To read the Second Book of Samuel in the Old Testament is to be frustrated by both Kind David and, I suspect, ourselves. In David, we have a man who was generally prompt to accept God’s will and to do his best to follow God’s direction. Even when he sinned—as he did egregiously in the matter of Bathsheba and her husband Uriah—he recognized his guilt when rebuked by Nathan the prophet, and immediately admitted: “I have sinned against the Lord.” And after Nathan had announced that God’s punishment would be the sickness and death of the son born of his adultery, David sought to avert this punishment through constant prayer and fasting for the baby.