Interconnectedness?

I am very confused... I read the passage in 2 Sam. 22 where God gets angry at Israel and "incited David against them"... so David takes a census, which is apparently a bad thing because he became conscience-stricken and says to God "I have sinned greatly in what I have done. Now, LORD, I beg you, take away the guilt of your servant. I have done a very foolish thing." So God gives him three options and he chooses to "fall into the hands of the LORD, for His mercy is great; but do not let me fall into human hands" so it sounds like either famine or plague and God allows the plague (because it is shorter in duration I wonder?)... so God lets the plague ravage everyone until it reaches Jerusalem and then stops it... and David is offering the sacrifice and the LORD answers his prayer on behalf of the land... but the timing is weird... God stops the angel before we hear about David offering the sacrifice... this "dance" between God's feelings, David's responses and the decisions about what will come "next" seems confusing to me... God was angry, He incites David, David reacts, he repents, God offers choices of consequences, David offers the decision back to God, God acts and then limits the destruction, David offers sacrifice and prayer and God answers his prayer... back and forth between the two of them... cause and effect? It doesn't seem like it.. at least not like I usually think about causality... but there is definitely an interaction between these two... some kind of interconnectedness with God's heart and David's actions, choices, submission to His story... I wonder....