Guarding against Guilt

King David was one of the greatest men who ever lived. He was a man after God's own heart. He was a great king. He was the sweet singer of Israel. He was a warrior. He was a mighty man of God. But as you know, during a midlife crisis when he decided not to stay with his troops in war and came home, he was leisurely around the house at night, around the palace and he couldn't sleep. According to the scriptural report, he went out to walk on the palace roof and as he did, he looked off into the courtyard below. You know the story, He committed adultery with her and sent her back to her home, only to be aware of the fact that he had committed a terrible sin, which got even more complicated when later, the word got to him that this woman was with child and that the child was his. David knew that if he didn't do something to cover his sin, that it would be the end of his reign as a godly king. He tried everything to figure out a way out of it. And finally, he decided the best way to take care of it was to summon her husband home from the war. Her husband's name was Uriah, and he was serving at the battlefront for Israel. David had him brought back to spend time with his wife, but he wouldn’t, so David had him sent to the front lines, he was killed. Now, David has committed adultery, and he has committed murder. And when he comes back to his routine as the king, he has no peace in his heart. As we enter the story in today's lesson, one year has gone by. The child that was born to David and Bathsheba is about three months old, and David has been carrying the burden of this sin in his heart for all of these months.

There are two Psalms that tell us what it was like for David. One is Psalm 32 and the other is Psalm 51. Psalm 32 was written after David got all of this straightened out, but For Psalm 51 is how David dealt with the guilt of his life. So, we're gonna turn back and forth between these two Psalms. And the first thing that we note in studying what David did about his guilt was we have to understand a little bit about the agony he was going through.

I. The Agony of Guilt

So, let's talk about the agony of guilt. In Psalm 32, we are told in the aftermath of David's sin as he went through this intense emotional pain, Psalm 32 speaks of the anguish of his soul.

*Silence

First of all, in verse 3, David speaks of the silence, how he couldn't speak.

Psalm 32:3 (NKJV)

When I kept silent, my bones grew old Through my groaning all the day long.

David couldn't talk to the Lord about his sin, and therefore he couldn't talk to the Lord about anything. So, David no longer had fellowship with God. His heart became silent. His communication with God was cut off. His guilt began to take on physiological dimensions. He says that his bones grew old through his groaning all the day long. He literally became physically ill from carrying the guilt of what he had done.

*Sorrow

The next verse in Psalm 32, verse 4 tells us that he was filled with sorrow.

Psalm 32:4 (NKJV)

For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me; My vitality was turned into the drought of summer. Selah

His freshness of life was gone, it was replaced with bitterness and anguish. His conscience was filled with disgust, breaking his communion with God. His life was a mess.

*Secrecy

And then there was this whole matter of it being a secret sin, there was secrecy involved. One of the reasons that he suffered so much was there was no one with whom he could even convey his pain. He couldn't tell a soul. Nobody knew what David had done, except for Bathsheba and Joab. And while his sin with Bathsheba may not have been planned, David's sin against Uriah was certainly planned, and strategized, and premeditated. For over a year, David tried to live with his guilt, and he couldn't go anywhere with it. He couldn't tell anyone. He couldn't talk to God because he'd cut off his relationship with the Almighty. He had no friends to talk with. And you can just see the anguish of his guilt just reducing him to a mere shadow of the man that he had been as the great leader of Israel. Then the Lord decided to send someone to help David out of his problem, and we come to the accusation of guilt.

II. The Accusation of Guilt

This is recorded in 2 Sam. 12. Let me just refresh your memory about what happened. God went to Nathan, who was David's preacher, if we can use that vernacular. And he said, "Nathan, you have a parishioner who needs a visit. I want you to go and see King David, and I want you to confront him with what he has done". Obviously, the Lord God revealed to Nathan all that had happened in David's guilt and sin. And Nathan didn't know exactly how to go about confronting a king, so he decided to tell David a story.

2 Samuel 12: 1-7

2 Samuel 12:1–3 NKJV

Then the Lord sent Nathan to David. And he came to him, and said to him: “There were two men in one city, one rich and the other poor. The rich man had exceedingly many flocks and herds. But the poor man had nothing, except one little ewe lamb which he had bought and nourished; and it grew up together with him and with his children. It ate of his own food and drank from his own cup and lay in his bosom; and it was like a daughter to him.

2 Samuel 12:4–7 NKJV

And a traveler came to the rich man, who refused to take from his own flock and from his own herd to prepare one for the wayfaring man who had come to him; but he took the poor man’s lamb and prepared it for the man who had come to him.” So David’s anger was greatly aroused against the man, and he said to Nathan, “As the Lord lives, the man who has done this shall surely die! And he shall restore fourfold for the lamb, because he did this thing and because he had no pity.” Then Nathan said to David, “You are the man! Thus says the Lord God of Israel: ‘I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you from the hand of Saul.

while it was an awesome moment for David, a moment of great and intense agony, it was also a moment of great relief. At last, the thing that he had hidden for all of these months was known. At last it was out in the open where he could deal with it, and he began to deal with his admission of his guilt.

And that takes us to Psalm 51, This is what it says on the title of the Psalm 51, here's what it says, "A Psalm of David when Nathan the prophet went to him, after he had gone into Bathsheba". So, in other words, this psalm was written after this encounter that we just talked about when Nathan had confronted David with his sin, and David now is going to call out to God. And if you want to know how to deal with guilt in your life, if you have any guilt, or if you've ever dealt with guilt, if you know somebody that's got guilt, here's what David did, and this is the pattern that we follow when we try to face the giant of guilt in our life.

III. The Admission of Guilt

First of all, you need to understand that he accepts full responsibility for his sin.

A. He accepts full responsibility for his sin.

That's where it begins. He accepts full responsibility for his sin. He never tried to push it off on anyone else. He claimed full responsibility. open to Psalm 51, you will notice how often he uses the personal pronoun. I've put together these verses with the pronoun italicized on the screen.

Psalm 51:1–3 (NKJV)

Have mercy upon me, O God, According to Your lovingkindness; According to the multitude of Your tender mercies, Blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, And cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my transgressions, And my sin is always before me.

What was David doing? Stepping up to the plate and taking responsibility for it. You know, that's almost a lost art in our generation. We have come to such a wonderful way of excusing all of our ill behavior on other people and other things, and the circumstances, and the job, and the environment, and all of that. Well, "I wouldn't have done it if it hadn't been for this". You know, the only way you will ever get freedom from guilt is to step up to the plate, acknowledge what you've done, and take full responsibility for it. That's what David did. He didn't blame heredity. He didn't blame society. He didn't blame his fallen nature. He just looked himself in the mirror and said, "I'm the one. It's my responsibility".

B. He acknowledges the sinfulness of sin.

He doesn't try to soft pedal what he's done. He uses a number of words here in Psalm 51 that are very important. In these three verses, he uses four different words to describe what he had done.

“Transgressions, iniquity, sin, evil”

First of all, uses the word "transgressions". He said, "Lord, I've transgressed". This is the word which means “a revolt against the law.” "Lord, I've transgressed your law".

And he uses the word "iniquity," which has to do with a perverseness of man's nature.

He uses the word "sin," a word, which means to miss the mark,

and he uses the word evil, which is a vile thing that deserves condemnation.

Now, the reason I say that is because it's so easy for us when we come to get rid of our guilt, whether it be a small or large thing, to try to pass it off as something not very important at all, and not deal with it. How many of you know that when you confess your sin, the concept of confession is all the same. Confession is to say about your sin what God says about it, to acknowledge what you have done through the eyes of Almighty God, to say, "God, this is what I've done, and this is what it is, it's sin".

David wrote these words, he said, "The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart. These, oh God, will you not despise". The newer language is like this, "Let us confess our problem with human relational adjustment dynamics, and especially our feebleness in networking". Or, "I just like to share that we need to target holiness as a growth area". Where sin is concerned, people just mumble. They don't ever come to grips with what it is.

C. He addresses his confession to God.

Notice what David said, "Against you and you only have I sinned and done this evil in your sight". He had hurts several others in all this, but only one can forgive him.

There's only one person in this universe who can forgive your sin, and that's God Almighty. I cannot forgive your sin. I can pray to God for you. Your pastor can't forgive your sin. So, when you come with your guilt, and you acknowledge what you've done, and you accept the responsibility for it, then you offer it up to Almighty God and you say, "Lord God, I've sinned against you. Please forgive me".

III. The Answer to Guilt

And I want you to notice what David asked God to do for him in the answer to guilt.

A. Remove my sin.

First of all, he said, "God, remove my sin".

Psalm 51:2 NKJV

Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, And cleanse me from my sin.

Psalm 51:7–9 NKJV

Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Make me hear joy and gladness, That the bones You have broken may rejoice. Hide Your face from my sins, And blot out all my iniquities.

he asked God to wash him from his iniquity and cleanse him from his sin. He sees sin as a stain on his soul, and the word "cleanse" he uses is a technical word for the cleansing of a leper in the Old Testament. It's like David is saying, "Lord, take away the leprosy from my soul and make me clean again". In verse 7, he prays to be purged with hyssop. In the Old Testament tradition in the law, when a person came in contact with a dead body, they had to be ceremonially cleansed with hyssop. The sins of murder and adultery have no remedy in the Old Testament law in terms of proper sacrifice. The only way David could deal with these sins was to ask God to block them out of the book. Now, David isn't asking God to give him back his salvation because he hasn't lost his salvation.

B. Restore my joy.

But he's saying, "God, give me back the joy of my salvation".

Psalm 51:8–12 (NKJV)

Make me hear joy and gladness, That the bones You have broken may rejoice. Hide Your face from my sins, And blot out all my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me away from Your presence, And do not take Your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, And uphold me by Your generous Spirit.

To be cast away from the presence of God would mean that a person would be lost forever. David, he actually feared that he might be lost, but he prays that God would not take his Holy Spirit from him.

C. Renew my fellowship.

And I'm reminded that there was a day when David became king, when in the Old Testament, we're told that God removed his spirit from Saul and placed him in David because of Saul's sin. David didn't want that to happen. Don’t take your Holy Spirit from me!!

D. Refocus on the future.

"Lord, God, I don't ever want to go down this road again. I don't ever want to go through this mess again. So, uphold me with your Spirit. Uphold me with your generous Spirit. Lord God, keep me focused now on the future so nothing like this ever happens to me again".

(story of guilt/forgiveness)