Learning to Lament                          

                                                   2 Samuel 1:1, 17-27

 

          The book of 1^st Samuel ends with a wounded King Saul falling on his own sword rather than allowing himself to be captured and brutalized at the hands of the Philistines. The story of David continues in 2^nd Samuel with David returning from victory over the Amalekites, only to be confronted by a young Amalekite man who brings David news of the deaths of Saul and his son Jonathan.  David and his men mourn and weep for hours until evening, when David re-examines the young Amalekite. David finds enough holes in the his story to punish rather than reward him. Then David sings a song or maybe utters a poem, of lament. It is a poem about Saul and Jonathan, a poem about grief.

          I have read the commentaries about David’s lament. They explain that the book of Jashar was a book of important songs and poems that has not survived. That this lament was contained in it is not disputed, but the book was lost to us long ago.  The commentaries note that David wanted the people of Judah to be taught about the lives of Saul and Jonathan, that they should be taught his lament in order to remember them.

          So this passage is called David’s lament, a strikingly secular poem which never mentions Gods’ name, nor does it mention any elements of Israel’s faith.  So why is it suggested in the Book of Common Worship that this text be used as the source of a message?

           There is a reason that this passage is in the Bible. Many might say it is there because it was important to see the many talents of David, or so that the customs of the people of that time could be observed. Maybe it revealed something new about Saul and Jonathan. All these statements are true, but I don’t think that even collectively they are enough. The Bible doesn’t have “extra.” Everything there, every word, has the potential to reveal God’s truth. What is in this poem that we need to know?

            David says that Israel’s glory lies dead in its high places. Israels’s glory here is her king now slain. I think David is saying what many of us felt when John Kennedy was assassinated or when the twin towers came down. Someone hurt us and hurt us badly. It’s sad beyond words.

            He says don’t tell it in the cities of the Philistines. Don’t tell it where people can gloat and misinterpret the news. Keep it “in house” and let’s mourn on our own. It is understood that the defeat represents not Philistine victory, but disobedience to God.

           David goes on. No rain, no offerings. The best of us was offered and it was found lacking. We have been defiled, embarrassed in this loss and the sting is bitter. They fought, and they stood, but they were not enough. It hurts to know such loss.

          In the next two stanzas, David talks about the strength and unity of these fallen warriors. Then he encourages the people to cry. He tells the daughters of Israel to cry over their fallen leader. The new leader and future king is giving the people permission to express their grief.

          Then, in one of the most tender expressions of loving friendship and respect in all the Bible, David talks personally of his friend Jonathan. Their relationship was deep, covenantal, and David is wounded to his core. In this extraordinary admission, he says the love of these two men for one another was greater than even that of a man for a woman. There is nothing sexual about this admission. It is the disclosure of how intimate true friendship can become.

          Three times in this lament, David says this term: “How the mighty have fallen.” He seems to be observing and asking simultaneously. “How the mighty have fallen.” Perhaps young David, already a veteran of many battles, is foreshadowing his own troubles to come. Perhaps he is already feeling the loneliness of leadership. David sees clearly that kingship is no guarantee to safety. Whatever he is thinking, David shows us that he hurts as deeply as anyone, grieves as publicly as anyone and is not ashamed to invite his people to grieve with him.

          Do you remember where you were when those planes hit the towers on 9/11? Do you remember your reaction? As the stories of heroism and loss began to come in, do you remember how you felt? I think I shook as though it were happening to me. And in a very real sense, it was. When loss is profound, as it is in the case of a lost leader or loved one, it is personal and it is the kind of loss that future king David was saying to us: Grieve! Cry! Hold each other and express your loss. It is not weak. Rather, it shows your humanity.

          C. S. Lewis was one of the most famous Christian writers of the twentieth century. A great mind, he sought to discredit Christianity and on the way through that process, he was converted. Later in life, he had a short marriage of four years. His wife had cancer. It eventually took her life. Lewis was devastated. He devoted an entire book to that chapter in his life. The book was called A Grief Observed. Here is one of the things Lewis said about his experience.

          God has not been trying an experiment on my faith or love

          in order to find out their quality. He knew it already. It was

          I who didn't. In this trial He makes us occupy the dock, the

          witness box, and the bench all at once. He always knew that

          my temple was a house of cards. His only way of making

          me realize the fact was to knock it down.” 
                                                     ― C.S. Lewis, A Grief Observed

 

          Lewis is reminding us that there will come a time for each of us when our faith is tested, when our belief system is shaken to the root. For Lewis, as it was for David, we must not only observe that grief; we must understand that much of grieving is not meant to be private. Sometimes, we must cry as a people or as a church or as a nation. The loss of nine Christians to senseless tragedy at Emmanuel AME Zion Church in Charleston on June 17^th is such a loss--a public loss of such magnitude that all Christians grieve.

          In this poem of lament by David, we are reminded that such is exactly the task to which we should be about. If we can celebrate our victories, we can also mourn our losses. Grief has its private moments, but it also has a public face.

          “How the mighty have fallen,” said David. How we grieve in such loss. So David grieved, and then he went up to Hebron and was anointed king of Judah. So it is with our Savior. How Jesus suffered on that cross! And how his disciples grieved that loss. So Jesus was dead and buried, and then he arose from the dead to sit on the right hand of God!

          So maybe that’s why David’s lament appears here in 2^nd Samuel. Hr reminds us to give life to our grief/ Grieving should be observed. It’s part of healing. And for Christians, we only fall to rise again.