Sin in the First Person Singular
David said to Nathan, 'I have sinned against the lord.' And Nathan said to David, 'The lord also has put away your sin; you shall not die.’ (II Samuel 12:13)
II Sam. 11 and 12:1-13; I Sam. 13:14, 22; Prov. 13:15; Isa. 43:25 and 55:7; Rom. 8:1
What Is God Saying?
Even though David was a ‘man after God's own heart’ (I Sam. 13:4 and 22), he sinned greatly. In a time of carelessness and self-indulgence, he took another man's wife, and, in the process, another man's life (II Sam. 12:9). He paid dearly for this. The way of transgressors is always hard (Prov. 13:15). God told him that the sword would never depart from his house. From that time on tragedy stalked the house of David: the death of a child, a rebellious son killed in the act of trying to dethrone his father, and the desertion of loyal officers.
Yet all this did not alter the fact that David was greatly loved and used by God. David was forgiven when he confessed before Nathan, with genuine sorrow, that he had sinned against the Lord. Just as genuine was Nathan's response, ‘David, you have utterly scorned the Lord, but He has put away your sin.’ This was music to David's sensitive ears, relief to his troubled heart, and a psalm was born. The 51st Psalm is a part of our treasury. Who has not found a new handle on life and an open door of hope by reading and praying the Psalm which had its origin in David's disastrous detour into sin and back by the grace of God?
How Does This Apply To Us?
God awakens our consciences in different ways. God wants us to leave the ways of restlessness, misery, and death and walk in the path of righteousness and peace. Prov. 12:28 says, ‘In the path of righteousness is life, but the way of error leads to death.’ David knew he was out of bounds. It kept his heart in turmoil until God sent Nathan to David with the story of the rich man who took a precious ewe lamb from a poor man (2 Sam. 12:11-13). Nathan spoke the courageous words, ‘You are that man.’
Sometimes our consciences are awakened and we must own up to our broken promises, our shattered vows, and our tarnished ideals. We might hear in our thoughts the words of Nathan’s accusation, but God loves us and His Spirit will bring to the repentant a new beginning like the return of Spring or the coming of dawn. You are the person that God loves.
Pray With Me
Dear Lord, it is wonderful to discover this truth, to keep on rediscovering it and to keep on realizing it at deeper levels of understanding and appreciation, ‘The Lord has put away your sin.’ Today I pray for Your grace that You will put away my sin of pretence. Help me to see how pretence destroys communion with You. It troubles the heart amid peace when it ought to be at rest in the midst of turmoil. It hangs like a needless weight and a cumbersome garment. It makes work a cheerless burden instead of an exhilarating privilege.
With David, I would say, I have sinned against the Lord. In the light of Your perfect knowledge, encouraged by Your unfailing love I would see my sin as the thing that breaks my fellowship with You. Wherever I stray, however careless I grow, Your patient love, Lord, reaches me. Your love in Christ ignites the heart's fire, long dead. Thank You for this assurance, this reassurance, ‘the Lord also has put away your sin.’
When You, Lord, shall make, who shall undo? When You discover, who can hide? When You put it away, who will bring it back? In the vast seas of Your forgetfulness, Lord, my sin is put away. Help me to be wise and leave it there. Help me to walk without the weight of needless guilt. Help me to move on, set free from the encumbrances of an accusing conscience.
In the name of Him who in response to simple faith and by His death on Calvary has put away all sins for all time, for all who believe, for all who trust in Him. Amen.
Moving On In The Life of Prayer
Prayer is being honest with God. Prayer is leaving the burden of our failure, the weight of the past at the foot of the Cross. Prayer is saying Jesus can take care of all that. Prayer is turning from all that, and thinking only about all that God has prepared for us: good work, wholesome life, good friends, the peace of forgiveness, joy the world cannot give or take away, eternal life, and a place in the Father's House forever.
