2 Sam 16:12, Perhaps the Lord will look on my affliction and return good to me instead of his cursing this day." 
This morning, we have the situation where King David was fleeing from the revolt against his kingship by his very own son, Absalom. David had left Jerusalem and was trying to reach a safe haven. On the way, he was pestered by the taunts and the slurs and the rocks that were being thrown at him by Shimei, of the house of Saul. David’s cohort wanted to put an end to the abuse by lopping off Shimei’s head. The king, however, refused to allow that drastic response and rather accounted it to what he needed to hear from the Lord as declared by Shimei. David’s sin was ever before him as we have thus recorded.
As an aside, most, if not all of us might have been of the opinion that David was universally exalted as the King of Israel, after the death of Saul. In the recent chapters of our reading, it is becoming quite evident that there were underlying currents of discontent and disapproval of the Lord’s choice of the kingship of Israel. Not only were there those who felt that David had usurped the throne from the house of Saul, as so vociferously proclaimed by Shimei, as representative of that faction, but David’s own son had been instrumental in fuming another discontentment. This was to the point of winning the hearts of such a group as could drive the king out of his city and put him on the run for his life.
David, as a result of setting up this scenario through his own actions of taking away the wife of Uriah, then putting him to death at the hands of his enemies, makes known the fragile reality of any earthly kingdom set up in the course of what humanity strives to establish. This was even in the manner of using the name of Jehovah as the means of ushering in the seemingly successful conclusion of the human effort.
In all things, there needs to be the complete surrender to God with the recognition that if He is for it, it will take place. However, if The Lord is against it, or even not even considered part of the scheme and projected outcome, then we need to set it all aside. It is both the plan and purpose of God which brings forth our obedient reverence and trust in what and how He would work, or it is nothing that we want to be involved with. 
David was wise enough, in the midst of all his humble and contrite seeking after the forgiveness and restoration of his heart’s relationship with Jehovah, to know that what Shimei was doing. His vile and vicious and malicious taunting  of David, was simply the human declaration of David’s actions and the consequences that they had brought. Shimei was not wrong in the content of what was yelled. The manner of that auditory cursing was directed to the point of driving David to further recognize that if God did not intervene in this terrible situation, then nothing would be able to bring David back to the throne. He was not going to do anything but trust Jehovah to whatever end God determined. It was not the voice of Shimei that David was hearing, but rather the encouragement that his only hope was in The Lord and what God would bring about.
Please open to Gen 29:32-35, where we have the account of one who tried to do things in her own power and wisdom. Leah tried to win the heart of her husband, Israel, through the course of providing him with a number of sons as his heritage. However, in the bearing each son, there became the evident reality that nothing she could do would change the heart of her husband. It was only when she determined that her hope and love needed to be set in God, Alone, that there was any satisfaction in her heart with all that God was bringing forth.
Gen 29:32-35, And Leah conceived and bore a son and named him Reuben, for she said, "Because the Lord has seen my affliction; surely now my husband will love me." Then she conceived again and bore a son and said, "Because the Lord has heard that I am unloved, He has therefore given me this son also." So she named him Simeon. And she conceived again and bore a son and said, "Now this time my husband will become attached to me, because I have borne him three sons." Therefore he was named Levi. And she conceived again and bore a son and said, "This time I will praise the Lord." Therefore she named him Judah. Then she stopped bearing. 
Please notice that all of this was finally set into the hope that she had in pleasing God with the life that she was living despite her situation of being the unloved wife of Israel. Accordingly, she sought to simply praise and honor God, setting aside everything that she tried to accomplish. This last child, named Judah, became the heritage of Israel in which God would bring forth the Messiah. This was Leah’s expression of love for Jehovah in the course of putting away her human motivation for anything other than the honor and the adoration of Yahweh.
Later on, in the history of the tribes of Israel being under the dominion of Pharaoh in Egypt, there is the presentation of what had to take place for Jehovah to bring forth His saving work and redemptive heart of love for His people. As recorded in Ex 2:23-25, their human hopes and aspirations were utterly devastated by the torment of their enslavement under their Egyptian oppressors. 
Ex 2:23-25, Now it came about in the course of those many days that the king of Egypt died. And the sons of Israel sighed because of the bondage, and they cried out; and their cry for help because of their bondage rose up to God. So God heard their groaning; and God remembered His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And God saw the sons of Israel, and God took notice of them. 
They were crying out in that Zedekah of utter and absolute hopelessness. They were not crying out to any specific deity or entity, just crying out with that pain and distress and anguish which bursts forth in those times of absolute torment and agony. 
It is that grief that is presented when we have tried totally everything of our own endeavors and ideas and nothing works and nothing helps and there is no manifest respite in the circumstances. There is only that unreserved and unconditional sense of rejection in the realization that whatever happens is utterly beyond us in its every measure. 
It was in that state of utmost abandonment to any aid or comfort that …God saw the sons of Israel, and God took notice of them. If not, history would have been completely changed. If not for the fact that God intervened on their behalf, there would be no redemption for any of us. The entire course of the plan and purpose of God to bring forth the manifestation of His so great and awesome and merciful and glorious love would have been ended there in the plains of Egypt, if He had not heard and responded to their cries of Zedekah!
This brought forth the divine power of God’s intervention in the hopeless affairs of mankind as detailed in Ex 3:7-10. Jehovah declared to Moses the fact that all the power of mankind was worthless in accomplishing the course of what God was putting into place. For God to fulfill the promise that He had made to Abraham, and to Isaac, and to Jacob, there needed to be that divine intervention which would show forth that which only The Lord God Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth could accomplish.
Ex 3:7-10, And the Lord said, "I have surely seen the affliction of My people who are in Egypt, and have given heed to their cry because of their taskmasters, for I am aware of their sufferings. So I have come down to deliver them from the power of the Egyptians, and to bring them up from that land to a good and spacious land, to a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanite and the Hittite and the Amorite and the Perizzite and the Hivite and the Jebusite. And now, behold, the cry of the sons of Israel has come to Me; furthermore, I have seen the oppression with which the Egyptians are oppressing them. Therefore, come now, and I will send you to Pharaoh, so that you may bring My people, the sons of Israel, out of Egypt." 
Later, after God had freed those Hebrews through the 10 Plagues that only He could rain down upon Egypt, to rescue them and to establish those Tribes of Israel in the Promised Land, thus fulfilling His oath to the heritage of Abraham, the Bible records another anguished cry of a Hebrew woman to God for a child. Please open to 1 Sam 1:9-11, wherein Hannah was struck with grief at her inability to have a child. In that desperation, she bitterly besought God for a son whom she would completely dedicate to the service of Yahweh, Alone.
1 Sam 1:9-11, Then Hannah rose after eating and drinking in Shiloh. Now Eli the priest was sitting on the seat by the doorpost of the temple of the Lord. And she, greatly distressed, prayed to the Lord and wept bitterly. And she made a vow and said, "O Lord of hosts, if Thou wilt indeed look on the affliction of Thy maidservant and remember me, and not forget Thy maidservant, but wilt give Thy maidservant a son, then I will give him to the Lord all the days of his life, and a razor shall never come on his head." 	Jehovah heard that desperate and anguished plea and responded with the gracious answer of Samuel. This man would become a prophet of the Most High and eventually anoint both Saul and then David as kings over the nation. This would establish Israel as a political entity in the world, the Nation of God on earth. 
All of this was so far beyond the scope of human endeavor. Consider that a disheveled and desperate and desolate faction of slaves became one of the strongest nations of influence within the region of their control. That was only done by the Hand of God in operation to bring forth the manner of His so great love into the realm of humanity. It was only by the power of God in action, when mankind could do nothing through human endeavor except to reverently respond in obedience to His gracious forbearance.
The Psalmist then, in Ps 25:16-18, exclaims the heart of each one who comes to that place of sincere and abject abandonment of being able to do anything on our own. That is one of the keys to this entire consideration. Mankind so often tries everything, every possible avenue of attainment of some measure of control or ability to deal with issues and circumstances with our limited wisdom and resources. 
Ps 25:16-18, Turn to me and be gracious to me, For I am lonely and afflicted. The troubles of my heart are enlarged; Bring me out of my distresses. Look upon my affliction and my trouble, And forgive all my sins. 
When the trials and situations are so far beyond our scope of ability and knowledge and strength, we are often brought to that point of intense and sincere introspection. We begin to examine our actions, our thoughts, our behavior, our attitudes, our motivations as to what we might have done to bring such disaster upon ourselves. We micromanage our every step in the possibility that we have missed some strategic and vital detail that could have caused such a devastating effect within the route of our walk on this earth. 
This, of course, is after we have come to the conclusion that it was not someone else’s fault. We have to face the reality that there was no one else to blame for our misfortune. Sadly, this is in retrospect after we have deliberately blamed everyone and anyone else and destroyed all those relationships and connections that once were our lifelines through other miserable times. At the end of it all, we recognize, as did David on that long and deflating march out of Jerusalem, …Perhaps the Lord will look on my affliction and return good to me instead of his cursing this day. 
It is only the Lord Who can reproach those who curse us. Only God can maintain us in our times of worst heartache and tragedy and devastation. As we turn to Him, He shows us our sin and causes us to repent and seek His forgiveness. It is then that we find our loneliness and our pain and our heartache settled down by His great love and care and mercy. He becomes, to and in us, a source of joy and peace and comfort and rest in the living relationship of His forgiveness and loving kindness. He will hear our pleas of anguish and desperation. He will respond in ways that bring forth praise and adoration and utmost thankfulness from our aching and drained beings. 
As we all know, there are as well those times when we have not knowingly sinned. It is just that we are brought to the place in our walk on this earth that we have turned away from the source of our living water, refreshment, and peace in our lives. Through careless disregard for our precious time spent with the Lord in His Word, in prayer, in worship, in whatever other state we find ourselves, there is a lack of closeness with The Lord. 
This leads us into a time of desert in which we learn once more, and considerably more deeply just how vital is our living relationship with God. He is our Everything in the midst of all the fiery and dry and dusty land of our parched sojourn. 
We also find that He is leading us, like sheep guided lovingly by their shepherd, to every green pasture of the desert and every spring of water from the rock. He is always there with us, watching over us, and rescuing us from the disasters of our own making and inattention and stubborn disregard to the way of our wandering on the path that is set before us. 
Like David, we recognize that if God does not lead us in the direction that we desire to go, we need to bend to His authority and follow Him, on whatever path He chooses and wherever He leads us. Only then will He have the freedom to silence every cursing and vial insult hurled at us from the lips of those who so despise us. He will always prove Himself as the One Who has us well in hand as we trust Him and obey Him and honor Him, Alone, with all our heart, with all our mind, and with all our strength. So be it.
Perhaps the Lord will look on my affliction and return good to me instead of his cursing this day." Amen. 

This morning’s benediction is Isa 51:16. "And I have put My words in your mouth, and have covered you with the shadow of My hand, to establish the heavens, to found the earth, and to say to Zion, 'You are My people.'" Amen.