But God will not take away life, and he devises means so that the banished one will not remain an outcast.

2 Samuel 14:14 ESV

This was about Absalom, but I’m thinking about it another way. David sinned. He severs his relationship with God. He’s the banished one. God devises ways to bring him back. In Psalm 32 and 51, we read about David’s strength failing, bones wasting away, his life draining from him until he confessed his sin and received forgiveness. God uses these things to bring us back to Him.

We’ve largely lost the fear of the Lord. We don’t see Him at work in the details of our lives. Those trials are all gifts, but we rush to end them instead of recognizing God’s sovereignty and submitting to what He is doing and seeking if something needs confessing and repenting.

The story of Absalom and David is a great one to help you get the fear of God. David is forgiven, but the rest of his life is messed up, not to mention two of his kids end up dead and another a desolate woman.

The fear of the Lord is necessary in our lives. Without it, we haven’t even begun to have wisdom, knowledge, or understanding. We need it to keep from sin.