This post has be simmering around in my head for a while, ever since I learned some really cool details in my Greek history course, and so I wanted to put it all down here for y'all. In general, I would argue that the story of David and Goliath is about the Lord defeating the ancient demonic powers and manifesting His power as the true "man of war" (Ex. 15:3).
So the Philistines were roughly synonymous with a group called the sea peoples, a people known throughout the ancient world for starting numerous dark ages and setting back civilizations by centuries, causing what historians call the Bronze Age Collapse (~1200-900 BC). It just so happens that this time period coincides with the reign of King David (1000-970 BC), so the idea that the Philistines would attempt to take the nation of Israel isn't very far-fetched. Also, archaeologists seem unable to find much evidence of Philistine destruction in the area at the time, but this makes perfect sense with the story itself, which (spoiler alert) ends with the Philistines leaving Israel alone.
At this time, warfare was much different from what it was even for the more ancient Israelites. Where the near East was fighting a more traditional warfare of a bunch of people attacking each other (though I'm obviously oversimplifying), the mediterraneans were much more interested in what the Greeks called "agonistic warfare." This is most clearly seen in the Iliad, where war was not about the size of your army but about who your champions were. In Achaea (Greece), the champions were Agamemnon, Ajax, Odysseus, and, most notably, Achilles. In the tales, the bards were much more interested in the fights between figures like Achilles and Hector rather than the warring armies, as many of the stories in the Pentateuch record. A place where this is also very relevant is in the sequel to the Iliad, the Odyssey. In it, one of the major themes is that of an ancient man trapped in a changing world. His army is plagued by impiety, many of his stops refuse to honor xenia, the laws of sacred hospitality, and in one case, we even see Zeus destroy a city's port for honoring those laws, even when he is supposed to be the stranger's champion. This also shows up in the story of his wife, Penelope, who waits for her beloved to return even while being pressured into marrying a new, younger suitor. In the end, however, we see Odysseus conquer these hordes of suitors, and where we would expect a champion-on-champion duel, this champion, aided by Athena and his son Telemachus, slays each of them quickly with his bow, depicting him as this hero of the old times who is able to defeat these hordes as a true champion.
The story of David and Goliath, on the other hand, shows a different kind of tale. In it, we see Goliath, and it is important to notice how he is dressed. This does take place during the bronze age collapse, but at this point, the ancient near-east, and definitely the sea peoples, would have had iron weaponry and armor. But Goliath was a symbol of this more ancient civilization, decked out entirely in bronze. This is not only a symbol of the bronze age, but it it a relic of even more primordial times. It calls back to Tubal-Cain, the son of Lamech and inventor of metallurgy and who later sources (Josephus, book of Enoch, etc.) claim communed with demons to find these secrets in order to add "spice" (his name literally means "spice of Cain") to the crime of Cain with metal weaponry. In this way, we see Goliath, a remnant of the Nephilim, this part-demon beast of a man, who features as the champion of the Philistines. In this way, we see a condemnation of the other nations, in which warfare is dominated by a few demonized men (the demigods) who are good at nothing but killing.
This motif is not simply a fun fact, but it hones in on a sort of "B-plot" in the story of David and Goliath. In this perspective, we that our God is the true God of warfare because He is able to defeat all enemies. The Israelites defeat the grand army of the Amalekites by God's grace given through Moses. David, the champion of Israel, is able to defeat Goliath in this foreign, Mediterranean type of warfare. And this also shows the power of the Lord against the demons, since this demonized warrior was felled by a simple shepherd boy with a stone, that is to say, the Rock. It is not only a defeat of Israel's enemies and the demons but it makes such enemies into laughing stocks. And finally, it shows these demons' fate when David, after fatally wounding Goliath, beheads him with his own sword. In this act, we see a foreshadowing of Christ's defeat of the demons via death, their own favorite weapon. This is also why David's wielding of Goliath's sword when fighting Saul is so significant--this weapon symbolizes his rule in that he follows the Lord's commands to destroy the giant clans and is thus anointed by Him to be His sword to the Lord's enemies.
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