Testifying By Your Own Mouth (2 Samuel 1:16)

 

Tuesday, July 15, 2025

Psalm 37:1-17

2 Samuel 1-16

John 5:19-30

Testifying By Your Own Mouth (2 Samuel 1:16)

And David said to him, “Your blood be on your head, for your own mouth has testified against you, saying, ‘I have killed the Lord's anointed.’”

Does anyone really do anything that they think is wrong? There might be a time of balancing pros and cons of any certain action, but does anyone actually go out of their way and try to do something they don’t like? Even when people commit objectively evil acts, there is still some formula they are working from that justifies their actions. We might disagree with their formula, and their actions, but there is still something inside that person that makes them feel justified.

The infamous Amalekite who brought the news of Saul’s death to David was like this. He knew David and Saul weren’t getting along, and when he discovered Saul was dead, he pretended to be the one who had finished Saul off. There was a lie, and a lie about a pretty horrific situation, but he had justified it in his head – David would be happy, he would be rewarded, everyone would come out with a win. Unfortunately for him, David didn’t work off the same method of self-justification.

God’s holiness is a bit like this. We humans, scrounging around on this world, have to come into contact with some really sticky and confusing situations. We try to figure out the right thing to do, and more often than we like it involves having to choose between different flavours of evil. But God is holy, which means there is no “lesser” evil – he is only good, all the time.

The most striking demonstration of God’s other-worldly holy perfection was how he saved us from sin and death. Our blood was on our own head, and our own mouth had testified against us, and we killed Christ, the Lord’s anointed. Yet it was through this that our salvation came. In the cross of Christ, God was both just, and the justifier.

And so when we come to situations where it seems like there is no good option, we have to find a way to step out in faith and trust that following God’s holiness is the wise decision. Often it will seem folly rather than wisdom, or the path to death instead of life. But the death and resurrection of Christ shows how God works – the wisdom of this world is foolishness, and death is swallowed up in life.

Where has God turned a bad situation in your life into something good? What daily discipline might help you prepare for the next time you find yourself needing to make the difficult but holy decision?

Holy Lord, whose wisdom breathes life into your good creation, and leads us into your arms: grant us courage to be faithful to your ways, that we may see your divine wisdom and power at work in our lives.