2 Samuel Series - Week 9: Psalm 51 Attitude

  If you’re any type of student of history, then the horrors of World War II are etched into your mind. Millions of civilians and soldiers killed. Whole countries decimated. Families torn apart, and we’re still feeling the effects today of decisions made then. One of the stories that came out of World War II was the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, where Jews resisted the Nazi’s transportation to gas chambers. In the Polish Ghetto, ruffly 56,000 Jewish people died. But as the Nazi came in, the people fought back. It need up being the single largest Jewish revolt in WW II, and led the Polish resistance to begin supporting the Jewish people. 

After the war in 1970, West German Chancellor, Willy Brandt, was in Warsaw to sign a border treaty with Poland. He visited the monument to the Ghetto Uprising, and laid a wreath. All of a sudden, he fell to his knees in silence. Afterwards he was asked why he did it and he said, “At the abyss of German history and under the weight of millions of murdered people, I did what humans do when speech fails them.” Brandt’s gesture was a sign of repentance for all that the German people had done to the world. That same year he was named Time’s Person of the Year, and a year later he would receive the Nobel Peace Prize for his work in reconciling West Germany with it’s eastern neighbors.

And it’s this idea of the act of reconciliation that brings us back to our summer series, where we’ll be looking at David’s response to the prophet Nathan over the sin of Bathsheba and Uriah. Today, we’ll be focusing on Psalm 51. As we open up to Psalm 51, let’s look back at what got us here. 

As we began section two of the Book of Second Samuel, we talked about how David was on top of the world. Everything God had promised, everything that we, as the reader, had been waiting for, finally happened. David was king, the people were at peace, and the surrounding nations had been subjugated. 

However, it was at this moment that David let his guard completely down. This gave his sin an opportunity to begin the destruction of all that had been hard fought to achieve. David allowed his lustful desire for Bathsheba to lead to adultery, and then to murder. This sin, unbeknownst to David at the time, would eventually lead to major strife in his home, the death of his sons, the defilement of his daughter, and the destruction of his nation. As we walked away from that week, we talked about how, God is calling us away from all sin, with extreme language, so that we understand that sin is not something to play with.

Then, even though David tried to conceal his sin, God could see the whole thing. He sent the prophet Nathan to confront David over his sin. The prophet does this by telling David a parable, where the twist was, it was an allegory of David’s own insatiable thirst. David condemned himself by acknowledging that the rich man in the story must give recompense for his sins. It was then, that God revealed the judgment that was upon David, and the king finally realized what his sin was about to unleash. From this, we walked away with the understanding that, God will not allow sin in our lives to go unpunished, and will expose sin publicly if necessary. Instead, God calls us to live lives of confession, repentance, and cleansing.

But, to David’s credit, when he was called out by Nathan as the man who had sinned, David’s response was, “I have sinned against the Lord. ( 2 Sam. 15:13)” And from this initial confession, David writes Psalm 51. Let’s read it now. 

1 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.

v.1-5 - As I read through David’s confession, repentance and seeking cleanings, I see three parts to it. In the first five verses, David is no longer hiding his sin. He fully accepts it. He opens by throwing himself upon the mercy of God. He’s crying out for the mercy and steadfast love of God to be poured out on him. David recognizes that only God can wash him from sin. That he couldn’t hide that sin. And here, in verse 3 we learn that even though David had tried to cover his sin up, even though he had tried to try to no longer remember it and trick himself into acknowledging it, he had been struggling with it. He tells God that, “… my sin is ever before me.” He couldn’t outrun it or hide it. The sin was there, it never went away, because the only person who can get rid of sin, is God. So all David’s hiding ended up failing.

Then David says something interesting, “Against you, you only, have I sinned …(v.4)” and we should shout at David, “No you sinned against yourself, your wives, your children, your people, against Bathsheba, Uriah, and the other soldiers.” David has sinned against so many people. But we must understand that David isn’t dodging here, he’s going before the judge who is the Convictor of sin. And this word that David uses, is the Hebrew word, bad (bahd) which combines both the physical sense of being separated from something, and a theological idea of being set apart. In the context of Psalm 51, David’s sin sits before God for judgement. God is the only one who judges clearly and without prejudice. So before God David’s sits in sin. It is only the God of Israel who can truly judge what the king of Israel has done. And because of this, God’s judgment is justified and blameless.

It is in verse 5 that David then says something interesting, “Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.” This has two interpretations: First, that David was born in an adulterous or an abusive sexual manner; this could be why David is left out of Jesse’s original presentation of his sons to Samuel, or why he is relegated to the fields. The second is that all people are sinners, therefore David is conceived in a world of sin, as we all are. However, the first interpretation fails because David is connected directly to Ruth through Jesse, and there is no other indication that he was adopted. So the second interpretation is the more likely one. Just like all of us, David’s life has been surrounded by sin from his conception to the day he embrace sin’s allure. 

v.6-15 - It’s then, after his confession of sin in verses 1-5, that David turns his attention on God for cleansing. This is combined with David’s plea that his desires change as well. David tells God, that he knows the Lord delights in truth, so he wants that truth in his heart. To bring this truth in, he must be cleansed of falsities. So David calls on God to “Purge me with hyssop … (v.7),” which is a small plant that was used in cleansing rituals.

David realizes that in his present state, he is joyless and he is broken. He desires God to turn his face from David’s sin to blot them out so that a new heart and a right spirit might be placed in him. David doesn’t want to be cast away or have the Holy Spirit removed from him like it was removed from Saul. David seeks to have a restored and willing spirit within himself.

And when God does these things, David will teach others about the restoration of God’s mercy and he will sing about it to the world.

v.16-19 - David ends his Psalm with a focus on what God desires of his people. Not simply sacrifices of animals, but hearts that desire him. David recognizes that God isn’t after a bunch of animals going to the slaughter, but rather that his people would seek him with their hearts. Because when the people of God desire him with their hearts, the acts of sacrifice are then given meaning. Our sacrifices should flow, not to earn salvation, but in response to salvation being bestowed upon us.

And this is where David ends his Psalm, on a triumphal focus on bringing a great sacrifice to God that is propelled to do so by a restored heart.

Samuel once told Saul, “Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams. (1 Sam 15:22)”

It was Jesus who said, “But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth. (John 4:23-24)”

Paul would later write, “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. (Rom. 12:1-2)”

Our heart condition is the first thing God is interested in. Sacrifices are only acceptable when the heart of a person worships the Lord in spirit and truth. When are hearts are being cleansed by his work, then the sacrifices of our lives become acceptable to him. Yet, while we are in rebellion, we cannot please God.

From Psalm 51, we can see what confession, repentance and seeking cleansing looks like. Confession is not holding back our sin, but recognizing that God is right in judging it. Repentance is crying out to God, not just saying sorry, but desiring a change in that area of sin. Seeking cleansing follows on the heals of repentance, because we are to no longer live in the state we were before. And so we seek God to cleanse us of all sin, not just the ones that get us into trouble.

The Lord is calling us to have a Psalm 51 attitude. That when sin is revealed in our lives, we do not hide, but lay it all out. We are to be people who accept God’s judgment of our sin, and we must be willing to have it cleansed from us. When we walk in this attitude, sin is put in its place. The believer lives in a place where they recognize sin only has the power we let it have. Because Jesus has full authority over us, sin has no power in the believer’s life. 

My challenge then for you is to recite, not merely read, Psalm 51 this week. If in the midst of that recitation, God brings to mind sin that has not been confessed, then stop and confess that sin before moving on. Once it has been confessed, repented and cleansing sought, resume the recitation until all nineteen verses are said daily. 

God is calling us to be confessors, repentant and seekers of cleansing. So let us take the example of David when it is the right example, and call out to God with a Psalm 51 attitude. Amen.

2 Samuel Series - Week 8: Renewal, Not Displeasure

  We divide our time working with the youth in Quartzsite into different sets. The first set were those teens who were under the youth pastor before we got here. When we first got here, the youth group was in disarray. The youth pastor had been fired for several reasons, and the intern when we arrived was about to head out. I was told by the teens that they had teen leaders that would help out with the youth group. Developing young leaders is something I believe is important and so, if they wanted to stay on as leaders, I had them fill out an application. Then Marika and I interviewed them and told them what we expected of them. There were six leaders in that first batch, three girls, and three guys.

However, my style of leadership was very different than the previous youth pastor’s. His leadership was taking the teens out to meals and treating them differently from the other teens. My form was to make them work. They had to clean up after the teens, scrub throw up off the ground. Basically do all the nasty parts of youth ministry. The reason for this was so that they would learned that if they wanted to be the leader, they had to serve. The people we elevate to leadership, should be the ones who are our greatest servants. 

I also held them to a higher standard than the rest of the teens. The average teen who came into the youth group, might smell of smoke, or cuss, or say inappropriate things. But the leaders had to be different. They should be seeking to be examples of Christ both at church and at school. They were to seek to live holy lives up and above their peers. And that’s were we ran into our first problem.

One day, after picking up teens for youth group, one of the girl leaders was sitting in the front row with one of her friends, gossiping and bashing one of the other girls in youth group. After we arrived at the church, I asked her to stay as the other teens were getting off. With Marika there, I confronted her about being a leader and how it wasn’t okay to gossip and bash other teens. That ended up being her last day in youth group. She never came back. She had agreed to the standard that we had for all of our teen leaders, but chose to break that standard. And when confronted, she decided to leave the youth group entirely. 

Being confronted with our sin isn’t something that’s fun, but our response shows where we stand with God. And it’s confrontation that brings us back to our sermon series in the book of Second Samuel, where we’ll be picking it back up in Chapter 12, starting in verse 1. As we pick up our text in Second Samuel 12:1, let’s look back on where we are so far.

Last week we began the second section of Second Samuel, the section we’re calling the Dark Days of David. These dark days began with David’s sin of lust. He stayed behind, while his troops went out to battle. While there, his eyes lingered on a woman, Bathsheba, taking a bath. From there, he slept with her, she became pregnant, and David tried to cover it up by having her husband come home from war to sleep with her. But her husband, Uriah, was seeking to live righteously before the God of Israel, and he chose not to lie with his wife. Because David couldn’t cover his sin this way, he conspired with a wicked man, Joab, and sent Uriah to the frontlines of battle to be killed. After this, David took the women to be his wife. This whole situation displeased God, and today, we’re going to see the confrontation of that displeasure. 

We walked away from last week with the understanding that, God is calling us away from all sin, with extreme language, so that we understand that sin is not something to play with.

With this fresh in our minds, we can turn to Second Samuel 12, starting in verse 1.

12 And the Lord sent Nathan to David. He came to him and said to him, “There were two men in a certain city, the one rich and the other poor. 2 The rich man had very many flocks and herds, 3 but the poor man had nothing but one little ewe lamb, which he had bought. And he brought it up, and it grew up with him and with his children. It used to eat of his morsel and drink from his cup and lie in his arms, and it was like a daughter to him. 4 Now there came a traveler to the rich man, and he was unwilling to take one of his own flock or herd to prepare for the guest who had come to him, but he took the poor man's lamb and prepared it for the man who had come to him.” 5 Then David's anger was greatly kindled against the man, and he said to Nathan, “As the Lord lives, the man who has done this deserves to die, 6 and he shall restore the lamb fourfold, because he did this thing, and because he had no pity.”

7 Nathan said to David, “You are the man! Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you out of the hand of Saul. 8 And I gave you your master's house and your master's wives into your arms and gave you the house of Israel and of Judah. And if this were too little, I would add to you as much more. 9 Why have you despised the word of the Lord, to do what is evil in his sight? You have struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and have taken his wife to be your wife and have killed him with the sword of the Ammonites. 10 Now therefore the sword shall never depart from your house, because you have despised me and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife.’ 

11 Thus says the Lord, ‘Behold, I will raise up evil against you out of your own house. And I will take your wives before your eyes and give them to your neighbor, and he shall lie with your wives in the sight of this sun. 12 For you did it secretly, but I will do this thing before all Israel and before the sun.’” 13 David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.” And Nathan said to David, “The Lord also has put away your sin; you shall not die. 14 Nevertheless, because by this deed you have utterly scorned the Lord, the child who is born to you shall die.” 15 Then Nathan went to his house.

Today, we’re only zeroing in on the confrontation between David and Nathan. This is the same Nathan that earlier we saw give leeway to David in building the temple, just to come back and reveal that God hadn’t intended that task for David. 

From these fourteen and a half verses, I’ve divided them into four parts. This first part is the parable. Nathan describes a situation where an rich man has everything, and a poor man has very little. The ewe lamb is a baby sheep. The closeness of the sheep to its poor master is revealed in the fact that it eats from his hand and lays in his arms. The terminology here reveals that the lamb sleeps upon the master. It’s even described as being, “… like a daughter to him. (v.3)”

For us, the parable is obvious, because we know the behind the scenes situation. David is the rich man with the many lambs, or wives, while the poor man is Uriah, with his one wife. We could sit here and wonder, how David doesn’t know Nathan is talking about him? But this is what sin does to us. When we have justified our unrighteous actions to ourselves, and then are confronted with the obvious problem we have created, it goes right over our head. We’ve convinced ourselves that we’re not in the wrong, so we cannot not see, even the obvious.

This leads into the second part, David rages against the rich man. As David listens, detached from the issue because of the justification of his own sin, David sees the sin of another and is rightly mad. David is right, the rich man has committed sin. He has all that he needs, but there’s still a desire for more. This is what sin does. It always wants a little more. David’s is right that the poor man should be give four times what he lost as compensation, which is a command given by God in Exodus 22:1, where it states, “If a man steals an ox or a sheep, and kills it or sells it, he shall repay five oxen for an ox, and four sheep for a sheep.”

But in part 3, the parable comes home when Nathan states, “You are the man! (v.7)” Nathan brings the parable home to David. The rich man is not some guy out there, whom David can judge from his palace, but the king himself. David can see clearly that the rich man has sinned, yet he cannot see that he himself has sinned. On top of this, David knows what the punishment for such an act is, yet cannot see the need for his own punishment. David has cut himself off from the consequences of his own sin, justifying it in his own mind, though he knows the word of God. This is why Nathan tells him, “Why have you despised the word of the Lord, to do what is evil in his sight? (v.9)”

David knows aspects of God’s word, but he glosses over the parts that would pertain to him, because he wants to be justified in what he has done wrong. 

But God won’t let David’s sin slide, and in part four of the interaction, Nathan reveals God’s judgment on David. Though, God will not punish David directly with death, David’s kingdom will be affected. The child that was born from this sinful union will die. The house that was to be established will face turmoil from within. David will sit and watch as his sin germinates and destroys the people around him. And the words of God, “For you did it secretly, but I will do this thing before all Israel and before the sun … (v.12)” reveal that what David tried to cover up, God will make known to everyone. And the judgment will be seen by the whole nation.

And though David comes to a realization that he sinned, it’s too late, judgment has been passed. David will see all the good that God has done, begin to crumble. It’s almost a worse punishment to not be directly punished. But rather to see the people around you be hurt because of your disobedience.

This is a simple lesson, God will not allow sin in our lives to go unpunished. People see other people doing wicked things, and will say things like, ‘Why doesn’t God do something about that?’ He is. On May 27th, 2026, Pastor Treva Edwards and his wife were indicted on sex trafficking and forced labor charges. Bishop Jerry Maynard Sr. and two of his children are being sued because they were committing pharmaceutical fraud. Back in November 2024, a youth leader was arrested for child pornography. There are thousands of cases that God has and is revealing, because God will bring evil to light. 

I’ve shared before, that at my first intern position as a youth leader, there was a lady music leader who would say almost very week, “Your sins will find you out.” After Marika and I moved from the area, we were told by one of the congregants that she ran off with the pastor. Your sins will find you out, because God won’t allow them to be hidden in the dark. Especially if you claim to be following him. 

So what are we to do? How can we avoid being publicly embarrassed by our sin. First, we need to take Jesus’ words in Matthew 7:1-5, “Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you. Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye.”

We begin by simply taking ourselves before the Lord daily to have him reveal the sin in our lives, confess it, repent of it, and seek him to cleans us from it. All the while being very slow to cast judgment on others until we have a thorough time before the Lord searching us. We cannot be like David who was quick to judge another’s action, when he himself was steeped in his own sin. Next week we’re going to see how David responds to this with his Psalm 51, but for us today, we are being called to a simple step: We go before the Lord with a desire to be shown where we fall short. We cannot hide it, because either we face it now with God, or God will have us face it with the whole world. God is calling us to be truthful with our sin, and willing to have it dealt with. 

So my challenge for you this week is simple, for one week, ever time you see the sin of another person, ask “Lord, am I doing that?” If you are, confess, repent, and seek the Holy Spirit to work in you to overcome that sin. Instead of judging other people because of their sin, let us seek the Lord to reveal what we have justified in ourselves that he is displeased with.

Let us be a people who seek the Lord’s renewal and don’t justified what displeases our Savior. Amen.

2 Samuel Series - Week 7: Sin Isn’t a Toy

  Years ago, before I came to Quartzsite, I had a dream. I’ve shared this dream before years ago. In the dream, I lived in a suburb, where the houses all matched each other. The lawns were a bright green, and they slanted up towards the homes. I had been cleaning out the garage and was now sweeping it. As I swept, I saw a rattlesnake. Instead of clearing it out, I began to poke and prod it. In that moment I understood what the dream meant. God taught me that even if everything looks good on the outside, and everything appears to be in its place, that doesn’t mean I’ve overcome sin in my life. In fact, God was teaching me that I had been playing with sin as if I could control it, but just like that snake could strike me at any moment, sin could take me down. 

After that dream, I began to take sin more seriously, because I understood it’s not something you play with.  

This concept that sins isn’t a toy, brings us back to our sermon series in Second Samuel 11, where we’re moving from the Best Days of David in section one of the book, to the Dark Days of David in section two. 

We can summarize the first section of Second Samuel with this, God raised David to be the undisputed king over Israel, yet there were seeds of sin that began flowering into full problems. We can see this rise through David’s coronation and God’s subjugation of other nations, and we can see this sin in David allowing wicked men to advise him, and his own lustful desires. It’s in the case of both of these seeds of sin that we now find David start his dark days.

So let’s read together, Chapter 11, starting in verse 1 of Second Samuel.

1 In the spring of the year, the time when kings go out to battle, David sent Joab, and his servants with him, and all Israel. And they ravaged the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah. But David remained at Jerusalem.

2 It happened, late one afternoon, when David arose from his couch and was walking on the roof of the king's house, that he saw from the roof a woman bathing; and the woman was very beautiful. 3 And David sent and inquired about the woman. And one said, “Is not this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?” 4 So David sent messengers and took her, and she came to him, and he lay with her. (Now she had been purifying herself from her uncleanness.) Then she returned to her house. 5 And the woman conceived, and she sent and told David, “I am pregnant.”

6 So David sent word to Joab, “Send me Uriah the Hittite.” And Joab sent Uriah to David. 7 When Uriah came to him, David asked how Joab was doing and how the people were doing and how the war was going. 8 Then David said to Uriah, “Go down to your house and wash your feet.” And Uriah went out of the king's house, and there followed him a present from the king. 9 But Uriah slept at the door of the king's house with all the servants of his lord, and did not go down to his house. 10 When they told David, “Uriah did not go down to his house,” David said to Uriah, “Have you not come from a journey? Why did you not go down to your house?” 11 Uriah said to David, “The ark and Israel and Judah dwell in booths, and my lord Joab and the servants of my lord are camping in the open field. Shall I then go to my house, to eat and to drink and to lie with my wife? As you live, and as your soul lives, I will not do this thing.” 12 Then David said to Uriah, “Remain here today also, and tomorrow I will send you back.” So Uriah remained in Jerusalem that day and the next. 13 And David invited him, and he ate in his presence and drank, so that he made him drunk. And in the evening he went out to lie on his couch with the servants of his lord, but he did not go down to his house.

14 In the morning David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it by the hand of Uriah. 15 In the letter he wrote, “Set Uriah in the forefront of the hardest fighting, and then draw back from him, that he may be struck down, and die.” 16 And as Joab was besieging the city, he assigned Uriah to the place where he knew there were valiant men. 17 And the men of the city came out and fought with Joab, and some of the servants of David among the people fell. Uriah the Hittite also died. 18 Then Joab sent and told David all the news about the fighting. 19 And he instructed the messenger, “When you have finished telling all the news about the fighting to the king, 20 then, if the king's anger rises, and if he says to you, ‘Why did you go so near the city to fight? Did you not know that they would shoot from the wall? 21 Who killed Abimelech the son of Jerubbesheth? Did not a woman cast an upper millstone on him from the wall, so that he died at Thebez? Why did you go so near the wall?’ then you shall say, ‘Your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead also.’”

22 So the messenger went and came and told David all that Joab had sent him to tell. 23 The messenger said to David, “The men gained an advantage over us and came out against us in the field, but we drove them back to the entrance of the gate. 24 Then the archers shot at your servants from the wall. Some of the king's servants are dead, and your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead also.” 25 David said to the messenger, “Thus shall you say to Joab, ‘Do not let this matter displease you, for the sword devours now one and now another. Strengthen your attack against the city and overthrow it.’ And encourage him.”

26 When the wife of Uriah heard that Uriah her husband was dead, she lamented over her husband. 27 And when the mourning was over, David sent and brought her to his house, and she became his wife and bore him a son. But the thing that David had done displeased the Lord.

v.1-5 - We can see that in the first five verses, things are starting to unravel for David, because of his lustful desire. Let’s break down the issues in the first five verses: First, David was at home while his army was out fighting. Notice it says,“… when kings go out …(v.1)” Right after the rainy season was a time when battles happened because there was good weather, but this time, the king isn’t going out with his army. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. David had been fighting since his late teens. He’s in his mid forties now. I can understand why he’s staying home. Perhaps he’s tired, but there’s an issue, so he sends his general to do it. Except, because he’s not leading his army, he’s left to his own devices. And as the old saying goes, “Idle hands are the devil’s playthings.” And as we’ve seen, that’s what happens.

The second issue is David’s lust. Men are visual creatures, we notice things, especially pretty things like women. At this time, David has at least seven wives that are explicitly named in Second Samuel (3:2-6,13), but we also know that he took on more wives and concubines while king in Jerusalem (5:13). So we know he has plenty of ladies around to satisfy his sexual desires. But that’s the problem with lust, if one is not satisfied with his wife, then there isn’t enough women to satisfy it. So David sees this woman on the roof bathing, and instead of doing the godly things an looking away, he stares and allows his lust to grow.

Which brings us to the third issue, David let’s his enthrallment to move beyond a personal sin, and seeks to have sex with this woman. There’s a moment here where David inquires about Bathsheba. Some scholars have noticed that the wording here isn’t that David is asking a servant, but rather himself, and acknowledges that this woman is the wife of one of his closest warriors. If this is the case, then it compounds the initial sin even more.

But we might be asking, why is she bathing on the roof. First, as the ESV translates it, she wasn’t necessarily on her roof, but rather from David’s roof he saw her. Second, if she was on her roof, it was evening, and the roof was probably the most secluded place for a person to bathe. The question is, why was she bathing? Well, the  most common interpretation is that Bathsheba was purifying her uncleanness, which meant that she had just had her period and would be unclean for seven days. This meant that she couldn’t lie with her husband (Lev. 15:19-24), which wouldn’t be an issue since he was away at war. I believe this is the correct translation because the same word for uncleanness here is the root for the word used in connection with a women’s menstruation in Leviticus 15. However, some have argued, that the bathing, since it is mentioned after the intercourse, means that she was cleansing herself of the act with David. If true this would shine a different light on her role in the situation. However, we’re told about her uncleanness to let us know two things: Bathsheba was not pregnant prior to David, and that David didn’t care that she might have been in a prime time to get pregnant. So I believe the traditional interpretation is the correct one. Bathsheba was bathing in response to her menstruation cycle, not from her lying with David.

The fourth issue is that of the willingness of Bathsheba. As far as we can see from the text, there doesn’t seem to be any push back on her part, making this seem like a mutual adultery. Some might say that since David was the king, he forced himself on her and she was a unwilling bystander, but there is no indication that is true. If it were, we know that the writer of Second Samuel has no qualms about writing about things like rape, as we’ll see in Chapter 13 with Tamar. So it seems, like Bathsheba might have been as willing as David was in this moment. That doesn’t mean that she might not have regretted it later, as she did mourn at her husband’s passing. But she also quickly went to become David’s wife soon after that mourning period.

Finally, the last issue is, that once Bathsheba tells David she’s pregnant, David is put in a situation where now there is a child and he has to find a way to “fix” the situation. We need to notice that abortion never enters his mind. Instead, he has another idea.

v.6-13 - To fix the situation, David has the idea to bring Bathsheba’s husband, Uriah, back from the battle and have him sleep with her. This way, it will seem like Uriah impregnated her. David encourages him to “… wash his feet …(v.8),” a Hebrew idiom that’s not a subtle way of telling Uriah to go sleep with his wife. David even gives a present to him, which is most likely something to make sure their union happens.

However, Uriah, whose name means “Yahweh is my Light,” even while drunk, did not want to be treated any different than the other men who had gone out to battle. The fact that he is a Hittite is important, because it shows that non-Israelite people could act in righteous ways and that Israelites, even the king, were not above falling to temptation. Uriah acted honorably, wanting to return to the battle, unlike David who stayed away from it.

v.14-27 - Since David’s first plan didn’t work, he chose to employ Joab to help him kill Uriah. Here’s the connection to Chapter 3, where I emphasized before that there would be a fallout for David keeping Joab around, even knowing that he was a wicked man. David knows that Joab is wicked because he took vengeance on Abner, even though David had made peace with the man. But, instead of punishing Joab then, David allowed him to continue in his role, because Joab was family, and a skilled general. However, in God’s economy, surrounding ourselves with wicked people, only allows wickedness a foothold in our lives. It is possible that if David would have dealt with Joab before, then he would have to face the problem without killing Uriah, because he wouldn’t have a willing partner in the crime. 

Instead, when David needs a wicked thing done, he has an ally in Joab, and Joab is willing to help. Uriah gets “killed” in battle, and no one is the wiser as to why. Only David and Joab know the truth.

The chapter ends with the words, “But the thing that David had done displeased the Lord. (v.27)” 

From this I find myself asking, ‘What particular thing? Was it the lust of the eyes? The act of adultery? The cover up? The murder? The conspiracy?’ And the answer is, all of it. It is multiple sins compounded into one horrible situation.

How easy it is for us, even to be in the best place in our walk with God, to have one sin cascade into a massive destruction of lives. But this is the reality of sin. Sin doesn’t just say one move away from God is good. It wants us as far as it can get us from the One who created us for righteousness. Sin craves for us to indulge our wicked desires so that it can take us into greater wickedness. Was David’s intention to kill Uriah? Probably not, because Uriah was one of David’s thirty greatest warriors (1 Chron. 11:41). But his lustful desires, something that God had already warned the kings of Israel about, led to the death of a man trying to live his life in righteousness under the God of Israel.

It makes more sense then why Jesus uses such harsh words about sin in places like Matthew 5:27-30, where he zeroes in on the sin of lust. Jesus say, “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell.”

Think about the imagery. It’s better to brutally maimed, with eyes gouged out, and hands cut off, than to allow sin to lead us into separation from God in hell. Now Jesus’ isn’t saying to go and gouge out eyes out, or cut off our hands. He’s invoking visceral imagery, that makes us think about the horrid nature of sin, and to take it seriously. David’s lust over Bathsheba, leads to the death of Uriah and other Israelite men not even connected to the situation, and we’ll later find out, the death of a child. It leads to a deeper association with Joab, giving a wicked man more dirt on the king. Sin isn’t something to wag our finger at, but a serpent among the bushes, a wolf among the sheep. We need to take it seriously, because its consequences are serious.

God is calling us away from all sin, even if it seems innocent. I’m sure it was innocent for David to let his eyes linger just a little longer on Bathsheba than he should. But that innocent sin, led to greater acts of sin. I’ve shared that one of the things I do to avoid allowing my eyes to rest on lustful things, is that when I’m in a store, and there’s a woman in an isle alone, and I’m alone, I go to another spot. A couple of months ago, we were shopping in Ross, and I sat down on one of the chairs in the back, which was at the back end of the woman’s clothing. A lady came up and was looking at some clothes and then turned her backside to me, so I just got up and left. I don’t know if she intentionally did that or not, but I didn’t want to sit around and find out.

Sin isn’t to play with, but when we fall to its temptation, we confess it and seek the Holy Spirit. But if we’re not willing to do the work of getting up and moving out of sin’s temptation, it will lead to greater acts of sin, and we’ll eventually find ourselves in a place where we’re doing things we never thought of. And it all started because we lingered too long in a place we should not have been.

My challenge for you this week is to think of those areas your most susceptible to sin. For most guys, it’s lust. For most women pride, envy, and control are said to be the areas women struggle the most in. This week I want you to take that area of your life, and every day bring it before the Lord, seeking him to make you aware of the situations that allow you indulge that sin. For guys it might be getting rid of that calendar in our shops, or no longer watching that movie we like. Ladies, it might be a person you listen to, or a person you don’t like. Seek the Lord to make you aware of the temptation, and give you to strength to get out of it.

God is calling all his people to view sin as he sees it, and a devastating disease that needs to be eradicated, not a toy to be played with. Let us be a people who turn from our sin, to God’s righteousness. Amen.