The Pulpit Commentary — 2 Samuel — Section 280

llttd ju~tify itself despite the oondemnRtion of oon&oience, while it obtains no relief from t,be f"Nl_ling of guilt, but rAther bring~ About a shAtper reaction qf conscience, and increases t,be Jl(IIDS that come from the conflict of mutually accu&ing and excusing thoughts " (Erdmann). "The roots of this deceit, which m&kes its appeemnce immediately eftet " fell into sin, are pride, lack of trust in God, and love of sin " (Hengstenberg). 3. Spiritual deprivation. For during these long, WCl\ry months or silence the light of God's countenance was bidden, the joy of his sa.lvation lost (Ps. Ii. 8, 12). "His hnrr, was out of tune, and his soul like a tree in· winter, with the lifo in the root only ' (Matthew Henry). "We are not to conceive of him as one who had quite fallen 1 nor as one spiritually dead, but e.s sick unto death. It is certain that he had not quite lost all desire after God, that he had not entirely given up frayer; doubtless there were still many fruits of faith percep~ible in_ him; but ~is sou was c~ecked_ in its flig~t toward God, a curse rested upon him, which made sohtary communion with the Divme Being for any length of time intolerable, and moved him to seek distractions in order to escape t.4e torment of conscience and keep it from attaining to full life." 4. Ine:i;pressible mia!ry; consisting of "the burden of the heart weighing on itself, the burden of a secret, the sense of hypocrisy, the knowledge of inward depravity, while all without looks pure as snow to men" (F. W. Robertson); the remembrance of sin that cannot be forgotten (Ps. Ii. 3), the remorse of conscience that cannot be quieted, the sense of Divine displeasure, the dread of approaching woes (Ps. Ii. 11); continuing without cessation; consuming the vital energies, and exhausting the physical strength (Pe. :xxxvili. 6). "Whithersoever the sinner may turn himself, or however he may be mentally affected, his malady is in no degree lightened nor bis welfare in any degree promoted until he is restored to God" (Calvin, in Ps. xxxii.). "I will reprove thee" et.c.. (Ps. l. 21). Although for a season concealed, it will be in due time revealed (Matt. x. 26). "Not only was the fruit of the sin to be first of all brought to light (ver. 27), and the hardened sinner to be deprived of the possibility of either denying or conceal- ing his crimes ; God wonld :first of all break his unbroken heart by the torture of his own conscience, and prepare it to feel the reproaches of the prophet. . . . Nathan's reproof could not possibly have borne its saving-fruit if David had been still living in utter blindness as to the character of his sin at the time the prophet went to him" (Keil). "No language ever described so vividly the sense of a weight at the heart- a weight that cannot be uplifted; and it was the weight of God's own presence-, of that presence which he had once spoken of as the fulnees of joy: With this oppression; like that of the air before the thunderstorm, came the drying up of all the moisture and freshness of life, the parching heat of fever. Did the Prophet Nathan bring all this to bis consciollinees? No, surely. The Prophet Nathan came at the appointed time to tell him in clear words, by a living instance, that which he had been hearing in inuttered accents within his heart for months before. He came to tell him that the God of righteousness and mercy, who cared for Uriah, the poor man wilh the single ewe lamb, was calling him, the king:, to account for an act of unrighteousness and unmercifulnees. Nathan brought him to face steadily the light at which he bad been winking, and to own that the light was good, that it was the darkness which was horrible and hateful, so that he might turn to the light and crave that it should once more penetrate into the depths of his being, and take possession of him" (Maurice). -D. Ver. 27.-(JEBUSALEH.) God's displeasure at sin. "And the thing that David had done displeased Jehovah" (1 Chron. xxi. 7). 'l'bie is the only remark which the sacred historian makes on the conduct of David. It reveals its true nature as with a sun-· beam; "contains the more.I decision from a theocratic point of view, and is, as it were, a superscription of the following history of the Divine judgments on David and his house on account of this sin" (Erdmann). The Divine displeasure (indignation, ange!", wrath) is- I. REAL. Jehovah is the living, personal, supreme Ruler of men, and to him each man is responsible for his actions. As he is capable of being pleased, so he is of being displeased. His wrath is no less real than hie love, wisdom, or power ; like, yet unlike, that of man, being above all human imperfection. 'l'he Scriptures declare that he is di6pleased with men when they do evil (Ps. ii. 6 ; vi. 1 ; vii. 11 ; Mark iii. 6). OJI. XL 1-27.] 'fHE SECOND BOOK OF SAMUEL. 285