The return of the King

So let's just take a moment to introduce where we are in case you've not been joining us through this series.

We're gonna be jumping back into the book of 2 Samuel.

We've been journeying through this together as a church family over the large part of this year.

And it's been quite a journey.

Earlier in the year, we saw David as a failing king.

David was God's chosen king, but sadly he sinned terribly, committing adultery with Bathsheba and then arranging for her husband Uriah to be killed.

And we see throughout that David actually does repent when he's confronted with a sin, but his actions have consequences.

And these consequences begin to play out through his family.

Then just before we went into our summer series, we left David as the fallen king.

His own son, don't know if you remember, Absalom, rises up against him, overthrows him and forces him out of Jerusalem.

And David leaves the city distraught, still trusting God.

And then eventually David's armies defeat Absalom's army.

We looked at that at the beginning of summer, but then there's this tragic twist.

Absalom is killed by Joab, the commander of David's army.

And so David wins the battle and David's forces win the battle.

The rebellion has been defeated.

The king can return home.

But as we'll see in this passage today, there's a problem.

the victory that should have been a moment of celebration has been overshadowed by grief and division and tension.

And that's where we kind of land as we open up 2 Samuel chapter 19, all about the return of the King.

So let's read it together.

And we're gonna look at kind of three sections, three parts.

And the first part is kind of verses one to eight, where we see the king grieving.

This is what it says in 2 Samuel 19.