Exceedingly blessed is this, supplying as it does the sequel to what was before us in verse 6. There we saw that Absalom was a man well calculated to captivate the multitude. But let it be duly noted that he possessed no attractions for those who were nearest to David. Let us observe too that changing circumstances are necessary in order to test the loyalty of those who are on intimate terms with us. Not only did this revolt of Absalom s provide an occasion for the manifestation of David s subjection to the will of God, but it also served to make unmistakably evident who were for and who were against him.
Prosperity is often a mixed blessing, and adversity is far from being an unmixed calamity.
Ah, my reader, it is worth something to discover who really are our friends, and therefore we should not murmur if it takes the shaking of our nest and the disrupting of our peace to make this plainly evident to us. Adversities are a gain when they expose to us the hypocrisy of an Ahithophel, and still more so when they prove the loyalty and love of the few who stand by us in the storm. And the king went forth, and all his household after him. The writer feels his heart awed as he reads the second half of this verse a prosaic statement, yet one possessing depths which no human mind can fathom. Apparently David acted quite freely when he made this simple domestic arrangement, yet really he could not do otherwise, for he was being directed by the unerring and invincible hand of God, unto the outworking of His own counsels.