2 Samuel 13:17-22: in context

After a grievous wrong is done to Tamar, she is left desolate. She tears her royal robe, puts ashes on her head, and goes away crying aloud. Her brother Absalom tells her to keep quiet and not take it to heart, and she remains desolate in his house. And when King David, her father, hears of it, we are told he was very angry, but nothing more; he does nothing to bring justice for his wronged daughter or to comfort her in her desolation. The wrong is left unaddressed, and Tamar is left desolate.

This is a painful account, and Tamar's suffering must not be minimized; a grievous wrong was done to her, and she was left desolate. What compounds the tragedy is the failure of those who should have acted. David was angry, and rightly so; but his anger did nothing. He did not act to bring justice, to protect his daughter, to comfort her in her desolation. His anger sat idle, and the wrong went unaddressed, and Tamar remained desolate. Those who had the standing and responsibility to act for the wronged failed to do so, and the victim was left alone in her suffering. There is a sobering warning here about the failure to act on behalf of the wronged. It is possible to feel anger at injustice, to be genuinely stirred by a wrong, and yet to do nothing, to let the anger sit idle while the wronged remain desolate and the injustice unaddressed. Feeling is not action; anger that does not move to act does the wronged no good. David felt anger but did not act, and his idle anger left his daughter desolate. Scripture calls us not merely to feel but to act for the wronged. Open your mouth for the mute, the proverb says, for the rights of all who are left desolate; plead the cause of the poor and needy. Seek justice, Isaiah says; defend the oppressed. To know the right thing to do on behalf of the wronged, and not to do it, James says, is sin. Feeling for the wronged is not enough; we are called to act. This searches whether our concern for injustice moves us to act or sits idle as anger. When we see someone wronged, desolate, treated unjustly, do we merely feel anger and pity, and then do nothing, letting the wrong go unaddressed and the victim remain desolate, as David did? Or does our concern move us to act, to bring justice, to comfort, to defend, to do what we can for the wronged? The tragedy of Tamar is not only the wrong done to her but the failure of those who should have acted, whose anger sat idle while she was left desolate. And it calls us not to let our own concern for the wronged remain mere feeling, but to act on their behalf, defending the oppressed, comforting the desolate, and doing the good we know to do rather than leaving it undone.

When I see someone wronged, desolate, or treated unjustly, does my concern move me to act on their behalf, to bring justice, comfort, or defense, or does it sit idle as mere anger and pity while the wrong goes unaddressed and the victim remains desolate, as David's anger sat idle while Tamar was left desolate, and can this move me not merely to feel for the wronged but to act, doing the good I know to do rather than leaving it undone?