“David said to the young man who brought him the report, ‘Where are you from?’ ‘I am the son of a foreigner, an Amalekite,’ he answered. David asked him, ‘Why weren’t you afraid to lift your hand to destroy the Lord’s anointed?’ Then David called one of his men and said, ‘Go, strike him down!’ So he struck him down, and he died. For David had said to him, ‘Your blood be on your own head. Your own mouth testified against you when you said, “I killed the Lord’s anointed.”’”—2 Samuel 1:13–16 (NIV)

There have been moments in my life where I’ve personally witnessed justice prevail, but I still believe in my heart it shouldn’t have been this way. As believers, our hearts should always hope for the redemptive quality that reconciliation brings to our journey with others. After all, we all want to be reconciled with God, and our hearts should want the same for the whole world. 

But what if your opponent keeps attacking you with no promise of ever stopping? Eventually, our just God will take control of the matter and will finally bring righteousness into an insufferable situation. Our God is merciful and will give people many chances to change course, but He’s also just and will not allow injustice to go on for too long.    

Such was the case with David and Saul. David was tempted twice to act in self-defense when Saul attempted to kill him. Yet, David believed in his heart that taking the life of the “Lord’s anointed” wasn’t his mission in life because He trusted God to deliver him from all his enemies—and that included the king of his own nation, who bitterly persecuted him until the end. And in today’s passage, we see justice prevail, not in the death of Saul, but in the death of the king’s killer. 

As much as David benefitted from Saul’s death, he acknowledged that his enemy shouldn’t have died the way he did. Truth is, David genuinely loved Saul. And although he wanted Saul to stop persecuting him, he never hoped for the king’s death. Every time he had the chance to kill him, he chose not to harm the Lord’s anointed and opted to run away or hide. 

Keep in mind that David isn’t just grieving the death of his king; he’s also mourning the death of his best friend, Jonathan. When this young man comes into David’s presence, he’s expecting to be rewarded for the murder he committed. Therefore, he figures he’s done the new king a favor by killing his ultimate bully, so when David asks him where he’s from, he answers with certainty as if he’s about to be exalted! Instead, he’s met with a sobering question: “Why weren’t you afraid to lift your hand to destroy the Lord’s anointed?” And then, with an instant execution and a strong rebuke from David, he adds, “Your blood be on your own head. Your own mouth testified against you when you said, ‘I killed the Lord’s anointed.’”

To David, it didn’t matter if Saul deserved his fate, even if he was living in rebellion against God, or if he was mercilessly trying to get rid of him, or if he was already near death and the Amalekite killing him was truly a merciful act, as he claimed it was. One fact remains: This young Amalekite took credit for and openly boasted about taking the life of the Lord’s anointed, and David deemed such an unforgivable act to go unpunished. 

With stories like these, I ponder why David impulsively reacted to this Amalekite’s story without verifying it. What would his answer have been to the question he asked? We know David was capable of offering mercy to his attackers because he knew the mercy of God so intimately. Perhaps this complicated story is one more of him offering mercy to his frenemy Saul and his sons. David didn’t owe the Amalekite anything, but he truly owed it all to the Lord’s anointed.               

Pause: What’s your first impression of David’s reaction to the news of the death of Saul and his sons? Do you think the execution of the Amalekite was fair? 

Practice: Read Matthew 10:16. Do you think David was given wisdom from above?

Pray: Father, Your plans for my life are trustworthy, and I ask You to reveal new promises for me to believe and follow. Thank You for your mercies, even when sometimes they don’t make sense in the moment. I can trust You know why You allow certain circumstances. Have mercy on me and guide me to be generous, so I can offer it to others. Fill me with discernment and wisdom to differentiate when someone’s trying to take advantage of an unjust situation. Help me be wise/shrewd as a serpent and innocent/harmless as a dove. Amen.