Today we find King David again on the run... this time from his own son Absalom who tries to win the affections of the people and steal the throne.
David is unjustly accused, insulted and hunted, yet he remains humble and meek crying out to the Lord for his help. His men want to go and take vengeance against those that curse David's name and throne, but David responds: "It may be that the Lord will look on mine affliction, and that the Lord will requite me good for this cursing this day." (2 Sam. 16:5)
What an attitude. Is that the kind of response we give when wrongfully accused, when our name is smeared, when someone tries to tarnish our reputation. David didn't fight back or try to prove himself or avenge himself of his enemies. He knew that he too was a sinner and did not deserve mercy, yet he held on to Christ. He remained quiet and trusting in God's hand... and God delivered once again.
In Patriarchs and Prophets we are told:
"While his faithful subjects wondered at his sudden reverse of fortune, it was no mystery to the king. He had often had forebodings of an hour like this. He had wondered that God had so long borne with his sins, and had delayed the merited retribution. And now in his hurried and sorrowful flight, his feet bare, his royal robes changed for sackcloth, the lamentations of his followers awaking the echoes of the hills, he thought of his loved capital—of the place which had been the scene of his sin—and as he remembered the goodness and long-suffering of God, he was not altogether without hope. He felt that the Lord would still deal with him in mercy.
Many a wrongdoer has excused his own sin by pointing to David’s fall, but how few there are who manifest David’s penitence and humility. How few would bear reproof and retribution with the patience and fortitude that he manifested. He had confessed his sin, and for years had sought to do his duty as a faithful servant of God; he had labored for the upbuilding of his kingdom, and under his rule it had attained to strength and prosperity never reached before. He had gathered rich stores of material for the building of the house of God, and now was all the labor of his life to be swept away? Must the results of years of consecrated toil, the work of genius and devotion and statesmanship, pass into the hands of his reckless and traitorous son, who regarded not the honor of God nor the prosperity of Israel? How natural it would have seemed for David to murmur against God in this great affliction!
But he saw in his own sin the cause of his trouble. The words of the prophet Micah breathe the spirit that inspired David’s heart. “When I sit in darkness, the Lord shall be a light unto me. I will bear the indignation of the Lord, because I have sinned against Him, until He plead my cause, and execute judgment for me.” Micah 7:8, 9. And the Lord did not forsake David. This chapter in his experience, when, under cruelest wrong and insult, he shows himself to be humble, unselfish, generous, and submissive, is one of the noblest in his whole experience. Never was the ruler of Israel more truly great in the sight of heaven than at this hour of his deepest outward humiliation." (PP 737-738).Wow! What the enemy intended for evil, God still used as good as David's character was refined and his soul tested through this experience of pain.
Tomorrow's Reading: 2 Sam. 17-18 and Ps. 52-54
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