Have Mercy On Me, O God – David

 

Conviction. Deep guilt. Profound humility. That was what David’s insides looked like, and what cried out from within “Have Mercy On Me, O God” in the aftermath of being confronted by Nathan (2 Samuel 12) about his multi-sin episode with Bathsheba and her husband Uriah. (See this painting [date sometime between 1866 and 1931] by Eugene Siberdt, The Prophet Nathan Rebukes King David.) How many of the Ten Commandments had David violated? Perhaps some group might debate just how many and which ones, but certainly at least three or four of the ten (6^th, 7^th, 9^th, and 10^th) were cast aside by David in just a few moments. This ‘man after God’s own heart’ (1 Samuel 13:14; Acts 13:22) had acted like a vile sinner – an adulterer, murderer, and liar -- and he knew it. His actions made his execution, even by stoning or some other shameful method, justified in God’s law. Had David managed to do anything right in this episode? Think about David’s response.

 

The lack of excuses was, someone might say, the only thing David did that was right in the immediate wake of the confrontation with Nathan. This king didn’t choose to try explaining away his behavior, didn’t try to shift blame, or diminish what his sins had made so horribly true. In the following days, one might say that David accomplished something else that was positive, representing a continuing struggle with the guilt he bore. Psalm 51 and its 19 verses have resonated through the 30 centuries since this king first wrote them (around 1000 B.C.), producing dozens of renditions of David’s remorse. Perhaps the most well-known is the Miserere, versions of which began to appear in the 1400s and which have continued to emerge through the early 21^st Century. Besides ‘Have Mercy…’, which completely captures the first two verses of David’s psalm, ‘Create in Me’ (see 6/20/2020 post on this blog) is another contemporary worship prayer that encapsulates verses 10 through 12 of Psalm 51. David never fully compensated for his sins, but had he known that so much music would arise from this one episode, would his mortified conscience have been somewhat less stricken? Will there be other additional contemporary songs from the 14 remaining verses of Psalm 51? If David were here to express his preference, what would he say about more songs to remind him of his grievous affair with lust? Perhaps David and the rest of us who are vulnerable to the same sin should remember that even while he was confessing, he was receiving some measure of mercy. In the same verse (2 Samuel 12:13) where David says ‘I have sinned against the Lord’, Nathan is reassuring him that ‘You are not going to die’. Even so, David’s unborn son inside Bathsheba would die, and this king’s family would be riven with strife for the remainder of his days, and beyond (vv. 10-12 of same chapter). Sin has consequences, but God is also merciful, even before we know we need it. Given what he’s told about the awful after-effects of his sins, one wonders if David might have preferred his own on-the-spot execution, versus having to endure God’s punishment in ‘broad daylight…’.

 

What David says in the rest of Psalm 51 – especially Psalm 51:3-4 – indicates he realized God’s ‘verdict…(was) justified’, and that his sentence was to look at ‘transgressions and my sin always before me’ for the rest of his days. Does this put a different tint on ‘Have Mercy…’? When he penned these words, he’d already received some mercy from the Lord – his own life having been spared. Was David instead asking for further relief, a parole from the rest of what Nathan told him to expect? ‘Blot out’ his sins, and clean up ‘all his iniquity’ – that’s what David asked from God. Can you see David shuddering at the thought of all that would transpire over the next several years? David’s contrition here is a blunt warning…sin is a mess, and regret over it can last a lifetime. That’s both David and God talking to you and me.  

 

 

See here for brief information about the Steve and Annie Chapman couple that reprise David’s words in their version of the song: The Mitchell Group – Steve and Annie Chapman

 

See NIV Study Bible for notes/thoughts on David’s Psalm 51.

 

See here for discussion of Psalm 51, including its musical results since its original composition:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psalm_51

 

See here for information on the image/painting of David being rebuked by the prophet Nathan: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Eug%C3%A8ne_Siberdt_-_The_Prophet_Nathan_rebukes_King_David.jpg  (Public domain status of the image -- This work is in the public domain in its country of origin and other countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 100 years or fewer. {{PD-1996}} – public domain in its source country on January 1, 1996 and in the United States.

Psalm 34, Taste and See – David, Joe Rigney, and Shane Barnard

 

What an answer, and what a circumstance! This most famous biblical-era songwriter and king-in-waiting, David, sure didn’t try to hide from God and shrink from a dangerous episode, even if the solution to a certain tactical situation required some guile. Perhaps the particularly unusual escape method he employed in this case allowed David to savor more than usual how God had cared for him. “Taste and See” that the Lord is good, is David’s invitation in verse 8 of Psalm 34 (see him here playing a harp), even to us today some three millennia removed from him. Tasting God was a metaphor that this desperate future-king borrowed to emphasize from whom he drew spiritual sustenance. That songwriters like Joe Rigney and Shane Barnard in 2015 are still extracting nourishment from David’s poem and passing that food along is a tribute to how fertile his words – and the God they describe – have remained. God is able to deliver in any situation, using whatever technique He chooses…that makes His food and how He provides something to relish. What do you suppose Joe Rigney and Shane Barnard were experiencing that made Psalm 34 seem so relevant?

 

David was on the run, and was afraid (1 Samuel 21: 10-15) because some people recognized him in Gath where he had gone. In a moment of extreme anxiety, David faked insanity to avoid prosecution by the Philistine king. How did he think on his feet so quickly, and believably? David was a refugee, with so much reputation that he was the enemy of not only these foreigners, but his own treacherous King Saul. So, with his life, and the life of the nation God had already anointed him to lead, in jeopardy, David cleverly adopted a persona that saved his neck in a flash. In an instant when his mouth might have gone dry, David tasted the rescue that he surmised God had delivered in this desperate incident. You can hear hints of it still ringing in the song that Joe and Shane have reproduced, with words like ‘deliver/delivered’ and ‘fear’ in verse 1, and the ancient poem’s title words echoing in verse 2, reminding us of either end of the emotional spectrum that David experienced that day. Ever been in mortal danger? What kind of situation produces the lightening-quick reflexes except a battle zone, or some other crisis that makes the knuckles turn white while gripping the steering wheel? David must have grown somewhat accustomed to this, while also learning to recognize the telltale signs of His Deliverer. It’s a pretty special person who not only carries a pedigree like David’s, but reacts in the wake of a life-threatening incident to preserve the moment of danger and his deliverance in a song.   

 

God is uniquely capable of delivery. Just thumb through your bible…Noah and his family in an ark…Joseph in prison…Moses and God’s people in the Exodus. And, that’s just the start. How many times were Paul and his companions in danger? And yet, read what he said about suffering and becoming like Christ (Philippians 3:10). He’s got a big mission for His people, and His shield goes with those whose courage puts them in harm’s way. Does He always bail out those who are being threatened? Someone says ‘how about Stephen?’ (Acts 7), the first martyr for the cause of Christ. Do you think Stephen had already tasted and decided that God was good, despite what proceeded to happen to him in the next few moments after his speech to the Sanhedrin? Just read what he said at that crucial moment (7:55-56) – he knew nothing better than the God whom he trusted and the home where he was bound. He’d fulfilled the mission. So, ask yourself ‘Am I on God’s mission?’ David and Joe and Shane remind us when we might taste and appreciate God the most.    

 

The following is one source for comments in the above story: The NIV Study Bible, New International Version, edited by Kenneth Barker (General Editor) and others, Zondervan Bible Publishers,1985.    

See here for some information on one of the authors: Shane & Shane - Wikipedia

See here for album information: Psalms II (album) - Wikipedia

See image of David here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:King_David,_the_King_of_Israel.jpg    (the public domain status of the picture: The author (Gerard van Honthorst  [1592–1656]) died in 1656, so this work is in the public domain in its country of origin and other countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 100 years or fewer. This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published (or registered with the U.S. Copyright Office) before January 1, 1928.

Glorious Day -- Kristian Stanfill, Jason Ingram, Jonathan Smith, Sean Curran

It is passion…pure, unabashed, and fully grown, at least as much as can be acquired here in our mortal forms. That’s what you hear coming from Kristian Stanfill and Sean Curran as they share the exhilaration they’ve experienced in the “Glorious Day” that they and their two friends, Jason Ingram and Jonathan Smith, wrote and sang a few years ago for the first time. Perhaps their energy is not too unlike what David the King and poet did himself in unashamed joy before God and all people to see (2 Samuel 6:5, 14-15). In fact, ‘Passion’ is the name and the intent of the worship experience these fellows and many others have promoted in Atlanta and around the world. It’s an annual event geared for young adults (college age), but when you really let the words of their song fill you, it won’t matter what age you are. See if you don’t feel like jumping out of your seat and flying, just like the winged creature in this seal of Atlanta!

 

A video (see its link below) shows Kristian Stanfill and Sean Curran telling viewers about the unforgettable moment when they first heard the unfinished work – the initial words of one verse and a chorus – that their friends Jason and Jonathan had sent them. It must have had the impact that Jason and Jonathan expected, for another two verses and a bridge section eventually emerged from that introductory copy of ‘Glorious Day’ that they heard. It’s a good thing that Jason was driving the car in which Kristian was riding, because it might have veered erratically or caused an accident, because Kristian said he thought he was going to go through the car’s roof when he heard it. They are dynamic words that describe something in all believers’ future that will be revolutionary and electric – when you and I will ‘(run) out of that grave.’ (It should be an exclamation mark, not just a period that concludes that phrase!) Kristian says he could envision what those words would do, how they would electrify a crowd of worshipers at the annual Passion worship experience-conference when they heard it. Sean says he crafted the song’s bridge, by appreciating that God ‘didn’t stop at saving us’ and that we sing the bridge’s words to celebrate all the things He’s allowed us to overcome. Just imagine that future, Sean says, one that is almost unimaginably bright. Sean could see that we’ll all be able to look behind ourselves, and see that each of us ‘needed rescue…shelter’, because we were weighed down with our own burdens; we’re ‘orphan(s)’ who needed ‘healing’, and yet God did not just watch and weep, but broke ‘chains’, made us ‘citizen(s) of heaven’, and lets us breathe His ‘love’ as our ‘air’. These songwriters’ words tell me ‘my tomb’ is something I can already be sure I will escape, even now. They invite each of us to rejoice that He has already ‘called my name’. It’s as if the ‘Glorious Day’ has already dawned, obliterating ‘the darkness’ for the crowd who sings it in the video with Kristian and the others.

 

Kristian sums up the song’s message by saying that it communicates something universally true for everyone who trusts in God. We’re ‘chosen’, he says. Kristian must have implicitly understood the bible writers’ words – that all men die (Job 30:23; Acts 17:31; Ecclesiastes 3:2 and 9:5), a truism that’s described as an unyielding appointment at the end of life. But, Kristian and his three 21^st Century songwriters want there to be no misunderstanding: Death is not the end, and darkness won’t envelope you and me forever, not if we connect to the One of eternal ‘marvelous light’. Imagine coming back to life, to live forever! All will die, but the sequel is greater, with a never-ending joy. The song at the end of this movie just doesn’t end. That’s worth a hallelujah, at least a skip in my step, and many fist-pumps!

 

 

See comments by authors here re: song’s story: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTAvmRZplvc or here: https://freeccm.com/2017/02/28/behind-the-song-passion-shares-the-heart-behind-their-song-glorious-day/