David has reclaimed his throne, but things are not right yet. Israel suffers from a famine which lasts three years. There is no Sir Bob or Saint Bono to save them, and so David seeks the face of the Lord. The Lord tells him that the famine is on account of the blood stained house of Saul, and here we are told that the Israelites had sworn to defend the Gibeonites but Saul had tried to annihilate them in his zeal for Israel and Judah. David is desperate to see an end to the famine so he seeks to make amends with the Gibeonites. They say that they have no right to demand silver or gold from the house of Saul or put anyone in Israel to death, but they do ask that seven of Saul's descendants be killed and exposed before the Lord. It seems that the Gibeonites feel they have the right to ask even if they do not have the right to take, and the responsibility for avenging them must fall to David.
David spares Mephibosheth because of his oath with Jonathon, but he hands seven of Saul's descendants over to the Gibeonites, and then the heavens open and the rain starts to fall, much as it is doing outside my window right now. The pact with the Gibeonites required that the bodies of Saul's descendants were left exposed, but one of Saul's concubines guards them so that no bird or animal touches them. David is obviously touched by her care, because he retrieves the bodies of Saul and Jonathon from Jabesh Gilead and gives them a proper burial in the tomb of Saul's father.
We are told that after this God answered every prayer on behalf of the land, and yet the next thing we hear is that Israel is again at war with the Philistines. We must presume that either the Israelites wanted war, or that God wasn't answering their prayers the way they hoped, or that God wasn't answering them at all. Sometimes God gives us what we want in order to show us that it is not what we need, and sometimes he gives us what we do not want in order to show us that it is what we need, and sometimes he just lets things take their course in order to show us that we are free. At any rate, we are told that there is a battle between Israel and the Philistines in which David is nearly killed, leading his men to declare that he will no longer go to battle with them so that "the lamp of Israel will not be extinguished". We are then given brief reports of a further three battles, in which David's men kill four great warriors, because sometimes we all like to show off.
Having come through these battles unscathed and victorious, David sings a song of praise to the Lord. The section in which God is described as what sounds very much like a dragon is a little odd, but it is a beautiful piece of poetry and I'd really recommend giving it a read. I fear David may be overestimating himself slightly when he says that he has not done evil, and I think that if we were truly dealt with according to our righteousness we would be in a lot of trouble, but I do find it interesting that he describes God as shrewd to the crooked and suggests that he seeks to bring the haughty low, because this implies that God does not harm those who are against him but rather tries to improve them. I also squirm a little at the rather violent passage in which David talks about trampling his enemies to dust, and I really don't think that God wants us to smash anyone who gets on the wrong side of us, but I do believe that he will give us the strength to destroy the circumstances and issues that trouble us in no less emphatic a way.
More than anything however, I love the way David pours his heart and soul into praising his God, and I think he sets a wonderful example for all of us.When I first read David's song of praise, I thought that it was about God's faithfulness in protecting him the most recent battles, but it is immediately followed by David's last words, and so I went back and read the introductory verse again. Apparently David sang this when the Lord delivered him from the hands of his enemies and from the hands of Saul, meaning that he has been singing it for quite some time now, and so it seems fitting then that it should appear before his final words, as a hymn of praise to the faithfulness of God throughout his life. With his last words, he declares that God has spoken through him and his house is right with God, so that God will bring his salvation to fruition. Whether or not these words are justified by David's life is up for discussion, but how wonderful it would be to be able to say that!
Now we find a slightly incongruous passage about David's mighty men, warriors of renown who have not been mentioned before, reminding us that many heroes go unnoticed. There is a story of how the Three broke through Philistine ranks to get David a drink of water which would not take because he said it was the blood of the men they had killed, there is a reference to another who is greater than the Three and becomes their commander although he is not counted among them, and finally there is a list of the names of the other members of the Thirty.
We return again to David, who despite having given his final words is still very much alive. Perhaps they were only the last words of his song on that occasion, or perhaps somebody has messed with the chronology. At any rate, the Lord burns with anger against Israel and incites David to take a census. It takes nine months, but eventually the fighting men of Israel are enlisted and counted, and there are eight hundred thousand of them. David is conscience-stricken and begs the Lord to forgive him for his foolishness, and although the nature of this foolishness is never made clear, I can only assume that it is arming nearly a million men and turning God's people into an army. The Lord says he can choose three years of famine or three months of being pursued by his enemies or three days of famine, and David asks to fall into the hands of the Lord rather than his enemies, and so he is given three days of plague.
When the angel who is responsible for the plague stretches out his hand to Jerusalem, God is grieved and tells him to withdraw. David sees the angel at the threshing floor of Araunah and begs that his hand fall on him because he is the one who sinned, but God has already stopped him and so David is safe for the moment, even if he does not realise it. The prophet Gad tells him to build an altar at the threshing floor, and so David goes to Araunah to buy it from him. Araunah says he will give it to David for free and throw in the oxen for the sacrifice, but David insists on paying because he says he will not give an offering that has cost him nothing. It's not about the money, it's about the fact that whatever we give to God must come from us and mean something to us. David builds the altar and makes a sacrifice, ending both the plague and our adventure through 2 Samuel.
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