When was the last time you read 2nd Samuel, chapter 11? You may remember this is the account from the time when King David found Bathsheba. Read these first few verses again; “In the spring, at the time when kings go off to war, David sent Joab out with the king’s men and the whole Israelite army. They destroyed the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah. But David remained in Jerusalem. One evening David got up from his bed and walked around on the roof of the palace. From the roof he saw a woman bathing. The woman was very beautiful, and David sent someone to find out about her.”
Though typically, this was the time when kings go out to war, King David sends his soldiers to war while he stays home. That was his first mistake. Then, perhaps because he couldn’t sleep, he goes for a walk. Though insomnia isn’t a sin what ensued for David was, he saw a women who was bathing and he lusted after her. That was followed by adultery that eventually lead to murder. You may recall how this situation played out as you read the rest of the chapter.
But as we turn the page to chapter 12, a new character steps into the palace. The prophet Nathan comes and shares with David a tragic story about a man who was selfish and sinful in his behavior. Outraged, the king is ready to exact discipline. The text of 2 Samuel 12:5 records that, “David burned with anger against the man and said, ‘…the man who did this must die!'” However, as you may recall, Nathan’s four-word reply exposes the truth of the matter. David was the man.
How do we react when we are shown to be in the wrong? What is our response when someone shows us our sin? Often times we squirm and try to rationalize our actions. Sometimes we try to place the blame on someone else. David could have said, “Bathsheba shouldn’t have been bathing on her roof where I could see her.” But he didn’t…he accepted his sin and we read his response in the 51st chapter of Psalm as he wrote:
“Have mercy on me, O God,according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassionblot out my transgressions.
Wash away all my iniquityand cleanse me from my sin.”
Thanks to the pen and musical abilities of Steve & Annie Chapman and Brandon & Sheryl Thomas we can take these words of David and sing them as a prayer to our God. When we accept that we “all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). Consider Psalm 51: 1, 2 as we, like King David, call on our God to have mercy on us.
Though typically, this was the time when kings go out to war, King David sends his soldiers to war while he stays home. That was his first mistake. Then, perhaps because he couldn’t sleep, he goes for a walk. Though insomnia isn’t a sin what ensued for David was, he saw a women who was bathing and he lusted after her. That was followed by adultery that eventually lead to murder. You may recall how this situation played out as you read the rest of the chapter.
truth of the matter. David was the man.