Sermon Tone Analysis
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David’s Cry
We all know about King David
Great King, the best that Israel ever had
We all have heard the story of David and Goliath
A conqueror, a man after God’s own heart
This Psalm is written after the lowest point of David’s personal life and the biggest failure that we see from him.
The giants of our faith have just as many skeletons in their proverbial closets as we do.
David’s Cry of Repentance
As we work through the text, we see that this Psalm shows us a great 3 step path of confession of sin: Recognition, Petition, and Repentance.
David realizes that he’s sinned
More importantly, David knows God’s character
Firstly, God is merciful, not only merciful, but abundant in mercy
Secondly, God is steadfast in his love
Mercy:
In the Old Testament, the basic meaning of Mercy is to hold back from an action that is expected to occur.
David knows that he is in the wrong but he also knows God’s character as merciful.
Steadfast Love:
Hesed; God’s covenantal love
God’s hesed, his covenantal love and kindness are eternal and are the foundational aspects of his character.
God’s hesed undergirds all of the miraculous works throughout salvation history.
Despite David’s Sin, he has clear eyes to see God’s character and his faithfulness.
But David’s plea for mercy, is certainly the language of one who has no claim to the favor his begs.
It is on the basis of God’s steadfast hesed, that he trusts in God’s merciful nature and requests that God “blot out my transgressions, wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin!”
Here we have an image of a king, begging to be forgiven.
There is a reason David begs for mercy
But what sin is David talking about?
David and Bathsheba
2 Samuel 11-12
Israel at war with the Ammonites
David isn’t at war with the rest of his men, behaving cowardly.
David is a legendary warrior, so we first have to ask, why is he not at war with his men?
David takes a stroll on his roof, maybe waking up from a nap
He sees Bathsheba bathing on the roof and thinks [jaw dropped] “wow....”
David could’ve looked away from what he saw, bathing on roof was common practice, private for the most part.
David’s glance turned into a gaze, and his thought of “she was very beautiful” quickly turned into “I have to have her,”
Many people fault Bathsheba, stating that she was, “asking for it,” but when David sent servants commanding that she come to the King, what was she supposed to say?
David is the most powerful man in her world.
This interaction basically boils down to David sexually assaulting Bathsheba.
Some time passes, war takes a long time, and Bathsheba tells David that she’s pregnant with his child
David brings Bathsheba’s husband, Uriah, to the royal palace, calling him back from war.
David gives Uriah gifts, telling him to go back to his own house and to sleep with his wife, so that him getting Bathsheba pregnant would be covered up
Uriah refuses twice.
His fellow soldiers are sleeping in tents and on the hard ground and he doesn’t see it as fair to them that he go home, eat home cooked meals and to enjoy the company of his wife.
Uriah is an shown to be a much more honorable man than David
David is put in a tough spot, now he can’t cover up his sin and furthermore, we can surmise that he felt ashamed that Uriah a commander in his army and a foreigner to boot, is shown to be a much more honorable man than he is, the King and Israel’s representative.
To compensate for these things, David then arranges to have Uriah placed on the front lines in the next battle, and to be abandoned to die.
So, at best, David is an adulterous homewrecker and a schemer, and at worst, he is a rapist and a murderer.
But don’t be too quick to look down on David
Jesus teaches us in Matthew 5:17-26 that if you’ve looked at someone with lustful intent, with a glance that evolves into a gaze, you’ve committed adultery with them in your heart!
In the same way, if you’ve found yourself angry with someone you’re liable to judgement!
Do you have clear eyes to see when you’ve wrong someone?
Nathan helped David to see that he was indeed sinning before God (2 Samuel 12)
That is part of the evil of sin.
Sin clouds our eyes to the reality that have fallen drastically short of God’s good standard.
When we’re in the midst of sin, the enemy does everything he can to make us think we are good and right
Accountability groups help us to see
That is why it is so important to live in community with other spirit filled believers.
When our eyes are clouded, we need others with clear eyes to help us see.
David’s eyes have also been cleared to see that God is the one he had wronged.
God is the Father of all, Bathsheba and Uriah are dearly beloved children of the Father.
David robbed God’s dearly beloved children not only of their joy, but of their dignity.
Don’t hear me wrong, I don’t mean that when you wrong someone, hopefully not to the degree that King David did, you don’t have to make amends.
Go first and apologize, make amends to the people you’ve sinned against.
Recognize ultimately who you have done evil before, the Father who sees all and who is the source and sustainer of all.
Our enemy has these titles that are all related to falsehood: the deceiver, the father of lies
But in contrast, the Lord Jesus Christ is the way, the TRUTH, and the life!
What God delights in is when we are able to recognize the truth about ourselves.
David has been given clear eyes by the power of the Spirit working through Nathan.
The First Step in confessing your sin before God is having clear eyes to recognize that you have a problem that you can’t fix.
Talk about mom’s addiction
Step 2: Petition
Hyssop was used in two different ceremonial cleansings in the Levitical law:
Lepers were sprinkled with blood from the branch of a hyssop branch
Those who came into contact with a dead body were cleansed by a similar method
The declaration at the end of these prescribed ceremonies is: “and he shall be clean,”
David knows that nothing is beyond God’s power to forgive, he is confident that should God choose to cleanse David, he “shall be clean”.
If God chooses to wash David of the filthiness of his sin, he “shall be whiter than snow,”.
David has clear eyes to see the character of God, that of one who is merciful and willing to forgive.
Verses 10-12 are focused on the inward renewal that David experiences.
David’s request that God ‘create in him a clean heart’ is similar to Jesus telling Nicodemus that he must be born again
It’s nothing short of a miracle, but praise the Lord that we serve a miracle worker.
I think we are all aware of how it feels when we don’t feel the Lord near.
Despair, pain, doubt, questioning, and longing seep into our minds
It’s clear from the text that David feels those same emotions, a result of his own sin just as those feelings of God’s distance are often our own doing as well.
But just as David hung on his knowledge of God as abundantly merciful and steadfastly loving, we must do the same.
David has clear eyes to see that only God can work a miracle and give him new life.
Step 3: Response
When we truly experience the life transformation that David asks God for, the natural outpouring from that recreation is telling the world of the new life that you’ve found
David is certain of God’s faithfulness to him, and the only proper response that David can see is to ‘Sing aloud of the Lord’s righteousness,’
When we experience the forgiveness of God, the true transformation that David is explaining here we experience, “the joy of the Lord’s salvation,”.
But we cannot experience this profound joy and freedom if our heart isn’t in the right place.
A contrite heart is that of one who is weighed down and broken by their guilt before the Lord
It takes true humility to recognize your sins for what they are, a black cancer eating away at your heart
Mind immediately went to Micah 6:6-8
The sacrifices you bring to God, the worship you give him, your fasts, you great acts of service and devotion, are worthless if your heart isn’t in the right place.
The only one who’s heart was in the right place was Jesus
The only person who did justice in everything was Jesus
The only person who really loved kindness was Jesus
The only person who really walked humbly was Jesus
You’re immediately made aware of how short of the standard you are when you come face to face with the one who set the standard.
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