2 Samuel 16

Like the mule, who kicks the dam after she has given it milk. Vas pertusum, [in non-Latin alphabet] (2 Samuel 16:17), is this your kindness to your friend? God may upbraid the sinner: I have given you (may God say) your health, strength, and estate, you require me evil for good,…

3. By counseling, abetting, or provoking others to sin. Ahithophel made himself guilty of the fact, by giving counsel to Absalom to go in and defile his father's concubines (2 Samuel 16:21). He who shall tempt and solicit another to be drunk, though he himself be sober, yet bein…

6. God's wisdom is seen in befooling wise men, and making their wisdom a means of their overthrow. Achitophel had deep policy (2 Samuel 16:23). The counsel of Achitophel which he counseled, was as if a man had inquired at the oracle of God: but he consulted his own shame, the Lo…

6. To join the serpent and the dove, prudence and innocency, consists in this, To know how to give counsel, and how to keep counsel. He has the wisdom of the serpent that can give counsel, he knows how to advise another in difficult cases, and speak a word in due season (2 Samue…

2nd Branch: To such whose lot it is to meet with slanderers and false accusers — (1.) Labor to make a sanctified use of it. When Shimei railed on David, David made a sanctified use of it (2 Samuel 16:10). The Lord has said to him, Curse David.

Did we look higher than instruments, our hearts would grow calm, and we would not meditate revenge. Shimei reproached David and cursed him; David looked higher (2 Samuel 16:11): Let him alone, let him curse, for the Lord has bidden him. What made Christ, when he was reviled, not…

So David in the greatest of his griefs was silent and spoke nothing; his reason was, because you Lord did it (Psalm 39:9). And when Shimei cursed David, Abishai would have had the king to have given him leave to have slain him: but David would not suffer it, but said, He curses…

There is as truly a principle of quietness in the permitting as in the commanding will of God. See it in David (2 Samuel 16:10): 'Let him alone; it may be God has told him.' And in Christ (John 19:11): 'You could have no power against me, except it were given you from above.'

Sad experience made a holy man once to say, It is better to weep for ten dead children, than for one living child: a living child may prove a continual dropping, indeed, a continual dying to the parent's heart. What a sad word was that of David to Abishai (2 Samuel 16:11), Behol…

Saltmarsh, when he wills the sinner as a sinner, a parricide, a man-slayer, a slave to his lusts, to believe and apply Christ as his Redeemer without any sense of sin or humiliation at all, and then says the man's blessedness is more to have the curse of sin, than the corruption…

With such minds he has no sympathy. He examines the Scriptures with the humility of one who inquires at the oracle of God, (2 Samuel 16:23,) and proclaims the reply with the faith of one who knows that the word of the Lord is tried, (Psalm 18:30.) Intimately connected with this…

Joseph had not a word of discontent to vent against his brethren, being thus resolved, It was not you that sent me here but God (Genesis 45). And David lays aside all revenge against railing Shimei on this ground, So let him curse, because the Lord has said to him, curse David (…

6. It is a notable and singular consolation for folks to have Christ their friend — it is comfortable in life, death, and judgment, in prosperity and adversity. It implies these things in which he is forthcoming to his friends: 1. Constant kindness and faithfulness at all times;…

Either by reviling and railing speeches. And thus Shimei barked at David (2 Samuel 16:7): "Come out, you bloody man, and you man of Belial." And I wish that our streets and houses did not, to their great disgrace and reproach, echo with such clamors; and that too many did not ra…

It was an evidence that Saul was acted by another spirit, in that when the children of Belial despised him, and brought him no presents, hoping by that contempt to give a shock to his infant government, he held his peace, and so neither his soul, nor his crown received any distu…

When Nabal's churlishness provoked him, yet Abigail's prudence soon pacified him, and it pleased him to be pacified. When Shimei cursed him, with a bitter curse, in the day of his calamity, he resented not the offense, nor would hear any talk of punishing the offender: so let hi…

Or what are our sayings that they must not be contradicted? Such affronts as these we should learn to bear as David did when Shimei cursed him, so let him curse (2 Samuel 16:10); and as the Son of David did when his enemies reviled him (1 Peter 2:23), blessing them that curse us…

3. A spirit of revenge against instruments; when we do not sweetly calm the heart with the remembrance of God's hand. (2 Samuel 16:9) Why should this dead dog curse my lord the king? Let me go over, I pray, and take off his head.

Thus Michal to save David from the fury of her father, feigned him sick (1 Samuel 19:14), and David advised Jonathan to an officious lie (1 Samuel 20:6-7), so verses 26, 28, 29. Thus Hushai by temporizing with Absalom preserved David (2 Samuel 16:17-19), to divide his counsels p…

The Lord will try whether we have this meek humble patience. (2 Samuel 16:7): When [reconstructed: Shimei] went about railing to the peril of his life, Come out, come out you bloody man, and [reconstructed: you] man of Belial) and reproached him for being treacherous to the hous…

You will hear bitter words, Christ himself was thus exercised, (Matthew 27:29) Hail King of the Jews, to be mocked and scorned we must expect and that men will insult. (3.) Or whether they be perverse applications of providence, thus Shimei insulted over David in his distress, (…

So in loss of good children, how do we rave against instruments, if we look no further? but if we consider the providence of God (Job 1:23): not Dominus dedit, Diabolus abstulit; but The Lord has given, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord. So for contume…

Therefore while God continues them, they are observing what God will do by them. (2 Samuel 16:11) "Let him curse: for the Lord has bidden him." God has work for them to do, to mortify our wantonness, to break our stubborn humors.

Generally men are vindictive and transported with uncomely passions, when wronged by men. (2 Samuel 16:9) Why should this dead dog curse my lord the king? let me go over, I pray you, and take off his head. This was the ruffling humor of Abishai.

Lastly, it easily falls under the evidence of an admonition administered so far as it reaches the evil of his sin, though perhaps unseasonably or disorderly administered, neither out of that love it should, nor in that prudent manner it ought to be: If yet he perceives that it h…

It should be a Christian's ambition to wear his Savior's livery, though it be sprinkled with blood, and sullied with disgrace. 3. God will do us good by reproach; as David said of Shimei his cursing, It may be the Lord will requite good for his cursing this day (2 Samuel 16:12);…

Another eminent pattern of meekness was David. When Shimei cursed David, and Abishai, one of David's bodyguard, would have beheaded Shimei, King David said, Let him alone, and let him curse (2 Samuel 16:11). And when Saul had wronged and abused David, and it was in David's power…

Job on the dunghill was blessed Job. The saints are blessed when they are cursed; Shimei did curse David (2 Samuel 16:5), yet when he was cursed David, he was blessed David. The saints though they are bruised, yet they are blessed.

3. The actings of mortification are indifferent, not fixedly bent upon anything but God, no not upon the Ark and spiritual comforts. Weeping David (2 Samuel 16:25) says to Zadok, carry back the Ark of God into the City (better I want my comfort, than the Ark be taken); if I shal…

'The Lord has taken away,' said Job (Job 1:21). 'God has bidden him,' said David (2 Samuel 16:10). If the blow comes from the hand of a wicked man, yet he sees that wicked hand in God's righteous hand (Psalm 17:14).

We meditate how to requite it again. But see how naturally David's mind distills other thoughts from Shimei's cursing (2 Samuel 16:11): God has bidden him, and it may prove a good sign of God's favor; God may requite good for it. When we see judgments befall others, severe thoug…