Clean Hearts
What King David Teaches Us
For some reason the email didn’t go out properly this morning. Sorry! Here it is:
Psalm 51 recounts the prayer of King David’s over his sin with Bathsheba.
David’s Sin
In 2 Samuel 12:11 God tells David that he will “take your wives and give them to one who is close to you” —the same thing that David did to Uriah. But then in verse 13 we see David’s immediate recognition that he has “sinned against the Lord.”
David is face to face with the gravity of his sin, and Nathan’s next words are significant: “The Lord has taken away your sin. You are not going to die. But because by doing this you have shown utter contempt for the Lord, the son born to you will die.”1
A Ruptured Relationship
I’ll be honest, I wrestle with this verse. I don’t like the idea that someone else had to die for David’s sin, especially an innocent little baby. While I don’t have a response for that exactly, I do think this verse still teaches us two things about God:
God is willing to immediately forgive the contrite heart
There are consequences to our actions, and sometimes grave ones
Following this understanding, when we read Psalm 51 in its entirety, we see why David was known as a man "after God's own heart."2 He isn’t perfect by any means, but he genuinely seeks the God and longs for a restored relationship.
Preparing Our Hearts
God extends forgiveness to those who seek his face3 and when we turn to God, we can trust that the rupture in our relationship with him due to sin will be restored and we will encounter the “joy of our salvation” once again.
A note about today’s art:
Psalm 51:7 speaks of the hyssop plant, saying “purge me with hyssop.” This plant was used in the passover to wipe the blood on the doorposts. Today’s artwork features the hyssop plant.