“Don’t give up: God still hears you”
By Rev. Michael Stonhouse
Meditation – Monday, July 10, 2023
Psalm 3 (Forward, p. 73) CEV p. 556
It was a most unhappy and unfortunate episode in David’s life and one that never should have happened or have been allowed to happen. David is on the run, fleeing for his very life—and from his own son no less. It is Absalom who has risen up in rebellion and who is threatening his own father’s life. And all because of David’s inattention to his own family and children, and his inaction when something ‘needed’ to be done. One of his sons, Amnon, had ‘fallen love with’ and then raped his half-sister, Tamar, and David, though informed about the matter, did nothing about it. Amnon was the eldest son, and David’s favourite, and so, David, while quite angry about what had happened, decided to do nothing about it.
Tamar’s brother, this selfsame Absalom, meanwhile was hurt and outraged that his father had let the culprit go scot-free, and so took matters into his own hands and murdered the lad. Even so, David still did nothing. These rather sad and repeated failures of David to discipline his family are recounted in vivid and unflattering detail in 2 Samuel 13, and Absalom’s rebellion and David’s hasty flight related in 2 Samuel 15.
However, David’s personal plight and difficulties were overshadowed by some even deeper crises, the rise of disloyalty and dissatisfaction within his kingdom, persistent rumours that God had withdrawn His favour and support from him—which was rather crucial—and the precarious and unstable state of his people, given what had just taken place. And so, all of these were weighing upon his mind as well.
It is then of great interest—and importance—to note that David still goes through with his earnest prayer to God, yes, in spite of the fast that he ‘is a miserable sinner’. Several passages within the Bible quote individuals as saying that God does not listen to sinners, the man born blind, for instance, in John 9:31, or the psalmist in Psalm 66:18. But then, in the parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector, it is indeed the sinner that is heard. So, maybe the question is not whether the one who prays is a sinner or not, but whether he or she is truly penitent, truly putting our iniquity behind us and turning to God, and truly sincere in wanting God’s help and salvation. Otherwise, all of us wouldn’t be ‘finished’, none of us would stand a
chance. And so, don’t give up: God is still there, still there for us, each of us, and will hear us if we really mean it. Thanks be to God. Amen.