Explore the poignant story of Absalom’s rebellion against his father, David. Dive into the historical context that brings the Psalms to life, particularly Psalm 3, providing a deeper understanding of this ancient text. The episode sheds light on the complex relationships within David’s family and the political intrigue that surrounded them. It’s a tale of ambition, betrayal, and an unfaltering trust in divine intervention.
The CEM Network is pleased to present Ronald L. Dart and Born to Win.
SPEAKER 03 :
When you’re reading through the Psalms, it’s striking how often having a little bit of knowledge about the history behind it helps. For example, the third Psalm has this subheading. a psalm of David, when he fled from Absalom his son. Now, no one is certain as to when the subheadings found in the Psalms were created or whether they’re authentic or not. But sometimes, if you know some of the history of the time, you know what it’s about, you can get very strong clues as to whether they fit or not. The incident in question comes from a period of time, a particular period of time in David’s reign, a very troubling time, when he had to face a rebellion from his own son. David had quite a few wives and no shortage of sons. They are kind of outlined. Some of them are in 2 Samuel. While he was in Hebron, he had six sons from six different women. One of these sons was a man named Absalom. His mother was a princess, the daughter of a king of a neighboring city. And being the son of a king and a princess may have contributed to the final outcome of this tragic man’s life. There was a period of time, for example, when another one of his brothers, his name was Amnon, sort of fell in lust with Absalom’s sister. Her name was Tamar. Beautiful girl, I gather. And Amnon was so infatuated with her that he got sick of love virtually. And he begged Absalom, his brother, to send his sister over there and prepare some food for him while he was sick. And finally, Absalom gave in and let her go. The result of it was that when she was there and preparing him a little food and serving it up to him, he forced everyone else to leave the room except her. And he raped her. Pure and simple. And then he compounded the problem by throwing her out. It wasn’t as though having taken her in this way that he was willing to make her his wife and be responsible for her. He just threw her out. She went home to her brother Absalom. And you don’t have to be particularly swift to know how this incident poisoned the relationships between Absalom and Amnon. Absalom, the story is a bit long. It’s very much worthwhile your reading it. He finally decided he would kill Amnon, his brother, because of this. He did. And he fled to stay with his grandfather in Geshur. Now, finally, though, he was brought back, but he was not allowed when he came back to see David. After all, he had killed his brother, engaged in fratricide. He was lucky to be alive. But he wanted to see his dad. He kept trying to see his dad. He kept going to Joab or trying to see Joab, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, whom he thought had David’s ear. Joab wouldn’t come. So he set fire to Joab’s field to get his attention. This is some guy who’s pretty determined. Finally, he saw his father. Reconciled? Well, not really. You’ll find part of the story that I’m at now in 2 Samuel 14. Verse 25. In all Israel, there was not a man so highly praised for his handsome appearance as Absalom. He was a good-looking man. From the top of his head to the sole of his foot, there was no blemish in him. Whenever he got around to cutting his hair, he used to cut his hair from time to time when it became too heavy for him, he would weigh it. And its weight was 200 shekels by the royal standard, which would be something like five pounds of hair. I don’t think I would wait that long before cutting mine. Anyway, he began to work against his father. In the course of time, and you’ll find this in 2 Samuel 15, Absalom provided himself with a chariot and horses and 50 men to run ahead of him. He would get up early and stand by the side of the road leading to the city gate when anyone came in with a complaint to be placed before the king for a decision. Absalom would call out to him, Hey, what town are you from? And he would answer, Well, your servant is from this or that one of the tribes. And Absalom would say to him, Oh, your claims are valid and proper, but there’s no representative of the king to hear you. And Absalom would add, now if I only, if only I were appointed a judge in the land, then everyone who has a complaint or a case would come to me, and I would see that he gets justice. Also, whenever anyone approached him to bow down to him, Absalom would reach out, take hold of him, and kiss him. He wouldn’t let him just bow down. Absalom behaved this way toward all the Israelites who came to the king asking for judgment, and he stole the hearts of the men of Israel. Just good old-fashioned politics. At the end of four years, Absalom said to the king, to David, Let me go to Hebron and fulfill my vow I made to the Lord. While I was living in Geshur in Iran, I made this vow. If the Lord takes me back to Jerusalem, I will worship the Lord in Hebron. The king said to him, Go in peace. So he went. And he sent secret messengers throughout all the tribes of Israel to say, As soon as you hear the sound of the trumpets, then say, Absalom is king in Hebron. You begin to see what’s developing here. It’s a deliberate palace coup. This man is prepared to stab his own father in the back. Take the king away from him. There were 200 men from Jerusalem that had gone there with Absalom. They had been invited as guests. They went quite innocently, knowing nothing about the matter. While Absalom was offering sacrifices, he also sent for a man named Ahithophel, David’s counselor, to come down from Gilo, his hometown. So the conspiracy gained strength, and Absalom’s following kept on increasing. A messenger came, though, and told David, and this was inevitable. He said, The hearts of the men of Israel are after Absalom. Absalom is winning them over completely. So David said to all his officials who were with him in Jerusalem, Come, we’ve got to get out of here, 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. The king’s official said, we’re ready to do whatever you choose. So he set out, his entire household following him. He left 10 concubines to take care of the palace. And so he set out, all the people following him, and they halted at a place some distance away. Now, there’s a great deal in this story, but there is a small mystery hanging in the background. Somewhere, while all this is going on, the third psalm may have been written. It starts off, having been said it’s a psalm of David when he fled from Absalom, his son, and it goes this way. “‘Lord, how are they increased that trouble me? Many are they that rise up against me. Many there be which say of my soul, there’s no help for him in God.’ Now, I don’t know if it strikes you like it does me, but when I read this, I think, what? You won’t be afraid of ten thousands of people, and yet you’re running before Absalom, your own son? You know, you would think that in that day and time, most kings, whenever they got the first sniff of something like this going on, would have had some men go out and slaughtered the boy, and that would have been the end of the whole thing. And then David says, Arise, O Lord, save me, O my God. Because you have smitten all my enemies upon the cheekbone. You’ve broken the teeth of the ungodly. Salvation belongs to the Lord. Your blessing is upon your people. Now, if you’ve never noticed this when you’re reading the Psalms, this is the first of the Psalms that is actually a prayer. Psalm 1 is an exhortation. The second Psalm is kind of a prophecy. Now we come to a man who is deeply stressed, who cries out to God for help. And if the superscription of this psalm is correct, it came at one of the lowest periods of David’s life. The attempted coup by Absalom, David’s son, David’s flight from Jerusalem. It’s one of the most poignant stories in the entire Bible. One wonders that a movie hasn’t been made of it. The fear and the dread of a palace coup must have been compounded by the fact that his enemy was his own son. And I wonder if David would have fled before anyone else, or if he would have stayed and fought. I think of this psalm as having been written before David knew how the coup would play out. The best advice given to Absalom was not to pursue his father. Leave him alone, someone said. He’s going to be like a lion who’s wounded and hurt, and he will fight like the devil. Don’t go after him. He could have used that time also to consolidate his power, but other advice was, no, no, go after them right now when they’re off balance and fight. In the ensuing battle, Absalom was killed. One of the most heartbreaking choral works I’ve ever heard in my life is a rendering of the words of David upon hearing of the death of Absalom. Mind you, his son was a rebel who had sent David running from Jerusalem for his life. After a great battle between David’s men and those of Absalom, David gets the message of the death of Absalom. The song is called David’s Lament, and it’s a verbatim rendering of the words from Scripture. And the king was much moved, and went to his chamber and wept. And as he went, he wept and said, O my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom, would God I had died for thee. O Absalom, my son, my son. David was a man after God’s own heart, and nothing would have pleased him more if his son had repented and returned to him. I think David fled Jerusalem not so much from fear of battle. He was a fighting man. I think he fled because he feared he would have to kill his son. He was willing to face exile, even death, rather than see the death of his son, enemy though Absalom had become. Then I think of a letter from the Apostle Paul who said, But God commends his love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. That’s in Romans, chapter 5, verse 8. And David says, Would God I had died for you, O Absalom, my son, my son. Grab a pencil and a piece of paper.
SPEAKER 02 :
I want to give you a short message, and then I’ll be right back with more. Ronald Dart has done a complete reading of the Psalms, complete with commentary and music, and is available in album form. Write or call and ask for your free introductory CD titled, The Psalms. There is no cost or obligation. Write to Born to Win, Post Office Box 560, White House, Texas 75791. Or call toll free 1-888-BIBLE-44. And tell us the call letters of this station.
SPEAKER 03 :
The fourth psalm presents us with the leader of a great country, blessed by God. A man whose greatest accomplishments are made out to be shameful by his enemies. Their aim was deception. They yapped at his heels like a pack of dogs. But he tells himself, stand in awe of God. Don’t become like those men who hate you. Psalm 4, to the chief musician on strings, a Psalm of David. Hear me when I call, O God of my righteousness. You gave me room when I was in distress. Have mercy on me and hear my prayer. O you sons of men, how long will you turn my honor into shame? How long will you love vanity and pursue lying? But know this, the Lord has set apart him that is kind for himself.” The Lord will hear when I call to Him. So stand in awe and sin not. Commune with your own heart upon your bed and be still. You know, it almost sounds in the latter part of this like He’s talking to Himself. Stand in awe. Don’t sin. Think this over. Commune with your own heart upon your bed and be still. Wait for God. Offer the sacrifices of righteousness and put your trust in the Lord. There be many that say… Who will show us any good? Lord, lift up the light of your countenance upon us. You have put gladness in my heart more than in the time when their corn and wine were increasing. I will both lay me down in peace and sleep. For you, Lord, only make me dwell in safety. This psalm seems to come in hard times. There are many who say, who’s going to show us any good? Nothing is going right. But the psalmist says he has more gladness in heart than they do when everything is going great. The economy being agriculture, this probably has been a bad year. At the same time, it has little overtones coming back of Absalom’s rebellion, doesn’t it? What does it take to be happy when things are going bad? Well, sometimes it takes a broader vision, a different perspective. There was a day when the prophet Elisha and his servant were in a city that’s being besieged by a huge army. The servant of the man of God went out early in the morning and went out and looked, and the whole city had been surrounded with horses and chariots. And he said to his master, Alas, my master, what are we going to do? And Elisha said, Don’t be afraid. They that are with us are more than they that are with them. And Elisha prayed and said, Lord, I pray you open his eyes so he can see. And the Lord opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw, and all around him the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha. Sometimes we just can’t see. Now, that doesn’t mean the chariots of fire aren’t there. So what we do is we make a conscious decision to trust God no matter what is there. And come hell or high water, whether the chariots of fire are there or whether they are not, I am going to trust God. Like those three Hebrew children who faced the fiery furnace in the book of Daniel. They told the king, our God will deliver us from your furnace, O king. But even if not, we will still not bow down to your image. Man, having that confidence that God will deliver you is a wonderful thing. But just as wonderful as having the courage to say, if it’s His choice that I suffer this, so be it. I am still not going to do wrong. There’s a reason why I think this psalm seems so apt to our own age and our own leadership, our own people. The jealousy of power is a human constant. It is always there, and it corrupts men in every age. Technology increases power. It doesn’t change human nature a bit. That conscious decision to trust God come hell or high water is what we call faith. It’s not just a feeling. It’s a decision made in defiance of the way we feel. Psalm 5, to the chief musician upon flutes, a psalm of David. Give ear to my words, O Lord, consider my meditation. Listen to the voice of my cry, my King, my God, for unto you will I pray. My voice shall you hear in the morning, O Lord. In the morning will I direct my prayer to you, and I will watch. Because you’re not a God that has pleasure in wickedness. Neither shall evil dwell with you. The foolish will not stand in your sight. You hate all workers of iniquity. You shall destroy them that speak lying. The Lord will abhor the bloody and deceitful man. You know, generations pass, and they come and they go, and we still have the lying, deceitful, bloody men around us. And God looks at them and hates them, everyone. As for me, he said, I will come into your house in the multitude of your mercy, and in your fear I will worship toward your holy temple. Lead me, O Lord, in your righteousness because of my enemies. Make your way straight before my face, for there is no faithfulness in their mouth. Their inward part is very wickedness. Their throat is an open sepulcher. They flatter with their tongues. Destroy them, O God. Let them fall by their own counsels. Cast them out in the multitude of their transgressions, for they have rebelled against you. But let all those that put their trust in you rejoice. Let them ever shout for joy because you defend them. Let them also that love your name be joyful in you. For you, Lord, will bless the righteous. With favor will you compass him as with a shield. You know, in our generation, we are no strangers to the bloody and deceitful man. It seems certain that while technology changes, evil remains always the same. If anything has changed, it is that bloody and deceitful men can kill more people than at any time in the history of man. And they’re all around us. It seems likely that David had a particular bloody and deceitful man in mind when he wrote this. Reading it so many centuries later, we tend to generalize, but David is not generalizing when he speaks of his enemies. He had them, and a lot of them. When you read the story of Absalom, the flattery, the unfaithfulness becomes especially painful. But there’s an interesting aside here. David never names anyone in his prayers asking God to punish the wicked. And one wonders why. Maybe it’s to avoid judging the men in question. We never know all the facts in a case, and there may be mitigating circumstances. We may think a man is lying when he actually isn’t. Therefore, to pray against that man by name would be wrong, while praying that God will punish the unnamed liar would be fair. If the man is innocent, the curse will not come. It’s a singular evil to curse an innocent man. David prayed against his enemies without naming them. I understand that. You know, I don’t know that I even have any enemies out there. So if I were to pray against them, I sure couldn’t use their names. And David, whether he knew them or not, prayed for them. So if a man was not his enemy, David had done no harm. There’s a proverb. It says, As the bird by wandering, as the swallow by flying, so the curse causeless shall not come. Listen to this message and I’ll be right back.
SPEAKER 02 :
For a free CD of this radio program that you can share with friends and others, write or call this week only. And request the program titled, Thinking About the Psalms, number 2. Write to Born to Win, Post Office Box 560, White House, Texas 75791. Or call toll free 1-888-BIBLE44. That’s 1-888-242-5344. Psalm 6.
SPEAKER 03 :
To the chief musician upon the lyre, a psalm of David. O Lord, rebuke me not in your anger, neither chasten me in your hot displeasure. Have mercy upon me, O Lord, for I’m weak. O Lord, heal me, for my bones tremble, my soul also trembles. But you, O Lord, how long? Return, O Lord, deliver my soul. O save me for your mercy’s sake. For in death there is no remembrance of you. In the grave, who will give you thanks? I’m weary with my groaning. All the night I make my bed to swim. I water my couch with my tears. My eye is consumed because of grief. It waxes old because of all my enemies. Depart from me, all you workers of iniquity, for the Lord has heard the voice of my weeping. The Lord has heard my supplication. The Lord will receive my prayer. Let all my enemies be ashamed and tremble. Let them turn back and be suddenly ashamed. I suppose everyone has nights like this. Nights when we are sore afraid of God’s displeasure. Because it’s hard for a man to make it through this life without encountering shame and fear. Without doing something wrong and wondering, is God going to forsake me because of this? On this night… David feared for his life, and he had more than a few nights like this. He bargained with God just a little. He said, In death, there’s no remembrance of you. In the grave, who will give you thanks? Of what little use I am, Lord, it’s better than my being dead. And yet in his darkest hours, David never lost hope. Get away from me, you lawless louts, he cries. God has heard me. He will receive my prayer. The one who accuses us before God, though, is not a man. It’s a spirit called the accuser of the brethren. Get away from me, my enemy. God has heard my prayer. You know, when I read a song like this, and I try to put my mind back in the time where David was there, I think we can feel for this, where we cry out, you know, I know I’ve done wrong, but just when you do chasten me, do it gently. Don’t rebuke me while you’re angry. Have mercy upon me because I’m weak. I didn’t mean to do it. It was weakness that led me down this road. And then he says, heal me. My bones are trembling, and I need your mercy. Save me for your mercy’s sake. It’s strange in a way. You know, you turn to the psalm. So many people turn to the psalm for comfort. And I know there have been times when I’ve said, I need to read something tonight that will make me feel good. And I open up to a psalm, and I encounter a man who is absolutely in the depths of depression. It doesn’t seem to help a lot. And yet, what you’re doing here, you’re getting in tune with a man who knows exactly how you feel, who’s been right down the same road you’re on, and he turns at the end of this miserable prayer and says, God’s going to take care of me. I will lay down and sleep in peace and sleep, for God makes me dwell safely. Now that is worth remembering on one of those long nights.
SPEAKER 02 :
Ronald Dart will be right back. If you would like more information or if you have any questions, write to Born to Win, Post Office Box 560, White House, Texas 75791. In the U.S. and Canada, call toll free 1-888-BIBLE-44. That’s 1-888-242-5344. And visit us online at borntowin.net.
SPEAKER 03 :
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SPEAKER 01 :
I’m Ronald Dart. Christian Educational Ministries is happy to announce a new full-color Born to Win monthly newsletter with articles and free offers from Ronald L. Dart. Call us today at 1-888-BIBLE44 to sign up or visit us at born2win.net.
