Psalm 130
1 Out of the depths I cry to you, O LORD;
2 O Lord, hear my voice.
Let your ears be attentive
to my cry for mercy.
3 If you, O LORD, kept a record of sins,
O Lord, who could stand?
4 But with you there is forgiveness;
therefore you are feared.
5 I wait for the LORD, my soul waits,
and in his word I put my hope.
6 My soul waits for the Lord
more than watchmen wait for the morning,
more than watchmen wait for the morning.
7 O Israel, put your hope in the LORD,
for with the LORD is unfailing love
and with him is full redemption.
8 He himself will redeem Israel
from all their sins.
2 Samuel 1
1 After the death of Saul, David returned from defeating the Amalekites and stayed in Ziklag two days.
17 David took up this lament concerning Saul and his son Jonathan, 18 and ordered that the men of Judah be taught this lament of the bow (it is written in the Book of Jashar):
19 "Your glory, O Israel, lies slain on your heights.
How the mighty have fallen!
20 "Tell it not in Gath,
proclaim it not in the streets of Ashkelon,
lest the daughters of the Philistines be glad,
lest the daughters of the uncircumcised rejoice.
21 "O mountains of Gilboa,
may you have neither dew nor rain,
nor fields that yield offerings of grain.
For there the shield of the mighty was defiled,
the shield of Saul-no longer rubbed with oil.
22 From the blood of the slain,
from the flesh of the mighty,
the bow of Jonathan did not turn back,
the sword of Saul did not return unsatisfied.
23 "Saul and Jonathan-
in life they were loved and gracious,
and in death they were not parted.
They were swifter than eagles,
they were stronger than lions.
24 "O daughters of Israel,
weep for Saul,
who clothed you in scarlet and finery,
who adorned your garments with ornaments of gold.
25 "How the mighty have fallen in battle!
Jonathan lies slain on your heights.
26 I grieve for you, Jonathan my brother;
you were very dear to me.
Your love for me was wonderful,
more wonderful than that of women.
27 "How the mighty have fallen!
The weapons of war have perished!"
David, David—poor David; David heard the news that he had lost not only someone he loved as a brother but someone who was at times a father figure to him and who at times was his dreaded enemy and he was in sorrow. He felt great ripping pain. Wait a minute you might say, shouldn’t he have been a bit happy that now his most dreaded enemy was now gone? David has won, you might say. But David felt grief and David felt sorrow and David had not won but he had lost. He had lost a friend and a mentor. And David’s heart was heavy.
Let us do a quick history lesson. No groaning or sleeping please. Saul was the first king of Israel and he had shown potential for being a great king and the anointed of God. But on three separate occasions Saul slipped up and ceased being the king God had hoped he could be. Saul was rejected as king and Samuel had anointed David, the youngest son of Jesse. Saul did not like the fact that David had more favor with God than he and he grew envious and jealous. Jonathon warned David that his father, Saul was getting a bit antsy about David being around and warned him to leave before Saul could do him any harm. Saul began pursuing David but David maintained his honor for Saul as the anointed king and consistently refused to take Saul’s life. Even when on several opportunities he could easily have.
And we must recall that Saul’s son Jonathon was David’s closest friend even through all the years that Saul persecuted David. Jonathon and David maintained a close and unwavering friendship.
But now in a battle against the Philistines, Saul and his three sons die in battle. The story of the battle is in the last chapter of 1 Samuel. When Saul is severely wounded he asks one of his soldiers to please kill him, the soldier refuses so Saul takes his own life throwing himself onto his own sword.
David grieved the passing of his enemy and persecutor Saul and of his dear friend Jonathon. One had offered only hatred and the other true friendship.
Alexander the Great is a meteor that flashed through the darkened skies of history. Young, handsome, driven and idealistic, he virtually conquered the world, yet like David with Jonathon, he was utterly dependant on the companionship of a friend. Unlike David, Alexander never recovered from the loss of that friend.
Alexander and Hephaestion had grown up together; each knew all the secrets of the other. The two men were the same age. They shared one tent, drank from one cup, and fought in battle side by side. They were inseparable.
Hephaestion was taller, thus was sometimes mistaken for Alexander. On one occasion, when Darius’ queen entered the tent, she bowed before Hephaestion, thinking him Alexander. She was alarmed to discover her error, but the young king simply smiled and said, “Hephaestion is also Alexander,” as if to indicate that the two men were one.
When Hephaestion died, Alexander was broken in spirit. According to historian Will Durant, “he broke down in uncontrolled grief. He lay for hours upon the corpse weeping; he cut off his hair in mourning, and for days refused to take food. He sentenced death to the physician who had left the sick youth’s side to attend the public games. He ordered a gigantic funeral pile to be erected in Hephaestion’s memory, at a cost, we are told of ten thousand talents or in our monetary numbers $60 million dollars, and sent to inquire of the oracle of Ammon whether it was permitted to worship Hephaestion as a god. In his next campaign a whole stribe was slain, at Alexander’s orders, as a sacrifice to Hephaestion’s ghost…
Back in Babylon, he abandoned himself more and more to drink. One night, reveling with his officers, he proposed a drinking contest…shortly afterward, at another banquet, Alexander drank heavily again; and cold weather suddenly set in, he suddenly caught a fever and took to his bed. The fever raged for ten days, during which Alexander continued to give orders to his army and to his fleet. On the eleventh day he died, being in the thirty-third year of his age.”
Alexander’s grieving stopped his living. He became demented with the memory of Hephaestion. David grieved but with his sorrow, he continued on. Yes he was hurting. Yes he felt the loss. But he also knew that he was a servant of the Lord and he had to continue.
But grief and sorrow are not bad things. They are good things, they are human things where we can show our love and express ourselves. The story is told of a man who saw people love each other, and he saw that love made strenuous demands on the lovers. He saw that love required sacrifice and self-denial. He saw that love produced arguments, jealousy, and sorrow. He decided that love cost too much. He decided not to diminish his life with love.
He saw people strive for distant and hazy goals. He saw men strive for success and women strive for high ideals. He saw that the striving was often mixed with disappointment. He saw strong and committed men fail, and he saw weak, undeserving men succeed. He saw that striving sometimes forced people into pettiness and greed. He decided that it cost too much. He decided not to soil his life with striving.
He saw people serving others. He saw men give money to the poor and helpless. He saw that the more they served, the faster the need grew. He saw ungrateful receivers turn on their serving friends. He decided not to soil his life with serving.
When he died, he walked up to God and presented his life to him—undiminished, unmarred, unsoiled. The man was clean and untouched by the filth of the world, and he presented himself to God proudly saying, “Here is my life!”
And God said, “Life? What life?”
God doesn’t want us to insulate ourselves from the pain and suffering of the world. When we love others, serve others, and strive to be all that God wants us to be, we get dirty, we get hurt, we get used. But those are the battle scars that God wants to see when we face him someday. God wants us to get in the game and get our uniforms dirty. That’s what Jesus did when he came into the world. He didn’t choose to play it safe; neither should we. “To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps” (I Peter 2:21).
In life we can choose to play it safe, to sit quietly on the sideline and insulate ourselves. No one wants to be hurt, no one wants to feel loss. But to live and grow we must experience this.
David hurt. David felt intense sorrow but he went on with life, he went on to rule the kingdom of Israel. Sometimes wisely and sometimes not so wisely, David made mistakes—some political, some moral and some spiritual. But David never hid away.
Many of you have heard the popular poem FOOTPRINTS, let me share with you a New Version of this poem.
Imagine you and the Lord Jesus are walking down the road together. For much of the way, the Lord’s footprints go along steadily, consistently, rarely varying the pace. But your footprints are a disorganized stream of zigzags, starts, stops, turnarounds, circles, departures, and returns. For much of the way, it seems to go like this, but gradually your footprints come more in line with the Lord’s, soon paralleling His consistently. You and Jesus
are walking as true friends! This seems perfect, but then an interesting thing happens: Your footprints that once etched the sand next to Jesus’ are
now walking precisely in His steps. Inside His larger footprints are your smaller ones, you and Jesus are becoming one. This goes on for many miles,
but gradually you notice another change. The footprints inside the large footprints seem to grow larger. Eventually they disappear altogether. There
is only one set of footprints they have become one. This goes on for a long time, but suddenly the second set of footprints is back. This time it seems
even worse! Zigzags all over the place. Stops. Starts. Gashes in the sand. A variable mess of prints. You are amazed and shocked. Your dream ends.
Now you pray: "Lord, I understand the first scene with zigzags and fits. I was a new Christian; I was just learning. But You walked on through the storm and helped me learn to walk with You."
" That is correct."
"And when the smaller footprints were inside of Yours, I was actually learning to walk in Your steps; followed You very closely."
"Very good. You have understood everything so far."
“When the smaller footprints grew and filled in Yours, I suppose that I was becoming like You
in every way."
"Precisely."
"So, Lord, was there a regression or something? The
footprints separated, and this time it was worse than at first."
There is a pause as the Lord answers with a smile in His voice. "You didn’t know? That was when we danced."
To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven: A time to weep, a time to laugh, A time to mourn, and a time to dance. Ecclesiastes 3:1,4.
Sometimes we get so caught up in the crying and laughing, in the sorrow and memories of how it was or how it use to be that we forget to celebrate and dance. We forget to find joy in what we are doing now.
I am not just speaking of our personal lives but also our spiritual lives and our church lives. Sometimes we can release our personal pain or our spiritual sorrow much easier that we can unburden a memory or hope of yesteryear.
All of you as a church family have been in a unique position. You have ridden the roller coast of highs and lows, the ups and downs of life as a church body. You are a strong loving congregation. I am proud that God called me here. You have done some amazing things in the past; you will do some amazing things in the future. Your time of healing and looking forward has begun. It is hard to let go of the yesterdays and look toward the tomorrows. But I challenge you to do so.
A few weeks ago we sang the song, a church is not a building, a church is not a steeple…the church is a people. And you are an amazing set of people. God has brought each and every one of us here for a reason. God has put you in that pew for a reason. God has put me before you for a reason.
I believe in all of you as the church. I believe that God is calling us to great things. I believe that God has an amazing plan for Memorial Christian Church. But, aww yes the dreaded but…. to do this we have to become fired up. We have to actively participate in making things happen at Memorial Christian Church. We need to dare to dream, dare to hope, dare to try new things. And by doing so things, wonderful, exciting things will begin to happen.
David made things happen. And remember David was not perfect. He stumbled in places, he made mistakes but when push came to shove, he served the Lord. There were times when David was tired, there was time that David was angry, there were times when David was directly disobedient…does that sound like us at times. There are times we struggle and we wait for something to happen to us.
The story is told by Chief Surgeon Millar of the Central Emergency Hospital in San Francisco, "I will never forget my first experience in hospital work," said Dr. Millar. "There was an undergraduate nurse in the detention ward, and we had a very violent case--a man in the worst stage of delirium tremens. I was awakened in the middle of the night by the head nurse who requested me to come at once to the patient. When I got there I found him raving and very violent, with the new nurse scared out of her wits." Then the doctor said, "Why did you let him go so far? I left you some medicine to give him as soon as he got delirious." "Yes, doctor," the nurse replied, "but you told me to give that to him if he saw any more snakes, but this time he was seeing blue dogs with pink tails."
Sometimes when we get shaky in our lives we are looking for the snakes. We are waiting for something to happen. We are waiting at times for something to bite us and to get our attention. And as we watch for the snakes we forget to see right before us the little blue dogs with the pink tails. We have to open our eyes to all the possibilities that abound before us.
We need to take our sorrow and our pain and turn it into a dance of rejoicing. We need to use the experiences of our past and of our present and to go forward into our future. Not just the church’s future but also our own personal future.
Today, I issue you as an individual and we as a church to go forward. To go forward as David did. To look to God. Yes, we can have sorrow. We need to have sorrow; if we are to grow but we can’t stay there forever. In our sorrow, we go forward. In our sorrow, we do not look backward. In our sorrow, we celebrate and we continue to live and we look toward the cross. We look toward the great things that God has done, is doing and will do in our lives. My friends, if God is for us who can be against us. Do you understand that…If God is for us who can be against us. So cry your tears, grieve when you need to…laugh at the good things, reflect upon the not so good things and use those as learning tools. But in your sorrow, go forward. Don’t stagnate, don’t become lackadaisical…look forward. Keep your eyes open, let the tears cleanse you and see clearly before you. Jesus is there with outstretched arms saying, “Come to me, I have great plans for you.” And if your eyes are open you may see a few blue dogs with pink tails.
