Read 2 Samuel 3.

We attended the state swim meet last week. It was a big event – bigger than the other swim meets during the season, as you might expect. The venue was bigger than the others. The swimmers were bigger and faster. The officials were more official-looking, and more numerous. The stands were full of people. The air was full of anticipation. The stakes just felt bigger. This was where the best of the best came to perform their very best.

But it wasn’t the swimming I found most impressive at the state swim meet. No, it was the national anthem. It was sung by a young man whom we’ve heard sing before. One swimmer, a member of our own team, sang “The Star-Spangled Banner” for that crowd of anxious onlookers. His name is Dexter. He’s not yet a great swimmer. He’s short and a bit pudgy, just a freshman, 14 years old, still a boy and not a man. Dexter didn’t make the state swim meet to swim any races. But the powers-that-be wanted Dexter to be there anyway. They wanted to hear him sing.

Dexter has a great voice. It’s still the voice of a child; the hormones haven’t taken hold to deepen it. Dexter holds a steady pitch. He remains on key even while singing acapella. The vibrato is perfect. It’s a voice that catches your attention. You’ve heard a bad national anthem before, sung by someone who thinks he can sing but can’t. We’ve all heard that. Dexter’s is not that. It is near perfect.

And the fans know it. As Dexter sings, they look at each other. They look over at him. They grin. When Dexter holds out that iconic note at the end of the anthem – “… o’er the land of the FREE …” – it is totally perfect and sustained just long enough for you to know that he means it. He really means it. When Dexter finished at the state swim meet, the place erupted into applause and shouts. They knew this was good. I knew then that this was the best performance we would witness that day. All the fast swimming by those big and strong young men would not hold a candle to this – to Dexter singing his national anthem.

When you hear someone who sings well, you stop and appreciate it. The song makes you stop. You have to stop. You just listen. Nothing more. It’s a gift to you.

David sang over the dead body Abner. “Should Abner die as a fool dies?/Your hands were not bound;/your feet were not fettered;/as one falls before the wicked you have fallen.” It’s not enough to hear only the words. The words are helpful, but they aren’t enough. We need to hear it sung – by David – in the moment – behind the casket as they carried it down Main Street in Hebron – as the whole city walked in stunned silence, their cloaks torn, watching David cry – as the army shuffled in behind, embarrassed – as Joab, the general, kept his eyes glued to the ground, shamed for his wrongdoing, cursed.

I can picture all of that. But I want to hear David’s song. If only we could have heard it sung in that moment, then we would know a little more about this text and about this man, David, who was just coming into his kingdom.

David was a man of songs. David calmed King Saul with songs when the king was struggling with his evil spirit. David later composed and sang a song of lament for Saul and his son Jonathan as the nation mourned their deaths. And all along, David was writing songs that we know as the Book of Psalms. They are songs of lament and thanksgiving, about defeats and victories and enemies and friends. They are songs to be prayed. And sung.

But we don’t know the sound of David’s voice. We only have the words he wrote and the words he sang. I suppose that’s all God wanted us to have. But to hear it sung, in the moment – that would have been something. I bet we would have stopped to appreciate it. It would have been a gift.

David was lamenting the loss of Abner, who had been an enemy to David’s kingdom and only recently had become an ally. It is strange David felt so wounded about Abner’s death. After all, David was just getting to know the man. They’d spent years fighting one another.

After King Saul died, Abner had established another king to oppose David. Abner waged war against David’s army. Abner had plotted and strategized against David’s budding kingdom in Judah. Abner wasn’t necessarily an evil man. Scripture gives us evidence of a soft side to Abner. But Abner hadn’t been a friend to David. He’d been an enemy, opposed to David’s kingdom.

Abner had a change of heart when his own king accused him of misconduct. Abner likely was accused of trying to steal the kingdom away from his own king by taking control of the king’s harem. Abner was very offended by this. And it was this anger that turned Abner’s allegiance toward David. It wasn’t necessarily that Abner saw the genuine goodness of David or believed in his heart about the divine promises given to David. What we know is Abner was angry.

So Abner likely visited with David, at least in part, to secure his own place in the united tribes of Israel, under King David. Abner now was intent on bringing David’s kingdom into reality – and sticking it to Abner’s old boss. Abner began to negotiate with other tribes in Israel to put together a new alliance with David. Abner was serving as a broker, a peacemaker, a uniter.

Then Abner visited King David. It seemed to have been a good meeting. An agreement was reached. “So David sent Abner away, and he went in peace.” Abner was moving in the right direction – toward the kingdom of David. All was good – until Abner met with Joab at the city gate. Abner didn’t see the knife.

And David grieved. He wrote the song, and he sang it. I wish we could have heard it.

Here was Abner, a man who had turned toward David. He was a man who had turned toward the kingdom that was being established by God. Abner’s turning wasn’t a perfect turning. Abner’s motivations were mixed. He was angry and hurt by the one he had served so long. The kingdom of this world was hard and ungrateful. Abner learned that.

So Abner was turning to David. He was turning to the kingdom of God. Surely, David knew some things about Abner that we didn’t know. Because David announced at Abner’s death. “Do you not know that a prince and a great man has fallen this day in Israel?” We’re led to believe Abner was not far from the kingdom of God. He was an enemy who was becoming a friend. And David sang over him.

That reminded me. One of God’s prophets, a man named Zephaniah, wrote about the coming of God’s kingdom – what it will be like. Zephaniah wrote,

“The Lord your God is in your midst,
    a mighty one who will save;
he will rejoice over you with gladness;
    he will quiet you by his love;
he will exult over you with loud singing” (Zephaniah 3:17).

We live in a messy world, and God is singing over it. It’s a world full of ambition, treachery, jealousy, competition, hatred, bitterness, anger, revenge, and murder. And God’s kingdom is coming.

God is rarely in a hurry. He is in total control. And His kingdom is coming. God gives us room to live in it. We are part of it. “Thy kingdom come,” Jesus taught us to pray. Some people are part of bringing the kingdom to fruition, and some people are attempting to pull it apart at the seams. And yet other people, they aren’t sure what they are doing – sometimes pulling, sometimes building, sometimes running away and shaking their fists, sometimes kneeling. 

Do you sense the world is like that? And God, if we could only stop long enough to hear Him, is singing over it. He’s not in a hurry. He has His own plans. He’s seen all of this before. There are songs to be sung about the people in His kingdom. “The Lord your God is in your midst. … He will exult over you with loud singing.”

At one point in Jesus’ ministry, he could hear His disciples talking with each other while they were walking down the road (Mark 9:33-37). I imagine they were behind Him, and Jesus just quietly listened. The disciples were having an argument. Hushed tones, but anxious and eager to be heard.

That night, after they arrived at the home where they were staying, Jesus asked them about it. “What were you discussing on the way?” No one said anything. You could have heard a pin drop. They’d been arguing about which one was the greatest. They were embarrassed to admit it, but that’s what they were doing. Of course, Jesus knew. And so Jesus told them that if anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all.

Do you think the disciples understood? All this arguing, all this fighting, all this competition – What would it come to? The kingdom is coming. God is working on His own time, not ours. “The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you” (2 Peter 3:9). Stop and listen. “The Lord your God is in your midst. … He will exult over you with loud singing.”

A short time after Abner was murdered, David was anointed king over all Israel. The long-awaited kingdom had come. Abner wasn’t needed as a broker. Joab wasn’t needed as a hammer. Abner’s anger and maneuvering – and Joab’s vindictiveness and insecurity – came to nothing. The kingdom came without them.

God doesn’t need you, and He doesn’t need me, to make His kingdom come. But He loves you, and He’s singing over you – even though you’re a bit like Abner sometimes. Your turning toward the kingdom of God may not be a perfect turning. You can plot and plan all you want. You can help things all you want. You can hinder things all you want. But God’s kingdom will come.

Still, He’s singing over you – God’s church.

Do you ever stop to listen?