We are looking at various of the prayers recorded in Scripture, and at the moment looking at some of the prayers of David. In this study we shall be looking at Psalm 51, David's prayer for forgiveness after his adultery with Bathsheba. In this study we shall be looking at psalm 51, David's prayer for forgiveness after his adultery with Bathsheba.
The terrible story of David's affair with Bathsheba and its consequences is recorded in 2 Samuel 11:1-12:25.
In these chapters we meet a very different David from the one we considered in our last study. David had now become king over Israel. He no longer was to be found in a cave, he was now in a palace. He was no longer helpless, he was powerful. In this sad story we see David's abuse of his power.
The armies of Israel had gone off to war against the Ammonites, but David had remained behind in his palace. He no longer led his people for he considered himself too precious for that. One evening, while in his idleness he walked on the roof of his palace, he saw a woman bathing. This was Bathsheba and she was beautiful. David wanted her for himself.
Note two lessons for ourselves right here. Firstly, if David had been leading his army then this tragic incident would not have occurred. John White comments on this incident, "If we were doing what we should be when we should be, we shall be less exposed to temptation. Obedience to God carries protection with it. David had lost that protection and he succumbed to temptation." We know it to be true, don't we?
Secondly, note David's failure to deal with temptation when it first presented itself to him. Instead of turning away quickly and immediately seeking for God to help him have mind and heart set on what is good and pure, he looks at her and begins to want her and becomes preoccupied with how he can have her for himself. Before long he becomes trapped in a web of sordid sin and deceit. Read James 1:14,15. Is not this a precise description of what was happening with David? We cannot afford to play with temptation and with sin. To do so is to fail to realise the awful power of sin and the terrifying grip it can have upon a life. We need to learn from this awful incident the weakness and deceitfulness of our own hearts and the need for us to deal with temptation quickly, to flee from the first suggestions of sin and to take refuge in Christ.
David wanted Bathsheba. Her husband, Uriah, was away at war. In his absence David summoned Bathsheba to the palace. He committed adultery with her and she became pregnant. But this is only the beginning of the sad story. David wanted to hide his sin. He summoned Uriah back to Jerusalem in the hope that Uriah would sleep with his wife so that when the child was born he would think it was his own. But David's plan did not work. Uriah refused to enjoy a life at home with his wife while his brethren were at war. So at last David sends Uriah back to the battle; sending him back with a letter for Joab, the commander of the army saying that Uriah is to be put in the front line of battle. In effect, David was saying that he wanted Uriah killed. And so it happened that Uriah died and David took Bathsheba into his palace to comfort her over the death of her husband. David took her to be his wife.
I suppose that David had hoped that this would be the end of the matter. He thought that only he and Joab knew of the reasons for Uriah's death. Perhaps he hoped that no-one else would realise that Bathsheba's child was the result of his adultery with her before Uriah's death. But David had reckoned without God. Nothing is hidden from God's sight and therefore it is quite impossible for David to get away with his sin.
The prophet Nathan is sent to David and tells him a story of a rich man who steals the beloved lamb of his poor neighbour. We have it recorded for us in 1 Samuel 12:1-4. Note David's reaction. He is angry with the person who did such a terrible thing. Then Nathan says, "You are the man".
Now I want to apply this to ourselves before we go on. Are we not just like David. We may not have done anything nearly as terrible as he did, but we all know all manner of things that we have done or thought which are wrong. There are secret sins which perhaps only one or two people know about, or which no-one knows about but ourselves. Suppose someone who knew of such a thing should come and tell us a tale of what 'someone' had done, altering the details slightly, how would we react? I suspect that we would react like David with genuine anger that someone who claimed to be a Christian should do such a thing. We are quick to judge others, but we are slow to examine our own hearts. We have double standards – we are hard on others and soft on ourselves. We need the Holy Spirit to convict us as he convicted David through the mouth of Nathan. I am the one, you are the one, who has sinned against God and who has fallen short of God's standards.
Note how David now reacts. He does not seek to excuse his sin nor to blame it on others, as do some commentators. David says, "I have sinned against the Lord" (1 Samuel 12:13).
How are we to deal with conviction of sin? When the Holy Spirit puts his finger on our sins and engraves upon our consciences the words, "you are the man", how are we going to live on with the weight of the feeling of our guilt? The world would tell us to stop being silly, that feelings of guilt are wrong and unhealthy. But if the Holy Spirit has put his finger of our sins we know that our guilt is real and we cannot help but feel it. No amount of human counsel or mind-altering drugs will solve the reality of our guilt. How can we be free of this burden? There is only one answer, and it is found in Psalm 51. We need to follow David's example and to turn to the Lord in prayer. Let us look together at Psalm 51 and see what David says to God in prayer and learn from it what we should do when burdened with a sense of sin.
look at verses 3 and 4. David makes no attempt to hide his sin or to excuse it. He knows that God knows all and therefore, in the presence of God, David is able to face up to what he is and to what he has done.
Are we like this in our private prayer? Before others we constantly wear masks by which we hide aspects of ourselves from others -- and this is not wrong. The trouble is that we get so used to wearing masks that we even deceive ourselves at times. But before God we can hide nothing. Prayer, private prayer, is the one place where we can look honestly at ourselves and acknowledge what we are like. This is the first step in being free of the burden of guilt, to admit it and admit it fully.
Secondly, David realises and acknowledges that it is against God and against God alone that he has sinned. David is not denying that he has wronged others – he had wronged Bathsheba and he had wronged Uriah. But David knows that his greatest offence has been an offence against God. He has offended God because God was the God of Bathsheba and Uriah. If I should harm a child of yours it would be not only the child but you also who would be attacked and hurt. Think of Nathan's picture of the man with his lamb. This loving relationship between Uriah and Bathsheba was a precious gift of God. It was part of God's creational purpose for this couple and so I do not think it too much to say that Uriah's love for Bathsheba pleased the heart of God. But David had destroyed all of this. He had acted the part of the snake to Bathsheba and in doing so had sinned against God. Moreover, when David saw, to it that Uriah was killed he was destroying one who had been made in the image of God. David was destroying the workmanship and glory of God.
Do we realise that when we wrong a fellow Christian we are sinning against God? When we say or do things which cause another to stumble we are doing Satan's work? Think of Jesus' words to the sheep and the goats in Matthew 25. Our wrong dealings with others are cause for us not only to say sorry to them, but are cause for our confession before God.
Moreover, David realised that his sin was especially awful because he was a child of God. He acknowledges in verse 6 something of what God requires of his people. No doubt David thought of all that the Lord had done for him: of how he had been taken from being a shepherd and had been made king over Israel. God had seen in him 'a man after his own heart'. Now he looks at what he has done and is deeply ashamed for he has failed God.
There is a sense in which sin is doubly offensive in the child of God. God has redeemed us and begun, by his Spirit, to make us like Christ. He desires to see in us something of Christ, "truth in the inner parts." Sin in the heart is a terrible offence against him, a rebellion not only against the law of God but also against the grace of God. Even when our wrong acts or thoughts have wronged no-one else they are sins against God.
Lastly, we should note that David not only confesses his sin, he also acknowledges what lies at the root of his sin, a sinful nature. In verse 5 he says, "Surely I have been a sinner from birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me." David is acknowledging that it is not just that he does wrong things from time to time, sin has an altogether deeper hold on him than that. He recognises that he was born with a tendency to sin, a tendency to live to please himself rather than God. His sinful acts are simply expressions of a sinful heart.
This also is true of ourselves. We need to acknowledge that we also possess sinful hearts which have expressed themselves in a tendency to sin from the time that we were born up until now. We cannot plead this as an excuse for our acts of sin, rather, this only serves to remind us of the hold which sin has on our lives. It is not just that we sin from time to time, it is that we are sinful at heart. It is not just that we have fallen into sin, we were born with an inbuilt heart of rebellion.
If we would be free of the guilt of sin we must first confess our sin in prayer to God; confessing our sin in all its depth and ugliness and without any attempt to hide or excuse it.
In the opening verse of this psalm David prays, "Have mercy on me, 0 God, according to your unfailing love; according to your 'great compassion blot out my transgressions."
Here we have a lovely picture of what forgiveness means: it is a blotting out of transgressions. The picture is that of something being erased from a book, blotted out. It is as if God has a book in which is a record of all that we have done. There is the record of what David has done, his sin with Bathsheba and Uriah. David pleads that God may blot it out so that he will no longer be able to find any trace of these wrong acts when he looks at the account of David's life. Exactly the same thought is found in verse nine. This is the meaning of forgiveness, the complete erasure of a sin so that it is just as if it had never been.
But why should God forgive? David knows of only one plea with God, he asks that God would have mercy upon him and forgive him because he is a God of love and of unfailing compassion.
What plea do we have with God? Have we any argument that we can use with God in prayer as to why he should forgive us? Our argument must be the same as that of David. We can only plead that God would look upon us in love and in mercy and forgive us. God has demonstrated his love and mercy in the Lord Jesus Christ. So great was his love for us that he sent his Son into the world and to the cross on our behalf. When Jesus died there on the cross he was dying in the place of sinners, bearing the judgment that our sins deserved. The mercy of God is freely extended to all who come to him through Christ. It is as come to trust in Christ and in his saving work on the cross that our sins are blotted out (see Colossians 2:13-15). It is there at the cross that God has 'cancelled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us.' This is our plea with God. We can plead with God with a greater boldness even than David, pleading that for Christ's sake he would blot out our transgressions.
If we would be free from the burden of guilt we need to come to God through Christ and, with a broken but believing heart, plead with him for forgiveness.
But I want you to note that David prays for more than forgiveness, he wants also to be made clean. In verse 2 he says, "wash away my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin." Sin not only makes David a debtor, it also makes him dirty. He wants not only to have the debt erased, he wants also to be clean.
In verse 7 of this psalm David asks God to cleanse him with hyssop. In the book of Leviticus we read of hyssop being used in the cleansing of a leper (Lev.14:6ff). This is how David sees himself. But he knows that God is able to make him clean again, to wash him so that he will be whiter than snow.
Is not this how we feel when we are made conscious of our sin? There is a sense in which it is not enough for us to know that God's hand has been active in heaven and that our sin has been blotted out of his account book, we want also to know God's hand
at work in our hearts, washing away the dirt of our sin and making us feel clean again. This also we need to plead with God in prayer: that he would take away the stain and guilt of sin. This also is God's gift to us in the Lord Jesus Christ: see 1 John 1:7 and 9 and Hebrews 9:13 and 14.
In verse 10 of this psalm David prays, "Create in me a pure heart, 0 God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me." It is not enough for David for him to be forgiven and cleansed. What good is a blank sheet to him if he is only going to make it dirty again and again. He knows what God requires of him (verse 6) but he knows that he is incapable of living as he ought unless God should refashion his heart.
This ought to be our constant plea in our prayers. It is not enough for us to be forgiven but left to go on in the same old way. We want to be saved from our sins and made like Christ. We should plead daily for God to continue that work which he has begun within us by his Spirit, making us like Christ.
Look at verses 11 and 12 of this psalm. David knows that sin separates from God. He wants not only that God should forgive him and cleanse him and continue his work within him, but also that he would once again have that sweet sense of God's presence with him. He wants to know again the joy of living in God's presence and of knowing that he belongs to him. He wants once again to be useful in the Lord's service (verses 13-15)
The same is true of ourselves. When we fall into sin we grieve the Holy Spirit whom God has given us to make us like him. As a result we lose a sense of Christ's presence with us and of our Heavenly Father's pleasure in us: we lose our sense of joy and of peace. Furthermore, when we are troubled by the burden of sins unrepented of and uncleansed we are of little use in the service of the Lord. We know these things to be true, don't we?
Like David, we need to plead with the Lord in prayer that he would forgive our sins for Christ's sake; that he would cleanse our consciences from the guilt of sin; that he would continue that work of grace that he has begun within us, making us more like Christ; and that he would restore to us that precious sense of fellowship with our God through the Lord Jesus Christ, that we might rejoice again in him and that we might serve him gladly.