We already know how dear Jonathan was to David. Yet David’s love for Jonathan is astonishing in its boundlessness. David had already shown noble regard for Saul’s family more than once, and when he became king he guaranteed Saul’s relatives safety and protection. But in memory of his closest friend, David is ready to show mercy again and again to people from the house of Saul.

The mercy shown to Mephibosheth, Jonathan’s son, is of course the mercy David would have wished to show Jonathan himself. But it is also mercy toward Saul’s entire family, for whom David retained respect throughout his life. In the fact that Mephibosheth ate at the king’s table with David’s sons, we can see not only care for the son of a close friend, but also David’s own humility. Every meal became for him a living reminder that the Lord had originally chosen another house to reign, and that its fall should become not a reason for self-exaltation, but a lesson for the future.

Yes, the Lord promised not to take His mercy away from the house of David. But He also warned that even the kings among David’s descendants would be strictly called to account for their unworthy deeds.