This is an article written by my wife Bessie for The Hammer Magazine.
When God rejected Saul as king over Israel, He said He would choose a man after His own heart (1 Samuel 13:14), and that man was David.
This has puzzled me, and perhaps it has puzzled you. Not only did David commit adultery with Bathsheba, but he attempted to cover it up by having Uriah the Hittite placed in battle where he could be killed. He compounded his sin of adultery by that of murder. We find ourselves saying, “Do you mean this is a man after God’s own heart?”
We must look at David at the time when God chose him to replace Saul. As a shepherd boy on leave from the sheep to carry provisions to his brothers in battle, David heard the challenge of Goliath. We read in 1 Samuel 17:26 that David’s response was, Who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God? He later repeated this question to Saul along with his record of killing a lion and a bear while protecting his sheep (1 Samuel 17:35-36).
David’s further confidence in the Lord is seen in verses 45-47. His implicit trust in God resulted in his victory over Goliath. We need only read the psalms of David to see this confidence, even in his most desperate moments, in the God whom he loved and trusted.
He also had a correct view of sin: Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight (verse 4). We are inclined to think horizontally of sin. Bathsheba had been sinned against, although she seemed willing enough. Certainly David sinned against Uriah when he took Bathsheba, and later when he had Uriah assigned to a place of danger to be killed by the enemy. But it was God who had said, Thou shalt not commit adultery, and Thou shalt not kill (murder).
David recognized that sin is transgression against God’s laws. Our sins are going to involve others, whether it be betrayed wives and husbands or children who are damaged emotionally by sinning parents. But the chief damage is done in our relationship to God. Thus we hear David saying, Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin (verse 2), and Hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquity (verse 9), and finally, Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me (verse 10).
This is why he was a man after God’s own heart. When Nathan confronted David, his reply was simply, I have sinned against the Lord (2 Samuel 12:13). Our problem is twofold. We think of sin only in terms of hurting ourselves or friends and relatives, or we only express concern when we are caught by people and we apologize to them.
Revival will only come when we recognize our sins are against God. He has, in His faithfulness, told us what sin is and how it can be forgiven.
When God rejected Saul as king over Israel, He said He would choose a man after His own heart (1 Samuel 13:14), and that man was David.
This has puzzled me, and perhaps it has puzzled you. Not only did David commit adultery with Bathsheba, but he attempted to cover it up by having Uriah the Hittite placed in battle where he could be killed. He compounded his sin of adultery by that of murder. We find ourselves saying, “Do you mean this is a man after God’s own heart?”
We must look at David at the time when God chose him to replace Saul. As a shepherd boy on leave from the sheep to carry provisions to his brothers in battle, David heard the challenge of Goliath. We read in 1 Samuel 17:26 that David’s response was, Who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God? He later repeated this question to Saul along with his record of killing a lion and a bear while protecting his sheep (1 Samuel 17:35-36).
David’s further confidence in the Lord is seen in verses 45-47. His implicit trust in God resulted in his victory over Goliath. We need only read the psalms of David to see this confidence, even in his most desperate moments, in the God whom he loved and trusted.
He also had a correct view of sin: Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight (verse 4). We are inclined to think horizontally of sin. Bathsheba had been sinned against, although she seemed willing enough. Certainly David sinned against Uriah when he took Bathsheba, and later when he had Uriah assigned to a place of danger to be killed by the enemy. But it was God who had said, Thou shalt not commit adultery, and Thou shalt not kill (murder).
David recognized that sin is transgression against God’s laws. Our sins are going to involve others, whether it be betrayed wives and husbands or children who are damaged emotionally by sinning parents. But the chief damage is done in our relationship to God. Thus we hear David saying, Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin (verse 2), and Hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquity (verse 9), and finally, Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me (verse 10).
This is why he was a man after God’s own heart. When Nathan confronted David, his reply was simply, I have sinned against the Lord (2 Samuel 12:13). Our problem is twofold. We think of sin only in terms of hurting ourselves or friends and relatives, or we only express concern when we are caught by people and we apologize to them.
Revival will only come when we recognize our sins are against God. He has, in His faithfulness, told us what sin is and how it can be forgiven.
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