Joel Virgo » Biblical People Sin Atonement

Psalm 51 records King David’s heartbroken prayer of contrition following his adultery with Bathsheba and his ensuing murder of Uriah her husband (2 Samuel 11). It gives insight on the nature of true repentance.

Calling one another out

The David of 2 Samuel 11: lazy, lust-filled, greedy, proud, scheming, devious, murderous, manipulative, and most importantly, scornful of God—this David looks the opposite of the broken, humble, earnest, sorrowful, and utterly God-prizing composer of this song. How did this transformation happen?

The simple answer is the Word of God. Nathan the prophet, sent by God to confront the King, delivered perhaps the most penetrating sermon in history. There are times when Nathans are needed. But no one wants to be one (and anyone who does probably shouldn’t). But all of us know times where we either summon the courage to speak up or sit back and allow wickedness to continue unchallenged.

Listen up

Do you have a Nathan in your life? There are times when a Nathan will save your life, maybe even literally, if you are wise enough to listen to them. God gives us the humility and soft-heartedness we need to listen to our Nathans.

David proved himself "a man after God’s own heart" (1 Samuel 13:14) by his response here. All of us find ourselves in David’s situation in some way. We are all at various stages of his process:

• We may be carrying out acts of sin which seem to be escaping God’s notice right now and may even be justifying our actions in our own minds.
• We may be living with a vague uneasiness, silent with a horribly uncomfortable conscience and some dark secrets.
• We may be coming under a very clear word of rebuke from God 
• We may be carrying a sober sense of our guilt and our overwhelming need for mercy. 
• We may be walking in a new freedom, still aware of the debt we could never pay, but assured of God’s cleansing and power to walk in purity.

The only position impossible for us is a sinless one

We may look at David’s terrible crimes and say But I could never do that! One dose of reality ought to put an end to that self-righteousness: if David, the man after God’s own heart, God’s shepherd King, Israel’s warrior-poet, and the ancestor of the Messiah could do it, we should look both ways before telling the world how pure we are.

Next up: Part 2.

 

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