000 Allen FMT (i-xxii) - The Presbyterian Leader

160 Proper 8 [13]/Year B
death at the hand of the Amalekite. The visitor presents David with Saul’s
crown and armlet.
David immediately rips his garments and begins to fast in traditional
gestures of mourning. He learns that the messenger is a resident alien—
a non-Israelite who lives in Israel and receives the benefit of protection
from Israel but who is to live according to the same values as Israel. David
has the Amalekite killed because the people of Israel are to respect (and
certainly not to kill) God’s anointed (2 Sam. 2:11–16).
David then intoned 2 Samuel 1:19–27 as a lament over the deaths of
Saul and Jonathan and ordered that it be taught to all in Judah (1:17–19).
David wants Israel to mourn the loss of its glory (Saul) but wishes that the
Philistines would not hear of it and rejoice (1:19–20). Nature itself is to
mourn because the shield of Saul will no more be rubbed with oil (1:21).
The people of Israel are to mourn as they remember Jonathan and Saul
as valiant warriors and as they recall Saul’s gifts to them (1:22–25a). David
names his grief about Jonathan in a brief but moving first person statement
(1:25b–27).
A refrain, “How the mighty have fallen” occurs three times in the poem,
and recalls similar themes in Hannah’s song with its subtle inference that
monarchy would bring difficult times upon Israel (1 Sam. 2:1–10). The
death of Saul and Jonathan demonstrates the truth of her song.
Four things are noteworthy for preaching in these readings. First,
although the Deuteronomists did not think about issues around suicide in
the same way as communities today, the story of Saul taking his own life
could provide the preacher with a point of entry into a broader theological
consideration of that issue. Second is a reservation about David killing
the Amalekite. Community members need to be accountable to community
standards, but murdering the Amalekite (even if the Amalekite killed
Saul) only increases the level of violence in community. Third, public
lamentation—including the rituals of tearing the garment and fasting—
encouraged people in antiquity to name their grief directly and to deal
with it in a communal setting in which they had the support of other people.
These attitudes and practices were much healthier than the ways in
which many people in North America attempt to deny grief and hide displays
of it. Fourth, while David and Saul were at loggerheads (and Saul
even tried to kill David), David treated Saul respectfully according to the
standards of covenantal community. David thus provides a useful model
in a church and world in which conflicts continually increase, and in which
increasingly vicious attitudes and behaviors are commonplace.