No doubt this is how David truly felt about the matter of Saul and Jonathan. He had repeatedly stated that Saul was anointed of God, we never hear him say that the anointing had been removed, we are not even sure other than by perhaps his own anointing that he even knew about the removal. If he felt this way I'd have to ask if it wouldn't have been better for him to have position himself nearby to come to Saul's defense/rescue if need be? Isn't it because of his self-preserving alliance with the Philistines that he'd become distracted and effectually eliminated from any proper service? I have often wondered whether God had moved David to where he needed to be or he had moved himself away from where God needed him to be.
We need to see that we are at the end of one period of David from young shepherd boy to middle aged exile transitioning abruptly into the first of his king periods. Reflecting back on this period we see an odd collection of stories from which we form an initial opinion of David; not every thing is as we would expect from a man after God's own heart. Isn't that more because of our lofty expectations though? Really... what does a man after God's heart look like? I suggest that he looks a lot like David; for all of his faults, all of his meanderings, all of his awkward self imposed situations and reactions, he did realize his shortcomings and frailty and sins, confessed and repented and sought after the truest image of God.
Enemies of the Lord use this occasion against us to this day. It is presented by them that Israel was apostate and rejected of God long before this event and that God's effort had long since been with them and their religion. This would mean too that the blood line to the Messiah was no longer through David which would eliminate the rightful claims of Christianity.
David's true remorse and repentance to God are evident. So is the fact that consequences were still to be had. Things were not going to be the same. We must consider our own lives in this manner as well. One does not simply get away with sin by confessing and repenting. Repentance/Confession could possibly even make matters on the ground worse on the outset. That is not why we do it though. We do it because we must and if we don't surely things will be much worse in the long run after our soul hardens. It is owed to God and to all those affected.
Absalom may have sold himself successfully to the people as a much needed judge but, he proved to be to be a poor military leader pursuing into a unfamiliar thicket of oaks. He did not have the counsel of the Lord to rely upon and thus was left to the sorted advice of diverse causes and his own brash desires.
It would again be right to mark this passage for future use regarding the coming division of Judah and Israel. When the time comes the thought should not have sneaked up on us. We are now seeing a steady rise in the animosity between the two.
An illustration of how easy it is to remove a leader on the one hand and how much house cleaning it takes to restore him back. Notice that we haven't heard the Lord's voice for some time now? There is a marked shift of storyline. David I believe is more and more a shell of his former self; probably since the time of the scandal Bathsheba. David is bringing much of this upon himself. He is like a wobbling top knocking into all the objects surrounding him. The same indecisiveness that plagued his patriarchy is affecting his monarchy.
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