The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) - Day 133: Persevering in Trust (2026)

Episode Date: May 13, 2026

Fr. Mike focuses on trust today, specifically trusting God in difficult times. Like David, we need to learn to trust God in the midst of the battle, rather than waiting until the batter is over. Today's readings are 2 Samuel 15, 1 Chronicles 19-20, and Psalm 3. For the complete reading plan, visit ascensionpress.com/bibleinayear. Please note: The Bible contains adult themes that may not be suitable for children - parental discretion is advised.

Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of scripture. The Bible in a year podcast is brought to you by Ascension. Using the Great Adventure Bible timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today. It is day 133. We're reading four chapters today, 2 Samuel, Chapter 15, two chapters in First Chronicles, that's chapters 19 and 20, and also praying Psalm 3.

As always, the Bible translation that I'm reading from is the revised standard version, second Catholic edition. I'm using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension. If you want to download your own Bible in a year reading plan, you can visit ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a year. You also can click on subscribe if you want to subscribe to this podcast. As I said, reading from 2nd Samuel chapter 15, 1st Chronicles 19 and 20 and Psalm 3. One quick note before we start the readings is in First Chronicles chapter 19 and 20, we're going to hear, again, just like always, it's going to be a little flashback. and some of the flashback we're going to get is David and his battles.

We're also going to get a little glimpse of in the spring of the year when kings go out to battle. Joab led the armed forces and ravaged the country of the people of Ammon and besieged Rabah and David stayed at home. But we don't get the rest of the story. We're just going to get the story of the battle and remember that's because First Chronicles wants to highlight the fact that God is going to restore the kingdom and he's going to restore the temple. He's going to restore the people of God and he's going to restore the worship of God. And so that's what First Chronicles is really, really focusing on. But we resume our story with Absalom and what he's doing, rebelling against his father in 2nd Samuel, Chapter 15, and then going back and seeing how David was a great warrior king, even if he wasn't a great father here in First Chronicles 19 and 20. 2 Samuel chapter 15, Absalom usurps the throne. After this, Absalom got himself a chariot and horses and 50 men to run before him. And Absalom used to rise early and stand beside the way of the gate.

And when any man had a suit to come before the king for judgment, Absalom would call to him and say, From what city are you? And when he said, your servant is of such and such a tribe in Israel, Absalom would say to him, See, your claims are good and right, but there is no man deputed by the king to hear you. Absalom said moreover,

Oh, that I were judge in the land. Then every man with a suit or cause might come to me, and I would give him justice. And whenever a man came near to do obeisance to him, he would put out his hand and take hold of him and kiss him. Thus Absalom did to all Israel, who came to the king for judgment, so Absalom stole the hearts of the men of Israel. And at the end of four years, Absalom said to the king, please, let me go and pay my vow, which I have vowed to the Lord in Hebron. For your servant vowed a vow while I dwelt at Gesher and Aram, saying,

If the Lord will indeed bring me back to Jerusalem, then I will offer worship to the Lord. The king said to him, go in peace. So he arose and went to Hebron. But Absalom sent secret messengers throughout all the tribes of Israel saying, as soon as you hear the sound of the trumpet, then say Absalom is king at Hebron. With Absalom went 200 men from Jerusalem, who were invited guests, and they went in their simplicity and knew nothing. And while Absalom was offering the sacrifices, he sent for Hithefel, the Gilae, David's counselor, from his city, Gailo. And the conspiracy grew strong, and the people with Absalom kept increasing. David flees from Jerusalem. And a messenger came to David saying, The hearts of the men of Israel have gone after Absalom. Then David said to all his servants who were with

him at Jerusalem, Arise, and let us flee, or else there will be no escape for us from Absalom. Go in haste, lest ye overtake us quickly and bring down evil upon us, and strike the city with the edge of the sword. And the king's servants said to the king, behold, your servants are ready to do whatever my lord the king decides. So the king went forth, in all his household after him, and the king left ten concubines to keep the house, and the king went forth and all the people after him, and they halted at the last house, and all his servants passed by him, and all the charathites, and all the pelothites, and all the six hundred Gittites who had followed him from Gath passed on before the king. Then the king said to Itai the Gittite, why do you also go with us? Go back, and stay with the king, for you

are a foreigner and also in exile from your home. You came only yesterday, and shall I today make you wander about with us, seeing I go, I know not where? Go back and take your brethren with you, and may the Lord show mercy and faithfulness to you. But Ittai answered the king, as the Lord lives, and as my Lord the king lives, wherever my Lord the king shall be, whether for death or for life, there also will your servant be. And David said to Itai, go then, pass on. So, Ittai, so it is, the Gittite passed on with all his men and all the little ones who were with him. And all the country wept aloud as all the people passed by, and the king crossed the brook Kidron, and all the people passed on toward the wilderness.

And Abithar came up, and behold, Zadok came up also with all the Levites, bearing the Ark of the Covenant of God, and they set down the Ark of God until the people had all passed out of the city. Then the King said to Zadok, carry the Ark of God back into the city. If I find favor in the eyes of the Lord, he will bring me back and let me see both it and his habitation. But if he says, I have no pleasure in you, behold, here I am. Let him do to me what seems good to him. The king also said to Zadok, the priest, look, go back to the city in peace, you and Abithar, with your two sons, Ahimaaz, your son, and Jonathan the son of Abithar. See, I will wait at the fords of the wilderness until word comes from you to inform me.

So Zadok and Abiyah carried the Ark of God back to Jerusalem, and they remained there. But David went up the ascent of the Mount of Olives, weeping as he went, barefoot, and with his head covered, and all the people who were with him covered their heads, and they went up, weeping as they went. And it was told David, Ahithel is among the conspirators with Absalom. And David said, O Lord, I pray you, turn the council of Ahithel into foolishness. Who shy becomes David's spy. When David came to the summit, where God was worshipped, Behold, Hushai the Arkite, came to meet him with his coat torn and earth upon his head.

David said to him, If you go on with me, you will be a burden to me. But if you return to the city and say to Absalom, I will be your servant, O king, as I have been your father's servant in time past, so now I will be your servant. Then you will defeat for me the council of Hithafel. Are not Zadok and Abithar, the priest's with you there? So whatever you hear from the king's house, tell it to Zadok and Abedah. Bihar the priests. Behold, their two sons are with them there, Ahimaaz, Zedok's son, and Jonathan, Abyathar's

son, and by them you shall send to me everything you hear. Suhushai, David's friend, came into the city, just as Absalom was entering Jerusalem. The first book of Chronicles, chapter 19, defeat of the Ammonites and the Syrians. Now after this, Nahash, the king of the Ammonites, died, and his son reigned in his stead, and David said, I will deal loyally with Hanun, the son of the son of Nahash, for his father dealt loyally with me. So David sent messengers to console him concerning his father, and David's servants came to Hanun in the land of the Ammonites to console him. But the princes of the Ammonites said to Hanun, do you think, because David has sent comforters to you that he is honoring your father? Have not his servants come to you to search and to overthrow and to

spy out the land? So Hanun took David's servants and shaved them and cut off their garments in the middle at their hips and sent them away, and they departed. When David was told concerning the men, he sent to meet them, for the men were greatly ashamed. And the king said, remain at Jericho until your beards have grown, and then return. When the Ammonites saw that they had made themselves odious to David, Hanun and the Ammonites sent a thousand talents of silver to hire chariots and horsemen from Mesopotamia, from Aram Maak and from Zobah. They hired 32,000 chariots and the king of Maaka with his army, who came and encamped before Medeba. And the Ammonites were mustered from their cities and came to

battle. When David heard of it, he sent Joab and all the army of the mighty men. And the Ammonites came out and drew up in battle array at the entrance of the city. And the kings who had come were by themselves in the open country. When Joab saw that the battle was set against him both in front and in the rear, he chose some of the picked men of Israel and arrayed them against the Syrians. The rest of his men, he put in the charge of Abashai, his brother, and they were arrayed against the Ammonites. And he said, if the Syrians are too strong for me, then you shall help me. But if the Ammonites are too strong for you, then I will help you. Be of good courage, and let us play the man for our people, and for the cities of our God, and may the Lord do what seems good to him. So Joab and the

people who were with him drew near before the Syrians for battle, and they fled before him. And when the Ammonites saw that the Syrians fled, they likewise fled before Abashai, Joab's brother, and entered the city. Then Joab came to Jerusalem. But when the Syrians saw that they had been defeated by Israel, they sent messengers and brought out the Syrians who were beyond the Euphrates with Shofak, the commander of the army of Hadesar at their head. And when it was told David, he gathered all Israel together and crossed the Jordan and came to them and drew up his forces against them. And when David set the battle in a ray against the Syrians, they fought with him. And the Syrians fled before Israel, and David slew of the Syrians the men of 7,000 chariots and

40,000 foot soldiers, and killed also Shofak, the commander of their army. And when the service of Haddadazar saw that they had been defeated by Israel, they made peace with David and became subject to him. So the Syrians were not willing to help the Ammonites anymore. Chapter 20. The Siege and Capture of Rabah In the spring of the year, the time when kings go forth to battle, Joab led out the army and ravaged the country of the Ammonites, and came and besieged Rabah. But David remained at Jerusalem. And Joab struck Rabah and overthrew it.

And David took the crown of their king from his head. He found that it weighed a talent of gold. And in it was a precious stone, and it was placed on David's head. And he brought forth the spoil of the city a very great amount. And he brought forth the people who were in it and set them to labor with saws and iron picks and axes. And thus David did to all the cities of the Ammonites. Then David and all the people returned to Jerusalem.

War with the Philistines And after this, there arose a war with the Philistines at Gezer. Then Sibakai, the Hushathite, slew Sepai, who was one of the descendants of the giants, and the Philistines were subdued. And there was again war with the Philistines, and El-Hanan, the son of Jair, slew Lamy, the brother of Goliath, the Gittite, the shaft of whose spear was like a weaver's beam. And there was again war at Gath, where there was a man of great stature who had six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot, 24 in number, and he also was descended from the giants.

And when he taunted Israel, Jonathan, the son of Shimia, David's brother, slew him. These were descended from the giants in Gath, and they fell by the hand of David and by the hand of his servants. Psalm 3. Trust in God under adversity. A Psalm of David when he fled from Absalom, his son. O Lord, how many are my foes? Many are rising. against me, many are saying of me, there is no help for him in God. But you, O Lord, are a shield about me, my glory and the lifter of my head. I cry aloud to the Lord, and he answers me from his holy mountain. I lie down and sleep. I wake again, for the Lord sustains me. I am not afraid of ten thousands of people who have set themselves against me round about. Arise, O Lord. Deliver

me, O my God. For you strike all my enemies on the cheek. You break the teeth of the wicked. Deliverance belongs to the Lord. Your blessing be upon your people. Father in heaven, we praise you. And we give you thanks. And gosh, Lord, we do thank you. We offer this word of trust, this word of confidence in you, in your goodness, in your faithfulness, even in times of insecurity, even in times of uncertainty, even in times of great trial and battle where the enemy is winning. We declare our trust in you. This day and every day. In Jesus' name, in the name of the Father and of the Son of the Holy Spirit. Amen. I wanted to highlight that, that fact that we declare our trust in God, even in the midst of the battle, Psalm 3, I mentioned the other day, yesterday I think it was, that Psalm 131 is one of my favorite Psalms. It's only three verses long. It's also just this great Psalm of trust and confidence, humble confidence in the Lord. But Psalm 3 is an incredible, phenomenal

Psalm of Trust. And now we think, okay, it's Psalm of David. So here's David who's on his throne, and he's saying, oh, God, I trust you so much. But when Psalm 3 was written, he was written while David was fleeing from Absalom. So imagine here everything is falling down around you. Like you're on the run from your own son who is trying to kill you and trying to take your throne, trying to take your authority and everyone you know and everyone you love is now under threat of your own son. And it's your fault more or less. And it's in that context that David writes this Psalm of God I trust in you. David's saying, I'm not going to wait till the battle is one to trust you. I'm going to trust you. I'm going to trust you in the middle of the battle. And that again, gosh, you guys, I know we have the sinner David.

We have the flawed human being David. We have the David that maybe you can't even think of anymore without thinking of his massive, massive sin. But we also have this man who is like us and still trusts in God. And again, he says, I'm not going to wait for the battle to be one. Trust God. I'm going to trust God in the middle of the battle. And so we have him. And also, again, flawed human beings, but here's David in 2nd Samuel chapter 15. And what is he doing? He's escaping, right? Because it's on Absalom. So at the beginning of chapter 15, Absalom is being smart. Abtum's back. He's Absalom is back in Jerusalem. And a good looking guy, Brad Pitt of the, I don't know, whoever the good looking people are now, Brad Pitt of Jerusalem. And he's positioning himself at the

gate. And he's saying, hey, listen, let me judge your cases for you. I'm just, I am right. And listen, my dad can't be bothered. He can't be bothered by you, but I'll take care of you. And he shows that he wants to actively take care of the people of Israel. Now, obviously he wants to do that in order to take the kingdom away from his father. But he shows initiative there. And then when he gathers the people at Hebron to fight against his father, David knows the writings on the wall. He knows that he has to flee from the city. And there's something about David. This again, let's highlight this fact, that as Absalom's leading these people into Jerusalem, these warriors into Jerusalem to kill his father, David is walking with his people out to escape Jerusalem, and he waits, and they all walk by him

as he makes sure they all leave the city, and they're all safe. David stands there, and they all have to walk by him, and think about this. Not only is this a good sign of David saying, yeah, women and children first, you get in the lifeboats, I'm going to wait here until everyone's out. The captain going down with a ship, essentially. David's letting them all pass by him, making sure that everyone who needs to get out is getting out. But also, you know, they probably all knew. David, you failed as a king when you did that sin in chapter 11. David, you failed as a father when you didn't deal with Amnon who violated his sister. David, you failed as his father when you didn't deal rightly with Absalom. And he's standing there as they all have to walk by him and see him in his shame.

And there's something noble about this. Again, David remains a noble person. He remains the king who truly wants to care for his people. We're going to see him humbled even more tomorrow. But for this part, we have David saying, okay, priests Zedok, Abyathar, take the ark of the Lord back to the temple. If God wants to bring me back, I'll be able to be in his presence again. but the Lord belongs in his tent, you know, in the tabernacle area.

And he just shows this trust. He just shows this trust very, very clearly in this moment. One last note, Hithefel is the advisor, David's advisor, and Absalom sends for him. And so when David finds out that Hithel has essentially been a traitor and has gone over to Absalom, David is heartbroken. You can tell that David is truly disturbed. is truly disturbed. And it's often thought that that's who David was thinking about when he wrote in the book of Psalms. Even my friend who ate at my table, my own familiar friend whom I

trust who ate my bread, has lifted up his heel against me in Psalm 41. Yeah, you can imagine that this is that friend possibly. I hit a fell, who was his counselor, who betrayed him and traded sides and went over to Absalom. Again, in the midst of all this, David shows his humility. In the midst of all this, David chose his trust in the Lord. And in all of this, David shows a true repentance. But will it be enough? Will it be enough for him to keep the kingdom together? Will it be enough for him to save his son? Because what we're going to find tomorrow in the following days is that David, more than almost anything, he wants this son, Absalom, to be safe. So if we need to act today, to care for the people we love, maybe they don't know that we love them, maybe they don't know

that we've forgiven them, maybe they've offered forgiveness to us, but we haven't received it or accepted it. That's an opportunity for us right now to take that step, to either offer forgiveness or receive forgiveness, to offer reconciliation or receive reconciliation. Because we know this all started, this all started with inaction. This all started with failing to lift up the head and act on justice, act and do what was right in David's own family, in his own life. So I need that, I need the help to be able to act when I know I need to act in my life with my family, with my parishioners, our students here on campus. And I think you do too probably in your life and with your family, in your neighborhood. Anyways, gosh, we'll pray for each other because this is, we're in the

middle, not in the middle quite, but we're halfway. We're very much into the journey and therefore we're very much into praying for each other. So let's keep praying for each other. I am praying for you. Please pray for me. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless. Thank you.