Sermon Cloud

Psalms 51:1-19: "To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet went to him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba. Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions. 2 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin! 3 For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. 4 Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment. 5 Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me. 6 Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being, and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart. 7 Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. 8 Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones that you have broken rejoice. 9 Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities. 10 Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. 11 Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me. 12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit. 13 Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will return to you. 14 Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, O God of my salvation, and my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness. 15 O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise. 16 For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it; you will not be pleased with a burnt offering. 17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. 18 Do good to Zion in your good pleasure; build up the walls of Jerusalem; 19 then will you delight in right sacrifices, in burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings; then bulls will be offered on your altar."

STUDY

The Rise and Fall of David

When David was just a young shepherd, he was visited by Samuel, the last of the Judges of Israel. Samuel was God's king-maker who was given the task of anointing the kings that God had chosen. Saul, the current king, had so dishonored the Lord and abused his power that Samuel was sent to find another king for Israel so that she might be a light to the nations.

David was found by Samuel and anointed as king even before Saul's reign was over. So, he came to the service of the king and served him faithfully. From all the time David spent watching over his family's sheep in the open field, he was able to become a very skilled musician. David even provided comfort for Saul when he was in mental turmoil. Yet this older king would later become so paranoid and manic that he would turn on young David, eventually trying to kill him out of jealousy.

David was forced to flee to the wilderness to hide from Saul and Saul's army. He was forced to live off the land and hide in caves as a refuge even though he had been chosen as God's anointed king to eventually take the throne. He had constant despair, fear and anxiety as he was hunted like an animal by the mad king Saul.

David's love for God and David's character, not his politics, caused many men to follow him in exile. These men were incredibly loyal to David and the Bible calls them David's "mighty men." These37 mighty warriors had the strongest devotion and respect for David.

After David finally took the throne, he was forced at one point to fell again from an invading enemy and he took his mighty men with him then. These were men to whom David owed his life. They would do anything for their king and friend. We're told that three of them fought through enemy lines just to bring David a glass of water from the well of Bethlehem as his heart desired. These men were brave, honest, filled with integrity and supremely committed to David. Of these great men, one was named Uriah the Hittite.

Many years later, David sent his men off to war and stayed behind. One late afternoon, David went out on his roof and was walking around when he looked down into someone's courtyard and saw a beautiful woman bathing. He felt he had to have this woman and sent his men for her. He discovered this woman was Bathsheba, the wife of his faithful friend and servant, Uriah the Hittite. But David didn't care who her husband was, he wanted her and took her to bed with him and began an affair with her.

One day, Bathsheba sent word to David the king and told him that she was pregnant. David suddenly realized the trouble he was in if the word got out that she was pregnant because her husband had been way for months. He knew that the approval of his men and of his people would be diminished if everyone found out. So David thought about what he could do to cover up that she was pregnant with his child.

So he sent for Uriah under the pretense of asking him how the war was going. Uriah came and gave the king the news of the war. David then told Uriah to "go down to your house and wash your feet" (2 Sam. 11:8), which was a way of telling him to go home and relax. He sent him home with a great feast to enjoy with his wife.

But Uriah, being an honorable man, could not go home and instead slept on the doorstep of his king's palace. When David woke in the morning he learned that Uriah did not go home and sent for him again. Uriah told David that he could not go to the comfort of his home as long as his friends and brothers were at war. He told David "as you live, as your soul lives, I will not do this thing."

So David decided to bring Uriah back in for dinner and gave him an incredible feast and got him drunk. But in the morning David learned that even though Uriah was drunk, he did not go home to his wife. He would not break his oath. He was a man of deep conviction and principle.

David, realizing that this man was too honorable to fall into his trap, instead sent a letter in the hands of Uriah to his commander Joab. The letter read "Set Uriah on the front lines and when the battle becomes the most heated, pull the troops back so that he will be killed."

A few days later, David received a message informing him of how the war was going, and the message also said "Your servant, Uriah the Hittite, is dead."

David, having heard the news, did nothing. No weeping, no remorse, nothing. Just relief that he wasn't caught. Instead, he sent a message back to Joab telling him in the coldest of tones, "Don't trouble yourself over this, the sword devours now one and now another..." What a hard heart.

And when Bathsheba was finished mourning the loss of her husband, he took her to be his wife and she had a son. We see no repentance or even remorse from David. He wasn't pacing his palace with a twisted conscience. Instead he simply moved on with his life.

How could he do such a thing? He had great leadership qualities. His men were so devoted to him, which meant his character was impeccable. He was an artistic genius, a poet and musician. He loved and served God. It seems like this came out of left field.

But this was not out of left field. In the books of 1 and 2 Samuel, David is slowly deceived by his power and as his kingdom expands, he begins to take more and more liberties with his throne. David on the one hand suffers as all leaders do. Other the other hand, he is praised by men. These two combined create a kind of self-pity that assumes no one understands how hard it is and it causes the heart to start believing that you can have a little pleasure and comfort for all your troubles. It's self-pity, and it's deadly.

But the Lord was displeased with what David had done (2 Sam. 11:27). Yet, instead of killing David, like David wanted with the rich man who stole the lamb, God sent David a prophet.

One day, Nathan the prophet came to David to bring him bad news. David listened to his prophet as Nathan told him the news.

"There are two men in a certain city and one man was rich while the other was very poor. The rich man had herds, but the poor man only had a little lamb, which he had bought with what money he had. He treasured this little lamb and he raised it in his home with his children. This little lamb used to eat off of his plate and lie in his arms. This lamb was like a child to him. But the rich man had a visitor who came to stay with him, and instead of preparing one of his many flock, instead took the little lamb from this poor man and had it killed and prepared for his guest" (2 Sam. 12:1-4).

After hearing this news, David became outraged and said to Nathan, "As the Lord lives, this man deserves to die! He shall restore the lamb fourfold, because he did this thing and had no pity."

Nathan stood up and pointed his finger at David and said, "You are the man!"

Q-Why didn't Nathan just get to the point without telling the story? Because God didn't send Nathan to kill David, He sent him to convert his heart. Nathan had to go after David's heart or there could be to forgiveness and reconciliation.

In that moment, David's conscience was awakened and he became aware of the horror of his sin. Through the prophet, the mirror of God's holiness reflected the filth and disgust of what David had done. He was cast on a bed of mourning and self-discovery that led him to the dark depths of his soul. Guilt, shame, and hatred for his sin was weighing heavy upon him and there is nothing that could be said to him in words of comfort that could ever make him believe that he could be lifted out of this muck and mire.

Yet David did get out. He did see a way to be freed from his guilt and shame. Psalm 51 is the song of repentance and deliverance of David. It is his account of how he came out of his despair. If these truths freed David, they can free you and me. If David was able to not only have his guilt and shame dealt with, but joy restored so that he desired to tell everyone about God's mercy, we should pay close attention and learn from this fallen king who was restored.

This is what God desires for us. He desires that we too move from a hard heart, to deep conviction and grief over our sin, to the restoring joy of His mercy so that our lips would praise Him and tell others of how incredible His grace is.

What do we need to move our hearts from sins we don't see and are hard to, all way through restoration and rejoicing? We need at least three things. We need:

I. Friends, not Acquaintances

"Wounds from a friend can be trusted, but an enemy multiplies kisses" (Prov. 27:6).

What I love about the Bible is that it constantly calls out the men we lift up as our great heroes. We look at them as the heroes of our faith (Heb. 11). Yet time and time again we're shown how sinful and broken these heroes truly are.

This story alone gives incredible detail about David's fall into sin. It refuses to paint some flowery picture of what he did. Instead it brings us face-to-face with the horror of David's hard heart and actions.

Now, 3,000 years after David's life and death we're still talking about him. Does anyone here think that 3,000 years from now people will be talking about you? We look at David and we're reminded that even God's most beloved and most gifted leaders are prone to failure.

II. Repentance, not Remorse

As we can see by David's song, he came to learn the important distinction between repentance and remorse.

This story is about repentance. This word feels antiquated, outdated, and perhaps some feel like we should avoid it because repentance is unhealthy. It's about repentance- true repentance, the kind of repentance that leads to freedom.

The Bible shows us that even a great man like David the King is fundamentally flawed and capable of the deepest sin. Not only that, but each of us are sinners in need of a Savior. This is why we need repentance. It's the first step to understanding anything about God's grace or His healing power in our lives.

The idea of repentance is thought of so negatively because we've confused repentance with remorse. Even the thought of talking about this today may have made you immediately feel uncomfortable and squeamish. It might even make you feel guilty and downcast.

But what we're talking about this morning is the difference between the two.

In 2 Cor. 7:10 we're told that godly repentance leads to life and worldly repentance leads only to death. There are different kinds of repentance. One that leads to life without regret, the other than leads to death and destruction, filled with regret.

David goes right after true repentance. Look at verses two and three:

Verses 2-3: "Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin! 3 For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me."

These verses don't look much different than what many of us may feel when we blow it. We want to be cleansed, we know that our sin is before us and desire it to be removed. But David moves to the heart of repentance which looks very different than what many think of when they sin.

Verse 4: "Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment."

What about Uriah's family? What about his friends? What about his wife and her trauma when she heard of his death? David certainly sinned against them as well!

True, true, but David shows us the primary reason for sinning against Uriah and everyone else. Of course the right theological answer is that he sinned against them as well, but the right heart of repentance is that he's sinned against God only.