2 Samuel 24:17

17. Saw the angel His vision was so spiritualized, and his inner sense so enlarged, that he was permitted to behold “the angel of the Lord stand between the earth and heaven, having a drawn sword in his hand stretched out over Jerusalem.” Compare Chronicles 2 Samuel 21:16; Numbers 22:31; Joshua 5:13. The elders who were with him in penitential garb seem to have seen the angel also. Such angelic personages are often around us in their ministrations of judgment or of love, but rarely have they been allowed to manifest themselves to human vision.

I have sinned I, only I, am the guilty cause of all this woe! It is ever a characteristic of the subdued and heartbroken penitent to take all possible blame upon himself. He who in professedly deep contrition throws any blame on others, or seeks to involve others in his guilt, is not so much a penitent as a disappointed schemer.