2 Sam 13:39, And the heart of King David longed to go out to Absalom; for he was comforted concerning Amnon, since he was dead. 
	This morning we are presented with the same reality that exists in many families. There are walls of anger and hatred and resentment and animosity. Most of these are built up because of selfishness and jealousy and actions and deliberate verbal attacks within the family members. So many Christian families have been torn apart to the point of absolutely walling away any contact or interaction with those who are spouses, or siblings or parents or other members of the family.
	In the family within our reading we have the scheming rape and defilement of a sister and the premeditated murder of a brother that was years in the process. Such vile and vicious treatment of those who are part of the family which God had brought forth to violate His testimony within the familial unit.
The family was created to show the difference that honoring God with all our hearts and all our souls and all our might evidences to those who are intently watching.
	That is why it is such a travesty when Christian families implode because of those elements of this age which serve only to destroy. This is rather than being built together and shining forth the light of Christ as the testimony of God in our neighborhoods and in our other relationships. 
When we treat each other in such despicable ways, what do we have to offer to anyone else in our course of influence and testimony? The very heart of our walk on this earth is centered in the manner in which we are able to deal with the members of our families in the love of Christ and not in the anger and the defilement of this age.
	Jehovah was very much set against this entire aspect of such perversion and destruction. He had lavished promise after promise of His goodness and His blessing upon the nation if they would just hold true to Him and deal with each other in the faithful manner of showing His loving kindness to those in need. 
Consider what Jehovah detailed as His blessing for His people as spoken by Moses in Deut. 28, verses 1- 11. Deut 28:1-11, "Now it shall be, if you will diligently obey the Lord your God, being careful to do all His commandments which I command you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth. And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, if you will obey the Lord your God. Blessed shall you be in the city, and blessed shall you be in the country. Blessed shall be the offspring of your body and the produce of your ground and the offspring of your beasts, the increase of your herd and the young of your flock. Blessed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl. Blessed shall you be when you come in, and blessed shall you be when you go out. "The Lord will cause your enemies who rise up against you to be defeated before you; they shall come out against you one way and shall flee before you seven ways. The Lord will command the blessing upon you in your barns and in all that you put your hand to, and He will bless you in the land which the Lord your God gives you. The Lord will establish you as a holy people to Himself, as He swore to you, if you will keep the commandments of the Lord your God, and walk in His ways. So all the peoples of the earth shall see that you are called by the name of the Lord; and they shall be afraid of you. And the Lord will make you abound in prosperity, in the offspring of your body and in the offspring of your beast and in the produce of your ground, in the land which the Lord swore to your fathers to give you. 
	Then in verses 15-25, He also detailed exactly what would happen if the people turned away from God and then sought after the worthless idols and deities of the nations surrounding them, thus participating in their vile activities which destroyed the familial integrity.
	Deut 28:15-25, "But it shall come about, if you will not obey the Lord your God, to observe to do all His commandments and His statutes with which I charge you today, that all these curses shall come upon you and overtake you. Cursed shall you be in the city, and cursed shall you be in the country. Cursed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl. Cursed shall be the offspring of your body and the produce of your ground, the increase of your herd and the young of your flock. Cursed shall you be when you come in, and cursed shall you be when you go out. "The Lord will send upon you curses, confusion, and rebuke, in all you undertake to do, until you are destroyed and until you perish quickly, on account of the evil of your deeds, because you have forsaken Me. The Lord will make the pestilence cling to you until He has consumed you from the land, where you are entering to possess it. The Lord will smite you with consumption and with fever and with inflammation and with fiery heat and with the sword and with blight and with mildew, and they shall pursue you until you perish. And the heaven which is over your head shall be bronze, and the earth which is under you, iron. The Lord will make the rain of your land powder and dust; from heaven it shall come down on you until you are destroyed. The Lord will cause you to be defeated before your enemies; you shall go out one way against them, but you shall flee seven ways before them, and you shall be an example of terror to all the kingdoms of the earth. 
Rather than blessing, this corrupting course of action would result in all types of destruction and chaos and diseases and disasters and enslavement under the rule of other nations which would end their establishment in the bounty of the Promised Land. They would suffer the absolute dissolution of families and loved ones, becoming the same defiled minions of sin and shame and lewdness, even to the point of sacrificing their children to the worthless gods of the present age.
	As described in verse 32 of that chapter, the people would experience the longing for their children with all the anguish and the doubts and the fears and the trepidation, without any recourse or resolution. It would be the same longing that is described in our morning’s text, that of David’s languishing for his son, Absalom, in the manner of missing him as well as loathing the actions that he had carried forth in the murder of his brother, Amnon. 
	Deut 28:32, Your sons and your daughters shall be given to another people, while your eyes shall look on and yearn for them continually; but there shall be nothing you can do. 
	There was nothing that David could do at that point. His family had been torn asunder through the actions of these two sons, whom David loved. Still they had carried forth their sinister intents that showed no love for the Lord, or for their father, or for their siblings. Their self-centered impulses brought forth only animosity, plotting, revenge and destruction. That was the result of how they were so set on meeting the lusts of their hearts rather than the course of seeking to please Jehovah and their family heritage. 
	An earlier ancestor, Jacob, had undergone a similar rift within the family that was to be the heritage of the Lord God Almighty through Abraham. Much like David would suffer this familial intrigue and destruction and loss of a son, Jacob’s son’s displayed a similar result of jealousy and anger and hatred.  That was when they sold Joseph, the object of their distain and loathing, into slavery. The sons of Israel then brought the blood soaked tunic of distinction and favoritism to show Jacob that his favorite son, Joseph had been killed by a wild beast. Jacob then became irreconcilable in his grief and longed for his son, thought dead and lost forever. 
This grief for the loss of his favorite son, despite the blessing of the Lord with the other 11 boys is recorded in Gen 37:34+35. Gen 37:34+35, So Jacob tore his clothes, and put sackcloth on his loins, and mourned for his son many days. Then all his sons and all his daughters arose to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted. And he said, "Surely I will go down to Sheol in mourning for my son." So his father wept for him. 
	This grief of a father for a languished son was as well detailed in the last chapter of our reading where David dealt with the dying moments of another son. This was the son of Bathsheba, the child of their adulterous affair. God had ordained that this baby would die, despite all the mourning and weeping and contrition of David before the Lord. While the child was alive, David was as well inconsolable. He refused to eat or do anything other than cry out for God’s mercy and healing and forgiveness for the sake of that newborn son. 
	However, as per the ordination of God against the sin of David, that boy was taken by illness unto death. 2 Sam 12:21-23 details the result in the heart and mind of a most somber and contrite David. This showed the full measure of the longing of David, and then the reality that what God had ordained as a result of the sinful action of David had come to pass. While David longed for the child, there was that knowledge of the finality of the just and righteous determination of the Lord in place.
	2 Sam 12:21-23, Then his servants said to him, "What is this thing that you have done? While the child was alive, you fasted and wept; but when the child died, you arose and ate food." And he said, "While the child was still alive, I fasted and wept; for I said, 'Who knows, the Lord may be gracious to me, that the child may live.' "But now he has died; why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he will not return to me." 
	The fact is that God has designed human beings to have that aspect of longing within the essence of our beings. That elemental need to know the presence of someone we love is part of how we are made to desire our relationship with God to the nth degree. We often translate it into the longing for something we desire, a person with whom we want to interact and express our love.
	In no particular order than the last one that we will describe, we have many presentations of the reality of this longing in our lives. This listing is not all inclusive, yet it deals with a majority of those yearnings of our hearts for that which is needed for our time on this earth. 
There is that earnest longing for a help mate as we grow and mature in our physical earthly sojourn. There is the longing for someone whom we love or who will love us ultimately with an unconditional love. There is the longing of parents for children to hold and to protect and to nurture and to grow into a deep friendship as both mature together. There is the longing of children for the love and the attention of their parents. There is the longing for those who are lost to us through death. There is the longing for friends or family who have moved great distances from us. There is that longing for relationships which have been subject to wayward movement, or any hindrance to the union that was part of our relatedness of heart to heart and spirit to spirit. As well, there are those lesser longings for things that we do not have or for experiences that we desire.
	The greatest longing however, the over abiding longing that is instilled in us and which is the basic aspect of all these desires and yearnings is the one that points us to the Lord. It is an elemental desire with which God created each person that becomes the focal aspect and foundation for all the longing of our beings. This elemental essence can only be properly met and fulfilled in our relationship with God through His Only Begotten Son, Jesus Christ. It is from this foundational basis that everything else in our lives takes form and finds completion.  
	The power of this age, however, uses that instilled longing to know God as a means of camouflaging and twisting and manipulating the hearts and minds of its enslaved minions. This is in order to corrupt and to defile that which can only be met by God. All the lusts and the cravings and the manipulated wants of human needs and desires become sullied and despoiled covetousness of anything other than Christ to attempt to fill that void.
	The Psalmist details the longing as it is supposed to be honored and used by Jehovah to stir in us that desire after knowing a greater relationship with God in our walk on this earth. There wells up, in those who are brought into this living rapport with The Lord a desire and connection that builds more and more intimacy in our hearts and minds and soul with Jehovah, Our Creator, Our Savior and Our Lord. 
Please open to a couple of those psalms which present the heart that would seek to be in the continual presence of God. We begin with Ps 84:1-8, if you would read along.
Ps 84:1-8, How lovely are Thy dwelling places, O Lord of hosts! My soul longed and even yearned for the courts of the Lord; My heart and my flesh sing for joy to the living God. The bird also has found a house, And the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young, Even Thine altars, O Lord of hosts, My King and my God. How blessed are those who dwell in Thy house! They are ever praising Thee. Selah. How blessed is the man whose strength is in Thee; In whose heart are the highways to Zion! Passing through the valley of Baca, they make it a spring, The early rain also covers it with blessings. They go from strength to strength, Every one of them appears before God in Zion. O Lord God of hosts, hear my prayer; Give ear, O God of Jacob! Selah. 
	This is the detailing of that proper filling of the longing of our hearts and minds and souls by that desire to know and engage in the presence of God with worship and with thanksgiving and with honor and with delight. Only the presence of Jehovah can fulfill that need which He has placed within us. This is where David had to turn to seek to deal with the losses that he faced as a father of two sons who were taken from him and another who had so severely damaged that relationship through the willful killing of his brother. 
	David could only find comfort by turning his whole being to God, crying out to the Lord, being in the temple before the altar of Jehovah and bearing his soul unto the One Who knew the pain. God always sends forth comfort to all those who will but seek Him to calm and to heal and to soothe the distraught upheaval of loss and extreme sorrow and grief. In The Lord, Alone, is there any consolation from the heartaches and unrequited longing for those who are lost to us. 
	Then, in Ps 119:17-24, we hear the call to Yahweh for all that is part of this time on earth, mired in the grime and the misery and the anguish of our despairing of any help but His. No matter what is happening in our lives, no matter how hard this earthly walk may be, we can find all solace and delight as we seek God to meet the need of our every longing after Him.
	Ps 119:17-24, Deal bountifully with Thy servant, That I may live and keep Thy word.  Open my eyes, that I may behold Wonderful things from Thy law. I am a stranger in the earth; Do not hide Thy commandments from me. My soul is crushed with longing After Thine ordinances at all times. Thou dost rebuke the arrogant, the cursed, Who wander from Thy commandments. Take away reproach and contempt from me, For I observe Thy testimonies. Even though princes sit and talk against me, Thy servant meditates on Thy statutes. Thy testimonies also are my delight; They are my counselors. 
	Then, in verses 169-176 of this 119th Psalm, the Lord gives us the truth that His Word is our place of relief from the lies and the deceit of this age. As we spend time with Him in His Word, as we come together in fellowship and to receive the teaching of His Word, our every need for guidance and for correction and for help in time of distress is met. What a glorious gift is opened to us through the wondrous and abiding work of The Holy Spirit as He reveals and brings forth life in His Word and directs and maintains the relationship that we have in Christ Jesus, now and evermore.
Ps 119:169-176, Let my cry come before Thee, O Lord; Give me understanding according to Thy word. Let my supplication come before Thee; Deliver me according to Thy word. Let my lips utter praise, For Thou dost teach me Thy statutes. Let my tongue sing of Thy word, For all Thy commandments are righteousness. Let Thy hand be ready to help me, For I have chosen Thy precepts. I long for Thy salvation, O Lord, And Thy law is my delight. Let my soul live that it may praise Thee, And let Thine ordinances help me. I have gone astray like a lost sheep; seek Thy servant, For I do not forget Thy commandments. 
In every cry of a parent for the child that is lost, in every longing for fellowship, for love, for a relationship that will stand the test of time, for every desire after a deeper knowledge of the goodness and the holiness and the love of God, our longings are met in God, and in Him, Alone. Nothing and no one else will fill that void within us that is His Alone to inhabit!
Lord willing, we will continue forward next time with the manner in which that depth of longing that is instilled into us by God is further evidenced in the depth of our relationship with the family into which we have been brought in Jesus Christ. So be it.
And the heart of King David longed to go out to Absalom; for he was comforted concerning Amnon, since he was dead. Amen.
This morning’s benediction is Rom 14:16+17, Therefore do not let what is for you a good thing be spoken of as evil; for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. Amen.