"And against all of the Children of Israel a dog won't whet its tongue, from man to animal, so that you shall know that Hashem separates between Egypt and Israel" (Shemos 11: 7).
When Dovid HaMelech was running for his life during an attempted coup d’état by his son Avshalom, he said, “A psalm (song) of David, when he fled from before Avshalom his son" (Tehillim 3).
The Gemara asks, why did he use the term "song"? His kingdom has been overthrown by his son, and he and his family are on the run for their lives? If anything, it should be a "dirge"! The Gemara answers that Dovid HaMelech knew that he was to have this come upon him as a punishment regarding the incident with Batsheva. However, he had no idea how it would unfold. When he saw that it was his own son that was behind everything, rather than a servant or his army who would have no mercy on him, he felt better knowing that is was his own son, who would.
Yet, there seems to be a small problem with this. Avshalom, WAS out to kill him. He was not planning on having any mercy on Dovid HaMelech. Therefore, we need to go back to our original question: Why "a song"?
Rav Yitzhok Zilberstein gives a very interesting answer to this.
There are two types of punishments that a person can receive from Hashem. The first is when Hashem is saying, "I have to give this to you to help you correct yourself, but know that I'm still here with you throughout." That's the good type. The not-so-good type is when Hashem says, "Here's your punishment. Go away. I don't care to be with you at this moment."
So. How can one tell which type he's receiving?
Rav Zilberstein answers. When the punishment comes from natural means, it's a sign that Hashem is saying, "You wanted to follow 'nature' by giving into your base nature, then fine! I'll leave you in the hands of nature." However, when it comes in ways that do not seem so natural, and I don't mean something supernatural, but rather something that seems weird or very targeted against you, then that is Hashem saying, "Don't worry, I'm with you."
He gave the example of suicide bombers. It's not natural for mothers to urge their children to blow themselves up. It goes against the nature of human beings. This is a clear sign that Hashem is with us.
The past two years … who can say that they have been natural? Clearly, Hashem is closely with us.
One should not become so depressed when things happen to us. It might be painful, but many times, when we look over certain events, we see that Hashem has been with us, and will continue to be with us.
With that, I wish you all a wonderful Shabbos!