2 Samuel 19:7 Now therefore, arise, go out and speak comfort to your servants. For I swear by the Lord, if you do not go out, not one will stay with you this night. And that will be worse for you than all the evil that has befallen you from your youth until now." NKJV
Broken Hallelujahs
The life of David the King typifies for me, a life of ‘Broken Hallelujahs.’It was poet, writer, singer songwriter, Leonard Cohen that wrote the song ‘Hallelujah,’ later recorded and made most famous by Jeff Buckley, a bi-polar, manic-depressive who, aged just 31 years, accidentally drowned in Wolf River harbour, a tributary of the mighty Mississippi. Interestingly, Buckley’s last recording was a spoken word recording of Edgar Allen Poe’s verse, “Ulalume,” a deep poetic piece about lost love and broken love, whose title sounds very much like “Hallelujah.”
In his piece entitled Hallelujah, the lyrics of the ever despondent Cohen, are full of sex, full of the Bible and full of regretful praise, which is rooted in a resigned brokenness, it is if you will, a song of praise from the despite.
In our text for tonight, all of David’s sinful chickens have begun to come home to roost. Absalom is dead, killed at the hand of Joab who speaks these words of our text for tonight, to a very despondent David, who has withdrawn himself from those people who would be in the end, the means of his redemption. Worst is yet to come for David and in many ways, his Samsonite strength now bears the cracks of the heat of his former adultery. Indeed, the kingdom, though it shall be held together under the golden duct tape reign of Solomon is already showing the fissures of its destruction. Relationships are breaking, hearts and harps and voices, are all broken and growing cold with age and misuse. I am afraid it is what it is and in being so is indeed, most depressing, as David’s days descend into songs of cold and broken Hallelujahs as he clears the mess from the floors of his not so recent but continuing disasters.
Like the sweet singer of Israel, most rebellious hearts can do nothing in their later days but sing broken Hallelujahs. Yet they are most acceptable to God because they are from the land of grace, from the place of despite, and you know friends, all praise from the place of despite, is most pleasing to God above, because it is full of hope and longing, it is full of faith and thankfulness, it is full of expectancy and desire, for it reverberates with repentance and glistens with long, expectant hope.
Listen: - These are the last words of David: "The oracle of David son of Jesse,the oracle of the man exalted by the Most High,the man anointed by the God of Jacob,Israel's singer of songs: "The Spirit of the Lord spoke through me;his word was on my tongue. The God of Israel spoke,the Rock of Israel said to me:'When one rules over men in righteousness,when he rules in the fear of God, he is like the light of morning at sunriseon a cloudless morning,like the brightness after rainthat brings the grass from the earth.' "Is not my house right with God? Has he not made with me an everlasting covenant,arranged and secured in every part? Will he not bring to fruition my salvation and grant me my every desire? But evil men are all to be cast aside like thorns, which are not gathered with the hand. Whoever touches thorns uses a tool of iron or the shaft of a spear;they are burned up where they lie." 2 Samuel 23:1-7 NIV.
Pray:- Lord, you know how continually sorry we are for the wrecks and wreckage of our lives. Yet despite ourselves You have loved us with an everlasting love. Yes, despite our bad choices, You have stuck with us. Despite the weaker voices of our later days, we know that we shall sing a new song in a better place, complete and full of praise to you our King, and all of this shall be, despite ourselves. Thank You Jesus, amen.
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