Amen. And let us turn our scripture reading Second Samuel, chapter one. As we have worked through First Samuel, but once again, we note that it's really one book. It just means the first scroll is done. And so we're not gonna go all the way through Second Samuel, Lord willing. We'll make it all the way through chapter one today. And then we'll take chapter two, verse one to 11. And that'll That'll see us through the anointing of David, at least as the king of Judah. And then Lord willing, we'll move our next book series will be James, Lord willing. But now we have 2 Samuel chapter one. That's page 323 in most of the Bibles under the seats. and we'll be reading considering the 27 verses of 2 Samuel 1. Let us hear the word of God. After the death of Saul, when David had returned from striking down the Amalekites, David remained two days in Ziklag, And on the third day, behold, a man came from Saul's camp with his clothes torn and dirt on his head. And when he came to David, he fell to the ground and paid homage. And David said to him, where do you come from? And he said to him, I have escaped from the camp of Israel. And David said to him, how did it go? Tell me. And he answered, the people fled from the battle, and also many of the people have fallen and are dead. And Saul and his son Jonathan are also dead. Then David said to the young man who told him, how do you know that Saul and his son Jonathan are dead? And the young man who told him said, by chance I happen to be on Mount Gilboa. And there was Saul leaning on his spear. And behold, the chariots and the horsemen were close upon him. And when he looked behind him, he saw me and called to me. And I answered, here I am. And he said to me, who are you? I answered him, I am an Amalekite. And he said to me, stand beside me and kill me, for anguish has seized me, and yet my life still lingers. So I stood beside him and killed him, because I was sure that he could not live after he had fallen. And I took the crown that was on his head, and the armlet that was on his arm, and I have brought them here to my Lord. And David took hold of his clothes and tore them, and so did all the men who were with him. And they mourned and wept and fasted until evening for Saul and for Jonathan his son, and for the people of the Lord, and for the house of Israel, because they had fallen by the sword. And David said to the young man who told him, where do you come from? And he answered, I am the son of a sojourner, an Amalekite. And David said to him, how is it you were not afraid to put out your hand to destroy the Lord's anointed? Then David called one of the young men and said, go execute him. And he struck him down, so he died. And David said to him, your blood be on your head, for your own mouth has testified against you, saying, I have killed the Lord's anointed. And David lamented with this 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, He said, 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 the 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. 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 battle. Jonathan lies 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. And the grass withers, and the flower fades, but the word of our Lord endures forever. Dear congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ, this is not a complete catalog of the view of a man of God over the loss of life. Even within scriptures, we have a loss of life that may be more personal than the loss of a beloved brother. And David will sing about that when he loses his son, Absalom, in 1 Samuel 18. There's also a view of the death of the Lord's enemies, which goes much further than the description here and the lamentation over the death of Saul, the unrighteous king. And so, for example, Saul will give thanks for deliverance from enemies in Psalm 124. And so we look at a text like this which speaks about three very different kinds of death and it gives us a wide ranging look at a view of death but we understand it is not a complete catalog of how one would understand death. And because death and one's view of death and one's grief over death is so personal, well there's not really a way that we could give a complete catalog even if we gave more categories for how David views death and grieves over death. But while we shouldn't think of this as a complete catalog, it is a helpful and wide-ranging view of how a man of God A man after God's own heart views death and understands three very different deaths. And so each one of those three deaths will be one of our points this morning and all considered with this theme that God's people understand the unhappiness of the loss of life. And so first we're going to look at the death of a sojourner, judgment on a sojourner. and then grief for a king, and then grief for a brother. Our first point will be a little bit longer as we get into the movement of our text, and that begins at verse one, and there's this movement, there's this communication of what's going on. We're picking up right where 1 Samuel 31 is left off, And we're now where the end of 1 Samuel had been switching back and forth from David to Saul to David to Saul. Now it all comes together. And so we see that at the same time that Saul was fighting on Gilboa, David was returning from striking down the Amalekites. And now, during the two days and into the third day since then, There's been an Amalekite running the at least 100 miles or so distance from Gilboa to Ziklag. We say running because it's not a distance that could have been covered in that time by just walking. This is a runner. This is one bringing the news from the battlefield to David as quickly as he can. And so the Amalekite arrives with the news on the third day. And David sees this man with torn clothes and dirt on his head and bowed before him. And David can probably guess where he's come from, but he asks nonetheless, verse three, where have you come from? Hearing that he's from the camp of Israel, returned from the battlefield, David asks how the battle went. The answer of the Amalekite is partially true. He speaks of the defeat of the army. This is true. He also speaks of the death of Saul, which is true, but the way that that death happened, that is not reported truthfully. We know, especially if you were here last week in 1 Samuel 31, that Saul actually died by his own hand. And we might say some other things like, that he was actually being pursued by the archers and not by the chariots like this Amalekite embellishes. That of course makes more sense because the chariots are very powerful but one place that they are not powerful is up the slopes of the mountain. And so this Amalekite is mixing general truths with embellishments and with inserting his own role into the story and why is he doing this why is he run all this way to give this account well the clue that we need to understand why he's doing it is that he's bowed down before David with that's verse 2 with Saul's crown verse 10 in other words he's just run a hundred miles in pursuit of promotion in the new government. That's what he's after. So he's embellishing the story, trying to make himself as involved as possible. And if this had been Saul's reign, this would have been celebrated. This would have been honored. We know that because Saul honored such cruel men and their acts in service of him as he honored Doeg the Edomite, for example. And so this Amalekite is thinking, well, David's going to be the same way. I'm going to be honored for killing his old rival. I'm going to bow before him, present him the crown, and who knows, maybe I'll be made second in command or something. But of course, David is not like Saul. they are alike in that they're both sinners as we spoke of last week but there are many differences by God's grace and so the reign of David is not going to be like the reign of Saul and we saw throughout First Samuel that David would begin to do some of the acts of a prince, of a king to be. But we might say that here now we have the first act of the king elect soon to be crowned. And what is that first act? It's to be the judge as the Israelite king is called to be. And so he asks this man, well, Who are you? What is your position? And here's in verse 13, that this man is the son of a sojourner and a Malachite. Now, what does that mean? That means that he is a second generation resident of Israel. We might say it this way. He's in the process of becoming an Israelite. if you would believe in the one true God, embrace the one true God, be circumcised, which perhaps even he is, we don't know, but as a second-generation sojourner, that's a technical term. It's not just a foreigner traveling through. This is someone who's the son of a sojourner, who's a second-generation resident alien, in Israel, which means that he has certain legal protections and certain legal responsibilities. So, for example, Leviticus chapter 24 verse 22 speaks about how sojourners are held accountable before the law. In other words, we can just summarize it this way, David knows that though this man is not an ethnic Israelite, he should know better. He's under the law. He's the second generation living in Israel and under the law. And so he says in verse 14, how is it that you are not afraid to put out your hand and to destroy the Lord's anointed? How did you not understand that this is cruelty, that this is an act against the Lord's anointed, which should not be honored, but which will be justly punished. And so David completes his first act as king elect, taking on his responsibilities as the Lord's anointed, as David is also having been anointed some years ago by Samuel, and his first act as king elect is execution. Now, David's not taking delight in this execution. It's not a happy event. David knows the unhappiness of the loss of life even when that life is justly condemned. A judge should not be happy when a judge sentences someone to death. They're doing their duty, but we would think it odd if a judge enjoyed condemning people to death. That would not be right. On the same hand, if a judge had someone before them who had committed a capital crime and should be condemned to death, we would think it odd if a judge would never execute his role and his call. This is a reflection of God as eternal judge. What does God do as eternal judge? He executes justice and righteous judgment. Does God take pleasure in the death of the wicked? No. Ezekiel chapter 33 verse 11. God does not delight in the death of the wicked, but desires that all would turn from their ways, repent, and be saved. But that doesn't mean that God doesn't execute the justice. He is the righteous judge. If there's no repentance, if there's no returning from evil, God will execute his justice. David, as a man after God's own heart, doesn't do this happily. There's no pleasure in it. But he executes his role. He puts the man to death for killing the Lord's anointed. David does this despite the fact that he may suspect something is not quite right in the Amalekite story. After all, as I said, chariots don't ride well on mountains. It was, as the narrator told us in chapter 31, it was the archerers that were after him, which makes much more sense. And is it likely that anyone would have found Saul alone with no armor bearer, no one around him? Later, when David mentions the death of Saul in chapter 4, he only says that he heard of the death from an Amalekite, not that an Amalekite killed him. But whatever David suspects, he can only go by the man's own testimony. And Saul is dead. The royal regalia, the royal armlet, the crown from his head, which David would have instantly recognized, are in the Amalekite's hand. So he can only go by the man's own testimony, and he does know that Saul is dead. And whatever David knows or suspects, certainly God knows. And in this case, God arranged for the sins of the Amalekite to find him out immediately. As Dale Ralph Davis once put it, this Amalekite, quote, was repaid in line with his intent, if not with his deed, end of quote. Congregation, what is life? if we do not turn from our ways and repent. It's not just running a hundred miles over two days and into the third day in pursuit of a prize that we're not going to be given. It's a whole life of running after vanity. All is vanity and chasing the wind. Apart from Christ, this Amalekite is a picture of life. You run. In arrogance, you think you're gonna get something on your own. But what is at the end? You stand before the judge. And if you have never repented of sin, and trust it in Jesus Christ alone. You'll stand before the judge who knows all things and be justly condemned. We must come to Jesus Christ. We must forget the pursuit of selfish ambition and running our own way. We must repent and trust only in Jesus Christ. and then seek to serve him and give glory to him instead of chasing after vanity. Now that's our first point. Let's come to our second point. And the points two and three are more related to each other because they're both related to grief instead of judgment. So first grief for a king. Because sometimes death is not only an unhappy thing, sometimes it's a thing of sorrow. It goes beyond unhappiness. So David mourns for Jonathan, but he also mourns for Saul. He mourns for the whole nation. This mourning is first described in verses 11 and 12. That's the spontaneous grief. That's the outpouring of tears upon the first hearing of the bad news. And then, as was the custom of the day, there's also clothes torn in deep distress. David is not only shedding tears for his friend Jonathan, who was like a brother, he's shedding tears for all of the people of the Lord and the house of Israel. because they had fallen by the sword, verse 12, and for Saul the king. Now that David is thinking about the whole nation is part of the reason why he's crying over the death of Saul. David knows that for all of Saul's faults and for all of the places like Nob and for all of the persons like David himself who were not protected by Saul, There was a general strength and protection for the people of Israel in Saul's military might. And that's why the song of verses 19 to 27 is very much focused on this military might and strength. The Philistines, who had been so often defeated by Saul, are now rejoicing in verse 20. And David cannot stand to have the uncircumcised exalt. He knows that this is spiritual war, that it's God's people who have been defeated by uncircumcised, idle worshippers. And then there's all this military language. The shield of Saul is not anointed with oil, the end of verse 21. That's a little bit of a strange expression. We're not used to it. But it just means that Saul's shield is no longer prepared for battle. He would anoint the shield with oil before battle. The fat of the mighty, the bow of Jonathan, the sword of Saul, did not return empty, verse 22. In other words, they slew many of God's enemies in righteous, legitimate warfare. But now these mighty warriors have fallen. The beginning of verse 25, how the mighty have fallen in the midst of battle. It is upon this one positive of Saul which David dwells. Saul is called the mighty warrior along with Jonathan who has fallen. Brothers and sisters, there's a lesson for us here. We must be careful to guard against bitterness in our lives. People are going to offend us and all kinds of other things. There's going to be all kinds of reasons why we would be tempted to hold grudges to hold animosity against others. It's a bad sign if we have nothing good to say about a person. It's a bad sign if we have nothing good to say about a person. What is David doing here? He's focusing on the one positive of Saul. There's no animosity There's no grudge, there's no bitterness. He grabs hold of the one thing that Saul generally did well to protect the nation of Israel in his military might and he focuses on that. John Calvin once said it this way, quote, even when we must hate and detest a person's evil side, we must not be so carried away with the violence of our feelings that we are utterly unable to accept the good, for then we have lost our perception and discernment, end of quote. Now, this does not mean that we make up things which are not true. I once knew of a minister, and he was approached by a family who had lost a son, a brother. And this son, this brother, had been a member of the church in his younger years. He even served the church in various ways, including as a deacon. But he had gone away from the faith. He had gone his own way. He had demonstrated all kinds of bad fruit. He'd been removed from the church. And the family, after he died, came to the minister and they said, you know, we really want you to talk about all these wonderful things in the funeral. All these great things that he did and how he was a great, you know, faithful servant in the church. The minister said, I can grieve with you. And we can hope he repented at the end of his life, though we have no evidence of that. But I can't make up things that we don't know. I can't say what you want me to say. And I think they asked someone else to do the funeral. I know that they wrote the obituary as though he was this great man of God who died in loving service to God, which was not true as far as anyone knew. David does not make up things about Saul which are not true. He's only talking about Saul's military might here. He knows that Saul is unrighteous. In chapter 4, when David is comparing Saul with Ish-bosheth, his son, he all but says explicitly, Saul was an unrighteous king who deserved to die. He doesn't say it exactly that way, but that's basically what he says in chapter 4. It is appropriate to focus on narrow positives. This is a sad day for all the people of Israel. They've lost a mighty warrior. They've lost protection. They've suffered a crushing defeat. But that doesn't mean you make up things that are not true or which we don't know. But still, let's come back to this. It's national sorrow. David's concerned for God's people. The uncircumcised Philistines, verse 20, have had a victory. This is going to make worship difficult. And it's part of that national sorrow and that difficulty for God's people which is driving David's grief here. Or let's think about it this way. David is not focusing on personal advantages. Think about how easy that would be. He's been the fugitive on the run. Now, he's no longer a fugitive. He's literally holding the crown, which in God's providence, the Amalekite brought to him. I mean, it would be tempting. No wonder the Amalekite thought he was going to be honored. That's how we would all be tempted to think. I'm delivered from my fugitive years on the run. My suffering is done. I'm holding the crown in my hand. It would be very easy to focus on the personal advantages of the situation. But what is David thinking about? He's thinking about God's people. He's thinking about the church. He's focused on how this is a grievous situation for the whole nation for God's people. Brothers and sisters, do our thoughts run in this way? Do you place the importance of the church and of the people of God above your own personal problems? And I'm not just talking about little personal problems. I'm talking about, you know, years on the run as a fugitive. And do you place the triumphs of the church above your own personal triumphs, like holding the king's crown in your hand? in a cool once more from Calvin on this text common said it is quite certain that the well-being of the church was more precious to David than his own life and of course he's been a fugitive on run on the run for his life that's done told me from his hand basically done we'll see that he there's going to be now battles with this bush at but as far as he knows it's done do we run our thoughts in such a way? Are we so focused on God's plan for God's people? We place it above our own personal situations. Well, let's come to our third point, grief for a brother. In many ways, we can say that the grief for Saul is national grief. It's grief over the situation of the crushing defeat of God's people, of the army of Israel. And going back to verse 12, again, we know that he's thinking about not just Saul and Jonathan, he's thinking about the people of the Lord. He's grieving for the people of the Lord and for the house of Israel because they had fallen by the sword, verse 12. But there's also very deep personal grief. And while verses 19 to 27 is a poem, a song written for the whole tribe of Judah, that personal grief also comes out, especially in the last two verses. I am distressed for you, my brother, Jonathan. And that, by the way, tells us what we need to know about the nature of their friendship. If it was something else, as is too often implied in the minds of many today, David would have had to repent, but neither Abiathar nor Gad come to David here saying, you are the man, you must repent, because there's no sin here. David and Jonathan were brothers. Now, it is true that we have the words beloved and lovely back in verse 23, but in the Hebrew, that's in the plural. In other words, both Jonathan and Saul are called beloved and lovely. And there's also some things that kind of get lost in translation. As David Toshio-Semura, the reformed scholar from Japan, he's pointed out that this phrase, beloved and lovely, verse 23, In the Hebrew, it's something of a stock phrase for heroes. In other words, it's a little bit like saying Prince Charming in English, except it has more of a heroic military overtone to it. They were brothers. We remember from 1 Samuel that David and and Jonathan have embraced and they've shed tears together in the past. And if we think about other times when men have done that together in the Old Testament, all the other examples are in a family unit. And so Jacob and Esau embrace one another and weep in Genesis 33. Joseph and his brothers embrace one another and and weep in Egypt in Genesis 45 and then Joseph embraces his father and weeps with him in Genesis 50. This is the intimacy of David and Jonathan. It is the intimacy of brotherhood, of a family intimacy. For David who has perverted the intimacy of the marriage union and the intimacy that that union should have because he's taken more than one wife, because David has perverted the intimacy of the marriage family intimacy, he can then say that this love surpasses the love of women because he has a better family intimacy with his adopted brother, Jonathan. Now, we've had to say some things about this, but let us not be distracted from this. That the believer knows The deep distress of losing a close friend. The loss of life is always unhappy. It should never be a pleasurable thing. But of course there's a difference between the righteous execution of one who's killed, murdered in his own testimony, the Lord's anointed. There's a difference between that and grieving over the loss of a warrior, protector of a nation. And there's a difference between that and losing a brother. There are all different levels of grief on this earth. There's all different levels of unhappiness in the loss of life and here is anguish, personal grief. Now some unthinking might say something like this, well Jonathan's a believer and so You know, the grief for Jonathan should be different than the grief for unrighteous Saul. After all, David and Jonathan, one of the strengths of their friendship, what it was based upon was their trust in the Lord, Yahweh, God of Israel. And so someone unthinking might say, well, David will see Jonathan again. There was an understanding in the Old Testament of the promise of eternal life, and so You know, he should be more sorry over Saul, who is unrighteous, than the death of a righteous friend. No, no, no, no, no. Scripture does say that when we mourn the loss of a believer, we do not mourn as those who have no hope. But the word mourning is still there. And the level of mourning is not tied to whether someone's a believer or an unbeliever, whether we're going to see them again or not see them again. The depth of the grief is tied to the closeness of the relationship. And so David grieves deeply the loss of a brother who trusted in the Lord, who has gone before him. He grieves in more than one way. There is both the spontaneous tears of distress as the news comes at first. This is verses 11 and 12. And there's also the thoughtful grief of later days. Now, our narrative is put you know, verses 19 to 27 right here, right next to everything. But this was David lamented with his lamentation. This was not written the day of. This was written later and then placed here because they all go together with the death and the grief. But there's a different kind of grief in verses 11 and 12 than the grief of 19 to 27. Dale Ralph Davis called it the difference between the emotional grief of first having bad news and the reflective grief of later days. In other words, people of God, the Bible knows that grief over the loss of one very close to us doesn't go away. And anyone who's lost, anyone close to them, knows that the grief doesn't go away. You do not always remain in the spontaneous emotional grief. You don't have tears streaming down your face every day, but you remain in grief. Scripture knows this. Scripture assumes this. Scripture tells us to give expression to this, for the pain of loss will never be gone for those lost who are closest to us. The very form of the lament, and David lamented with this lamentation, implies that we will be in our grief, or as Dale Ralph Davis said it this way, quote, the lament form of the Bible assumes that our grief is deep and ongoing. And it invites us to enter the discipline of expressing that grief in words that convey our anguish, in written prayers that verbalize despondency. End of quote. Or let's just say it this way. We don't know for sure what David did with this song. But this is a poem. It's a written lament to be kept, to be mulled over. Did David pull this out and sing it personally on the anniversary of the death of his close friend Jonathan. We're not told exactly that he did that, but he may have. And the form of the lament tells us that it would be appropriate to do such a thing. Grief remains. Now, let's come to our conclusion. For at the end of our first point, we emphasize that we must turn from our sins, we must depend upon Jesus Christ because there is judgment at the end of the road, at the end of the run, if we do not. But the fear of judgment is far from the only reason we come to Christ. Indeed, as we understand the gospel, More and more, we understand that grace and peace are the primary motivations to cling to our Savior, Jesus Christ, to run to his arms, not for mere happiness, but for peace on this earth, for peace from our sins, for peace from our sorrows, which will remain as long as we are on this earth and so. Brothers and sisters we come to Jesus. Just for fear of judgment we come to Jesus Christ for peace. And while grief remains and while the loss of life is unhappy in all kinds of different ways and sometimes in very deep ways we come to Jesus Christ for peace and praise be to God that in Christ we find peace from our sins, we find peace even in our sorrows. Amen. Let us pray. Lord God Almighty, we thank you that scripture speaks of all