After having Uriah killed, Nathan warned David, “The sword will never depart from your house” (2 Samuel 12:10). Absalom’s defeat might’ve felt like the end of that prophecy, but it wasn’t. There was still more trouble ahead.
Almost immediately, the nation starts arguing… Judah and Israel bicker over who has the greater claim on the king. Old tribal wounds reopen and unity hangs by a thread. A civil war feels uncomfortably close.
Then comes the troublemaker Sheba – a Benjamite loyal to King Saul – who had a bone to pick and was eager to start a foolhardy rebellion. Suddenly, David is forced, yet again, to defend the throne he never seized for himself in the first place. The revolt is quickly put down and the kingdom survives, but it leaves a mark.
And then, almost quietly, we’re told about David’s final battle.
Guess what – it’s the Philistines. Again.
How fitting is that! The same enemy David faced as a boy. The same people who once mocked him. Forty years earlier, David ran toward a giant with a sling and a stone, trusting God with a kind of fearless confidence that makes us shake our heads in wonder.
But this time is different.
David is tired. His fighting skills have diminished, and his strength fails. The warrior-king nearly falls on the battlefield… not to Goliath, but to time. And if Abishai had not stepped in, if another sword hadn’t been faster, David’s story would have ended there.
His men see it clearly, even if David doesn’t at first. “You shall no longer go out with us to battle,” they say (2 Samuel 21:17). Not as an insult, but as an act of love. The season has changed. The king’s sword must be set down.
And this invites us to look back.
Jesse’s youngest.
A shepherd with songs in his heart.
A harp player soothing a tormented king.
A friend who loved Jonathan like a brother.
A fugitive.
A king.
Then the unraveling.
Adultery.
Murder.
Family Brokenness.
Buried Sons.
Public shame.
Private repentance.
David’s life is not a straight line upward. It’s complicated… It zigs and zags. Beautiful in some places, bruised in others. And yet, through all of it, this remains: David trusted the Lord with his whole heart. Not perfectly, not consistently. But honestly.
Now the warrior slows. The crown still rests on his head, but his fighting days are over. He is turning the page to the final chapter.
If David could speak to us now, I don’t think he’d boast about giants slain or kingdoms won.
I think he’d tell us this:
God is merciful.
God is faithful.
And He never once let go.
Not even when David stumbled, failed, or simply grew old. The same God who stood with a young shepherd boy stood with an aging king.
And He will stand with us too – through every season, even the last one.
Former Blackout Artist 