David and Goliath
Young David was a ruddy lad
With silken, sunny locks,
The youngest son that Jesse had:
He kept his father’s flocks.
Goliath was a Philistine,
A giant, huge and high;
He lifted, like a towering pine,
His head towards the sky.
He was the foe of Israel’s race.
A mighty warrior, too;
And on he strode from place to place,
And many a man he slew.
So Saul, the king of Israel then,
Proclaimed it to and fro,
That most he’d favor of his men
The one, who’d kill the foe.
Yet all, who saw this foe draw near,
Would feel their courage fail;
For not an arrow, sword, or spear,
Could pierce the giant’s mail.
But Jesse’s son conceived a way,
That would deliverance bring;
Whereby he might Goliath slay,
And thus relieve the king.
Then quick he laid his shepherd’s crook
Upon a grassy bank;
And off he waded in the brook
From which the lambkins drank.
He culled and fitted to his sling
Five pebbles, smooth and round;
And one of these he meant should bring
The giant to the ground.
“I’ve killed a lion and a bear,”
Said he, “and now I’ll slay
The Philistine, and by the hair
I’ll bring his head away!”
Then onward to the battle-field
The youthful hero sped;
He knew Goliath by his shield,
And by his towering head.
But when, with only sling and staff,
The giant saw him come,
In triumph he began to laugh;
Yet David struck him dumb.
He fell! ’twas David’s puny hand
That caused his overthrow!
Though long the terror of the land,
A pebble laid him low.
The blood from out his forehead gushed.
He rolled, and writhed, and roared:
The little hero on him rushed,
And drew his ponderous sword.
Before its owner’s dying eye
He held the gleaming point
Upon his throbbing neck to try;
Then severed cord and joint.
He took the head, and carried it
And laid it down by Saul;
And showed him where the pebble hit
That caused the giant’s fall.
The lad, who had Goliath slain
With pebbles and a sling,
Was raised in after years to reign
As Israel’s second king!
’Twas not the courage, skill, or might
Which David had, alone,
That helped him Israel’s foe to fight
And conquer, with a stone.
But, when the shepherd stripling went
The giant thus to kill,
God used him as an instrument
His purpose to fulfil!