How rare it is to find a warrior with a poet’s heart: resolute in battle and chivalrous afterward.
David’s lament over Saul and Jonathan (2 Sam 1:19-27) is a masterpiece of loyalty and love. Yet it has, as its beginning, climax, and ending, these doleful words: “How the mighty have fallen!” (vv 19, 25, 27), reminding us of the brevity of time and the uncertainty of life. We see both the magnanimity of David’s grace towards Saul and the depth of his heartache for Jonathan. And yet he links the two together in their deaths, though there was ongoing tension in their lives—especially in their attitude and actions towards David. Yet from the moral high ground, David declares, “Saul and Jonathan were beloved and pleasant in their lives, and in their death they were not divided” (v 23). He describes them as “the beauty of Israel” (v 19), “the mighty” (v 21), “swifter than eagles” and “stronger than lions” (v 23), and “beloved and pleasant in their lives” (vv 23, 26). He longed that the men would appreciate their prowess (v 22), and the women, their generosity (v 24); that the enemy would be bereft of enjoyment in their victory (v 20), and that the scene of Israel’s defeat—Mount Gilboa—would be bereft of the endowment of rain or dew (v 21). Samuel Ridout writes: “Nowhere does the character of David shine out more clearly than it does in the subdued light of this elegy. Unselfishness, the ignoring of Saul’s evil, the entire absence of personal resentment and of the slightest note of triumph, all are here present. The love, too, for Jonathan, deeper and sweeter than could possibly be had for Saul, finds here fitting expression. The very brevity of the elegy shows all the more its beauty.” As always, here is a practical lesson: “Do not rejoice when your enemy falls, and do not let your heart be glad when he stumbles” (Prov 24:17).