17:32–37. The conversation between Saul and David about Goliath’s challenge shows Saul’s dispiritedness and David’s courage. David has not got some mad juvenile idea; he is consciously committing himself to a difficult enterprise, convinced that the Lord will protect him just as he has so often done in his work as a shepherd (vv. 34–37). The Fathers apply David’s experience to Jesus Christ: “David, that is, Christ, strangled the lion and the bear when he descended into hell and freed everyone from