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Greatness in Humiliation, June 25
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
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Conscience was uttering bitter and humiliating truths to David. 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....
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.... 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
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Patriarchs and Prophets, 737, 738
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