Recovery from Self-Inflicted Stress

Getting Attention

Question: List ways stress can be self-inflicted.

Question: List some of the outcomes of self-inflicted stress.

Knowing & Understanding

Self-inflicted stress (that caused by willful sin) can be the worst kind.

Thriving Light Principle: Confessions and renewal are needed to recover from self-inflicted stress.

When a child of God sins, he or she cannot step back into fellowship with God and spiritual productivity without confession and cleansing (Ps. 34:18; John 15:4-7, 10; James 4:8).

By committing his hor­rible sins against Bathsheba and Uriah, David cut himself off from fellowship with God (Ps. 51:11) and from the sense of God's presence in his life.

After hearing Nathan's account of a rich man who slaughtered his poor neighbor's only, dear lamb to provide a meal for a traveler (2 Sam. 12:1-4), David responded with an angry indictment against the rich man (vv. 5, 6). Nathan pointed his finger at the king and said, "Thou art the man" (v. 7). At that point David was stricken with his guilt. During the hours that followed, David must have written Psalm 51.

I. The Process of Repentance

David did not resolve to straighten out his life or do better before he confessed his sin and experi­enced cleansing from sin. Only after God had for­given him and had renewed his life did David resolve to serve the Lord anew.

Psalm 51:1–9 KJV 1900

Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness: According unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions. Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, And cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my transgressions: And my sin is ever before me. Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, And done this evil in thy sight: That thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, And be clear when thou judgest. Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; And in sin did my mother conceive me. Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts: And in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Make me to hear joy and gladness; That the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice. Hide thy face from my sins, And blot out all mine iniquities.

A plea for mercy. (51:1a)

David's approach to God began with a plea for mercy. The Hebrew word "mercy" is closely akin to the Greek word for "grace" in the New Testament. When David prayed, "Have mercy upon me," he asked God to respond to him in a way that he did not deserve. He requested that God measure out His mercy according to His loving-kindness, a word that suggests the loyalty of one individual to another be­cause of an established relationship. Loving-kindness exists because two parties have expressed love and have made an agreement or covenant. David un­doubtedly pleaded with God on the basis of the covenant God had made with him in 2 Samuel 7:8-16.

David pleaded for mercy on the basis of the lov­ing-kindness God expressed in the covenant rela­tionship He had made with the king of Israel. David knew that his sins were abhorrent to God, and he went to God in repentance, pleading that God would remember the commitment He had made.

Question: When we sin, how do we often feel?

Often when we sin, we feel as though we cannot lift our eyes toward God. We need to understand, however, that God sees us in Christ.

In Christ, we enjoy a perfect standing with God. Even when we sin, God relates to us as a loving Father.

Our sin does not negate the promises God made to us through the Lord Jesus Christ. The Father does not cast us out of His family. Although He despises our sin, He loves us. When we confess our sin, He re­stores us to fellowship with Him, and He cleanses us (1 John 1:9).

1 John 1:9 KJV 1900

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Note: Every Christian is eternally a member of God's family (1 John 3:1-3), but even as a member of God's fam­ily, every Christian sins occasionally (1 John 1:10).

A plea for clearing the record. (51:1b)

David pleaded that God would blot out his transgressions.

The term "blot" means "to wipe off, remove, erase, or get rid of."

In Old Testament days when a debtor repaid a debt, the creditor erased or crossed out the record of the debt. He did not write a new document or receipt to indicate that the debt had been paid in full; he simply made the previous record illegible by erasing it or scratching it out.

Question: How does it feel to have a debt erased?

David's record of sin was extensive. He had al­lowed sinful, lustful thoughts to claim his attention and motivate his actions (2 Sam. 11:2, 3); he had committed adultery (vv. 4, 5); he had plotted the death of the man whose loyalty he had violated (vv. 6-16). He was also responsible for the death of other soldiers who were present in the heat of that need­less battle at the wall (vv. 17-21, 24). He had prac­ticed deception.

For God to relieve David's guilt and restore his fellow hip with Him, God had to erase from His manuscript the record of David's personal, deliberate rejection of holy standards and his destruction of his fellow men.

David requested that God would clear the record on the basis of His tender mercies. Tender mercy is like the compassion a parent has for a child. When a child does something wrong, the parent has the option either to forgive and forget or to disci­pline the child. Many times when the child recog­nizes his or her sin and repents, parental tenderness carefully erases the child's transgression. David pleaded for that kind of tenderness.

The Treasury of David, Volume 2: Psalms 27–57 Exposition

Lord, erase the lines. Draw thy pen through the register. Obliterate the record, though now it seems engraven in the rock for ever: many strokes of thy mercy may be needed, to cut out the deep inscription, but then thou hast a multitude of mercies, and therefore, I beseech thee, erase my sins.

Hebrews 12:5-8 assures us that God's disciplinary action toward us indicates that we belong to His family.

A request for cleansing. (51:2)

David, because of his sin, felt dirty.

David pleaded for God to wash him "throughly." This word has a meaning something like "thor­oughly." It is an intensive form of the Hebrew word that means "through and through."

David wanted God to cleanse him vigorously so that he would be completely clean.

He asked God to symbolically beat him on the rock at the riverside so that the soap would go all the way through (see verse 10). He did not want to retain any part of his sin or to become involved in it again. His repentance was genuine.

The word "iniquity " in this verse means "moral distortion." This word means more than simply missing the mark. It refers to a willful, flagrant vio­lation of God's standard of behavior. Those who en­gage in lies, deception, fornication, adultery, cheating, stealing, and murder to reach their own self-centered goals are living in iniquity, as this word defines it. They, too, need a vigorous cleansing from their warped, sinful way of life.

David prayed for God to wash him from his in­iquity. He also asked for cleansing from his sin. The word for sin in this phrase includes all manner of shortcomings or failures. The word for cleansing was used in such ceremonial washings as the cleans­ing of a leper. Regulations required a leper to absent himself from commonly visited places. He was ex­pected to step into a ditch when people passed him on the road. He had to be extremely careful not to contaminate anyone.

David had a strong sense of his own polluted condition and asked God to remove his uncleanness so that he could again associate with the people of his kingdom.

A recognition of sin. (51:3-4)

Psalm 51:3 begins with a full acknowledgment of David's transgressions and further demonstrates his genuinely repentant attitude. David did not blame anyone but himself. When Adam and Eve sinned, they immediately responded by passing on the blame: Adam blamed Eve, and Eve blamed the serpent. Neither one was repentant (Gen. 3:11-13). The human part of restitution to God after sin is summed up in the first words of 1 John 1:9: "If we confess our sins...”

True confession is not a lifeless acknowledgment of committed sin. It is a vivid consciousness of our sinfulness; it is often accompanied by restlessness, anguish, and a burden of wrong that causes us to cry out to God. David acknowledged his transgressions in the light of their awful significance. So intense was David's guilt that he could never forget his sin. Regardless of the beauty of the evening or the peace­fulness of the hillside, his transgressions loomed be­fore him. He could not escape their haunting presence in his life. God had used the searing words of Nathan the prophet like a branding iron to im­press upon David's mind the reality that he, like any of his humblest subjects, was a sinner.

Note: Sins against God's people are called sins against God (Num. 12; 1 Sam. 8:7; Matt. 25:37-45; Acts 5:4). Furthermore, all sins indicate a denial of God's right to rule our lives.

In verse 4, David concluded that he had of­fended God alone.

Uriah was dead, and Bathsheba was pregnant; nevertheless, David's major concern lay with God. He realized that he had to deal eter­nally with Him. A man may sin against several dif­ferent people, yet every one of his sins goes against God.

Note: Guide your class or group to realize that envy, lust, backbiting, and failures such as neglecting to pray (1 Sam. 12:23) and withholding good deeds (Prov. 3:27) are indeed sins against both God and man.

A realization of depravity. (51:5-6)

David knew that he had a sin nature from the beginning.

Romans 3:23 KJV 1900

For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;

He knew that his failure was a persistent problem because he was a sinner by nature. Sin carried on from generation to generation and from birth to death. His life was no exception. His mother bore him into a world of iniquity. David was not trying to excuse himself or minimize his guilt in the sense of claiming some kind of unfortunate determinism that victimized him. Instead, he simply meant that he was a sinner and had been from the moment his life began.

In contrast with his perpetually sinful condition, in verse 6, David presented the high standard God applies. God's requirements reach far into the unseen parts of a man, far beyond the human standard of outward conformity. Such a deep problem as the inherent sin nature (v. 5) cannot be solved by treat­ing only the symptoms. Its solution can be accom­plished only by changing the heart.

Note: Second Corinthians announces that believers are new creations in Christ.

A plea for a solution. (51:7-9)

Having shown the contrast between his deep­ seated problem and God's high demands, David cried out to God for three things that would rectify the situation.

Note: The Israelites used hyssop for ritual cleansing. The priest would dip a little sprig of hyssop into blood and sprinkle the blood upon the person to be cleansed.

Leviticus 14:1-7 records the details for such a procedure. The passage explains how the priest was to cleanse the leper so that the priest could present the leper whole to his friends and relatives. In Leviticus 14:8, Moses gave fur­ther instructions about the washing of the man and his clothes.

In Psalm 51:8, David requested that he hear the sounds of joy and gladness again. His sin had dulled his spiritual senses. His entire world was painted in shades of blue and black and darkness. His soul, burdened with sin, could not hear the songs of glad­ness. David wanted to hear joy and gladness so that the bones that God had "broken" might rejoice once again. He must have been referring to the crushing effect of Nathan's rebuke.

In verse 9, David asked God to hide His holy face from his sins. David was poignantly aware that God had seen every horrible activity of his past.

David desired for God to cover His face so that He would not see the things David had done. In the last part of verse 9, he asked God to erase, to blot out, all of his iniquities. To have them blotted out was to have them removed from the record. In effect, David prayed that God would turn His back upon and then erase his sins.

Question: Which part of the process is most difficult? Why?

II. The Requests of Renewal

Psalm 51:10–12 KJV 1900

Create in me a clean heart, O God; And renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from thy presence; And take not thy holy spirit from me. Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; And uphold me with thy free spirit.

In his prayer of renewal, David asked for four specific things. They form a pattern for anyone who desires to be equipped again for service to God.

A clean heart (51:10a)

The Old Testament characterizes the heart as the center of thinking and planning. In effect David asked, "O God, make the center of my planning clean once again so that when I am thinking, plan­ning, and preparing to live my life, I will do so with­out defilement." He thought that if his plans were right, his life would be right as well.

Note: Psalm 19:14 uses the term "the meditation of my heart."

None of us can contemplate, plan, or even day­dream evil and still lead a life that glorifies God.

David's great son Solomon, who was born sometime later to Bathsheba, addressed this issue when he wrote:

Proverbs 23:6–7 KJV 1900

Eat thou not the bread of him that hath an evil eye, Neither desire thou his dainty meats: For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he: Eat and drink, saith he to thee; But his heart is not with thee.

A good spirit (51:10b)

The word right in the term right spirit is the Hebrew word for steadfast.

The sinful king re­quested the renewal of a steadfast spirit within him. He had planned and carried out his dreadful sin be­cause he had first entertained sinful thoughts to­ward another man's wife. He desired to be moral and clean on an enduring basis. He did not want to be ambivalent in his relationship to God and people.

On several other occasions David had responded to trials spontaneously and unwisely, no doubt because his heart had not been steadfastly fixed upon God's truth (v. 6). In one instance David wanted to kill Nabal, Abigail's husband, in the heat of anger (1 Sam. 25). On another occasion he ordered the ark of the covenant to be transported on an ox cart, which led to the death of Uzzah (2 Sam. 6:1-11). In an act of pride, David numbered the people in his kingdom (2 Sam. 24:1-17). Recognizing his leaning to such rash behavior, David asked God for a stead­fast spirit.

The presence of God (51:11)

As a part of his renewal, David called for the continuing presence of God with him. He knew that God had rejected Saul because of his sins of rebellion and disobedience (1 Sam. 13:13, 14). As David contemplated the severity of his own sin, he was smit­ten with the possibility that God might also cast him away.

In David's heart, forgiveness was not enough. Continued fellowship was his compelling desire.

The restoration of joy and motivation (51:12)

David asked God to restore to him the joy of his salvation. The word restore means to give back or to cause to return.

David had experienced no joy since the terrible days of his secret sin with Bathsheba. The word salvation means deliver­ance. David longed for deliverance from bondage.

David was bound, not in sin, but by the condemna­tion of his sin.

He pleaded for the joy that would re­sult when God granted deliverance. In no way was David implying that God had snatched away his joy. He knew full well that he alone was responsible for its destruction. God had not taken it. David had lost it, and in his miserable condition he asked God to tenderly rebuild joy in his life. In verse 8, David had asked God to make him hear joy and gladness. God had undoubtedly opened his ears, but David had not yet experienced the thrill of fully restored joy as a result of God's forgiveness.

David went on to request that God would grant to him a willing spirit that would further help him keep the resolutions he would make in verses 13-19. Sometimes a believer who possesses heavy feelings of guilt may refuse to work or witness for God. He isolates himself and becomes unwilling to give or to serve. He often finds fault or makes feeble excuses as he shuns the responsibility of serving God. Just so, David was broken by his sin. He had no confi­dence in himself; he could not stand as a witness for God against the enemies of God. David needed joy and motivation to return to full service to God.

Question: What is learned from a study of these requests?

Applying & Practicing

Thriving Light Principle: Confessions and renewal are needed to recover from self-inflicted stress.

Regarding the thriving light principle, which of the following choices best represents your present need?

Use it at once!

Thank God for it and save it for a future need.

Praise God for past recoveries from self-inflicted stresses.

To end our time together, take a moment to respond to God (considering the previous question) as is best for you at this time.