He had
been exposed. What other choice did he have, except to prostrate himself and
plead for mercy? That is what one can say of King David, or maybe that’s too
generous of a title to give him in this context. Maybe he should instead be
called David, the Cheater-Adulterer, ruthless Murderer, grotesque Liar. Those names
might be how he thought of himself some 3,000 years ago when he poured out his
heart in a prayer to God that someone more contemporaneously has called “Create
in Me”. He needed renovation and restoration, or one might even say his
physical structure just needed to be completely knocked down and rebuilt,
almost from scratch. After all, the skeptic might ask how this fellow who was
said to be after the Divine One’s own heart (1 Samuel 13:14; Acts 13:22) could
have done something so revolting, so evil? Was anything decent still inside
David? Evidently, he did not think so, for his own words ask for a new
creation. Who hasn’t been at the point where this ancient king was when he
wrote this?
Her name
was Bathsheba, and David’s sin with her was perhaps the costliest one of his
life. Lots of dominoes fell in the wake of his passionate embrace with this
woman who was not his wife. And, the dominoes were not only to fall in the few
days following his confession, but for years to come, as God determined that
his punishment must cut very deep indeed (2 Sam. 12:11-12), and that the ultimate
price for his retention of power would be multiple lives of those close to him.
David would no doubt write other psalms about those episodes, but hearing the
immediate consequences of his sins -- his willful disregard for four of the ten
commandments, numbers 6, 7, 9, and 10 – must have been overwhelming. And so, he
asked for a clean heart creation, because his old one was too polluted. The
spirit inside him also needed renovation. David was numb, but not completely
immune to God’s influence, or he would likely not have responded to Nathan’s
rebuke. Perhaps that’s what God observed, that this sinner was still capable of
self-examination and repentance. He needed a reminder that ‘the joy of thy
salvation’ outweighed any earthly pleasures. David had somehow become complacent about the gift God could bestow. So God responded
when David said ‘cast me not away from your presence’, perhaps in part because
of what David said later in his song. This apologetic king promised to teach
others about his God’s ways, that He is righteous and worthy of our best tribute
(Psalm 51:13-15). David, as a good king deep-down might exhibit, was concerned
for those whose well-being was in his control (Ps. 51:18),
perhaps a goodness he had learned firsthand from his Heavenly Father. David
would certainly need some positive episodes between himself, his people, and
the God they all served, because of the self-inflicted penalty that lay ahead.
Punishment
hurts. As a parent often thinks or says to the child, both parties suffer. But
what is the alternative? If the misdeed is never laid bare for all to see, what
happens? Prison, in a word, is the result. God and David both bore the pain;
God’s was first, before David had even discovered that he’d been…well,
discovered. Then, David’s pain became as God’s – disappointment that he’d
strayed, and then on top of that agony mingled with shame. This was David’s
bed, literally. David is an object lesson for all of us who have a few minutes
of idleness and wandering eyes. Danger lurks in that space. What would David
tell you and me? He spent the rest of his lifetime trying to recover from those
few moments and days. Don’t take even one step toward that prison, he’d say.
God cannot stand to be in that place with you. That’s the real prison. That’s why
he wrote Psalm 51, to try to get outta prison.
Psalm 51 and the notes for the NIV Study Bible
are the only sources for this song story.
