King David and His Sins

[debrakay]

I'm still new and guessing where topics should go, so if this is the wrong place for this, forgive me.

Today my scripture reading took me to 2 Samuel 11 and 12 for the story of David, Uriah, Bathsheba and the baby.  It was the first time the story jumped off the pages into my spirit. It may have something to do with my soap box standing on abortion which I always have something to say about and has been on the surface of my heart since people started comparing getting an abortion with getting a covid vaccine.  They are throwing both into the Pro-Choice movement.  But I digress. 

David had everything.  The Lord had blessed him with more than he had ever dreamed possible.  But it was not enough.  He wanted Bathsheba so he took her, she became pregnant, he had her husband murdered and then brought her into his already full-with-wives palace.  Here is this mighty man of God, this giant killer, now reduced to a lustful, adulterous, murderer.  Of course God was mad!  Nathan told him how mad God was.  God was so mad He was not going to allow the baby to survive.  This innocent baby paid the price for David's sin even though the Lord forgave David when he repented.  Why is it the children so many times suffer for our sins?  

The other thing that really caught my attention was the baby's illness.  The Lord sent the deadly illness upon the child for a week.  During that week David begged God to reconsider.  For the entire week he did everything he could think of to change God's mind.  He ate nothing and laid on the ground begging and pleading for his child's life.  How many times do we beg and plead with God to change our circumstance or the circumstances of others?  Other's tried to console him and encourage him to eat and get up.  Finally on the seventh day the baby died.  God had said NO to his request for the life of the child to be spared.  David then washed up and put on clean clothes.  He went to the Tabernacle and worshiped the Lord.  He understood the answer regarding his plea was NO.  He did not continue to mourn, cry, plead, get angry, blame others, blame God or wallow in self-pity.  He accepted the repercussions of his sin and moved on in his life. 

How many times do people mourn for years and years and years, never letting go and never accepting the NO from God?  How many times do people turn from God and blame Him for the death's of a loved one?  How many people never find the strength to endure and move on with their own life when they should be leaving the valley of the shadow of death behind?  How many people just lay down right there and never get up?

I believe this part of scripture is there to teach us that while moving on can and will be painful, that life is never the same after someone that we love and adore is gone, God says we must.  We each can have a testimony to other's, that God's answer, in everything, is part of the perfect plan.  No questions, just acceptance. I have taught my children that NO is a viable answer.  It may not be the answer we want but sometimes it is what we get.  In the end of this story, King David set a good example on how to handle the NO's in life and how to move on.   

[Waggles]

Psalm 51:1  For the music director. A psalm of David. When Nathan the prophet came to him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba. Be gracious to me, O God, according to your loyal love. According to your abundant mercies, blot out my transgressions. 
51:2  Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and from my sin cleanse me. 
51:3  For I myself know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. 
51:4  Against you, only you, I have sinned and have done this evil in your eyes, so that you are correct when you speak, you are blameless when you judge. 
51:5  Behold, in iniquity I was born, and in sin my mother conceived me. 
51:6  Behold, you delight in truth in the inward parts, and in the hidden parts you make me to know wisdom. 
51:7  Purify me with hyssop, and I shall be clean. Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. 
51:8  Make me hear joy and gladness; let the bones you have crushed rejoice. 
51:9  Hide your face from my sins, and all my iniquities blot out. 
51:10  Create a clean heart for me, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. 
51:11  Do not cast me away from your presence, and do not take your Holy Spirit from me. 
51:12  Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and with a willing spirit sustain me. 
51:13  Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will turn back to you. 
51:14  Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God, the God of my salvation; then my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness. 
51:15  O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will proclaim your praise. 
51:16  For you do not delight in sacrifice or I would give it. With a burnt offering you are not pleased. 
51:17  The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; A broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. 
51:18  Do good in your favour toward Zion. Build the walls of Jerusalem. 
51:19  Then you will delight in righteous sacrifices, burnt offering and whole burnt offering. Then bulls will be offered on your altar. 

Edited July 9, 2021 by Waggles

[debrakay]

@Waggles I am reading a Chronological Study Bible and these verses of Psalm 51 were all listed. That's what I am liking about this Bible in that it places the scriptures into their chronological order.  Thank you for sharing!

[Alive]

15 minutes ago, Josheb said:

Wonderful post but David did not have everything and in the he had not learned how to handle no. 

I'll keep it brief. First, David does nor appear to have ever had the respect of his fathers or brothers. When Samuel called Jesse to assemble his sons Jesse left David out in the wilderness tending sheep (a lowly role typically left to servants) without any weapon beyond a sling. Second, if the words God spoke to David in 2 Samuel 7 are compared to the words David recounted to Solomon when he died it will be seen David changed the words. David had issues with his own sons, one of whom raped his daughter, another rebelled and tried to take the monarch from him and although Solomon (who God told David to name Jedidiah) was eighth or ninth in line for the throne David named the boy "Peace" and ignored those sons who were ahead of him to rule. He gave the eldest son's birthright to Solomon. This would have been the equivalent of Abraham giving Isaac's birthright to Ishmael or Isaac giving Esau's birthright to Jacob. 

In the end the story of David is the story of God's immeasurable grace toward a very wayward man; an individual who in many ways was not too much different than you or me. 

 

And I am ever grateful for this example. David was deeply flawed, just as I am and yet I have been given God's very own Righteousness.

As I have aged, the realization and need has only grown and not waned.

[debrakay]

@Josheb You are right in that David did not have everything.  Though he did have far more, materialistically speaking, than so many others, yet he wanted more.  Even religiously speaking he was called  "A man after God's own heart".  

Acts 13:22 (KJVAE)
And when he had removed him, he raised up unto them David to be their king; to whom also he gave testimony, and said, I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after mine own heart, which shall fulfil all my will.

David let the Lord down more than once and I have too.  I'm doing better all the time and will keep working towards perfection!

[Guest]

On 7/9/2021 at 6:39 PM, Waggles said:

Psalm 51:1  For the music director. A psalm of David. When Nathan the prophet came to him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba. Be gracious to me, O God, according to your loyal love. According to your abundant mercies, blot out my transgressions. 
51:2  Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and from my sin cleanse me. 
51:3  For I myself know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. 
51:4  Against you, only you, I have sinned and have done this evil in your eyes, so that you are correct when you speak, you are blameless when you judge. 
51:5  Behold, in iniquity I was born, and in sin my mother conceived me. 
51:6  Behold, you delight in truth in the inward parts, and in the hidden parts you make me to know wisdom. 
51:7  Purify me with hyssop, and I shall be clean. Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. 
51:8  Make me hear joy and gladness; let the bones you have crushed rejoice. 
51:9  Hide your face from my sins, and all my iniquities blot out. 
51:10  Create a clean heart for me, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. 
51:11  Do not cast me away from your presence, and do not take your Holy Spirit from me. 
51:12  Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and with a willing spirit sustain me. 
51:13  Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will turn back to you. 
51:14  Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God, the God of my salvation; then my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness. 
51:15  O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will proclaim your praise. 
51:16  For you do not delight in sacrifice or I would give it. With a burnt offering you are not pleased. 
51:17  The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; A broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. 
51:18  Do good in your favour toward Zion. Build the walls of Jerusalem. 
51:19  Then you will delight in righteous sacrifices, burnt offering and whole burnt offering. Then bulls will be offered on your altar. 

Source: Enduring Word Commentary on Psalm 51

New Testament Perspective:

(Ephesians 2:8)  For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,
(Ephesians 2:9)  not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
(Ephesians 2:10)  For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.  [ESV]

 

[SisterWells]

Jesus asked, Have you not read what David Did in the Days of Abiathar? 

Edited August 5, 2021 by SisterWells