The Pulpit Commentary — 2 Samuel — Section 460

friends, WlLII very near imperilling hia influence as l!Overctgn, and gave eome ostensible 0-round for the ungracioll8 remonstrance of Joa.b. But the fact is, David was true to himaelf 88 a man of deepest piety, and the '(leOple were unable to enter Into the nctunl Ft ruggle through which he was passing. Like Oae greater, he "trod the wine-pre 88 alune." It was not mere ·natural affection for a son, it was not pain that a son had been ungrateful, that crushed him and rendered him for the time forgetful of the claims of bis people and the duties of hie office. The key to the whole is to be sought in the prediction of Nathan (ob. xii. 9-12), the fulfilment of this in its severest form in the trRgedy of the life just ended, and the keen perception of this In relation to his own dreadful _sin. His distinct recognition of the ch9:stis~ng hand of God (eh. xv. 24-80) when, with bare feet and broken heart, he passed m silence and tears over· Mount Olivet, was now repeated with, of course, the fuller and more overwhelming ancruish 0 attendant on the ruin of a life, yen, of a soul, as he felt, through his own great sin. Joah and the p~ople never, perhaps, knew of ?-iathan's declaration. It was always a latent element in DaYid's restored Jile of piety; but now it was the crushing force before which he could not hold up. He saw, as he believed, how his spiritual degeneracy, during thos11 dark month" of horrible sin and guilt, had acted perniciously on the spirit of his son; and he could not but feel that, in the temporal and spiritual destruction of h,is son, he was now reaping just what he had sown. Yet all this he had to bear alone I No one could share the dreadful secret; and in proportion as he saw what was involved- in a ruined soul, so would be the uttemess of, his anguish. No wonder if in bis solitary e:i..--periPoce he forgot all earthly things, and gave himself up to the bitterness of his grief. I. THERE ABE CRISES IN SPIRITUAL EXPERIENCE, David was a man of many crises. The history and the Psalms reveal them. His call to kingship by Samuel meant an unrecorded experience of a most extraordinary kind. His anguish in exile when pursued by Saul put his faith to a terrible test. His sad fall was a descent into a pit of horrors. 'l'he tremendous conflict involved in his restoration is indicated in the fifty-first psalm, and now, when the judgment of God for his sin falls in heaviest form, he descends into the depths (Ps. cxu:.) further, perhaps, than was ever known.by any other man. We see similar crises in the lives of some others. Jacob knew the desola- tion of Bethel and the pains of the wrestling with the angel. Paul was dumb and blind before God till prayer brought him forth to light and peace; and he later on had experiences of things which it was "not lawful" to utter. Most men whose religion has depths have known times when anguish before God has shut out aU thought and care of earthly things. Some have seasons of temptation equal to that of Bunyan's Pilgrim in the Valley of the Shadow of Death. As a rule, religious life is a steady growth, but there are checks and disasters when the question of life itself is at stake. Vire can understand David's experience in the case before us without having recourse to the hypothesis of a weak mind overborne by natural sorrow for the death of a favourite son. • II. CRISES IN RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE ABE OFTEN MOST ABSORBING. David . was 80 absorbed in the spiritual anguish springing from a religious view of the ruin of Absalom in connection with his own great sin, as practically to forget that· he was a king, and that a nation needed his guidance. The narrative is true to the spiritual facts that may be traced by a comparison of this event with the king's previous conduct, The intensity of hia natnre, as revealed in the strong and passionate utterances of the psalms, whether in joy or sorrow, would add to the tendency to yield himself utterly to this greatest of all the calamities consequent on his sin. The passion with which he once pleaded for Bathsheba's child (eh. xii. 16-20) was an instance of the same kind, only lesa than this, because here the trouble was the more serious in so ,far as the moral and bodily ruin of a son w88 a greater consequence of his sin.'. All who have entered into the solitariness of the great crises in the soul's career know how at such times all earthly things seem to vanish into insignificance; and it is with extreme difficulty that ordinary and necessary duties •can be at.tended to. Men have been known to forget to take food, and to isolate themselves from their friends. And no wonder, when the soul sees its sins in the awful light of God's judgments, or is made to feel the consequences to others of its past deeds. Peter did not associate freely with friends that night on which he "went out and wept bitterly." lIL 'l'BERE ARE QUALIFYING CIBCUIIBTANCEB THAT DETERMINE TllE DEGBEE 01' OH. XIX. 1-48.] 'fHE SECOND BOOK 01" SAMUEL. 17[