From the depths of despair, O Lord, I call for your help. Hear my cry, O Lord. Pay attention to my prayer. Lord, if you kept a record of our sins, who, O Lord, could ever survive? But you offer forgiveness, that we might learn to fear you. I am counting on the Lord; yes, I am counting on him. I have put my hope in his word. I long for the Lord more than sentries long for the dawn, yes, more than sentries long for the dawn. O Israel, hope in the Lord; for with the Lord there is unfailing love. His redemption overflows. He himself will redeem Israel from every kind of sin.

Psalm 130:1-8

Dear God, I’m a few days I’m going to be preaching about Absalom and his bitterness towards his father. This is the psalm for the day, and I am glad that it deals with forgiveness and repentance.

As I read the entire story of Absalom and David, it’s a story of foolishness on David’s part and unforgiveness on Absalom’s. It seems like David is continuously making the wrong move. He doesn’t do anything to punish the rape of his daughter by his son or protect her after the rape. He doesn’t know how to handle it when Absalom takes matters into his own hands and kills his brother (David’s son), and he makes a series of mistakes with him. And he has obviously stopped being the king to the people that he needs to be because they were ripe for the picking when Absalom came along.

For his part, Absalom let his rage and self-righteousness consume him. It drove him to murder. It drove him to treason. It ultimately drove him to his death. And at the end of the day, the victimization of this poor girl was never effectively dealt with. Her attacker was killed and she was hidden away for the rest of her life.

So when I am wronged, what do I do with my anger. I saw something earlier today that said, “The sad thing about betrayal is that is always done by a friend and not an enemy.” My first thought was, Well, it’s done by a future enemy. But does that person have to become an enemy? Do we have to assume the worst in people? Can we look beyond the betrayal and try to understand if there was a legitimate reason for them to do what they did? Don’t you really call us to be your people and to be reconciled to you and one another?

Father, help me to model this, and also help me to teach it. Help me to teach it to the people this Sunday. Help me to teach it to my staff who have conflicts. Help me to teach it to my children. And help me to live it in every area of my life.

In Jesus’ name I pray,

Amen