A Royal Lament

If you would, stand together in respect for the Lord as we share in 2 Samuel 1, starting at verse 17. For there the shield of the mighty was defiled, the shield of Saul not anointed with oil. From the blood of the slain, from the fat of the mighty, the bow of Jonathan turned not back. And the sword of Saul returned not empty. Saul and Jonathan, beloved and lovely, in life and in death they were not divided.

They were swifter than eagles, they were stronger than lions. Your daughters of Israel, weep over Saul, who clothed you luxuriously in scarlet, who put ornaments of gold on your apparel. How the mighty have fallen in the midst of the battle. Jonathan lies slain on your high places. I am distressed for you, my brother Jonathan. Very pleasant have you been to me.

Your love to me was extraordinary, surpassing the love of women. How the mighty have fallen and the weapons of war perished. Bow with me as we go to our Lord in prayer. Father, we thank you for the privilege of worship today. We are living right now in a very crazy time.

A time that just feels weird in everything that we're doing with this COVID virus attacking our world, with our government situation, Lord, in turmoil and upheaval. But Lord, what we know now is this, that you are on the throne. That you are sovereign over everything that's taken place.

That none of this is catching you by surprise. And Lord, you are in control. Fill our hearts with that, Lord, and help us now that we might put the craziness of this world out of our minds for this time period. That we might focus on the Lord as we worship today.

Help me today, Lord, as I preach that I might get across the reality of the presence of death in our life. And help us, Lord, that we might approach it in a way that would bring you honor and glory. Heavenly Father, we thank you for Jesus today.

For the Jesus who went to the cross to die for a sinful people. Lord, we don't deserve your grace, but how we appreciate your grace. Help us to realize that we call it free grace.

It was free for us, but it cost you your very life. God, direct us through this passage today. May Jesus be uplifted and glorified through it. And it's in your holy and wonderful and precious name that we pray. Amen.

You may be seated. In Revelation chapter 1 verses 5 and 6, we read the following words. And from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler over the kings of the earth, to him who loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood, and has made us kings and priests to his God and Father. To him be glory and dominion forever and ever.

Amen. The scripture is filled with different names and titles for the people of God. We are called his sheep. We are called servants. We are called the saints.

We are called his friends. We are called heirs of God and joint heirs with Jesus Christ. We are called the bride of Christ. We are called the elect. We are called the chosen ones. We are called the peculiar people. That's one I'm not really comfortable with, but that's what we are called. A peculiar people because we are different from the world.

But here in this passage, we have a special designation. We are called kings. And what do you think about when you think about kings?

I usually think first of all about power and strength and authority. But I would have us to look today at another perspective on kings. And that is the idea that when you look at yourself as a king, you need to understand the responsibility side of kingship. And today we look at David as God is preparing him to be the next king of Israel. Seventeen years have passed by since the old prophet Samuel has taken the horn of oil and has poured it over David's head. As he did that, he said to David, you are the chosen one of God. You are the apple of God's eye. David, you are the one who is going to replace King Saul and be the new king of Israel.

And you will be a man after God's own heart. Since that day, David has done many things. He has defeated the giant Goliath. He has become the armor bearer of King Saul.

He has been the best friend of Jonathan and become his covenant brother. And then King Saul has chased David around Israel trying to kill him for several years now. That has gone on so that David has had to take refuge with the people of Philistia. And has actually fought with the Philistine army. And God has called David to gather his troops together and to go and fight the Amalekites.

And David did and pretty much wiped them out. Little did David know at that particular time that so much time would pass away. And so much persecution would take place in his life. And he would experience so many heartaches before he actually became the king of Israel. But I think we see something in David's preparation for kingship here that is much more important than just history. I think we have a prophetic picture of how God wants to use us in his kingdom. Of how God wants to use us in how we reign for Christ's sake. Now hear me out here.

I want to make this clear. When I talk about us being kings, I realize that there is only one true king. He is the king of kings and Lord of lords, Jesus Christ. He is the king of the church. He is the head of the church. We are kings, but it's kings with a little K. It's kings that are under the umbrella of the true king.

So how does the Lord fashion us into little kings? One of the things that God cultivated in the life of David is to prepare him for kingship was a godly perspective of death. How are modern day folks dealing with death today?

I don't think we really deal with it as a society very well. Because I think what we try to do is to avoid death. We don't even call it death anymore. We call it passing away. Or we do like Forrest Gump's mother did with him when she was getting ready to die. She said, dying is just part of living.

I have been frustrated in the last few years with how some funeral homes have been changing funerals from a situation where people come together to worship God and to godly grieve to a situation where it feels almost like a party. Now I realize that as Christians we can go along with Paul who says that we are to sorrow not as others who have no hope. And that means that we don't approach death in the same way the lost person approaches death. I realize that when someone dies that we love, God has promised to put into our heart a peace that passes all understanding.

And that is glorious and that is true. But yet we cannot skirt around the issue that death hurts. Death brings separation. Death brings great sorrow to us. Death hurts.

1 Corinthians 15 26 Paul said that the last enemy that we face is death. When Jesus was going to the tomb of Lazarus. Lazarus had been dead for four days. He walks up to the tomb.

He looks into the door. The scripture says that he wept. That tears flowed down the face of Jesus. And yet he knew that within just a few minutes he was going to be raising Lazarus from the dead.

And he wept anyway. That's what death does. Paul said the wages of sin is death. Death is not a party to enjoy.

Death is an enemy to hate. What is our society doing? I think we're trying to hide death. To disguise it. So that we don't have to deal with the reality of it. I don't think that's what God wants from us. I think God wants us to face it. I think he wants us to feel it.

I think he wants us to acknowledge death. Hebrews chapter 9 verse 27. Scripture says this.

For there is appointed unto me and wants to die and after that the judgment. Unless we are the generation of people that experience the second coming of Christ. Every single one of us are going to die.

No one cheats death. Everybody in Jesus' generation has died. Everybody in Martin Luther's generation has died. Everybody in Charles Spurgeon's generation has died.

And so will we. Death is certain. The death rate in every generation is always the same.

It's a hundred percent. Everyone dies. And when we die, physical life ends. The blood quits circulating. Our breath stops.

The breathing stops. And then our body begins to decay and go back to the dust. There is separation and there is sorrow.

And there is emotional hurt for those that are left behind here to have to deal with the sorrow in their heart over that person who has passed away. In our last accountability group meeting we were talking about the monotony of reading the genealogies in 1 and 2 Chronicles and how tough that is going through all that long list of genealogies. And as we were talking about that, an incident came to my mind when I was pastoring my first church. I was preaching through Genesis and I was in Genesis chapter 5. And Genesis chapter 5 starts with this long genealogy. And so I was asking myself, well, should I even read that? It's just a long genealogy and should I read it?

I'm not really preaching on that. I'm going to be preaching on Enoch. And it hit me, well, the genealogies are part of the Word of God so I'm at least going to read it.

And so I did read it. I want to share with you very quickly just a few of those verses from Genesis chapter 5 and that genealogy. It says, the days of Adam after he fathered Seth were 800 years and he had other sons and daughters. Thus all the days that Adam lived were 930 years and he died. When Seth had lived 105 years he fathered Enoch. Seth lived after he fathered Enoch 807 years and had other sons and daughters.

Thus all the days of Seth were 912 years and he died. When Enoch lived 90 years he fathered Kenan. Enoch lived after the father Kenan 815 years had other sons and daughters. Thus all the days of Enoch were 905 years and he died. When Kenan had lived 70 years he fathered Mahaliel. Kenan lived after he fathered Mahaliel 840 years and had other sons and daughters.

Thus all the days of Kenan were 1910 years and he died. After that service was over, a visitor came up to me and said, Pastor, do you have time to talk? And I said, sure, come on in my office. He came in my office, we sat down and I said, what's going on? He said, well, I'm lost. I know that I'm lost and I want to be saved. That sermon that I preached that morning had not been really an evangelistic sermon.

It had been more of a sermon preached to Christians about sanctification. So I said, what brought you to this point? And he said, you're reading of the genealogy. And I said, you're kidding. And he said, no. I said, well, what about it? And he said, it was that phrase that you kept repeating over and over again.

I said, what phrase? He said, and he died, and he died, and he died. He said, it hit me like a thunderbolt.

That's going to happen to me. Everybody dies. I'm going to die and I'm not ready to die. I was able to share the gospel with him. He repented of his sins, trusted Christ as his Lord and Savior.

The reality of death and the absolute certainty of death drove him to the gospel. So I was working on this message last week. I got to this point in the sermon and my telephone pinged. And so I looked over to see, it was a text. It was from Bernie Lowes. And so I read what Bernie had to say.

And Bernie was sharing a quote with me from Ligonier. And you talk about providential. I want to read it to you now because it fit just perfect with what I'm trying to say here. He said, God is calling out to the world for repentance. And one of the ways he does this is by reminding us of our frailty.

We cannot connect every natural disaster to a specific sin. But these troubles do remind us that we will die. And therefore that we need to be prepared to meet our maker.

Let us consider our frailty and remind people that they need to know Christ before it's too late. Folks there is a sting to death. Death is real. And we as humans can't do anything humanly speaking to remove that sting.

But Jesus can. It was Paul who said this, O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? For the sting of death is sin. And the strength of sin is the law.

But thanks be unto God who gives us the victory through Jesus Christ our Lord. John Piper gave some very wise counsel on what we should do about these thoughts of death that we have. He said this, I suppose for some of you the thought of dying is so morbid, so gloomy, so fraught with grief and pain that you do your best to keep it out of your minds.

Especially during the holidays. I think that is unwise. And that you do yourself a great disservice. I have found that there are few things more revolutionizing for my life than a periodic pondering of my own death. Folks we should so prepare for death that we would know that when we come to that last day of our life that we might be able to say along with the Apostle Paul, For I am now ready to be offered in the time of my departures at hand. For I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day, and not to me only, but to all them also who love his appearing.

With all that said, let's go to the text and there are four points I want to share with you this morning. Number one, emotional and intellectual grief. Look at verse 17 through 18. And David lamented with his lamentation over Saul and Jonathan his son, and he said it, should be taught to the people of Judah, behold it is written in the book of Jasher. Emotional grief was David's first response to Saul and Jonathan's death.

The scripture says he was grabbing onto his robe and he just ripped his clothes. David first grieved in his heart. But secondly he grieved in his mind. This lament was written down and it was recorded in the book of Jasher.

Later on it was recorded in the scripture right here in 2 Samuel chapter 2. With many people one way to deal with grief is to write down your thoughts or to verbalize your sorrows. I've been in the ministry for 41 years now and I was just trying to figure out how many funeral sermons that I have preached during that time and I think it's somewhere between six and seven hundred funeral services. I remember the first year that I was at Southside it was an elderly church and I had a funeral on the average that year of one funeral every ten days. I can remember on one particular day I had three funerals on one day.

That will wear you out. But preparing funeral sermons is a way to compel me to think about a person's life and his relationship with Christ and his relationship with others. The hardest funeral service that I ever had to preach was my dad's.

The only reason I did it was because he asked me to. But I can remember getting up in the pulpit in front of you guys that particular morning or afternoon when my dad had died. And I remember my voice cracking, tears rolling down my cheeks. But as I began to share with you as a congregation about my dad's love for Jesus and about his entrance into glory, all of a sudden my soul was just absolutely soothed. It was amazing what that did. Folks, putting it in words helped me through the sorrow of missing my dad.

So sometimes testifying words can be helpful, and sometimes you don't need any words at all. Robert Dabney was a great theologian. He was a Presbyterian pastor, lived back during the Civil War times. And there was a lady in his church that had a young son who died. And she was grieving over this.

Nobody could seem to help her. He found out about it, and he went to see the lady. Now just a year before this, Robert Dabney had lost two young sons himself to death. And so he went to see this lady. Where nobody else could help her, he was able to.

Let me read this to you. An eyewitness reported that Dabney gently walked through the house to the back parlor where the child was lying. The mother was on her knees near the child. Dabney walked to the bed, knelt beside the mother, and gave way to a flood of tears. Then he offered a prayer for the parents and the boy, a prayer that could only have come from one capable of empathizing with the family's affliction.

After the child was buried, the mother reported that Dr. Dabney's visit did more good than all the visits and prayers of all the other friends. There are times when I take a friend with me to go to visit a person who's experienced a death in the family. And oftentimes the friend will say, Doug, I don't know what to say. And I'll say, that's okay. You don't have to say anything. It's when that person sees that you're here and that you cared enough to come and grieve with them, they're going to be very blessed by that.

And they always are. David's lament here is more than just personal grieving. It is also a military order. David's lament was copied down to be read to the nations. Look at verse 18 again. It says, It shall be taught to the people of Judah and written in the book of Jasher.

If you've got an ESV, that's what it says. It shall be taught. But if you've got a King James or a New King James or a New American Standard Bible, it doesn't say it shall be taught. It says the bow shall be taught to the people of Judah and written in the book of Jasher. The bow is like a bow, as in bow and arrow, like a weapon of war. What's David saying here?

This is a motivation. It is a call to arms. He is calling the people of Israel to not put up with what the Philistines had done and causing all this pain and all this heartache. He says, You take up arms and we are going to fight against the Philistines.

Hike point two is the disgrace of sin. Look at verses 19 through 21. Your glory, O Israel, is slain on your high places. How the mighty have fallen, tell it not in Gath, publish it not in the streets of Ashkelon, lest the daughters of Philistines rejoice, lest the daughters of the uncircumcised exult. You mountains of Gilboa, let there be no dew or rain upon you, nor fields of offerings, for there the shield of the mighty was defiled, the shield of Saul not anointed with oil.

Here's a good question. How in the world could David describe King Saul this way? Saul died as an apostate. Saul died just giving himself over to the powers of darkness. The answer is found in Saul's beginning as Israel's king. In 1 Samuel chapter 9, Saul is described this way. There was not a man among the people of Israel who was more handsome than he.

From the shoulders upward, he was taller than any of the people. Saul started out not only looking good, but also doing good. Very early in his reign, the men of Jabesh Gilead were in great trouble. The Ammonites were going to bring destruction into their lives, and King Saul gathered the armies together. He came against the Ammonites. He defeated them and set Jabesh Gilead free.

Then he and Jonathan went on to win many other wonderful and great, great battles. John Calvin said this, Since God elevated Saul to such dignity that is reason enough for me to honor him, that is how greatly David esteemed the grace of God in a man who was so perverse. But David didn't stay on the subject of honor for very long, did he?

He moves on to his main point. Saul's death was a disgrace to Israel. David is concerned about the glory of God. And so David cries out, Tell it not in Gath.

Don't publish it in Ashkelon. Don't let the Philistine women rejoice. In other words, this defeat of Saul brought dishonor on the name of the Lord.

Folks, let me ask you something. What's the worst thing about our sin? Some bad things about our sin, isn't it? It causes us to lose fellowship with God. That's bad. It hurts our personal testimony. That's bad. It hardens our hearts in sin. That's bad. But that's not the worst thing.

The worst thing is this. It blurs the glory of God. The Philistines were rejoicing over their false gods, over Dagon and Ashtoreth, because now they believe that their false gods were greater than the true God, Jehovah.

And what Saul had done, the disgrace that he brought upon Israel because of his sin, made them believe that. What is the church's greatest era in current America's moral and spiritual decay? We sat back and we did nothing when prayer and Bible reading was kicked out of our public school. We sat back and we did nothing when our government legalized abortion.

We sat back and we did nothing when gay marriage was legalized here in America. And now we're on the very brink of destruction in our country. So what's the worst that can happen? Churches being shut down, pastors being thrown in jail, us as believers being just canceled out, ignored, not paid any attention anymore. Well, those are bad things, but they're not the worst. The worst thing is this, that the glory of God is diminished.

That matters. How often do I as a preacher sound off on the culture? How often do I fuss about academia and higher education? How long do I express anger against Hollywood? How often do I express my anger against the corrupt politicians in our land?

I do that often. Folks, you know, they're not really the problem, are they? For they are dead in their trespasses and sins. They are spiritually deaf.

They are spiritually blind. But yet, we're not. So who should I be preaching to? Maybe I ought to be preaching to me.

Maybe I ought to be preaching this to you. Folks, we have the Spirit. We have the truth. We have the promises of God. And what have we chosen to do?

Too many times we have chosen to do nothing. Too many times we have chosen to just give in to sin and not die to self. We chose to not glorify God through our everyday lives.

And what does that do? It brings dishonor on the name of God, and it kills our witness. Saul's death reminds us of Proverbs chapter 14 verse 34. Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is our approach to any people.

Point three, the failure of sin, verse 22 through 25. From the blood of the slain, from the fat of the mighty, the bow of Jonathan turned not back, and the sword of Saul returned not empty. Saul and Jonathan, beloved and lovely, in life and in death they were not divided. They were swifter than eagles.

They were stronger than lions. You daughters of Israel, weep over Saul. Who clothed you luxuriously in scarlet?

Who put ornaments of gold on your apparel? How the mighty have fallen in the midst of the battle. Here David speaks of the horrible defeat. You can almost picture David standing there, tears rolling down his cheeks, and he says, Oh, how the mighty have fallen.

What's David's intention here? He is teaching us that sin is just not worth it. That when we give over ourselves to sin, there's always going to be loss. Think of the man who pours over pornography.

Pours over pornography and is driven by lust into an adulterous affair that destroys his marriage, breaks his wife's heart, brings disappointment and sadness into the life of his children. Think of the so-called academic scholar who formulates his heretical views and writes a book. And that book is put into the hands of young theologians who are not yet ready and grounded in the Word of God. And they read it and become apostates themselves. Think of the woman who grants herself the pleasure of passing along gossip that does what?

That destroys relationships and hurts feelings. How the mighty have fallen. Folks, the real battle in our lives is the battle against sin. And we as God's people need to realize this.

We need to realize that we're on a battleground, not a playground, and that we've been called to a cross and not a cushion. Point four, the pain of grief, verses 26 to 27. Jonathan lies slain on your high places. I am distressed for you, my brother Jonathan.

Very pleasant had you been to me. Your love to me was extraordinary, surpassing the love of women. How the mighty have fallen and the weapons of war perished. David's lament moves from a sorrow over the death of a government leader and over the destruction of Israel's military. And it moves on to the sorrow that he feels for the death of his best friend.

Brokenness, deep, deep grief over the death of a man who he loves very, very deeply. Verse 26 has been used and is still being used today by the LGBT community to say that David and Jonathan had a homosexual relationship. I want you to know because it says that his love surpassed the love of women. I want you to know that that is not the truth.

It is an absolute lie. David and Jonathan had a spiritual and emotional relationship that was extremely strong. They had so much in common. They both loved the Lord. They were both great military warriors.

They were both great leaders. And they got together. They had so much in common. They could talk easily. They could pray together. They could talk about the Lord and praise the Lord together.

They could hold each other accountable. It was that kind of relationship. Why didn't David have that kind of relationship with his wife? Because David had broken the commandment of God concerning marriage. And the commandment of God concerning marriage is that marriage is between a man and a woman, one man and one woman, until death do you part. And David had many wives.

And so that command of God had been broken. And the result of that is David's affections had been divided. How do you think his wives felt? Oh, a wife ought to feel cherished. She ought to feel adored. She ought to feel put on a pedestal. She ought to feel like my husband loves me as Christ loves the church. You think David's wives felt that way?

I don't think so. I think they felt jealous. And I think they felt anger. And I think they felt left out of David's heart. I don't think they felt like David loved them in a way that Christ loved the church. I think they felt abused.

I think they felt left out. You know, I've got men friends here in our church. Guys in my accountability group, for an example, that I love very deeply. We get together. We pray together. We are able to trust each other, share our problems with each other. We are able to hold each other accountable. I love those men.

I trust those men. But Cindy Agnew is my best friend. I would rather be with her than with anybody else on the face of the earth. I can share my heart with her like I can share my heart with nobody else on the face of this earth. And we have that kind of relationship.

And the reason is, my affections are not divided with some other woman or some other women. And David didn't have that. So David had this relationship with Jonathan that I think was just so special to him. I think one of the reasons was because he didn't have it with his wife because he'd broken God's command there. David's heart was absolutely broken when Jonathan, his friend, died.

So let me close with these wise words from Richard Phillips. By displaying his heart as it grieved for beloved Jonathan, David performed a valuable ministry for his readers. Some of my most cherished memories from childhood involved emotional sharing with my father during times of trouble. My father allowed me to pray with him in anxiety when my mother was having surgery. He held me in his arms and cried after our family dog died. The day that he went away to war, perhaps never to see his family again, he opened his heart to us in sorrow and in love. In these and other settings, I knew how to feel as a young man because my father had shared his feelings with me. David's lament for Jonathan performed something similar for all Israel after the death of Saul. His wise act of leadership offered others access to his heart, blessing them through his sympathy for the sorrows under which they suffered. That spoke to my heart. When we're able to be honest as dads, as husbands, and share what's really going down inside of our heart with them, it does something to them. It ministers to them. That's part of what God's commanded husbands and dads to do and what husbands and dads need to do to be like Christ.

Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you and praise you for this passage. It's not easy to have to deal with the subject of death because death hurts. Death brings sorrow. It brings separation.

It just is our great enemy. We do thank you, Lord, that we sorrow not as others who have no hope, for our hope is that this life is not the end. Our hope is that we are going to be with you when we die and we will be with you personally and face to face and we will never be separated from you again. Father, through the blood of Jesus that was accomplished and we give you praise for that. Guide us and direct us now, Lord. Help us that we might be a people who learn our own kingship, that we might realize that we are little kings, that we are called to reign in your kingdom. And a great part of that is fighting for holiness and fighting against the sin that wants to capture us and do us damage. We love you, Lord. Thank you and praise you for your goodness and love to us. And we ask this prayer in Jesus' name. Amen.