The king is weeping.

 

Wednesday, August 16, 2023


Psalm 105:1-22

2 Samuel 18:19-19:8a

Acts 16:25-40


Observance: Charles Inglis, bishop of Nova Scotia (d. 1816)


The king is weeping.


I recently made the decision to remove all social media apps from my phone. Discovering that they were giving me the early stages of an addiction, I decided to wean myself instead of going cold turkey, and so my methadone is partisan political magazines. What has been more entertaining than the articles themselves is noticing how all shades of political opinion cast their opponents as so patently unreasonable and tribal in their position on any given issue that they are incapable of independent and rational thought. But reading today’s readings makes one sympathetic to those stuck in an impossible situation.


King David’s mourning for his son is heart-breaking. All he wants, all he deserves, is to be able to properly mourn the death of Absalom, rebellious as he was. (And the humiliating way Absalom met his fate makes the situation even more tragic.) Yet no sooner does David hear the bad news, but Joab the general strides in, shakes him by the collar, and tells him to get back to work. A monarch is not allowed to be an individual; he lives to serve the people. Dragged so ruthlessly from his emotions back to the cold reality of his tenuous political situation, David needs to leave behind his thoughts for his dead son, and instead turn to how best to manage the insolent Joab. As a general popular among the troops, yet obviously willing to disobey the king’s orders in favour of his own opinion, Joab would require delicate political finesse. An impossible situation for a father who should be mourning the death of his son.


Our fearless missionaries in Acts are equally heroic in their response to their impossible situation. Locked in a dungeon, lesser men would have only two thoughts on their minds: resentment towards their gaolers, and a plan to escape. Yet not only did they entrust their situation entirely to God by praying, they were even singing hymns!


Human nature is far more beautifully nuanced, and our situations much deeper and intricate, than any political opinion article would like to portray. When the rubber hits the road, and we are forced to decide how to respond to an impossible situation, we might be made to wait to see how things play out for God’s glory, as with David and Joab. Or, God might vindicate our trust that very night, as with Paul and Silas. What we have in front of us is, in our finite capacity as humans, all we can deal with. But we also have the Lord by our side, who is the greatest guide we could ever need.

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