The Pulpit Commentary — 2 Samuel — Section 152

Distrust a .foil to faith and l01Je. It is said that David was displeased; and in his displeasure there arose a fear hitherto unknown to him, and; as a consequence of these; the enterprise on which he had entered with so much joy and confidence was .abandoned till, as we shall see further on, the rewanl which came to Obed-Edom's faith and love, standing in contrast with David's gloomy imaginings, brought him round to· a better mind. I. DISCONTENT WITH THE ORDER 011' !'ROTIDENCE PROCEEDS FROM A COMBINATION OF SELF-WILL Al>"D IGNORANCE. David was dissatisfied and vexed in spirit with wb(Lp had occurred to interrupt the joyous carrying out 'of his programme. It was not so much dissatisfaction with what Uzzah had done, or pain that he was dead, but _51nnoyance that for such a deed tl1e great terror of death should have come on them all, Had he spoken out all his feelings and thoughts, he would have said that such ari event was undesirable, out of proportion to the deed, and an intrusive disturbance of a great and important ceremonial. Had he beeri at the l:iead'of authority, no such calamity as that should have :interfered with a grand national' undertaking. Possibly, apart from frustration of his own immediate plans for festivity, he may have beeii. apprehensive of the effect of such a dreadful doom upqri tl\e mas's of the people whom he was anxious to interest in the restoration of religion.- But we can· 'now see how all this was the outcome of self-will and ignorance. He wanted things to go oli :in his ·owp way; he did not know, as be might have known oii more profound reflection, that to maintain the authority of law and inculcate reverence and check national tendencies to levity were for the highest good of the people, and that these could be most assuredly promoted by this ~ad event. We have here an instance, in conspicuous form, of the very common circumstance of men secretly complaining of the order of events which Providence chooses. .A rainy season, a sweeping earthquake, a transmission of evil consequences from parent to child, the ~estiny of the wicked, and many other things which do come in consequence of the constitution of the physical and moral worlds, often raise within the heart the feeling that some other arrangement would surely Lave been better, and that had we our way such things would not be possible. '!'his is really self-assertion, love ·of our own way, ignorance of the innumerable ramifica- tions of single events and acts, and inability to penetrate into the conditions on ·which alone a permanent and ,generally beneficial order of things· can be secured. The psalmist rose to wiser though tB and holier feelings ( Ps. bxili. 13-22 ; xeii. 4-6 ; cf. •Matt. x.i. 25, 26; Rom. xi. 33, 34). If. STRONG U"l\'BOLY FEELING IMPAIRS THE CONCEPTION OF TRUTH AND DUTY, '!'hat David's annoyance with the order of Providence was a decidedly unholy feeling is obvious-it was the opposite of that meek, loving acquiescence in the ways and acts of God, even when they are most painful, which characterizes the truly filial spirit; and that 1t was strong is seen in the fact that from that moment he failed, under its action, w see the glorious truth enshrined in the tJYm bol before him, and was moved to abandon  TllE SECOND BOOK OF SAMUEL. 155