2 Samuel 5:1-5, 6:1-5; Psalm 150 - October 22, 2023

Shifting loyalties. Internal conflicts. Battles for control. Political maneuvering. Power struggles. Epic battles. People vying for the throne and navigating a world filled with deception, betrayal, and shifting allegiances.

No, it's not Game of Thrones, or The Tudors, or Sons of Anarchy, or Spartacus, or any other TV drama you may be thinking of. This is the backdrop for our lessons today... which might surprise you, finding all this small-screen drama in the Bible of all places. Maybe you see where these shows get their inspiration.

In Second Samuel, we are thrust into a kingdom that stands on the cusp of a new era. However, the story starts with a big call-back to everything that has happened prior. While David is central in the passages we read, the line "while Saul was king over us" draws in a bunch of history - history I'll (try to) quickly go through.

Saul is the first king of Israel. His reign starts with great promise, but it ends up being nothing short of a wild rollercoaster. Like every king, he faces his challenges, but there is one battle in particular where everything starts to turn downward for him.

Right before the battle, Saul is waiting for the prophet Samuel to come and offer a sacrifice to God before he sends his troops in to fight. But as Saul watches the opposing army gather, form, and rally, he becomes impatient. So impatient that, despite what God tells him to do - wait! - Saul offers the sacrifice himself and then runs into war. This act of impatience shows his lack of trust in divine timing.

God is not so thrilled with Saul, and so God starts looking for a new king. This is when the prophet Samuel finds the shepherd boy, David, and secretly anoints him. Saul's reign begins to unravel.

As the years pass, David's popularity, fueled greatly by the whole David and Goliath thing, keeps going up and up. Saul's jealousy and paranoia ascend right along with it. So much so that David finds himself dodging assassination attempts, much like the characters in any of those TV shows we brought to mind earlier. 

The grand and tragic climax to Saul's reign comes when the Philistines yet again clash with the Israelites in battle. During the battle, Saul's three sons, including his beloved Jonathan, are killed. As the battle progresses, Saul is severely wounded by enemy archers. He is struck by multiple arrows, and his situation becomes dire. Realizing that the battle is lost and that he is about to be captured by the Philistines, Saul makes a fateful decision. Rather than face capture and potential humiliation, he chooses to take his own life. He asks his armor-bearer to run him through with a sword, but the armor-bearer refuses. So, Saul takes his own sword and falls on it, leading to his death.

With Saul out of the picture, David takes the throne, but this is not quite a fairy tale ending, as we shall discuss in a bit. But for now, we come to our lesson at Second Samuel 5.

Here, a group of elders and David gather and decide to seal the deal of David as king with a covenant. David is anointed as king over Judah, and later, he will be anointed as the king over all of Israel, marking the transition from Saul's reign to David's. 

Next, we hop on over to Second Samuel 6. David, now a young king, orchestrates the relocation of the capital of Israel to Jerusalem. This move is political, strategic, and logical, but more than that, it was the city God chose, where God’s story would continually unfold. Here, David exemplifies obedience and leadership, arranging a grand procession to transport the Ark of God to fill Jerusalem with God’s presence.

Psalm 150 is a good example of what that parade of the Ark would’ve been like. Praise, praise, praise. Psalm 150 is a hymn of praise and worship, urging people to praise God with musical instruments and dance. 

Now that you’ve gotten all that background, it’s time to start the sermon. Because that is what this is supposed to be, right? A sermon, not a history lesson? Maybe you’ve already learned more than you wanted to. 

But what do we do with passages like this? What is the Law and the Gospel? What is the Good News?  How does this fit into our lives? 

Well, despite all the happy times and praise and worship that is going on in these passages, there are obvious shortcomings of both Saul and David. I alluded to those earlier: the covenant and parade are no fairy tale ending. While David was a skilled warrior, poet, musician, and a man after God's own heart, he also was sinful, lustful, troubled, prideful, and misguided… he was complex, much like any of the heroes and anti-heroes we see on TV. He is much like leaders in our world, in our country, in offices both national and local, even like leaders in churches. 

There are complexities and imperfections; poor decisions and less bad decisions. These are people we put on pedestals, and we just wait for them to fall. Maybe we think that of others; maybe we even think it of ourselves.

And yet.

And yet, God finds a way. Despite human imperfection, despite human sinfulness, despite human arrogance and selfishness and the inability to live up to God’s standards, God finds a way. 

Despite David’s shortcomings, God makes a way forward, where the covenant carries on, where God is praised, where grace and mercy are shown to generations and even the world. Through it all, people still gather and praise God. 

Currently, Israel is in the news. And while the battles and killings look different today than they did all those thousands of years ago, it’s still misguided leaders who have egos and self-interest in mind instead of the people they supposedly serve. And yet, God isn’t absent. God puts it in our hearts to strive for peace - through our payers, through peace in our own homes, through the best efforts of broken leaders. 

We at St. Philip are on the tail end of a transition in our Music Ministry. It’s not what anyone really wanted; wilderness and wandering and wondering. And yet, God finds a way. God works through the people in our midst, in the gifts we have among us. And now we praise and worship, because we are excited about what God is about to do in this place through John, our new Director. 

Our parking lot upgrades have gone differently than planned. People who should have known better didn’t follow through, and we are going through the appropriate channels yet again. And yet, it is going to happen in God’s good time. It seems weird to think that God can be involved in a parking lot, but somehow, someway, a curly-headed pastor found the right words to fill out a variance application to the board of zoning appeals. (At least, we hope they’re the right words.) But I have faith that God is working, even through this imperfect process, so that we can better welcome and better worship for generations to come. 

There are challenges and imperfections in human leadership, and, despite what the news says, it didn’t just start to happen recently. This ineptitude and ego and failing goes back throughout all of human history. We fall, we fail, we don’t live up to who or what God calls us to be. 

And yet, the Gospel promise is ever so true. God will work in it. God will work to forgive us, to redeem us, to sanctify us, to call us forward. And this is purely because of a love and grace we can’t match. 

And the best response, the truest response we have, is to praise and worship God for all that God has done, is doing, and promises yet to do. God abounds in love, God will see it through - and God will see us through. 

So, break out your trumpets, tambourines, and lyres, and get ready to praise. Because God’s triumph in all things, through all things, despite all things… God’s triumph endures, now and forever.