Peter Barnes | 2 Samuel 18:19-19:8
SERMON NOTES
DAVID’S GRIEF: PRESSING ON WHEN DEVASTATED
2 Samuel 18:19-19:8
David’s grief is so excessive that he came closer to doing more damage to his position as king than Absalom ever could.
1. David’s terrible grief.
– 18:19-33. Weeping is allowed; it is expected. But Lev.19:28. David is so grief-stricken that he could not function.
– Henry Venn told his children and grandchildren: ‘if anything could make heaven not heaven to me, it would be the not having you with me there.’
– contrast to 2 Sam.12:22-23.
2. The danger of discouragement.
– 19:1-4. David’s grief was destroying his kingship; it was undermining the morale of all Israel.
– we do not minister to others just when we feel like it – read Mark 6:31-34.
3. Even the unregenerate may reprove us.
– 19:5-8. An ungodly roughneck is used by God to snap David out of his understandable self-pity.
(a) ‘Absalom would have killed you and all those you hold dear.’
(b) ‘You are showing more love for our enemies than for those who risked their lives for you’.
(c) ‘You are on the brink of wrecking everything’ (v.7).
– Ps.141:5a (Joab was hardly righteous) and Neh.8:10.