The King's Lament

Lead me, Lord, in your righteousness because of my enemies—

make your way straight before me.
Not a word from their mouth can be trusted; their heart is filled with malice.
Their throat is an open grave; with their tongues they tell lies. Psalm 5:8-9

Lord, do not rebuke me in your anger or discipline me in your wrath.
Have mercy on me, Lord, for I am faint; heal me, Lord, for my bones are in agony.
My soul is in deep anguish. How long, Lord, how long?

Turn, Lord, and deliver me; save me because of your unfailing love.
Among the dead no one proclaims your name.
Who praises you from the grave?

I am worn out from my groaning.

All night long I flood my bed with weeping and drench my couch with tears.
My eyes grow weak with sorrow; they fail because of all my foes.
Away from me, all you who do evil, for the Lord has heard my weeping.
The Lord has heard my cry for mercy; the Lord accepts my prayer.
All my enemies will be overwhelmed with shame and anguish;
they will turn back and suddenly be put to shame. Psalm 6:1-10

Whoever is pregnant with evil conceives trouble and gives birth to disillusionment.
Whoever digs a hole and scoops it out falls into the pit they have made.
The trouble they cause recoils on them; their violence comes down on their own heads.

I will give thanks to the Lord because of his righteousness;
I will sing the praises of the name of the Lord Most High. Psalm 7:14-17

God chose David, son of Jesse, to be king over Israel when he was just a boy, shepherding his father’s sheep. The story of David’s anointing is in I Samuel 16:10-13. As a shepherd boy, David had hours, days and years alone with the Lord and the sheep. He had time to worship God privately, quietly, and to really get to know the Lord Who loved him. He also learned all there is to know about sheep. This was no accident. God chose, for the king over His people, a man who knew how to handle sheep. Sheep are stupid, dirty and cannot provide for themselves or defend themselves. Shepherding was great training for Israel’s leader. David had a very intimate relationship with the Lord, throughout his life. God always honored David’s faith and integrity, because He knew David loved Him and reverenced His Word.

With David’s coronation came many adversities. Even before he took the throne, he had to face conflict with King Saul, who had come to hate and fear David because of Saul’s own jealousy. There was great drama in that story, until Saul and his sons were dispatched through Saul’s sin unto death, and David became Israel’s sitting king (I Chronicles 10:13-14).

David was a man “after God’s own heart” (Acts 13:22), but he was just a man, born as all men are, with an Old Sin Nature. Psalm 51:5: “Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.” Power corrupts men. David never abandoned his faith in the Lord, but he did let his power distract him and that caused severe problems in David’s own life and the lives of his children AND the nation of Israel.

As king, David learned more than he probably ever wanted to know about people, including himself, including his own children, and including the citizens of his kingdom, whose allegiance could be easily swayed by an attractive, smart and determined son, intent on usurping his father’s position. David, in his lapse of good judgment, gave Absalom the excuse he needed to challenge his father’s authority, and Absalom did that with great gusto. There are always rebels who are eager to upset the established order. Absalom had no problem amassing an army of his own, and the conflict was in full force.

These Psalms of lament give us David’s agony, sometimes to the point of near hopelessness, because of the hostility and violence of his political enemies, and the angry rebellion of his son. David understood that God had his best interests at heart, and those of his people. He understood, also, that all this anguish was the direct result of his own disobedience. He was depending, always, on the grace and mercy of God to see him through this ordeal, but “oh, God, when will it end? I’m almost at the end of my rope. I can praise your name among the living, but I’ll have no testimony from the grave. I am exhausted and depressed, because of the constant slander of my foes. No one can be trusted but You, Lord. I know You hear me and will deal severely with the enemies You have allowed to chastise me. They will be shamed for what they’ve done. Their evil will backfire on themselves.”

These mournful laments are universally applicable to not only David in his anguish, but to Israel as a nation, to Jesus Christ in His incarnation, and to you and me, brethren, in our pilgrimage through life. But all is not adversity. It won’t rain always. We will go THROUGH the waters. Our Lord takes us through (Isaiah 43:2).

I thank God for His perfect, eternal righteousness. I will recover and I will sing praises to His Name.