avid lived with his family in Bethlehem where he took care of his father's sheep. At night, David would play his harp and sing about God's love and protection of the people who were the sheep of His pasture.

During the rule of King Saul, the Israelites were at war with the great armies of the Philistines, a neighboring tribe. The champion of the Philistines was a giant named Goliath, who was from Gath.  He was over nine feet tall. He had a bronze helmet on his head and wore a coat of scale armor of bronze weighing five thousand shekels ; on his legs he wore bronze greaves, and a bronze javelin was slung on his back. His spear shaft was like a weaver's rod, and its iron point weighed six hundred shekels. His shield bearer went ahead of him.

For forty days, Goliath had come out of the Philistine camp and approached the hill where King Saul's army was staying. There he made his challenge to the Israelites.

"Choose a man from among yourselves, and let him fight me. If he is able to kill me, the Philistines will become your servants. If I can kill him, you will all become servants of the Philistines," Goliath would yell. But the Israelites were far too afraid of the towering giant to accept his challenge.

One day, David’s father sent him to the Israelites camp to bring some bread and cheese to his brothers who were soldiers in Saul’s army.

When David arrived at the camp, Goliath again came out of the Philistines’ camp and made his challenge to the Israelites. As David saw the Israelites' fear, his courage only grew. David went before King Saul and said, "I will fight this giant." And King Saul said to him, "You cannot fight this Philistine, for you are a boy and this giant is a trained soldier." David replied that as a shepherd he had fought wild bears and lions to protect his flock. David said that The Lord had delivered him from the paw of the lion and the bear and would deliver him from the hands the giant.

Saul agreed to allow David to fight the giant because no other soldier was willing. King Saul placed his heavy armor and helmet on David for protection but the armor was far too heavy for him. He removed the armor and instead chose to carry with him only his sling and five smooth stones from the brook. He then went to the Philistine camp.

When David approached the giant, Goliath thought that he was mocking him because he had come to battle without armor and because he was only a boy. "Come here," he said, "and I'll give your flesh to the birds of the air and the beasts of the field!" Then David said to Goliath, "You come against me with weapons, but I come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. The Lord will hand you over to me, and I will strike you down."

As Goliath moved to attack, David ran to meet him. He took out a stone, slung it and struck the giant on the forehead and he fell face down on the ground. With only a sling and a stone, David had triumphed over the Philistine.

David took Goliath’s sword and killed him. When the Philistines saw that their champion had been defeated they ran away.

David was loved by the people thereafter and they sang songs of how he defeated Goliath and how by doing this he defeated tens of thousands. This made Saul very jealous during his rule. After King Saul’s death, the people made David their king because they knew that he was chosen by God. To this day, the courage of David has inspired many to know that with the help of God anything can be accomplished through faith.

1 Samuel 17:4 [NIV]  

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