When we read about the consequences of David’s affair with Bathsheba…
We see a man frantically trying to cover up his sin so he wouldn’t look bad in front of others.
However, there’s another devastating aspect to his sin that we can’t see, but it was just as deadly.
I’m talking about the guilt that tormented his soul long after the deed had been done.
David wrote about this guilt in Psalm 32.
Psalms 32 and 51 are directly connected to the David and Bathsheba story.
David composed these poems during the events we read about in 2nd Samuel.
In Psalm 32 he wrote:
“How blessed are those whose offense is forgiven,
those whose sin is covered!
How blessed those to whom Adonai imputes no guilt,
in whose spirit is no deceit!
When I kept silent, my bones wasted away
because of my groaning all day long;
day and night your hand was heavy on me;
the sap in me dried up as in a summer drought.”
-Psalms 32:1-4
Pretty heart-wrenching, isn’t it?
We can see that way before David openly confessed his sin, he was already dying inside.
There’s a huge takeaway here.
It’s that if you belong to the Lord and sin…
And then try to hide or ignore it…
God won’t allow you to have peace in your soul.
David didn’t need Nathan to confront him in order to recognize his soul was in torment…
Rather, Nathan’s message was simply the catalyst that got David to take the first step to repentance.
Another important lesson to be gleaned is that this disaster didn’t start with David seeing Bathsheba bathing.
He fell into temptation because he had way too much time on his hands.
And why did he have way to much time on his hands?
Because instead of leading his men out to war as he should’ve, he was kicking back in Jerusalem munching on the ancient Israeli equivalent of a bag of Cheetos.
So God decided to move away from David because he was behaving like an uncircumcised gentile king.
The point is there were a series of other events that took place way before the sin with Bathsheba came about.
We can learn a lot from that as well.
Usually our sin is the final manifestation of a domino chain effect that started way earlier.
So it’s best to the nip these things in the bud before they cause big disasters.
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