Psalm 51: Heading,1-2 Midweek Lent Grace Lutheran Church Realizing Our Need for Repentance For the choir director. A psalm by David. When Nathan the prophet came to him after he had gone to Bathsheba. Be gracious to me, God, according to your mercy. Erase my acts of rebellion according to the greatness of your compassion. Scrub me clean from my guilt. Purify me from my sin. It is likely that you are familiar with 2 Samuel chapters 11-12. You may or may not know the chapter reference, but if I say David and Bathsheba, you remember some of the story. Even if you only remember parts, you may have wondered, “How could King David do that?” David’s snowballing sinfulness started with laziness—he decided to lounge around the palace instead of going to battle, and it escalated quickly—a downhill roll that picked up lust…adultery…lies…schemes. How big did that snowball of wickedness finally get? So big that David felt he had no choice but to kill one of his most trusted and mightiest men: Uriah the Hittite. What happened was terrible. David stayed home from battle, and from his palace roof he saw Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah, bathing. He called her to the palace and slept with her, conceiving a child. In an attempt to cover up his sin, he brought Uriah home from battle so that Uriah would sleep with his wife—then it would seem that the child was his. When the honorable Uriah wouldn’t enjoy the comforts of home while the men were out at war, David ordered his commander, Joab, to have Uriah killed in battle by putting him in the front line and then having the army draw back from him. David had fallen—and fallen hard! Worst of all, he was impenitent. He thought he had gotten away with everything until God sent the prophet Nathan to confront him. Nathan carried it out masterfully. He told David a story of a poor man with a pet lamb that he loved very much and a rich neighbor who stole this lamb to feed his guests—even though he had flocks of his own to choose from. When David burned with anger at this rich man’s audacity, Nathan dropped the bomb: “You are the man” (2 Samuel 12:7). In sincere sorrow, David freely confessed that he had sinned against the Lord. In his grief, he fasted and spent a week lying on the ground. And he accepted the painful consequence of his sin: the son who resulted from David’s sin with Bathsheba would die. When the child died, David went and worshiped (2 Samuel 12:20). Repentance is powerful! By the work of the Spirit, the gracious God who forgives sin—even David’s horrible sin—called David to repentance and moved him to worship. The sinful nature in all of us hasn’t changed in the thousands of years since David lived. In this Lenten season, as we walk to the cross of Calvary and the empty tomb of Easter with great David’s greater son, Jesus, we are meditating on Psalm 51, written by repentant David. His inspired words lead us to Realize Our Need for Repentance.
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