Nightflying: The Entertainment Guide

    David is the most popular guy in the Bible. His name appears there more times than any other. This is the same David who killed Goliath, the 9-foot tall Philistine warrior, with a rock from his sling. David was a young guy who kept his dad’s sheep out in places where there were a lot of fierce wild animals, like lions and wolves and bears (oh my!) He got pretty good with that sling. Scientists tell us a kid could throw a tennis-ball sized rock over 100 miles an hour!
    Goliath the Giant was wearing armor, including a helmet. But his forehead was exposed. It was a target probably about the size of a playing card. We don’t know how far away David was, but I think he was out of range of Goliath’s sword and spear. But he had already killed at least one lion and one bear with his sling, so it wasn’t his first rodeo. Although David had picked 5 rocks out of the creek, he nailed big G with that first shot, and down he came like a tree. By the way, David immediately dashed over to the huge body and grabbed Goliath’s huge sword and lopped off his head.
    They say David played the harp, probably the most difficult instrument to play in his day. He took a rock and rolled Goliath. So I guess that makes him the first rock and roll musician.
    We all know the soothing benefits of good music. So did the folks in David’s time. Saul was not only the king of the Israelites, he was also the tallest. But he had an ongoing problem with depression and was probably bipolar. (You can read all this stuff for yourself in the Bible. It’s in the books of 1st and 2nd Samuel.) Saul was in a foul mood a lot of the time. His doctors heard that David could really play the harp. So they brought him in for a series of private concerts for Saul. That usually mellowed him out. By the way, that happened before David conked Goliath with that rock. (It all starts in I Samuel chapter 16; check it out.) But Saul got jealous of David because he was getting to be too big a star. Later on, while David was playing for the king, he lost it and flung a spear at David and tried to pin him to the wall, but David ducked and the spear missed.
    (I am not making all this up. Go grab your Bible and read it for yourself!)

View Bob's previous column.

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