[One-Verse Meditation]

2 Samuel 16:14

“And the king, and all the people who were with him, arrived weary at the Jordan. And there he refreshed himself.”

(Meditation)

On the way of David’s flight, Ziba, the servant of Mephibosheth, comes bringing food for David and his company. Then he slanders his master Mephibosheth. Deceived by his words and actions, David gives all of Mephibosheth’s property to Ziba. It is a rash judgment, made without carefully weighing the matter. Beneath it, perhaps, was David’s anger toward Mephibosheth. David must have thought, “How great was the grace I showed him, and yet he has betrayed that grace.” In that moment, David was reckoning the grace he had shown as though it were his own possession.

Then David and his company arrive at Bahurim. There they meet a man named Shimei from Saul’s household. Shimei curses David and throws stones at him. Abishai, who is standing nearby, tells David that he should kill him, but David tells him to leave him alone. He says to let Shimei curse him. He receives even this as being under the will of God. Both of these scenes are David. This is the life of a man who at times puts forward his own heart, and then again entrusts himself into the hands of God.

Then comes this verse: “And the king, and all the people who were with him, arrived weary at the Jordan. And there he refreshed himself.” In this verse, I see David’s life. The day he was anointed by the prophet Samuel, the day he stood against Goliath, the days he hid himself from Saul’s spear, the day he danced before the ark of the Lord, the day he took Uriah’s wife Bathsheba in the palace, the day his son Amnon violated his daughter Tamar, the day Absalom killed his brother Amnon, and now this day, when Absalom raises the sword against him—all of that time seems gathered into this one phrase: “arrived weary.”

So within David’s weary life were both the times lived for the name of God and the times lived for his own desires. It is much like our lives today. What matters is that this weariness is not the end. Even in the midst of cursing, David looks to the Lord and says, “It may be that the Lord will look on the wrong done to me, and that the Lord will repay me with good for his cursing today.” This is evidence that, within that weariness, the love and power of God are already beginning to sprout. God does not leave His weary saints as they are, but by His own zeal He sets them again in the place of faith. Here is the hope of the believer.

(Prayer)

Lord, thank You for letting me see You through the downward slopes of faith. Otherwise, I might even have turned faith itself into my own pride. So the faith I have today is the result of Your faithfulness. Let this be a new day that I step into by that faith. Amen.
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(Daily Meditation)

2 Samuel 16:1–17