FORGIVEN LIKE DAVID

Sermon Summary from November 15, “Forgiven Like David”

Our Bible is brutally honest and we find solace in that.  We find the “Ideal” King David is flawed like us.  We are grateful that God does not deal with us according to our sins but “as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our sins from us.” (Ps 103:12)

David’s story (and ours): What happens to us when we have no more lands to conquer, no more mountains to climb?  We lose purpose, mission, we begin to feel sorry for our selves, we begin to say “I deserve it.”  When we do so, look out!

In the spring, when kings go out to battle, David stayed in Jerusalem feeling sorry for himself.  “It happened late one afternoon” (2 Samuel 11:2).  David saw Bathsheba from the roof of his house and said, “I want that (lust); I deserve that (pride); I deserve that more than her husband (envy)” 

We know the story.  David calls for her and “he lay with her.”  By the way, what woman can so “no” to a king?  It was R-A-P-E.  She becomes pregnant.  Now the cover up.  David schemes to bring her husband, Uriah, back from the field to the comfort of home.  But Uriah, one of the most noble and honorable figures in the Bible, will not sleep with his wife while his men are in battle, in tents.  Now David becomes incensed (anger), and tells his commander to put Uriah in the front of the battle and when the fighting becomes fierce to withdraw the army from him so that he is struck down and killed.  Murder!

The prophet Nathan confronts David with the story of the rich man and the poor man’s little ewe lamb. (You can read about it in 2 Samuel 12).  David is angry at the rich man.  Nathan says, “You are the man!”  God reminds David of all that he had done for him and says if that had been too little he would have even done more (I can see greed and gluttony seeping in here too). 

David confesses.  Nathan, speaking for God, says “the Lord has put away his sin.”  But the consequence of sin remains.  Uriah is dead.  The baby will die.  Not only that, David is exposed, a public disgrace and his example of rape and murder and disrespect will tragically play out in his family.

Yes, David confesses and is forgiven.  But to see the anguish and contrition, we need to go to Psalm 51 (your exercise).

Our lesson? We many not be murderers or rapists, but we experience the very same starting points as David (pride, envy, anger, greed, sloth, gluttony, lust).  We need to confess, repent, turn around when we experience these seemingly minor sins before we fall off the precipice, begin the slippery slide.  Amen.