There are uniquely sad moments in everyone's life, but King David was dealt a particularly devastating blow when his son, Absalom, led a revolt against him.
We read about it in 2 Samuel 15. Absalom was in Hebron (where David himself had first been crowned)and recruiting his own group of followers to lead a rebellion against his father.
A messenger (spy?) reported to David, The hearts of the men of Israel are with Absalom.
Apparently David didn't need to verify this. He knew immediately that the messenger was telling the truth. Then David said to all of his officials who were with him in Jerusalem,'Come! We must flee, or none of us will escape from Absalom. We must leave immediately, or he will move quickly to overtake us and bring ruin upon us and put the city to the sword.'
None of us will Escape...
None of us will escape... None of us? Not even David would be spared? Would Absalom's obsession with being King of Israel lead him to kill his own father? Looks like David thought so. He knew Absalom and was afraid for his own life, as well as the others in his court, and even for the residents in Jerusalem.
And so the king's officials told him Your servants are ready to do whatever our lord the king chooses.
And King David fled the city with his household and faithful followers. At one point, David halted and let his army march past. That army included 600 Gittites (people from Gath, where Goliath was from, and where Obed-Edom had lived). Ittai, the Gittite leader, told David, As surely as the LORD lives, and as my lord the king lives, wherever my lord the king may be, whether it means life or death, there will your servant be.
As David stood there with his household and watched his men march past, he must have felt some measure of comfort, or at least companionship, as he considered what lay ahead, and perhaps some measure of guilt for what was happening.
The Trail of Tears...
The whole countryside wept aloud as all the people passed by. The King also crossed the Kidron Valley (really a ravine with a wet-weather stream called the Kidron Brook. Jesus crossed this ravine also when He went to the olive grove where He was arrested) and all the people moved on toward the desert. 2 Samuel 15:23
Zadok, the high priest, and other Levites were bringing the Ark of the Covenant with them in their exile. Was David afraid Absalom would destroy the Ark? We can't know for certain, but likely Zadok, who was entrusted with the safety of the Ark, wanted to go with David, and couldn't leave it behind!
As all the people were leaving the city fleeing from Absalom's men, Abiathar offered sacrifices until all the people had finished leaving the city.
Where should the Ark of the Covenant be?
King David knew the Ark belonged back in the tabernacle. He said to Zadok Take the ark of God back into the city. If I find favor in the LORD's eyes, He will bring me back and let me see it and His dwelling place again. But if He says, 'I am not pleased with you,' then I am ready; let Him do to me whatever seems good to him.'
But David continued up the Mount of Olives, weeping as he went; his head was covered and he was barefoot. All the people with him covered their heads too and were weeping as they went up.
It was truly a Trail of Tears.
Retreating in your own land....
We've all read about armies in retreat and seen movies of those despairing lines of wretched people on the run, bringing their household goods on small wobbly carts and wearing as many clothes as they could layer on, followed by crying children and maybe a few small farm animals. The people usually have a haunted, hopeless look. Pilgrims. Homeless people trying to find shelter and safety.
And retreating armies carrying their wounded, trying to outrun the enemy. Trying to keep ahead. Too weary to run and too afraid to stop.
But even sadder is to imagine soldiers retreating in their own country. Like the Russian army retreating in World War II. Retreating from the advancing Germans, passing villages and farms of shocked people, their friends and family who were counting on them to keep the enemy away. And they had failed.
Imagine how it would be if you were there, watching your own army, men and boys you knew, retreating right past your home, with the enemy right behind them, chasing them. Everything the people (usually the elderly, women and children, since the strong men were already dead or part of the retreating army) had counted on to protect them had evaporated before their eyes and they were left to face whatever horrors the enemy had in store for them.
And imagine how those men themselves must have felt.
So David was fleeing, in front of his countrymen, people who had entrusted him with their lives. It was too dangerous to stay behind and so all those who were able went with David as he fled toward the desert.
David wrote about it later. Psalm 63. O God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you, my body longs for you, in a dry and weary land where there is no water.
I have seen you in the sanctuary and beheld your power and your glory....
On my bed I remember you; I think of you through the watches of the night.
Because you are my help, I will sing in the shadow of your wings.
My soul clings to you; your right hand upholds me.
The forward to the Psalm tells us it was from David, when he was in the wilderness of Judah.
We know of two times David was in the wilderness: once when he was running from the jealousy and wrath of King Saul, and the other time was when he was fleeing from his own son. We can date it to the time he is running from Absalom, because in verse 11 he calls himself "the king." David often referred to himself in the third person in the psalms. (And when he was fleeing from King Saul, he was not the king.)
This Psalm is a well-known one. Most of us know parts of it by memory. And in it we can hear his voice of pain and also his voice of trust in God. (Another kind of sacred counterpoint?)
Continued in Part 2.
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