There's a trend emerging with David. First, he was pursued all over the country by Saul, who desperately wanted him dead. Then Saul died, and David was grief-stricken. Then Saul's kids started dying, and David was grief-stricken.
Then Absalom comes along, plans a revolt, conspires (successfully) to usurp the throne, and sends David fleeing into the countryside east of the Jordan River. Then Absalom dies. And David is grief-stricken.
I'm glad Joab had the sense to actually call David on all of this. Yes, Absalom was David's son, but Joab is refreshingly honest and pragmatic about what's actually going on here. He points out to David that he is stuck up in his room, tearing his clothes and openly weeping at the death of the man who just finished tearing the country apart and plunging it into civil war.
If this were a movie, Jaob definitely would have slapped the blubbering David during this exchange, but I can't be sure that happened...
After the firm man-slapping that Joab gave him, David came to his senses and decided to be king again. It worked. The incredibly fickle people of Israel and Judah came together to welcome him back as king (with a brief hiccup from the northern tribes composing Israel when they decided to up and follow some other random dude who wanted to be king) and he went back to whomping Philistines, many of whom were actually descendants of Goliath. Good times.
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