Something to think about
June 18, 2009 (Thursday)
King David was “a man after God’s own heart,” meaning his ideals, motives, desires and actions were much like God’s own traits. If God said it another way, he would say, “David thinks like I do.” Alas, David did not think that way at every moment in his life. He was part of the fallen human race, and therefore subject to temptation and sin.
In the space of a few weeks, David committed adultery and murder. Later, God sent his prophet to tell David his sin had not gone unnoticed. God knew all about it and David would be punished.
David immediately confessed his sin and repented. He wrote a poem (Psalm 51) in which he described his awful feelings of guilt. In that poem, he said to God, “Against you, you only, have I sinned.” Was that statement true? No. David’s grief over having offended God resulted in poetry that is subject to its own literary rules, involving hyperbole and, most of all, outpouring of thoughts as they surfaced. In his emotional pain, he was not thinking clearly. He had also sinned against a married woman, her husband, and their family. He had sinned against his nation and a people who almost worshiped him. He had sinned against all those who served him as their king.
We must always remember that sin is hurtful from beginning to end, and has harmful effects reaching from within the sinner’s heart to the throne of God, crushing and damaging every person encountered along the way. Sin is ultimately branded as “sin” because it is against God, but it also involves others. Everyone loses something when sin rules the day.
David was punished and forgiven (Psalm 32), and his life was never again the same. Sin is serious business. As the train follows the locomotive, so the effects of sin follow in its wake. Something to think about.