(Read 2 Samuel 11, 12:1-23; Psalms 51, and 32.)
THESE three scriptures present David to us in three totally different positions and conditions. In 2 Samuel 11-12 we see him as a callous backslider. In Psalms 51 we have a broken-hearted penitent, and there is something very exquisite about the language of that psalm. In Psalms 32 he is a happy, restored believer—a man that can witness to the grace of God. How blessed when you can shout for joy, and that is what the grace of God leads a man to do.
If you are a backslider you are a very unhappy person. If you have allowed what the sinner is allowing all along the line—the flesh—you are a miserable person, and you will never be happy till you get to God in confession, and have the whole matter out with Him. If you have never been converted—brought to God—you are in your sins, serving the devil, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and in distance from God. You may not have any very distinct sense of your sin, and the consequences of it, but that does not alter the fact. God wake you up—there is an awful eternity before you, if you die in the many sins that enwrap your soul, though you do not feel the weight and burden of them. I do not say you have sinned in the same way that David did, but his history shows where the flesh will carry even a saint of God if he is not watchful.
We read that “at the time when kings go forth to battle,” David “tarried still at Jerusalem” (2 Sam. 11:11And it came to pass, after the year was expired, at the time when kings go forth to battle, that David sent Joab, and his servants with him, and all Israel; and they destroyed the children of Ammon, and besieged Rabbah. But David tarried still at Jerusalem. (2 Samuel 11:1)). He tarried in laziness, and there is nothing that tends to lust like laziness. God did not mean you and me to be lazy. If David had been, as he should have been, occupied with the interests of the Lord in connection with the kingdom, he would not have been entrapped by the devil as he was. As a result he broke three commandments— “Thou shalt not covet,” “Thou shalt not commit adultery,” “Thou shalt not kill.” You say, It is a very bad case—I admit it, I do not want to minimize it. You say, Why do you draw our attention to it? Because God has written it as a warning to you and me, that we may, on the one hand, learn what poor things we are, and, on the other, how deep and infinite is the grace of God when a man takes his right place before Him.
We next read in 2 Samuel 11:27,27And when the mourning was past, David sent and fetched her to his house, and she became his wife, and bare him a son. But the thing that David had done displeased the Lord. (2 Samuel 11:27) “But the thing that David had done displeased the Lord.” Do you think your life has pleased Him? Get into the light of a question like that. You say, Oh, my life has not been like David’s. But has your life pleased God? I should like to remind you that “without faith it is impossible to please him” (Heb. 11:66But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. (Hebrews 11:6)). Again, “They that are in the flesh cannot please God” (Rom. 8:88So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. (Romans 8:8)), and you may depend upon it if your life has not pleased the Lord, it has “displeased” Him.
Here is a man that for twelve long months has been guilty of the deep and terrible sins God records, and he thought nobody knew. Is that where you have taken shelter—nobody knows? God knew and said to David, “Thou didst it secretly” (12:12)— that is a tremendous charge. But notice how God reached his conscience. It was by a parable. The parabolic teaching of Scripture is very beautiful, and if you would wash a saint’s feet you will usually do it better by a parable than by plain speaking and exhortation. For twelve long months David had been in a callous, backsliding state. I do not think he would deny that; and if I say you are a callous sinner am I stating what is not true? Oh no, but mark—your whole history is known to God, you cannot hide it, and it will all come out. The Lord knew David’s history, and He knows yours. The day when you must face God about your bygone history and your bygone sins must come. When is it to be? is the question. Shall it be now in the day of grace, or tomorrow, in a day of judgment? Face God, meet God, have to do with God about your life, your ways, your sins, you must. I am not going to wait for a judgment-day to bring me to the Lord. Christ was once offered for sins, and “suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God.” I have not been brought to glory yet, but I have been brought to God, and He has filled my heart with peace and joy for seven and forty long years. Eternal praise to His name!
There is much encouragement in this story of David, because it so blessedly brings out the grace of God. Was he happy? The 51St Psalm lets out that he was the most miserable man in all Jerusalem. There is no one so miserable as a backslider, who knows there has been that in his life which was not right, and he fears exposure. If you don’t want a thing known—don’t do it; and if you don’t want a thing repeated—don’t say it. You say, Oh, but I have done it. Then own it to God at once, for it will come out, it is bound to come to the light someday. David was miserable, and the Lord saw his misery. It was not an angry God that told Nathan to go down and have a talk with David—no, it was a God of infinite compassion, who loved David then, and has loved us enough to give His own Son to die for us. He tells us what is in His heart in order that we may unburden ours. That is the kind of God we have to do with.
Nathan tells the story of the rich man that spared to take of his own flock and herd, but took the poor man’s lamb, and dressed it for the stranger that was come to him, and David is angry—his eye flashes, his tongue speaks freely, his judgment is emphatic— “The man that hath done this thing shall surely die” (12:5). It is very easy to judge your neighbor—we can all take the judgment-seat with the utmost nonchalance. David takes the judgment-seat, and when he has pronounced judgment the answer comes, “Thou art the man.” That shot went home. And that was not all, he is reminded of all that God had done for him— “I anointed thee king over Israel, and I delivered thee out of the hand of Saul... and if that had been too little, I would moreover have given unto thee such and such things” (12:7, 8). God says, There is nothing I would not have given you, and see what you have done. “Wherefore halt thou despised the commandment of the Lord, to do evil in his sight?” (vs. 9).
My friend, are you sure that you have not despised Him? Have you never coveted? You may not have done what David did, but God says, “Whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all” (James 2:1010For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all. (James 2:10)). When God’s Spirit brings home to you, that though a sinner you are the one God in grace has His ‘eye upon, it is a great moment in the history of your soul. Have you not done evil in His sight? Careless, heedless sinner, what hast thou been doing? Evil in His sight. The devil would fain blind you as to this, for his great object is to keep the truth out of sight, he does not want you to see things as they are before God. Hence we read— “If our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: in whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them that believe not” (2 Cor. 4:44In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them. (2 Corinthians 4:4)).
God always charges the truth home on the conscience, so says, “Thou hast killed Uriah the Hittite with the sword” (12:9). You are the murderer, David—no matter whose hand was used to do the deed, you are at the bottom of it. You may say, How could David ever hold up his head again? He could not have done so had he not got down on his face before God. Mark—God does not cover up not cloak the sins of His people. All through Scripture we find that if God’s people fall into sin, and depart from God, He will not cover it, and yet He will take care of His, own name. How many people know today about David’s sin? The whole world must know it. Wherever the Bible goes, from end to end of the earth it is known. What do we learn from it? What sin a saint of God can be guilty of, and he’s the grace of God can restore such an one.
Note the effect of this plain dealing. David says “I have sinned against the Lord” (vs. 13); I believe that confession was what God was aiming to produce. It was the first turning of David’s soul God-ward then, and it is exactly the same with every sinner when he is brought into the presence of the Lord in an attitude of confession. You say, I have often said “I have sinned.” Do you know the end of some others who have said it? Pharaoh twice said it (Ex. 9:27, 10:16), yet he fought on against God, was drowned in the Red Sea, and I doubt not—vessel of wrath that he was—went to hell for eternity. So said Balaam (Num. 22:3434And Balaam said unto the angel of the Lord, I have sinned; for I knew not that thou stoodest in the way against me: now therefore, if it displease thee, I will get me back again. (Numbers 22:34)), yet he continued his hypocrisy, and died fighting against God’s people.
Merely saying “I have sinned” will not do. So said Achan (Josh. 7:2020And Achan answered Joshua, and said, Indeed I have sinned against the Lord God of Israel, and thus and thus have I done: (Joshua 7:20)) and Saul (1 Sam. 15:2424And Saul said unto Samuel, I have sinned: for I have transgressed the commandment of the Lord, and thy words: because I feared the people, and obeyed their voice. (1 Samuel 15:24)), but I do not find in any of these cases the real, deep, genuine repentance that goes on in David’s history, and in the history of the poor prodigal (Luke 15:2121And the son said unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son. (Luke 15:21)), though he was not a backslider, but a sinner in his sins brought to God. He never had on the best robe till he came back. That parable shows that there is no case too bad for God: and if you be a careless shiner in your sins, a rebel against God, yet from your lip there comes honestly “I have sinned,” you are in for blessing. The prodigal adds, “I am no more worthy to be called thy son”— that is repentance—true self-judgment.
Immediately David says “I have sinned,” Nathan replies, “The Lord also hath put away thy sin” (12:13)— that is the way grace comes in. Yet I do not suppose he got peace directly—I think David was seven days before he got it, and he spent them on his face on the earth. There was deep exercise going on in that man’s soul, as he fasted, and cried to God for the life of the child.
Now pass on to Psalms 51 and see what David says there, because I do not doubt that God gives us there the record of what went on in his soul at that time. And if you have never yet got into God’s presence, it may encourage you to get down before the Lord, as David did. Listen to his cry— “Have mercy upon me, O God”— he had no pity on the rich man he adjudged to die; he says, as it were, I had no pity, but you have got pity— “Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy loving-kindness.” He laid down the multitude of his sins by the side of the multitude of God’s tender mercies, and you can go into God’s presence, and by the side of His tender mercies you can lay down your sins. “Thy loving-kindness,” and “Thy tender mercies”— that is one side; and the other is “My transgressions,” and which are deeper? Thank God there is something deeper than your guilt, and that is the grace that can cover it; and higher than the mountain of your sins is the grace that can rise above them and wipe them out.
There is nothing superficial here, nothing slipshod— “Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity and cleanse me from my sin,” is David’s cry. He wanted to be cleared of everything that had ruined his life, and spoiled his history. “I acknowledge my transgressions; and my sin is ever before me,” is his honest confession (vs. 3). The secret of the misery of those long, weary months, all dry, arid, and parched, with nothing fresh or green anywhere, lay in the fact that he had not confessed his sin to God. Outwardly he was a callous backslider, but inwardly— “My sin is ever before me,” was his experience. If that describes your condition, my friend, there is only one way out of it—make a clean breast of everything before God.
Now mark the intensity of David’s confession: ― “Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight” (vs. 4). Had he not sinned against Uriah, and against Bathsheba, and against all Israel? He had, but mark, these are all eclipsed—he sees but One eye, he is in One presence, the light of the glory of the Lord wraps him round, “Against thee, thee only, have I sinned”; he is alone with God. He might say to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord,” but here you get the exercises of his deeply repentant soul in the very presence of God. But, as he judges himself, see how he clears God, saying “That thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest” (vs. 4). If God has eventually to judge you in your sins you may be perfectly certain you will justify Him for His judgment, as David did here, and as the Lord Jesus justified Him in the agonies of the cross.
In Psalms 22 The heart experiences of the blessed Lord, when He took the place of sinners, and bore their judgment, are revealed as He says, “But thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel” (vs. 3). What does He say in the darkness and distance of the cross? This is not fair, righteous, and just. No! Listen, “Thou art holy.” He clears God. Unheard of God, and forsaken of God, He justifies Him in His very forsaking of Him, because He knew the awfulness of sin and what its judgment must entail—separation from God. And because God forsook Jesus on the cross, He can now forgive you and me and righteously justify us. You had better confess your sins and justify Him now, and not die in those sins, and then, damned for eternity, justify Him all too late.
I daresay David had a very good opinion of himself before his fall—now he is judging himself, for he has found out what is in him. God looks for reality and will have “truth in the inward parts.” Desiring this with all his heart he prays, “Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean.” Hyssop is a little, insignificant, bitter plant, and, in Scripture, symbolizes what is connected with the good-for-nothingness of man, and also with a man judging himself, and owning his sin and guilt before God. It is not until sins are honestly confessed that cleansing and forgiveness can be known. But then how deep the blessing. “Wash me and I shall be whiter than snow”— if you get a sense of what the blood of Christ is in its efficacy before God, you will know that your soul, washed in the Saviour’s precious blood, is whiter than snow before God. What follows? “Make me to hear joy and gladness, that the bones thou halt broken may rejoice” (vs. 8). There had been no real joy for David during the last twelve months, and there has been none in your life if you are not converted. He had been in God’s mill, and his bones were broken.
How terrible had been the consequences of indulged sin! Now see how he shrinks from it. “Hide thy face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities”— an exquisite prayer, the prayer of a penitent heart. Further, “Create in me a clean heart.” We read in Proverbs, “Keep thy heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life” (Prov. 4:2323Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life. (Proverbs 4:23)). Do you know what a man is? Not what he looks, not as he says, not even as he does—but “as he thinketh in his heart so is he” (Prov. 23:77For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he: Eat and drink, saith he to thee; but his heart is not with thee. (Proverbs 23:7)). If the heart be right with God all is well, and in His presence is its deepest joy. Hence comes the cry— “Cast me not away from thy presence,” for he had now a blessed longing after holiness and righteousness, which always marks a saint that is right with God.
David’s next petition— “Take not thy Holy Spirit from me” (vs. 11) was suited to the day in which he lived. He feared lest Saul’s fate (1 Sam. 16:1414But the Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the Lord troubled him. (1 Samuel 16:14)) should be his. A believer in Christ could not rightly or intelligently pray that prayer now, because, consequent on believing in Christ, dead, risen, and ascended, we have the forgiveness of sins, and the Spirit of God comes and dwells in us. Because the temple has been cleansed by the precious atoning blood of the blessed Saviour, the Spirit dwells in us, on the ground of redemption, and we are “sealed unto the day of redemption,” when we shall be taken out of this scene.
Quite properly might David say, “Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation”— he had lost it, and when through confession he had got restored, and was upheld by God’s free Spirit, we can understand his purpose— “Then will I teach transgressors thy ways; and sinners shall be converted unto thee” (vs. 13); i.e., I will make known to others the infinite mercy of God to a man that has sinned as I have sinned. I do not know how many got converted then, but God has used this tale of sovereign grace to multitudes since that day. “Sinners shall be converted unto thee” is always the effect of a testimony to God’s grace. Unsaved reader, will you not turn to the Lord now? The Spirit of God has used it, and will use it for the conversion of sinners, because it brings out the inimitable grace of God to poor sinners like David, and you and me.
Now comes the climax of this touching scene: “O Lord, open thou my lips; and my mouth shall show forth thy praise”— he had had enough sighing for many long months, now he is going to sing. The servants saw David touched by the death of his child—God saw a man deeply affected by His grace, who had also learned “Thou desirest not sacrifice”— no, “the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit,” and if you have a broken spirit God will bless you. “A broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.” God had said to him, You despised My commandment, you despised My word, and Me; and after seven days David says, Thou halt not despised me. Thank God, that is the difference between God and man.
Now look at Psalms 32. There David says, I should like to tell you how I came out of all these exercises. “Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.” When I did not confess these twelve months, “my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long”— a man that is not right with God is like a man with broken bones. You must get into God’s presence, and come under the healing power of His grace. “I acknowledged my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord, and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin” (vs. 5.) All is out and now he is happy, he is in the joy of forgiveness. He had no sooner said, “I have sinned,” than in a moment came back the word, “The Lord hath put away thy sin,” but before he had the full sense and the joy of forgiveness, he went through the exercises of the 51St Psalm.
The man that turns to God is always blest, so he can add, “Thou art my hiding-place; thou shalt preserve me from trouble”— God was his Saviour and his hiding-place. Observe the Lord’s response— “I will instruct thee, and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go.” God says, Not only have I been your deliverer and hiding-place, but I will be your guide; and if you have got God for your Saviour, your hiding-place, and your guide, you are right well off, and can surely sing. I like to meet singing saints, downright happy saints, and such we ought all to be.
God’s final word of counsel here should be noted— “Be ye not as the horse, or as the mule, which have no understanding, whose mouth must be held in with bit and bridle.” Some people are desperately impetuous, and have to be bridled; others are stubborn, like the mule, and have to be whipped.
The conclusion is splendid— “Be glad in the Lord, and rejoice, ye righteous, and shout for joy, all ye that are upright in heart” (vs. 11). If you go back to the story you will find that after the child Was dead, David got up, and washed, and changed his apparel, and went into the house of the Lord, and worshipped. He was a happy worshipper—I think I hear him singing. He had got the sense of the unfathomable mercy and goodness of God, and that led out his heart in praise and worship. The curtain falls on David enjoying God in a way that is absolutely beautiful.
May you and I know God’s heart and His unfailing grace after this sort more fully.
“Oh, to grace how great a debtor
Daily I’m constrained to be!
Let that grace, Lord, like a fetter,
Bind my wand’ring heart to Thee.
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it;
Prone to leave the God I love;
Yet Thou, Lord, hast deigned to seal it
With Thy Spirit from above.”
W. T. P. W.