
*
On the trail home David was alternately crestfallen and satisfied with his accomplishment. But generally he was acutely disappointed. His high hopes at being summoned had, in the end, come to nothing. Like pounded grain that finally turns out to be mildewed and unusable. The farther he went from Gibeah the more his thwarted presumptions ate at him. He had no idea, and Saul had only the vaguest inkling, that he, David, the boy, in forming a personal relationship with God, had furthered something that would affect and change the whole of world thinking.
According to the old stories, the Lord had spoken to individuals before, to Abraham, Jacob and Moses. But that had been like thunder to the hearing of an ant. No one had previously become God’s friend. Not that a person was remotely in the same realm as the Almighty, but yet was someone who could speak intimately and directly to God. Who could say to Him, as David had, I.
However, the boy’s feeling, as he trudged among the stones, carrying his lute and balancing with his stick, his bag of goods slung over his shoulder, was that he had been lifted up only to be dashed down once more among the sheep and goats.
6
Alarming news of war spread through the land. The Philistines, annoyed by their loss of sovereignty over Israel, had come up from the plain. They had driven their broad-wheeled chariots into the foothills as far as they could. Then they had marched farther inland and set up camp on the slope of a small valley. Saul and Abner and the Israelite host had camped on the opposite incline, facing them. At the bottom of the valley was a small stream, flowing in wet weather but now almost dry.
The Philistines were eager to regain their lost advantages, and this time they had a new strategy. A champion had arisen from Gath, one of their five cities, and he was said to be a giant. He was certainly large; he stood even higher than Saul, and was arrayed in shining protective sheathing. He wore chain mail on his wide upper body, a heavy bronze breastplate, brass greaves on his legs, and an elaborate helmet that covered the back of his neck and came down between his shoulder blades. He was like a splendid idol in armour.
But his nature was crass. Force was what he depended on. He liked others cowering before him, which they invariably did. He ate and drank sumptuously, like three men, and enjoyed crude, bawdy jokes. He was married and had children but freely indulged in the wives and daughters of lower-rank soldiers, almost as the whim took him.
For days he had been swaggering in front of the Philistine army, hurling insults at the other side. He had offered to settle the battle with a single one-to-one conflict. His name was Goliath. He had been out there long enough to bore him and thoroughly frighten the Hebrews.
The Philistines, confident of the result, were merry. They had meanwhile been bringing up supplies and strengthening their camp.
Saul’s army was disconsolate and perplexed. The clans were willing to fight as one, but left alone they tended to gather into their own tribal groups. David’s three oldest brothers were with the army, and they huddled with the Judahites. Supplies had been running low among all the tribes and the men were beginning to feel hunger. There had even been some deserters.
*
The stalemate had gone on so long that David was easily able to fuel his father’s anxieties. The boy had been deemed too young to fight by those who didn’t want him. But he had been exceedingly restless at the thought of a major happening just a day’s trip away, while he remained trapped in his domestic routine. While professing to know nothing about war, he often mused about the probable lack of food. After a few days Jesse was worried enough to load a donkey with a sack of parched wheat, newly toasted, and ten loaves of bread. And, as it never hurt to reward those in authority, he added ten goat cheeses for his sons’ captain.
Jesse was also persuaded that as David was the one who could most easily be spared, his youngest should be sent with the food.
*
David set out at dawn, and hurrying, he reached the army in the afternoon. His heart quickened as he neared it. This was the host of the Lord, of that other aspect of the Almighty that had to do with armies, battles and wars. He was the God of valour, the God of Israel.
Saul was in his clearest state of mind. But the king and Abner were in a grave quandary. There were big men in the army, but to send one out and have him slain would only discourage the troops further. Neither the monarch nor the commander believed Goliath’s challenge of a single combat, but his jeering couldn’t be ignored much longer.
It was then that David left his things with the goods keeper and hastened among the soldiers. He heard one say that the king would give great riches and his daughter in marriage to anyone who could overcome Goliath. This had been rumoured — mainly because it was what men liked to believe, like sunset gleams on stone walls that made them look like gold.
David, already stimulated, was instantly elated. It was as if all his life had at last led to this point. He exclaimed This uncircumcised dog, who dares defy the ranks of the living God, I will fight him!
Eliab, his oldest brother, approaching, heard his last words, and disbelieving this outrageous posturing, said angrily Why did you come down here, and with whom did you leave those few sheep in the wilderness? That was meant to make David look small, but was also unwittingly defaming to his own family. Blaming the boy for his blunder, and becoming greatly enraged, he cried I know your impudence and your impertinence. You came down to watch the fighting!
David took this harassment head on, and answered ironically What have I done now? Then he turned again to the warriors.
Word of this strange boy was reported to Saul and he had David brought to him. He dimly remembered the lad, and that there had been something unusual in his song. But then, as now, he put that aside because of pressing issues. He looked down at this negligible boy and said to David You are not able to go against this Philistine, for you are but a youth, and he a man of war from his youth.
David replied Your servant kept his father’s sheep, and there came a lion, and a bear, and I smote them. And this uncircumcised Philistine shall be as one of them, seeing he has defied the armies of the living God.
Saul wasn’t impressed by this pompous speech. But as he gazed at the unbearded face — there was some fuzz that promised a beard — he saw in the youth’s eyes both deference to his king and a determined sparkle of defiance against the enemy. He began to believe that the youngster was serious, that the cub would go down against Goliath. And in his thoughts a plan formed. If this boy were torn to pieces, it might just provide the motive for his men to attack. Outraged revenge could be inciting.
He became amiable, and gave the lad his own armour, a coat of mail and a helmet of brass. Of course they were much too large, and so heavy David could hardly move in them.
