Where do you really get this courage? Let’s look at David’s approach.

When this passage begins, David is still serving, simply following orders to bring food to his brothers. And then he hears Goliath, and goes to fight him. Listen to what he says to Goliath:

"You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the LORD Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. ⁴⁶ This day the LORD will hand you over to me, and I'll strike you down and cut off your head. Today I will give the carcasses of the Philistine army to the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth, and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel. ⁴⁷ All those gathered here will know that it is not by sword or spear that the LORD saves; for the battle is the LORD's, and he will give all of you into our hands."

All throughout this passage, his eyes are on the Lord. His courage comes not from keeping his eyes on others (Saul) or even from keeping his eyes on himself (Goliath). His courage comes because his eyes are fixed on God. All he is concerned about is God’s name, God’s reputation. Like Shadrach, he will do what is right no matter what happens to him.

David is weak. He is not a great Hercules or Beowulf. He is weak. He is a boy, coming with a slingshot. But it’s precisely because he is weak that he wins. He looks like a joke, but God saves the people through his weakness, because David’s eyes are on the Lord.

True courage comes with dealing with the fear underneath the fear. Each fear, if you trace it back, comes back to issues of identity – am I loveable? Am I valuable? Do I have what it takes to make it? And ultimately we need a voice from the outside to answer that question. So where does that voice come from?

Look at David. Notice how God saves them here. David fights as a representative of the people. He doesn’t just fight to inspire them – he is fighting as them. He is winning the victory for them. He is not just their example and inspiration but their Savior. Remember how Goliath put it:

Choose a man and have him come down to me. ⁹ If he is able to fight and kill me, we will become your subjects; but if I overcome him and kill him, you will become our subjects and serve us."

David is representing the people of God, fighting as Israel. He is not just their example, but their Savior, and by doing this, he points to the greater Savior, Jesus, who also came in weakness, and was not just our example of courage but our savior, our representative, dying for us so that we could be saved.