Increasingly sports experts talk about the importance of the 'mind game'
that the match is effectively won or lost before it actually starts.
Teams employ sports psychologists to prepare the players mentally
to get them to believe that they can and will win
to rid them of any defeatist talk.
I suppose the Irish soccer team had a better psychologist than the Iranian.
Two teams of equal ability.
Ireland had done well at home
but what was to stop Iran using their home advantage to get at least two goals?
As we know, it wasn't like that.
There was little conviction in Iran's play.
It looked as if they had lost the mind game.
A bit like the Israelites perhaps, quaking before the giant Goliath.
Admittedly, any one would tremble a bit meeting a man of this description
'He was over nine feet tall.
5 He had a bronze helmet on his head
and wore a coat of scale armour of bronze weighing about 125 pounds
6 on his legs he wore bronze greaves,
and a bronze javelin was slung on his back.
7 His spear shaft was like a weaver's rod,
and its iron point weighed about 15 pounds '
But the Israelites, including David's brothers, had lost the mind game.
Vv 11 & 24 show the dominance of that 4 letter word that begins with F
Fear
He had only to shout and they would run away.
Eugene Peterson describes it like a disease of the spirit:
'An epidemic worse than cholera, everyone was down with Goliath sickness
a terrible disease of spirit that had Saul and his entire army incapacitated.'
And so as fearful people do, they took their inadequacy out on someone else:
Not coping with his fear of the giant, big brother Eliab turned on young David,
to make sure the squirt of the kid brother was in his place:
him and his talk of defeating the giant.
'But David entered the valley of Elah
with a God- dominated, not a Goliath-dominated imagination.
He was incredulous that everyone was cowering before this infidel giant. Weren't these men enlisted in the army of the living God?
In the Bethlehem hills and meadows tending his father's sheep,
David was immersed in the largeness and immediacy of God. (Peterson)
David knew a God who had saved him from the wild animals attacking the flock
and he was unshakeable in his conviction that this God the Lord
would help them beat Goliath.
Two things come through in David's approach a concern for the covenant keeping God
and a personal knowledge of that saving God
What's all this about the covenant keeping God?
Simply, that David believed
that God would keep his promises to look after his people
Do you see the different clues to that?
In v 26 the young mans asks with wonder
'Who is this uncircumcised Philistine
that he should defy the armies of the living God?"
and in v 36 he declares to King Saul
36 Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear;
this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them,
because he has defied the armies of the living God.
37 The LORD who delivered me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear
will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine."
Circumcision was the mark of belonging to the covenant people of God.
The people of Israel were marked out in the covenant, the agreement with God
as loved and delivered by the Lord.
When David twice describes Goliath as uncircumcised
he isn't just being rude about him he is making the point that Goliath has no right to challenge God's people.
He is a living God and a loving God: he had rescued David more than once.
More than that, he is not simply God, he is the Lord, the God of Israel
the God who has made a covenant to love and protect his people
We see the difference again in vv 43 & 45
'the Philistine cursed David by his gods'
But David's reply is
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,
Do you see the application for us as Christian people
claiming the protection of the New Covenant
that we belong to our Father God because Jesus has died for us to redeem us?
The question we should ask ourselves when we are afraid is:
Are we or are not people of the covenant?
Do we or do we not know the saving help of Jesus?
Or are we overwhelmed with our gigantic fears?
For the ultimate battle is not about Bush v Bin Laden
it is not even about Christianity v Islam or Republican v Loyalist
it is whether or not we who claim the saving protection of Jesus Christ
actually can face up to and face down our personal Goliaths,
confident as we can be in the same Lord as David trusted.
What are those Goliaths for us? What are we afraid of?
Different things for different people
but I would be surprised if someone would claim
that they were not afraid of any of these
FAILURE PEOPLE THE FUTURE SUFFERING DEATH
Fear of FAILURE
People reluctant to try new situations?
'I could never do that' 'It'll never work'
Well, is your God a 'living God'?
And if you mess up, so what? Your standing with God does not suffer.
Fear of PEOPLE
Do we find it hard to make friends, to trust people,
to relate to them in a deep way?
Do we think they will laugh or do us down in some way?
Do we fear their mockery, that they will beat us in argument?
Or do we fear being left alone, in a minority, friendless?
Does not the covenant say to us that Jesus is our friend, he accepts us?
Don't you sense at the Lord's Supper the welcome of your friend Jesus
Fear of THE FUTURE
Recent events terrify some folk as to what could happen in our world.
They look for gasmasks and iodine tablets?
Or they hope that some horoscope will control the future?
(a vain deceptive hope)
Linked to it is our Fear of SUFFERING
Do you find it hard to visit a hospital?
Do you find it hard to cope when people close to you are in physical pain
or even more when they are in mental pain?
Maybe it triggers painful memories
maybe you are anxious that you could not cope if it happened to you.
In those cases we need the experience of the shepherd boy on the hillside
'immersed in the largeness and immediacy of his God'
the one who had made the stars he saw in the night sky,
the one who had saved him from the lion and the bear.
All of that gave David confidence that he could defeat Goliath.
A man in Cork city came to saving faith in Christ
but later he had a crisis in his business.
He told me he went to his pastor and said 'What's going to happen to me?'
All the comfort his pastor gave him (and all that he needed) was to say:
'Has he ever let you down before?
Isn't it a wonderful promise in Hebrews 13 and a great challenge to our fear:
'I will never leave you nor forsake you.'
He who has not so far left us will not desert us in the future.
Let's believe that and not be afraid.
Fear of DEATH
Is this the unmentionable subject?
Are you uncomfortable even when it is mentioned here in church?
Isn't this why Hallowe'en is big business now?
People want to party and dress up and treat death and darkness as a big joke
because we all dread its reality.
But what did the shepherd boy say in the psalm we read earlier?
'Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death
I will fear no evil'
Why will he not be afraid? 'for you are with me'
and the rod and the staff of the Lord, his shepherd, would strengthen him.
So what does David show us about standing up to giants?
In sporting terms, get the mind game right and don't overcook your tactics
The mind game is
simply to remember your standing under the covenant of Christ
If you have trusted in Jesus Christ
if you keep in remembrance how he has delivered you
then live by faith and not by fear.
When you are under pressure look for the reaction based on faith
not the impulse driven by fear.
And regarding tactics, keep it simple, do what you know
don't be tripped up by the ideas or expectations laid upon you.
Saul was very well meaning, lending David his armour
but it was completely unsuitable. It didn't fit, he wasn't used to it.
But a sling and five stones was a different matter.
That was second nature to a shepherd boy.
Why do we try to be what we are not?
Why do we burden ourselves with trying to be like others?
Why do we struggle with so much guilt
that we don't pray as much as others
or we are not as forthright a witness for Christ as others
or we don't have the talents and ability of other people?
I see a simple principle in David's tactics:
use what is near to hand, what you are used to.
Don't try to fight the Lord's battles with the world's weapons?
I heard recently about a lecturer retiring at UCC
There was a presentation and he made a speech in reply.
As well as saying the usual things that are said
expressing thanks, reflecting on his years at work, changes,
he also shared what had kept him going
through times of difficulty at work and personally
knowing Jesus Christ as his personal Lord and Saviour
and he urged those listening to seek to find Christ in that way too.
The chairman at the reception noted drily
that lecturers signed in their contract
that they would not propagate their personal religious beliefs
'but he saw his opportunity'
It was a smooth stone opportunity, carefully prayed through and chosen.
An opportunity taken, appropriately to the moment,
to challenge the giants of complacency and intellectual arrogance.
So let each of us face up to our fears
with strength in who God is as we know him in Jesus
and let's not whinge that we haven't the right armour,
it might trip us up anyway
but let's ask God to show us the simple tactics
by which we can challenge those giants
Be strong and of good courage
for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go
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