David's lamentation over absalom.
2 Sam. xviii. 33. And the hing was much moved, and went up to the chamber over the gate, and weft: and, as he went, thus he said, O niy son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom! would God I had died for thee, 0 Absalom, my son, my son!
THIS life is at best a chequered scene : the happiness of man is rarely of long continuance ; nor is it ever altogether without alloy : the sweetest cup we taste has always in it, either in a greater or less
322.] David's lamentation over absalom. 295
degree, an infusion of gall : it is in heaven alone that our blessedness is complete. David had at- tained a full possession of the throne of Israel : but troubles arose to him fi'om various quarters, and especially from his own family; even his own son rose up in rebellion against him, to dethrone him. The rebellion was scarcely matured before it was quashed : but alas ! his son, his ftivourite son, was slain : and how bitterly he laid to heart this cala- mity, may be seen from the words which we have now read.
We propose to notice, I. The grief of David for the loss of Absalom —
This was in some respects right and commen- -dable —
\^He did well in mourning for the death of a son. God lias put into the heart of parents a love for their oiFspring : and indeed such a love was necessary to counterbalance the cares and troubles which a family entails. That love of necessity contains in it the seeds of sorrow, when evil befalls the ojEFspring, or death snatches them away. Even the irrational creation are deeply penetrated with this feeling, and manifest it in a very high degree, whenever the loss of their offspring calls it into exercise. We wonder not, therefore, that a man of David's piety should greatly bewail the death of his favourite son. We do not disapprove of him when for seven successive days he wept, and fasted, and prayed for the life of his dying infant ; much less can we blame his grief for a son of mature age and eminent accomplishments.
But still more was his grief justified, u)hen tve consider the circumstances under ivhich his son was taken away. Absalom, alas ! was very unfit to die : he was a man of an abandoned character. He was an assassin, and had murdered his own brother Amnon. He was a rebel against the king whom God himself had called to the throne, even against his own father. He was, in heart at least and design, a murderer of his own father : for when the proposal was made by Achitophel so to contrive the attack as to destroy his father only, it was highly gratifying to this imnatural son. Moreover, for the ex^iress purpose of making himself " abhorred by his father," and of precluding all possibiHty of reconciliation with him, " he went in to his father's concubines in the sight of all Israel." Such was the state of Absalom, when death arrested him. What a tremendous load of guilt was here, under the whole of which