2 Sam 1 17-27 is called "The Song of the Bow".. a very curious piece of Scripture in some ways. Here, David laments the death of Saul and Jonathon. Now, Jonathon we can understand; he and David were the closest of friends. But... Saul tried for 10 years to kill David! And David... laments?
Now... a 'lament' is a song of the heart. To 'lament' is to grieve. All of us who have lost loved ones understand lament. The Book of Job is basically one long lament. So, too, the Book of Lamentations. We can read those texts, but I don't think we really begin to understand and appreciate them until we have our own 'dark night of the soul' There is no 'moving on' in these verses. That will come later. But not yet. For David, these verses are only the time to remember and to weep.
Sometimes we need permission to lament. The world around us can urge us to 'get over it'... to 'move on' . Perhaps the most hurtful thing a young mother who has experienced miscarriage can hear is 'you're young; there will be others'. Maybe that's true; but not today. There is a time to hold on to each other and simply to weep. And even, perhaps, to shake our fist at God.
If that is you... or has been... and you are suffering from guilt as a result, let it go. Trust me: our God understands. And God can take a bit of fist shaking. I suspect God has done a fair amount of His own.
Be well. Pastor Rick
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I've always found it challenging to read scripture that was poetry or song in its original form. We do our best to translate from the native language to our own, but we have to remember that the original words were chosen not only for their meaning, but also for their meter and rhyme. We lose much of the beauty of the original language, but more importantly, the lay reader doesn't have a basis for understanding which words/phrases were important in the original text, and which were chosen because the author needed something to rhyme with 'purple'.
ReplyDeleteI don't know that any of this applies here, it's just always a feeling I've had when reading scripture such as the Psalms.
I agree, and I think a lot of that applies to all of scripture, not just the poetic sections which do add additional challenges. I often think about how someone unfamiliar with US history would be confused by any mention of "Watergate" as an example. And there are a whole lot of footnotes, again, especially in poetic sections, where my Bible says; "Meaning of Heb. uncertain" or "One possible meaning of the difficult Heb. text."
ReplyDeleteFor some, all this can be very unsettling, as if the Bible were a house of cards and any slight instability or uncertainty can threaten to bring the whole thing down. Pulling the loose thread can unravel the sweater and so on. But for me it's helpful to hold my interpretations loosely. It tends to keep me focused on the overall message and the broader sweep of what God is up to. I think that's ultimately helpful in keeping the main thing the main thing.