Public Evangelist
149
David’s Hour of Adversity—You did not take a humble position,
as did David in view of his sin. After the commission of that great
crime of his life, his entire character deteriorated. That crime recoiled
terribly upon him. He was bearing a conscious sense of guilt. He
felt that he had forfeited the love and loyalty of his subjects. He was
weakened physically and morally. He lost his own self-respect and
self-confidence. He scarcely dared trust his old and formerly tried
advisers. Humbled and mournful was the procession that took that
precipitate flight from his throne across the mount.
But David was never more worthy of admiration than in his hour
of adversity. Never was this cedar of God truly greater than when
wrestling with the storm and tempest. He was a man of the keenest
temperament, which might have been raised to the strongest feelings of
resentment. He was cut to the quick with the imputation of unmerited
wrong. Reproach, he tells us, had broken his heart.
[175]
And it would not have been surprising if, stung to madness, he
had given vent to his feelings of uncontrollable irritation, to bursts of
vehement rage, and expressions of revenge. But there was nothing of
this which would naturally be expected of a man with his stamp of
character. With spirit broken and in tearful emotion, but without one
expression of repining, he turns his back upon the scenes of his glory
and also of his crime, and pursues his flight for his life.
Shimei comes forth as David passes and, with a storm of curses,
hurls against him invectives, throwing stones and dirt. Said one of
David’s faithful men, “Let me go over, I pray thee, and take off his
head.” David in his sorrow and humility says, “Let him curse, because
the Lord hath said unto him, Curse David.... Behold, my son, which
came forth of my bowels, seeketh my life” (
2 Samuel 16:9-11
).
David’s Refusal to Avenge Himself—In David is seen the saint
of God. His fine and deep sense of feeling is not blunted. He senses
his sin most keenly....
The faithful Nathan had pronounced the judgment of God. The
sword was never to leave his [David’s] house; that which he had sown
he was also to reap. He had often had a gloomy presentiment of the
present hour. He had long wondered why the merited judgment was so
long delayed. The God he had offended by bringing so great sin upon
Israel as their leader, was now showing him that He is not a God that
will lie, and that by terrible things in righteousness would He show