Grieve with Resurrection Hope

Hey, hey, good morning, good morning. Welcome to Coffee and Devotions. This morning we are at 2 Samuel chapter 1, the second half, verses 17 through the end of the chapter.

How does Saul respond publicly and in his heart to Saul and Jonathan's death? There's a song he's going to sing. It's a sad song. It's a singing. It's a mourning song. It's a song of lament. Let's have some coffee. We'll pray and we'll hear David's heart.

Let's pray. Father, we thank you for giving us your word, giving us even songs and sections of the Bible that are sad because death is real.

So, Father, we pray that you would please help us, Lord, to read your words, wrestle with them, and also we pray that your Holy Spirit would let us see them applied in our lives in real ways.

In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Here we go. 2 Samuel chapter 1, beginning at verse 17.

Then David lamented with this lamentation over Saul and over Jonathan, his son.

And he told them to teach the children of Judah the song of the bow. Indeed, it is written in the book of Jasher.

The beauty of Israel is slain on your high places, how the mighty have fallen.

Tell it not in Gath. Proclaim it not in the streets of Ashkelon, lest the daughters of the Philistines rejoice, lest the daughters of the uncircumcised triumph.

O mountains of Gilboa, let there be no dew or rain upon you, nor fields of offerings, for the shield of the mighty is cast away there, the shield of Saul not anointed with oil.

From the blood of the slain, from the fat of the mighty, the bow of Jonathan did not turn back, and the sword of Saul did not return empty.

Saul and Jonathan were beloved and pleasant in their lives, and in their death they were not divided.

They were swifter than eagles. They were stronger than lions.

O daughters of Israel, weep over Saul, who clothed you in scarlet with luxury, who put on ornaments of gold on your apparel.

How the mighty have fallen amidst the battle.

Jonathan was slain in your high places.

I am distressed for you, my brother Jonathan.

You have been very pleasant to me.

Your love was to me wonderful, surpassing the love of women.

How the mighty have fallen, and the weapons of war perished.

We need to ask ourselves, A, what's this about?

B, what's the best verse to summarize?

And C, what are we called to do?

This is a song of lament.

Remember, David and Jonathan were the closest of friends possible.

David was the one who would play his harp and see King Saul relieved from distressing spirits.

Saul loved David at a time.

And David writes a lament, a song of mourning, weeping in his eyes over the death of both someone he once admired and looked up to,

as well as his son, his bestest of friends.

And we see.

We see even though Saul was one who tried to murder David for no reason.

Yet we find David speaks well, even in the death of Saul.

He tells the children to sing the song of the bow.

And again and again, this idea of the mighty have fallen, the mighty have fallen, the mighty have fallen comes up.

He says, don't sing this in Gath.

Don't sing it in Ashkelon.

Don't proclaim this amongst the uncircumcised people, the people who aren't of God's covenant in Philistia.

Not in Ashkelon, not in Gath.

Those are Philistine cities.

They're not to sing this because they're going to rejoice that Saul and Jonathan are dead, but not God's people.

And then he actually commands almost like a curse to be sung upon Mount Gilboa itself.

Mount Gilboa is not supposed to have any dew or rain, nor fields of offering.

Why?

Because that's where the mighty have fallen.

That's where the shields of Saul and the shields of the mighty were cast away there.

And so he's saying, that's a cursed place.

Anybody who goes there, there should be a, it should be remembered that this is where the king fell.

And he talks about Saul and Jonathan's unity.

They were inseparable.

Beloved and pleasant in their lives and in their death, they were not divided.

Even though Jonathan and Saul did not agree with each other, even though Jonathan knew that David would be the next king and not himself,

he still fought with his father.

He still went out to battle.

He says they were swift and strong, like eagles and lions.

And he tells the people of Israel, right?

It was Saul who made you prosperous.

It's scarlet and luxury and ornaments of gold on your apparel.

Right?

It was a good reign.

There's a prosperous reign under Saul.

So the women, you should lament.

And how the mighty have fallen in battle again.

And then he talks about Jonathan.

Now, a rabbit trail here.

There's all sorts of people who will write crazy stuff about, like, homoeroticism and stuff like that.

Remember, A, this is poetry.

This is a song.

It's not talking literally.

And so people with twisted minds will come to this and say,

Oh, look, David and Jonathan, they must have been homosexual lovers.

Now, I guess they've never actually been in the military.

But there are friends that I have today from the Navy.

That we see each other.

Boom.

Friendship's back.

We went through things.

We saw things.

We experienced things that nobody else would understand unless they were on that ship.

The long hours and the late nights.

The challenges and the hardship.

And one of the sad things, I wrote a whole article about this on Gentle Reformation a while back,

is the death of friendships.

The fact that we come to a passage like this and we can't see that I have a close brother,

a friend, a teammate, somebody I love.

And they died and I could weep for them.

I could mourn for them.

There's a type of fraternity and camaraderie that our modern world doesn't have the strength,

seems like in the West,

seems like in the West to embrace.

Not here though.

Not here.

He's not going to downplay his relationship with Jonathan.

That's how close her friendship was.

How the mighty have fallen.

And the weapons of war perished.

How the mighty have fallen.

I don't know what to underline as the best verse.

I have

verse 25 underlined.

Verse 27 underlined.

Verse 19 underlined.

How the mighty have fallen.

How the mighty have fallen.

How the mighty have fallen.

Well, maybe you just underlined verse 17 that this is,

David lamented with this lament over Saul and Jonathan when they were slayed, right?

Maybe that's, maybe that's just the summary of it.

That's fine.

But the heart of this passage is really in the psalm itself.

Not the psalm, the lament of the psalm itself.

So, see calling.

What are we called to do?

When somebody dies, do you feel like you can lament?

I think there's a real way in which we do ourselves a disservice today.

People don't want to talk about somebody dying.

They're in a better place.

They passed away.

You know, we don't want to cry.

I was just talking to a friend.

Out in, out east.

And when I was out there,

I had this friend who,

he was telling me about the death of somebody.

And he started crying.

He said, I'm so sorry.

I'm not going to tell you his name, but I was like,

Brother,

death tells us that there's something

deeply wrong with this world.

And weeping with bitter tears

is one of the clearest ways we know that we truly did love somebody.

So, we don't grieve as those without hope.

Right?

We believe in the resurrection of the dead.

We believe that God's people are going to come back again.

And so, as I was trying to encourage him,

you'll see them again.

So, don't be afraid to lament.

There are hard providences.

Don't be afraid to go to a funeral.

Don't be afraid to grieve.

When the people you look up to die.

When your friends are put in the grave.

We are those who can rejoice even as we weep.

We are those who can weep and mourn and yet have hope.

God is using even these circumstances in David's life and in the life of Israel.

But let's not minimize David's lament.

Let's pray.

Father, we know that

even your son wept

when his friend Lazarus died.

And everyone around could say,

look what great compassion he had.

Lord, we pray that you would please

teach us to love deeply

and not be afraid of that type of love.

Lord, teach us to mourn and to weep well.

To grieve with hope.

Lord, we thank you.

We thank you for the hope of the resurrection.

We thank you that someday

you will wipe away every tear from our eye.

For you will even someday

deal the final blow to death itself.

Thank you, Lord, that we know that those who die in you

are blessed.

Lord, please

comfort us and care for us.

Let us walk in your ways.

Thank you

for giving us a hope

to the grave and beyond.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

Well, may God bless you.

May you hope in Jesus.

May you rejoice in Jesus.

May you love

with a true love

and hope

with a gospel-filled hope.

I'll see you next time. Bye!