November 21, 2021 Sermon
Sermon title: "The Last Words of David"
Scripture: II Samuel 23:1-7
((Other lectionary choices include Psalm 132, Revelation 1:4-8, and John 18:33-37.))
II Samuel 23:1-7
The Last Words of David
1Now these are the last words of David: The oracle of David, son of Jesse, the oracle of the man whom God exalted, the anointed of the God of Jacob, the favorite of the Strong One of Israel: 2The spirit of the Lord speaks through me, his word is upon my tongue. 3The God of Israel has spoken, the Rock of Israel has said to me: One who rules over people justly, ruling in the fear of God, 4is like the light of morning, like the sun rising on a cloudless morning, gleaming from the rain on the grassy land 5Is not my house like this with God? For he has made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things and secure. Will he not cause to prosper all my help and my desire? 6But the godless are all like thorns that are thrown away; for they cannot be picked up with the hand; 7to touch them one uses an iron bar or the shaft of a spear. And they are entirely consumed in fire on the spot.
The sermon title is "The Last Words of David", and the passage we heard from II Samuel is one of the lectionary suggestions for this Sunday, the last Sunday before Thanksgiving. Psalm 132, one of the other lectionary suggestions, sings David's praises for setting up the framework for the building of the Temple at Jerusalem, built eventually by David's son Solomon. Other suggestions included some verses from the first part of the book of Revelation, and the Gospel choice is from John in which the about-to-be-crucified Jesus is standing before Pontius Pilate. So, none of these Scripture suggestions really "got" me, and so what I'm going to do is comment on the Old Testament Scripture we heard, and then say something about Thanksgiving.
Were these really the LAST words of David? Not necessarily! Says David F. Payne, who wrote a commentary on First and Second Samuel, these words weren't the last poem David ever wrote. Rather, the words we heard this morning are "the 'legacy' which he {David} left to Israel and to his successors; not the legacy of power and possessions, but a spiritual legacy. This consisted of two things: his psalms and his kingship."
We all love the psalms, some of which David wrote, and maybe a LOT of them. The commentator Mr. Payne says the book of Psalms "have been more used in Christian worship than any other part of the Old Testament." And I'm sure that's true. We all have our favorites, and I'm going to guess Psalm 23 and the 100th Psalm are just about everybody's favorites. What about David's kingship? When he died, Israel was really on top of the known world. Perhaps David was "lucky" to have lived when he did, "lucky" because Israel's usual enemies were in disarray. And David had proven himself to be a mighty warrior. Says Payne: "At the secular level, he {David} had provided leadership which enabled his people to gain a stable and strong position for the first time since their settlement in the Promised Land."
Our commentator does point out that there is no negative note in what we heard today. And he says, "It was true that David had been a just ruler, whose military achievements had been accompanied by social concern." If you wonder why the Old Testament regards David so highly, one reason is that he was a winner! A military hero, certainly, but he also was concerned for the powerless in his kingdom.....if you don't count Bathsheba and the other women he may have taken to bed against their will! But in many ways, David came close to the ideal: a winner militarily and a compassionate king to his subjects. We humans like winners, but our winners must also be just, "ruling in the fear of God", as the Scripture says. And what that means is taking care that the poor get a fair shake, not only the rich.
"David's legacy, then," in the words of commentator David F. Payne, "was to point the way forward, and to give an imperfect glimpse of what perfect leadership could achieve." What is perfect leadership? Look at verse 4 in what we heard today: the perfect leader is like sun and rain together. Quoting now from II Samuel: "{And he shall be like the} light of morning, like the sun rising on a cloudless morning, gleaming from the rain on the grassy land." And I'll give David Payne the last word: "Sun and rain together work the miracle of natural growth, and were viewed in Israel as gifts of God. The God-given human king, then, is designed to be like these twin blessings, quietly but constantly working for the good of all his subjects. This is the sort of leadership we all need - at every level in human society." Amen.
Pastor Skip
