David’s psalm after his sin with Bathsheba –
Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions. Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me. Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you are proved right when you speak and justified when you judge … Surely you desire truth in the inner parts; you teach me wisdom in the inmost place. Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow. Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones you have crushed rejoice … Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me. Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will turn back to you. Save me from bloodguilt, O God, the God who saves me, and my tongue will sing of your righteousness. O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise. You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. (Psalm 51:1-17).
Walking with God in intimate fellowship is the goal and the key to experiencing his presence, hearing him, receiving his promises, ministering in the power of the Holy Spirit, living with joy and everything else you can think of. Walking with God is based on agreement with him. “How can two walk together unless they are agreed?” (Amos 3:3). To maintain our “agreement” with God we must deal effectively with any sin that creeps into our lives. David’s psalm quoted above is vey instructive. First of all, David knew the heart of God better than any man in scripture other than Jesus because he was “a man after God’s own heart.” Secondly, after his sin with Bathsheba he was in desperate need of realigning his life and heart with the Father.
It’s helpful to know that after adultery, murder and a year of covering up the sins, God’s forgiveness was not out of reach for David. Undoubtedly, David’s sin had set some consequences in motion that he would have to live with, but as soon as he confessed his sin to God he was forgiven and his walk with the Lord restored. Some great difficulties loomed in his future but God, as a loving Father, would walk through those difficulties with him. David’s heart and view of God revealed in Psalm 51 is the key to restoration. Let me just point out a few keys but you should reflect on this psalm yourself for your own insights.
First of all, throughout this psalm David made no attempt to rationalize, justify or minimize his sin. He blamed no one else for his actions but acknowledged that he was totally responsible for the choices he had made. Too many times we come before God like children caught with our hands in the cookie jar giving every excuse for our actions. “I couldn’t help myself. I was overpowered by the smell of those cookies. Actually, my sister made me do it! If mom hadn’t made the cookies in the first place this would have never happened! What’s the big deal anyway, it was only one small cookie? Besides, the cookie rule is stupid and unfair!” You get the drift. David could have tried to spread the blame around or deny his personal responsibility by declaring that Bathsheba shouldn’t have been bathing outside or that she should have refused to come to his apartment. Maybe if Uriah had been a better husband this would never have happened or if God hadn’t given David such strong sexual desires he could have said “no” to the temptation, etc.
Sometimes our approach to confession betrays our view that God will forgive our sins or continue to love us only if we convince him that the sin wasn’t our fault or that the biblical standard isn’t fair or that it is out of step with our current realities. David does none of that. He relies immediately and totally on God’s mercy, his unfailing love, and his great compassion.
He refuses to bargain with God or to offer to somehow work off his sin through penance or good works or by never doing it again – “God if you will just forgive this, I will….” He acknowledges that there is nothing he can do to make his sin right or to make it go away. He simply asks God to cleanse his sin and purify his heart because there is nothing else he can do. He declares that God’s standards are right and just and simply acknowledges his great failure in living up to those standards.
In this psalm, there is obviously godly sorrow in David’s heart for his sin. He has wronged God first by violating his commands and wounding (in this case killing) those that God also loved. He feels his guilt and shame but he is laying all of that at the feet of God’s mercy and the cross which already stood in the mind of God (Rev.13:8). Even after his great sin, David believed that reconciliation was possible and that God was willing to restore his joy because of God’s great heart and relentless love for his people.
David also understood that God is not interested in us carrying guilt and shame around for years so that our joy, our service to him and our testimony is suffocated by the weight of our past. I see people who seem to carry guilt, shame and self-loathing over sins from there past as if they can earn God’s forgiveness through their self-inflicted misery and emotional suffering. God is not interested in that because our refusal to accept his forgiveness robs him of our joyful service, our praise, and our testimony to sinners around us. Our insistence on continuing to carry our guilt and shame for past sins declares that Christ’s sacrifice was not enough for us.
David was not theologically clear on the cross but he was clear on the heart of God that provided the cross and so he pressed into God and trusted him totally for grace, mercy, unfailing love, cleansing, and restoration. No excuses. No rationalization. Just confession and trust in the heart and character of God. We need to come to God daily with every sin in the same assurance. We can actually come with even more assurance because we are this side of the cross and understand what Jesus has done for us. If we believe that our sins, our brokenness, and the darkness we still discover in our hearts make us unacceptable to God then we will distance ourselves from him and begin to deny, justify and rationalize our sins until we no longer accept God’s standards in our lives. God doesn’t require us to live up to his standards before he accepts us, he accepts us in Jesus so that by his Spirit we can begin to live up to those standards.
Dealing with sin and weakness in our lives on a daily basis through the cross is essential to our walk with the Father. Nothing is beyond his grace and mercy. David understood that and when sin was greater than David, God’s grace was greater than sin. It still is. Be blessed today in the unfailing love and sure forgiveness of your Father.
