So David overcame the Philistine with a sling and a stone, and smote the Philistine and killed him; and there was no sword in the hand of David.
One throw from a shepherd's sling ended a duel that had frozen two armies for forty days. Then the verse adds a detail that seems unnecessary once the giant is down: the hand that killed him held no sword. Commentators return to that short clause again and again.
The verse credits a sling and a stone. One writer looks behind the throw, to the man who had already put himself in God's hands.
Faith always honours God, and God always honours faith. David put himself into the hands of God, and the happy result of doing so was victory — full, glorious victory. Magnificent triumph! Precious fruit of simple faith in God! This should encourage the heart to throw away every human confidence, and to cling to the only true source of power.
No army movement contributed to it. The whole crisis turned on a single moment.
It was a wonderful deliverance, gained by a single blow — no manoeuvring of armies, no skill of generals, no bravery of soldiers. No; a stone from the brook, slung by a shepherd's hand, settled the whole matter. It was the victory of faith.
Nobody manufactured David's weapons. A brook shaped them, and one writer sees God's usual way of working in that.
No human skill or invention made this armour. The running brook had given these stones their smoothness. But faith is always armed like this. So the armour of faith always looks weak and foolish in the eyes of men. God has won His mightiest victories with instruments men most despised. Men treat preaching with scorn: a foolish thing in itself, with a foolish subject, Christ crucified. Yet it is "the power of God and the wisdom of God." Preaching has always been as foolish as David's sling. But what we need is far more of this simplicity, remembering that we have the truth of God to bring to people's consciences. We have weapons made mighty by God, if only we had simple faith to trust them alone, and to reject the armour of human energy, wisdom, and authority.
David moved fast, but there was no panic in his hands. One writer traces that steadiness back to the lion and the bear David faced with nobody watching.
Notice how calmly and deliberately David took the stone, though he acted at once. There was no show of effort. He did it just as though he were in the wilderness with no eye on him but God's. And the Lord directed that stone, just as He had enabled him to overcome both the lion and the bear! So David prevailed; and so faith always prevails.
The last clause is where commentators turn to Christ. The winner looked weak, and so did He.
"There was no sword in the hand of David" when he won the victory. A sling and stone are not the weapons of a mighty warrior. David himself looked weak in the eyes of men; "he was but a youth." And the apostle Paul says of the Lord Jesus: "He was crucified in weakness" (2 Cor. 13:4). To the religious Jew, "Christ crucified" was "a stumbling block." To the learned Greek it was "foolishness." Through death, by apparent weakness and defeat, Christ conquered Satan.
One writer turns that empty hand toward the reader's own rescue.
Notice this: the Lord saves. You cannot save yourself; I cannot save myself. It is the Lord alone who can save me. God alone can meet the need and ruin of man as a sinner, and I am left with no choice but to accept God's Saviour.
Goliath had prepared for arrows and carried a shield. The stone came from an angle he had not covered, and one writer sees a bigger surprise behind it.
He did not expect a weapon like a sling. He was looking for arrows, and had protected himself with a great big shield. But the stone slung by David went up in a curve and struck the giant on the forehead — on the spot he least expected. Satan never thought that the death of Jesus would put an end to death, or that sin would be put away by His being made sin. If he had known, he would not have plotted His death.
Israel added nothing to the fight.
The giant's head off, his army "fled," and all Israel had to do was to "plunder their camp" (v. 53). So with us — we only have to enjoy the spoil of Jesus' victory. He has done it all. We enjoy it all.
- Faith — David put himself into God's hands before he put a stone in his sling; the win was the fruit of that, not of technique.
- Weakness — a brook smoothed the stones; no forge did. God's greatest victories come through instruments men despise.
- Secrecy — the calm of the throw came from the lion and the bear, faced where no eye but God's was watching.
- Emptiness — "no sword in the hand of David" is the heart of the verse. It points to the One crucified in weakness, who conquered by apparent defeat.
- Spoil — one man fought alone, and an army that risked nothing collected the plunder; we only have to enjoy what Jesus won.
And David ran, and stood upon the Philistine, and took his sword, and drew it out of its sheath, and killed him completely, and cut off his head with it. And when the Philistines saw that their hero was dead, they fled.
The stone had already brought Goliath down, but David did not stop there: he finished the giant with the giant's own sword. Commentators read that last act as a picture of how Christ dealt with the enemy of God's people.
David killed Goliath before he held a sword at all. Writers see the whole point of the story there: David's own gear did not win this battle.
Faith always honours God, and God always honours faith. David put himself into the hands of God. The happy result was victory — full, glorious victory. "So David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and with a stone, and struck the Philistine and killed him. There was no sword in the hand of David." A magnificent triumph! The precious fruit of simple faith in God! How it should encourage the heart to throw away every confidence in the flesh, and to cling to the only true source of power.
David had already promised to take the giant's head — and he said it holding a sling, not a sword.
David had said that he would cut off Goliath's head. It might have sounded like an empty boast, for there was no sword in his hand. He did it all the same. The giant's head was cut off by his own weapon — surely a foreshadowing of what we read in Hebrews 2:14. The fight over, the Philistines fled... Israel took the spoil of the Philistines, but David was content with Goliath's head and Goliath's armour. The armour he put in his tent, and the head he carried to Jerusalem. This is the first time Jerusalem appears in connection with God's king, and it fits the order of events exactly. For the one who has the power of death must be defeated before the kingdom can be set up in power.
The sword that killed Goliath was Goliath's own. Writers see in that the pattern of a far greater victory.
David conquered through weakness. The stone was a small thing next to the giant's sword and spear, but God aimed it to lay him low. Then Goliath's own sword killed him and took off his head. Little did the giant realise how his end would come! And was it not the same with Satan? The proud enemy of God and of men saw all his forces gathered to meet Christ in the weakness of manhood... Then the Son of God entered the dark realm of death, the very thing the devil had used to terrify men. But death could not hold Him. The Lord Jesus took the very weapon that made men tremble and used it to defeat Satan and break the power of death. For it is written: "...through death He might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery" (Hebrews 2:14-15).
Jonathan, the son of King Saul, was watching. One writer traces five stages in what the sight did to him.
When the giant falls, what comes next? I think Jonathan took a long deep breath when he saw the giant's head come off. I see five points in Jonathan's history. When David came into the camp, Jonathan was trembling and miserable. When he saw David go out — for he had heard what David said — he was hopeful. I hope he will beat him, he said; and you say, I hope Christ has met my case. When the giant's head came off, he could say, Thank God it is all done, I am clear of that enemy now. He was delivered. Next he was enriched, and lastly he became devoted.
Israel had not struck a blow, yet the army broke into a shout. Everything they gained came from a fight someone else won.
"And the men of Israel and Judah rose with a shout." Every doubt and fear vanished when their victorious representative returned. His victory was their victory. They were as clear and as free from the Philistine oppressor as he was.
That sword did not stay in the valley. David later took it up again, and one writer draws the principle out of it.
David then takes the sword of Goliath. It was by the power of death that the Lord destroyed all the strength of the one who had the power of death. Death is the best weapon in God's arsenal, when it is wielded by the power of life.
- No sword. The giant was already down before David held a blade — the win belonged to God, not to the weapon.
- The sword. The blade that had terrified Israel beheaded its owner. Writers see the pattern of Christ: He entered death Himself and destroyed the one who had the power of death.
- The head. David kept his word and carried the proof to Jerusalem — the enemy must fall before the kingdom can rise in power.
- The watchers. Jonathan moved from trembling to hopeful. Then he was delivered, enriched, and devoted — the order in which a finished victory works on a heart.
- The nation. The enemy ran, and Israel went free without striking the giant. Their representative's victory counted as theirs.