Most of us recoil in shock at the suddenness and depth of
David’s sin with Bathsheba and Uriah. If one like David can fall so far so
quickly, how much more do we have to be on guard? The final stroke comes when
David uses Joab to kill Uriah. After the deed is done David says to Joab, “Do
not let this matter trouble you.” (11:25)
Such horribly in sensitive words! But more than that, words
that were absolutely untrue for David himself. Consider Psalm 51. In the
inscription that introduces the Psalm (yes, this is a part of the Psalm), the
context is given: “To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David, when Nathan the
prophet went to him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba.”
Now read the Psalm and see how greatly his sin with
Bathsheba “troubles” David. “Blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly
from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin! For I know my transgressions, and
my sin is ever before me. Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is
evil in your sight” (1b-4a) Did it trouble David? Yes, enormously.
I have known the enormity of troubling sin, have you? God,
in His gracious mercy, loves us enough to chasten us and to convict us of our
sin and to afflict us until we turn back to Him. David learned this well. At
another time he wrote: “Before I was afflicted I went astray….It is good for me
that I was afflicted….” (Ps 119:67, 71) We worship a loving God who will not
leave us in our sin, but graciously “troubles” us until we repent and confess
and turn once again to Him.
Hopefully, after an experience like that we will remember
the “troubling” and the pain of guilt and resist the opportunities of sin in
the future.
Prayer: Father, thank you for your loving discipline to us.
Thank you that you trouble us and afflict us for our own good, so that we may
once again know the joy of our salvation in Christ. Thank you that our sins are
covered by the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. Help us to remember the pain and
hold fast to you.
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