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"Thy glory, O Israel, is slain upon thy high places! How are the mighty fallen!" (2Sam 1:17ff), David laments the slaying of King Saul at the hands of his and Israel's enemies, the Philistines, upon her heights. David instructs the daughters of Israel to weep over Saul, for he clothed them in scarlet and adorned them with gold, the scarlet apparel and fine gold he took as booty from the Philistines in his victories over them.
And now Saul lays slain on her high places, a casualty of the very enemies he once triumphed over. How are the mighty fallen, indeed! Bear in mind, David said this of a highly flawed king who, ironically, had become his own chief adversary and worst nightmare.
It reminds me of the word, in the Tamil language, which rescue workers heard over and over again, from devastated survivors of the Indian Ocean catastrophe two years ago last December, "amukku"--'nightmare'. In the words of any language, that's what David experienced at the hands of his king to whom he had been so devoted and so loyal--"amukku", a nightmare.
If David could say this of his most determined, most persistent adversary, his worst nightmare, "thy glory, O Israel, is slain upon thy high places!" and, "ye daughters of Israel, weep over Saul, who clothed you daintily in scarlet, who put ornaments of gold upon your apparel", what are we to say of our King who has delivered us out of the hands of our enemies not into them, and redeemed us lost and condemned sin-slaves not damned us, purchased and won us not just from sin but from hellfire and the devil, not with gold or silver, but with His holy, precious blood and with His innocent suffering and death, even as He has clothed us in the sumptuous scarlet of His blood-bought righteousness; our Glory fallen on another high place, Calvary; the Lamb of God slain on another height, that stony outcropping, the place of the skull, Golgotha; our foes vanquished, our worst nightmare turned into our sweetest dream?
Two stained glass windows standing side by side in the sanctuary of a parish I once served tell the story. The Good Friday window bears three crosses rising from Calvary or Golgotha, the center cross adorned only with a purple winding sheet and crowned by a crown of thorns standing over a tomb sealed and occupied by the body of our dear Savior.
The Easter window bears the same stony out-cropping, the same three crosses, and the same tomb. Only here the crown has blossomed, sweet flowerets of the martyr band. The winding sheet is white not purple or black, the tomb is open and no longer occupied. And Easter lilies adorn the grave, in vivid contrast to the blackness of Good Friday, yes, in stark relief to black, black Golgotha, the black crosses and tomb, indeed, a welcome change from the blackness of the instruments of death and the place of death and the dead, and death itself, temporal and eternal.
If David cursed the high places on which Saul lay fallen, "ye mountains of Gilboa, let there be no dew or rain upon you, nor upsurging of the deep!" God blessed holy Calvary with the dew of heaven, the blood of his Anointed One, our dear Savior, shed for us, offered up not defiled, and the gentle rain of His Spirit in its wake brought on by His upsurging from the deep.
Such is their love for one another, Father for Son and Son for Father, and for us, for whom the Father gave His Son and the Son gave His all, we are wont to say, "Father and Son, beloved and lovely! In life and in death they were not divided; they are swifter than eagles, they are stronger than lions, as in them life is stronger than death and love overcomes the grave."
If, grief-stricken, David lamented Saul's untimely passing and tragic demise, must we not, on the other hand, rejoice? Our enemies vanquished. Our worst nightmare turned into our sweetest dream--and that dream come true!
"Thy Glory, O beloved of the Lord, beloved and lovely, clothed in His scarlet righteousness and adorned with His gold, once slain on your heights is now alive again! Now the Almighty One, once fallen, is arisen. He is risen indeed!
"Tell it in Gath. Tell it abroad. Publish it in the streets of Garland, Rowlett, Rockwall, Mesquite, and Sachse and Wylie too. Broadcast it in all the world, so that the daughters of the daughters of the Philistines rejoice, so that the daughters of the uncircumcised exult."
With the ethnic diversity typical of our communities they may be our next-door neighbor, these alien daughters! They may be us! "Your foes are routed. Your worst nightmare is at an end. How the mighty One is risen! Sweet dreams!" Amen.
- Pastor Erickson