Sermon Tone Analysis
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King David is perhaps the most significant figure of the Old Testament.
We often think of Moses and he certainly laid the foundation.
But when it comes to the history and the message of the Old Testament it all comes down to what will we do with the legacy of David.
When we pick up our Bibles we are picking up at least 3,000 years of history in our hands.
The Bible contains many first hand accounts of important events.
But it also leaves us clues that stories were handed down by saying things like: it’s still called that to this very day.
These reveal that the earlier stories were collected across the years and at key moments in their history, written down and finalized in form.
There are two HUGE cataclysmic historical events that shape the two halves of the old testament.
The Exodus and the Captivity.
Both of these events Exodus and Captivity shaped how the Jews understood God.
Moses at the burning bush was one of the moments from which there had to be a Bible.
That story of deliverance would have to be passed down.
Judah being carried off to Babylon made a Bible essential.
Any illusion that life would always carry on as we expect was wiped out as they were conquered and forced to move.
They gathered all the stories.
They became people of the book while in captivity.
There’s so much more but that’s enough to get us started...
But in between the Exodus and the Captivity, David is the one person who stands out.
He’s everything that was right and everything that was wrong with Ancient Israel.
He was a young boy with a passion for God and willingness to tend sheep.
He became a statesman who took his country to a new level.
He was in his best moments a truly spiritual leader.
He wrote hymns that we are still singing.
Many modern worship songs are based on the Psalms, which in many ways were hymns in the early church.
David wrote many of these, or at least the core part of them.
There was great depth of feeling in his walk with God.
But David also made devastating choices that threatened the very stability of the nation and his relationship with God.
Over the next few weeks we can learn a lot from the life of David.
Lessons good and bad about the choices we make and God’s loving action in our lives and in the world.
Today, we pick up the story at a pivotal moment.
Now remember: David was just a very young man when he was first anointed King.
Saul had been the king but he did not serve in a worthy manner.
He did not have a genuine spiritual passion, but he did have a curiosity about Godly things.
This made for a mess.
Saul neglected God much of the time, focusing on his military conquests and personal power.
He got interested in spiritual things at the wrong time and in the wrong way and even ended up visiting a witch for spiritual direction and tried to take the place of a prophet at an important event.
He became jealous of young David and even obsessed, wanting him close by to share in his glory or be comforted by his guitar playing (harp).
Then he would throw a spear at him to try to kill him!
David was on the run for many years.
He even had to take up residence among the Philistines, the enemy of Israel, just to survive.
But Saul’s son Jonathan favored David and saw the good in him.
He admired his character and his ability.
He befriended David and helped him survive his father’s wrath.
Theirs is one of the great friendships in history.
So for many years Saul was still king serving in chaos and fear and insecurity, while David was actually God’s new choice for leading the nation.
During this time David had many chances to kill Saul—but he said he would never lay a hand on God’s anointed leader.
He still loved Saul and was essentially faithful to him all the while being hated by him.
But in this time David learned to trust the Lord for protection and to be patient in waiting for God’s will to come to pass.
Then, the dreaded day came when Saul’s poor choices and lack of surrender to God caught up with him.
It cost the country in so many ways.
He was wounded mortally in battle and chose to fall on his sword after his armor bearer refused to do it for him.
A sad end to a sad life.
Jonathan also died in battle, fighting with his father for the country.
This opened the door for David to rightfully become King.
But David was not ready to celebrate this news.
It was in many ways one of the worst days of his life.
He cared about the nation and tried to respect Saul, so he was sad at his passing.
And Jonathan was closer than any of his brothers.
So his violent death was even more devastating.
So here is David, genuinely grieving, which is a beautiful thing at this moment.
He’s not just thinking about himself and picking out new carpet for the King’s mansion.
It shows us David’s heart and his ethics.
Both worthy.
But here also is David perhaps grasping at anything to celebrate in these men.
And it’s warfare that he chooses to immortalize with this song.
Yet in it, we see the flaw in violent actions.
They almost always set more violence in action and the ripple effects never end… So there’s a lesson here for us, especially in terms of how this plays out in David’s life.
Now, understand, serving your country is a worthy thing.
I thank God for those who choose to serve our country.
And the military does much more than just fight.
They provide essential services and help those in need also.
They serve us all in wonderful ways.
But also understand killing is a tragedy.
every.
single.
time.
It’s young men and women with potential placed in harm’s way.
War needs to be avoided when possible.
When leaders lose their way, they sometimes turn to war to cover their other sins and failures.
In the ancient world it didn’t help.
That’s why in a democracy like ours we need to hold leaders accountable.
They should not be reckless nor feckless.
Both can lead to unnecessary war.
Appeasement doesn’t work.
But neither does war hawking.
God has called us to stand firm and stand up for the weak.
Jesus said: greater love has no one than this: that he lay down his life for his friends.
But he followed that with: you are my friends if you keep my commands.
Then: this command I give you: love one another.
Elsewhere: if your enemy is hungry give him something to eat.
So this needs to be part of how we make sense of the old testament.
Another way to think about it: if the primary thing you have to celebrate about a king or leader is how many people he killed in battle, it’s far from the most worthy remembrance.
In David’s epic sad balad of Saul and Jonathan it’s about the only thing he could celebrate besides his loyal friendship with Jonathan.
He took that to heart and ended up emulating them in ways that hindered his future and what he could do for God.
How do I know this?
David says so himself later on...
So God knows sometimes war happens and he can lead us through battles.
But the life of a warrior has a price tag.
It can make good things possible or it can impede God’s holiest work.
What ultimately made David a great king was his passion for the things of God and desire to be holy.
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