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I. A GOOD MAN UNDER GREAT TRIAL.

1. It involved great dangers: the danger of losing his palace, throne, reputation, life.

2. It came from an unlikely source. From his own and favourite son.

3. It was morally deserved. He had committed heinous crimes. His guilty conscience added much to the weight of the trial which now befell him.

II. AN ALL-SUFFICIENT FRIEND UNDER GREAT TRIAL. Here Jehovah is presented as —

1. A protecting;

2. A glorifying;

3. A restoring;

4. A prayer hearing;

5. A life-sustaining friend.

III. A RIGHT MORAL TEMPER UNDER GREAT TRIAL. Two characteristics in David's temper at this time —

(1)  courage;

(2)  prayerfulness.David's whole soul seems to have gone out in this prayer, and in truth all true prayer is earnest. "As a painted fire," says a brilliant old writer, "is no fire, a dead man no man, so cold prayer is no prayer. In a painted fire there is no heat, in a dead man there is no life; so in a cold prayer there is no omnipotency, no devotion, no blessing. Cold prayers are as arrows without heads, as swords without edges, as birds without wings. Cold prayers always freeze before they reach heaven. As a body without a soul, much wood without fire, a bullet in a gun without powder, so are words in prayer without fervency of spirit."

(Homilist.)

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KJV: {A Psalm of David, when he fled from Absalom his son.} LORD, how are they increased that trouble me! many are they that rise up against me.

WEB: Yahweh, how my adversaries have increased! Many are those who rise up against me.