Warning: Pride will Destroy your Life

Tamar had a brother named Absalom. Absalom found out what happened and went to their father, King David. But King David was too busy being king to be a father. He was proud of his title of king. He has worked and fought hard to get to where he is now. Too proud to deal in such trivial matters as taking care of problems with the children.

Arrogance

But pride and arrogance have a price. Absalom kills Amnon. (II Samuel 13:30-31) David’s heart is broken once again. He had been too busy to be a father. His heart had been filled with too much pride and once again he must weep over the loss of a child. Perhaps this is the point at which he wrote the 9th Psalm. He fears that perhaps Absalom has killed all of his sons. But as word comes that the rest are all safe perhaps he pens the words of verses 9 and 10. Humbled once again by God, he can lift his voice up in praise to his maker, to His God.

Absalom now rebels against his father. Beginning in II Samuel 14 we see the account, the record of all that happens. David’s pride kicks in once again. His son has done wrong but rather than punish him as he should have he simply banishes him. At the urging of his advisors he allows his son to eventually return.

Isn’t it amazing how quick we will be to point out someone else’s sin but how easily we will ignore our own? We want to be proud of our children. In our eyes it seems that they do no wrong. But when we cover their sin, when we don’t apply the correction that is needed because of our own pride, there will be a price to pay. Much goes on here as David is forced to flee from his own home by his son. But in the end, Absalom is dead. And once again David mourns. Pride and arrogance always have a price.

You Are But a Man

Perhaps now David pens this 9th Psalm. David cries for judgment in this Psalm for those who have misled his son and for those who have turned their backs and become his enemies. He cries out to God in the humble state that he once again finds himself.

That is the instruction of God.

 1 Peter 5:6 Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God that He may exalt you in due time.

James 4:10 Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord and He shall lift you up.

Proverbs 16:18 Pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.

Oh but you say I thought David was a man after God’s own heart? David was a man after God’s own heart. And David was a man… Put them in fear O Lord that the nations may know themselves to be but men. Even the greatest of men, even the best of men, even the godliest among us deal with pride and sometimes arrogance. We would never be so blatant as to put a bumper sticker on our car. We might not wear it as a badge. But we still have pride. We still have our arrogance.