June 30, Ordinary 13B (2 Samuel 1:1, 17–27)
Maybe the Song of the Bow is an Iron Age propaganda drop. Or maybe it’s just a song.
Once I walked into a touristy store in a little town in the mountains. Something about the place spooked me in a crystals-and-crow-feathers sort of way, so I turned around. But before I got out the door, a navy T-shirt emblazoned with a golden bee caught my eye. When the owner invited me to try it on, I responded, “I don’t know what the bee means.” He looked me over and said, “It’s just a bee.”
At the beginning of 2 Samuel, things have shifted decisively in David’s favor. Saul, his rival for the kingship, is dead. Jonathan, his “greatly beloved” friend and brother in arms, is also gone, killed in battle by the Philistines (1 Sam. 31:2; 2 Sam. 1:26). In their honor, David composes a lamentation called the Song of the Bow. Why?
The reader can be forgiven for detecting a cynical ploy to clothe a naked interregal conflict with a few golden words. After all, David has just spent the better part of 1 Samuel charismatically building up his power base while Saul seeks to kill him. If the winners write history, then David writes this one as a song that nods to his righteous innocence and promotes the inviolability of God’s anointed king. Maybe the Song of the Bow is an Iron Age propaganda drop.
