Week 10

Psalm: Psalm 51:1-12
Old Testament : 2 Samuel 11:26-12:13a
Gospel : John 6:24-35
Epistle : Ephesians 4:1-16

This week we continue the story of David, but I think we will finally be done with his story next week.  Last week, we stopped the story of David just after he had murdered Urriah to cover up his affair with Bathsheba.  After Bathsheba’s time of mourning is finished David marries her and everything seems to be fine and covered up.  But we finish chapter 11 with these words, “The thing David had done displeased the Lord.”  I don’t think there is a more foreboding sentence in the whole Bible.  The Lord knows what David did and sends Nathan to confront him.

Nathan is really crafty; he tells David a parable of a poor farmer who just has one little ewe who he cherishes more than anything.  But, a rich man comes and takes his ewe to feed a traveler because he didn’t want to take one of his own from his flock.  Of course, the story is filled with irony and injustice.  Custom demands that the rich man feeds and shelters the traveler, but the manner in which he does it does so much harm to his own neighbor and kinsmen.  David is outraged and even declares a death sentence on the rich man.  Nathan walked David right into a trap because David essentially declared a death sentence on himself when Nathan declares that “You are the man!”  David deserves death for his sin against Urriah.  David, the King of Israel, who had more wives than anyone took the wife of a poor foreigner and then even kills him to cover it up.  He’s worse even than the rich man in the parable.

David knew what he did.  It is for this reason that we also can’t gloss over his sin.  Psalm 51 is the prayer of David after this event.  He fully confesses his sin.  It is against God he has sinned even more than Urriah.  He is God’s anointed and vassal and yet he failed in so many ways. Yet, in the midst of his sin and after he confesses, he cries out to the Lord for mercy.  You can almost hear the sadness in his voice in this Psalm.  I think it is one of the rawest Psalms there is.  David recognizes that his only hope is in the Lord.  He says,

Create in me a pure heart, O God,
    and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
Do not cast me from your presence
    or take your Holy Spirit from me.
 Restore to me the joy of your salvation
    and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.

If David is going to be spared, the only way he is going to continue as king or as the Lord’s servant is if his heart is renewed.  The Lord is moved to mercy and declares that David’s life will be spared and the Lord will remain true to his covenant with David.  As we learned a few weeks back, David’s line will be kings forever.  But David’s sin had consequence, the first being that Bathsheba’s and his son will die. (Solomon, their next son, becomes king.)  More catastrophic to the kingdom as a whole, this event would plague David’s household with civil war and strife.  His son Absalom would try and usurp David’s rule, steal David’s wife, and try to steal the throne.  The Lord declares that “the sword will never depart from David’s house.”

We could spend our whole time here no doubt. Sin has consequences and the Lord knows our sins even if no one else ever does.  Finally, we also serve a God of grace who is willing to respond to a repentant heart.

I want to quickly move on to Paul’s words in Ephesians.  We have to read chapter four in light of chapter three.  Remember, whenever you see the word “therefore,” we have to ask what it’s “there for.” Why is Paul saying this right here?  We can’t understand what’s coming up without considering what just came before.  So, in light of the chapter 3 discussion on the indescribable love of God and these words, “Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us,” Paul exhorts us “to live a life worthy of the calling [we] have received.”  We are to humble and gentle, bearing with each other’s weaknesses, and living in unity and peace. I think Christian history has been a testament to how that hasn’t happened much on a grand scale.  But, I think we can say two things. First, in our personal and individual lives, we need to live by these words.  Again, we do that by the power of Christ in us. Second, as a corporate body, be that Nazarene or Lutheran or Catholic, we take these words to heart.  We strive for unity and peace in how we interact as the body of Christ.  We are humble and bear with each other’s weaknesses in dialogue.  It also means we come together and work alongside each other in the work of the Kingdom.  God’s love will eventually ultimately triumph.  I don’t know what the new Kingdom will look like, but something tells me that we will be a lot more unified after the Lord’s return.  I don’t think our denominational affiliations will define us for all eternity, thanks be to God!

Well, I think this is long enough. I’ve really enjoyed reading the story of David.  What a story of the highest heights and some of the lowest valleys. This week we can also take away that the love of Christ must move us to unity, both individually and corporately.  Let us love as Christ has loved.

Grace and Peace.