David and the death of king Saul

King David was never accused of having a 21st century C.E. sense of right and wrong, of justice, ethics, or common human decency. Those he loved, he loved deeply and mourned agonizingly, memorably his son Absolom. But the story of David and Bathsheba is unspeakably shameful, as is the story of David reclaiming his wife Michel the daughter of king Saul, whom David did not love and did not want anything of her but his "rights" and put her aside, shunned. The name David ד ו ד is conjectured to mean Beloved, and David indeed was beloved of God.

The story below, [[of which my added material in brackets shows that the lectionary framers cut off the core of it lest we be faced with David's cruelty]], is another example of an entitled man. 

Somehow all the anyhow, God loved David more than any other character in the Old Testament. God was old drinking buddies with Abraham, who passed his wife Sarah off as his sister so that when the king wanted her for himself, instead of killing Abraham so he could take his wife, the king could (and did) just take her. 

Jacob/Israel was a pampered mama's boy who made a selfish, greedy, jealous fool of himself but God adopted him anyway. 

God tolerated Moses with all Moses' whining, and used Moses for his leadership qualities.

But in his history with Creation, the Patriarchs, Prophets and Kings, God loved David as no other. It shows that God can love us just as we are, the way we are, sins and all. But it also shows that God can be as partial as any human parent, leaving such as Cain hurt and seeking vengeance, leaving Ishmael as the dispossessed other son, leaving Esau the rightful heir as the hairy ape of a he-man versus Jacob tied to his mum's apron strings. God's illogical and outrageous preferences as a father could only make sense to a human daddy.

So, David the youngest of Jesse's sons is God's chosen one - - dvd dvd dvd 464 464 464 fourteen fourteen fourteen - - and all other kings after him will be "sons of David" even Jesus himself. 

The word for king is מלך melech or melek but even the name David itself comes to be generalized to refer to the king on the throne, and with a messianic sense to it, "a new David."   

Here's the reading for the upcoming Sunday, June 30th. 

Notable about the reading, David's song, is that, whereas we like to say sarcastically, "How the mighty have fallen," in singing it about Saul, and particularly Jonathan, David meant it sincerely. Or certainly meant it at least in regard to his friend Jonathan.

As for as killing the messenger who says he only did Saul's bidding as an act of mercy, the "rest of the story," which is the last chapter of 1 Samuel just before this story, makes it pretty clear that the Amalekite did not actually kill Saul as he claimed, and we can conjecture that he was thinking to impress David with having helped kill David's enemy, and it backfired on him. David either recognized the Amalekite's fabrication and actually had him put to death for lying, or David really did have the man executed in a perverted sense of outrage. Nobody knows for sure that the Amalekite was lying except us, outside the story! Is lying a capital offense? It depends on who you are lying to, his use of his power, his sense of his own importance, is he narcissistic, is he merciful, does he value human life?

To digress a moment. There is a rabbi in Israel, documented, who insists that in Israel's reclaiming the ancient land, every Palestinian and Arab man, woman, infant and child must be put to death. It's beyond the pale outrageous, but if it sounds off the wall to you, maybe you need to read the Book of Joshua to see where he's coming from? Indeed, there is a sense in which Israel's total unrestrained war on Hamas and Gaza seems so driven. In today's world, as ever, there are no bounds to religious, social, and political selfishness, self-righteousness, rationalization, certitude, evil, extremism. 

Anyway, Sunday's first reading:  

2 Samuel 1:1, [[leave out 2-16]], 17-27

1 After the death of Saul, when David had returned from defeating the Amalekites, David remained two days in Ziklag. 

[[2 On the third day, a man came from Saul’s camp with his clothes torn and dirt on his head. When he came to David, he fell to the ground and did obeisance. 3 David said to him, “Where have you come from?” He said to him, “I have escaped from the camp of Israel.” 4 David said to him, “How did things go? Tell me!” He answered, “The army fled from the battle, but also many of the army fell and died, and Saul and his son Jonathan also died.” 5 Then David asked the young man who was reporting to him, “How do you know that Saul and his son Jonathan died?” 6 The young man reporting to him said, “I happened to be on Mount Gilboa, and there was Saul leaning on his spear, while the chariots and the horsemen drew close to him. 7 When he looked behind him, he saw me and called to me. I answered, ‘Here, sir.’ 8 And he said to me, ‘Who are you?’ I answered him, ‘I am an Amalekite.’ 9 He said to me, ‘Come, stand over me and kill me, for convulsions have seized me, and yet my life still lingers.’ 10 So I stood over him and killed him, for I knew that he could not live after he had fallen. 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.”

11 Then David took hold of his clothes and tore them, and all the men who were with him did the same. 12 They mourned and wept and fasted until evening for Saul and for his son Jonathan and for the army of the Lord and for the house of Israel, because they had been struck down[a] by the sword. 13 David said to the young man who had reported to him, “Where do you come from?” He answered, “I am the son of a resident alien, an Amalekite.” 14 David said to him, “Were you not afraid to lift your hand to destroy the Lord’s anointed?” 15 Then David called one of the young men and said, “Come here and strike him down.” So he struck him down, and he died. 16 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.’ ”]]

17 David intoned this lamentation over Saul and his son Jonathan. (He ordered that The Song of the Bow be taught to the people of Judah; it is written in the Book of Jashar.) He said:

Your glory, O Israel, lies slain upon your high places!
How the mighty have fallen!

Tell it not in Gath,
proclaim it not in the streets of Ashkelon;

or the daughters of the Philistines will rejoice,
the daughters of the uncircumcised will exult.

You mountains of Gilboa,
let there be no dew or rain upon you,
nor bounteous fields!

For there the shield of the mighty was defiled,
the shield of Saul, anointed with oil no more.

From the blood of the slain,
from the fat of the mighty,

the bow of Jonathan did not turn back,
nor the sword of Saul return 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.

O daughters of Israel, weep over Saul,
who clothed you with crimson, in luxury,
who put ornaments of gold on your apparel.

How the mighty have fallen
in the midst of the battle!

Jonathan lies slain upon your high places.
I am distressed for you, my brother Jonathan;

greatly beloved were you to me;
your love to me was wonderful,
passing the love of women.

How the mighty have fallen,
and the weapons of war perished!