David and Jonathan Meet

Text: 1 Samuel 17:50-18:4

Reflection and Question: Perhaps the one thing you know about David is his slaying of the Philistine giant, Goliath. Saul is impressed, but Saul’s son, Jonathan, is utterly smitten with David. Scripture repeats that Jonathan loved David “as his own soul” and the two men made a covenant together. Our sense of marriage as a covenant between two equals is much closer to this pledge between David and Jonathan than to the Biblical practice in which the man takes the woman who has little to say in the matter. Does “loving another as your own soul” describe your understanding of married love?

Prayer: God of the ages, help us to draw Your lesson from this ancient story preserved for thousands of years in word and in writing. Open our eyes so that we may understand this same kind of love now. Amen.

This meditation is based on the Daily Lectionary Year 1 from the Book of Common Worship for the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) (1993).