Unto whom David said, If thou passest on with me, then thou shalt be a burden unto me:
The verse belongs to the account in 2 Samuel 15 of David's flight from Absalom, which gives the setting for the third psalm. More broadly it stands in the fear and flight of David from Absalom in 2 Samuel 13 to 20. It stands in the story centered on Absalom the beautiful, whose ambitions as a shrewd and handsome prince were roused by lavish flattery. That story includes Absalom's base conduct, Ahithophel's treachery, Shimei's cursing, the king's affecting journey that touched the hearts of his old friends, the defeat of Absalom, David's sorrow over his wicked son's fate, and David's continuing kindness to the house of Saul.
Those troubles in David's family grew out of his multiplying wives to himself, resulting in a large family of children by different wives in which idleness, luxury, and jealousy developed unenviable characters. The account of Absalom's rebellion, with its sorrows and troubles in David's own family, is retribution David suffered for his wrong toward Uriah, showing that wrongdoing brings consequences of its own kind. The verse teaches that walking contrary to God's laws brings suffering, for in every transgression of divine law lies the inherent curse even when God does not openly reprove it and seems to overlook it.
The verse belongs to the account in 2 Samuel 15 of David's flight from Absalom, which gives the setting for the third psalm. More broadly it stands in the fear and flight of David from Absalom in 2 Samuel 13 to 20. It stands in the story centered on Absalom the beautiful, whose ambitions as a shrewd and handsome prince were roused by lavish flattery. That story includes Absalom's base conduct, Ahithophel's treachery, Shimei's cursing, the king's affecting journey that touched the hearts of his old friends, the defeat of Absalom, David's sorrow over his wicked son's fate, and David's continuing kindness to the house of Saul.
Those troubles in David's family grew out of his multiplying wives to himself, resulting in a large family of children by different wives in which idleness, luxury, and jealousy developed unenviable characters. The account of Absalom's rebellion, with its sorrows and troubles in David's own family, is retribution David suffered for his wrong toward Uriah, showing that wrongdoing brings consequences of its own kind. The verse teaches that walking contrary to God's laws brings suffering, for in every transgression of divine law lies the inherent curse even when God does not openly reprove it and seems to overlook it.